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Comment by ReticentVole | Hacker News Reader

The video game industry is just like any other industry - sex, violence, corruption, success, failure. But because its so consumer-oriented, and probably because everyone who works within it is relatively young, everything receives excruciating attention.

The same stuff occurs in boring industries, but no one cares and it doesn't hit Twitter or Reddit.

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I moved from making AAA games to other parts of the software industry in 2005. It is not "just like any other industry". The working conditions were bad/abusive, very open sexism, lots of young inexperienced employees (like myself at the time) who don't realize what's going on is not the norm elsewhere. I got paid in a class action settlement against one of my employers. I don't get the impression anything has changed.

Leaving games got me: cooler/more interesting work, much better pay, dramatically better work conditions. I never again experienced anything at the level of the unpleasantness of working for a game studio.

I also worked in the video game industry when I was younger (2000-2010 I think?) and had no idea that all the essentially terrible things that were happening were not really normal. Some companies were definitely worse than others but it was definitely quite bad looking back on it.

Some of the companies have had repercussions because of it now.

Having worked in software for the past decade, including 3 years in games, I'm inclined to say that the culture in games is more permissive towards bad behavior and unprofessionalism.

For instance, I once saw a manager tell one of his engineers to 'bend over and take it', then gesture to the only openly gay guy on the team (who was clearly uncomfortable with the whole exchange). Zero repercussions, not even a talking to. That shit wouldn't fly anywhere else I've worked.

There's something to be said about the mental health of employees in the industry. In my personal experience, gamers are not always the healthiest people. Sitting at a desk working all day then going home and sitting at a desk gaming all night. On top of that, these people are put through high stress, cut-throat, deadline driven environments, and you get a recipe for disaster. Now add the fact that people attracted to video games tend to edge on the anti-social.

I'd say the video game industry is quite distinct from other industries in that the consumers have great say in how the industry should operate. The selfishness and narcissism of our consumerist culture are quite prominent here and it shows in how exploitative the industry is. I mean 60-70 hr work week is the norm here. Which other 'boring' industry has that?

> Which other 'boring' industry has that?

Meatpacking and logistics (Amazon!).

Yes, those industries are exploitative and we've even had presidential aspirants take aim at those exploitative practices. But the OP seems to think that only the gaming industry gets special attention.

I think it's more the fact that gaming is a "cool" industry like fashion, music, acting, comedy (but on a smaller scale, obviously) where the demand for roles outstrips supply and so it's easier for people to abuse their position to demand "favours" to help people get ahead.

I'd imagine there is less of this for people competing to be java developer #128 at EnterpiseSoftware Co LTD.

Agreed, it's definitely more visible because it's consumer facing.

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