I don't understand how a union would function in the video game industry. I don't work at a video game company myself, but I have some friends that do. The typical life-cycle of a video game is:
- A small group of developers work on the core physics engine, graphics engine, and high-level game design.
- When the core game engine is sufficiently developed, the number of artists and game designs greatly increases to generate the art, sound, and level designs for the game.
- As the game reaches an alpha stage, the number of QA testers is dramatically increased.
- After the game is released, almost all of the QA and art people are let go, with a small number retained to work on DLC. A core group of software developers will be kept to be begin work on the next game, and the cycle repeats.
How does a union function when much of the workforce is only going to work for the company for less than 2 years? Many QA testers work for less than year.
- A small group of developers work on the core physics engine, graphics engine, and high-level game design.
- When the core game engine is sufficiently developed, the number of artists and game designs greatly increases to generate the art, sound, and level designs for the game.
- As the game reaches an alpha stage, the number of QA testers is dramatically increased.
- After the game is released, almost all of the QA and art people are let go, with a small number retained to work on DLC. A core group of software developers will be kept to be begin work on the next game, and the cycle repeats.
How does a union function when much of the workforce is only going to work for the company for less than 2 years? Many QA testers work for less than year.