Photo from @IGN Twitter
Quality Assurance Testers at Raven Software are creating a union to stand against being overworked and underpaid. The union will be called the Game Workers Alliance (GWA). This is the first-ever union for a video game company of this size in North America. Raven Software is mainly known as the company behind Call of Duty: Warzone. Recently, their game has gone downhill, with bugs and hackers running rampant.
The problems for Call of Duty: Warzone started with the ‘Pacific’ update that occurred earlier this year. The update brought in a new map named Caldera, and it brought in all the guns from Call of Duty: Vanguard, and it brought many engine changes that altered the gameplay. This all sounds great until you play it because the update completely broke the game. Players were disgusted with the state of the game. In just one update, the reported list of bugs was insane.
The bugs that were commonly reported were:
- Pixel artifacts widely labeled as ‘Alien Guns’
- Crashing of systems/consoles mid-game
- Freezing mid-game
- Disappearing in-game objects (ex., Cars, Fences, Buildings, Trees)
- Invisible player skins
- Spawning without weapons
- Spawning with invisible weapons
- Exploit spots letting players hide under the map
- Freezing at Buy Station locations
- Permanent controller disconnection
You could easily assume that the higher-ups at Raven Software were unhappy this was happening to their most important property. After all, the game makes around $1.9-billion-dollars each year in microtransactions. Unfortunately, this demand to have the game fixed has left morals behind and forced workers into overtime. As of this time, some of the bugs have been fixed. But, the game is still currently far from being in a good state.
The decision to form a union makes sense. Mainly after Raven Software’s owner Activision was acquired by Microsoft. Microsoft, after the acquisition, has said they are looking into improving and revitalizing Activision properties. This move will likely be met with respect and admiration from the new owners. Before the acquisition, though, the Game Workers Alliance have revealed that Activision did not cooperate with their last hopes for improvement. Instead, it “used surveillance and intimidation tactics, including hiring notorious union busters, to silence workers.”
Activision put out a statement about the Game Workers Alliance.
“Activision is carefully reviewing the request for voluntary recognition from the GWA, which seeks to organize around three dozen of the company’s nearly 10,000 employees. While we believe that a direct relationship between the company and its team members delivers the strongest workforce opportunities, we deeply respect the rights of all employees under the law to make their own decisions about whether or not to join a union.
Across Activision, we remain focused on listening closely to our employees and providing the improved pay, benefits, and professional opportunities needed to attract and retain the world’s best talent. Over the past couple of years, this has included raising minimum compensation for Raven QA employees by 41%, extending paid time off, expanding access to medical benefits for employees and significant others, and transitioning more than 60% of temporary Raven QA staff into full-time employees.”
A statement from Microsoft about the union has not been released.
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