Firstly, I’ve no wish to belittle the genuine work carried out by the Fair Trade Foundation, who are indeed trying to better the lives of genuinely poor working communities around the world. To paraphrase from the Fair Trade Foundation’s description of their work: “Fair trade contributes to sustainable development for workers and their communities. The Fair trade movement empowers citizens to campaign for an international trade system based on justice and fairness”
Now, quickly to the point of this article. What happens to software companies that treat their development and creative / design teams badly?
I’d like to point out that this article is NOT trying to pretend that software developers / studios share the same plight as producers and manufacturers in 3rd world countries. There is merely a train of thought that can be taken from the concept of “fair trade” – knowing that in buying a product, some of the revenue goes back into the promotion of the original producer and enhancing their well being. Many could argue that this doesn’t apply to large commercial ventures as there is a system of employment and minimum standards.
However, maybe one day games programmers will be based more in 3rd world countries? Maybe we wouldn’t want to see exploitation of programmers any more than Coffee growers etc. There has already been a trend to move development “off shore” to locations producing IT development talent and where costs are already much lower [1]. Maybe the bad treatment of games development studios will see a slow death of this industry in the western world and this would be of grave concern for people like you and I (the people who pay and play for the games).
In recent months, we’ve seen negative news in respect to software developer Infinity Ward and the publisher Activision. For those in the know, Infinity Ward (IW) created the incredibly popular and successful game: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (MW2).
In creating this game, IW had allegedly signed-up for a considerable financial reward from the publisher, Activision. If internet stories are to be believed, the “reward” was tied in to a successful launch of the MW2 game on a given date. To all intents and purposes, it would seem that IW did deliver on (or prior to) the designated date.
So, what did IW get for their trouble? Well, again, subject to the usual caveat on internet reporting accuracy and scandal, news seemed to indicate that Activision withheld payment of the reward and started on a rather nasty campaign against IW staff [2]. Several internet forums and sites provided information about nasty tactics and intimidation, coupled with accusations of insubordination and the firing of some members of staff. I have no idea of the accuracy of the reports, but if some are to be believed, Activision allegedly placed staff in isolated rooms for interview, threatened other staff trying to console their work mates and confiscated personal electronic equipment for “evaluation”.
Where I going with this? Well, the treatment of IW (if true) doesn’t sound good does it? Many would argue that the game would continue to sell regardless of how the developer was treated. This makes me rather sad, as buying something without regard to the wellbeing of who made the product is a bad thing. Surely Activision now cannot continue the Modern Warfare series as easily as they could before? Have they poisoned their own well in terms of the ability to attract new development studios for future work? Maybe the dollar is king and the developers will just line up for the money and hope they get paid what is owed. Ultimately, maybe IW just didn’t read the small print in the contract.
I’m pleased to say that I’ve not heard negative news stories regarding Valve, the developer of TF2. They seem to be churning out new games and using the same development teams as before [3]. Anyone excitedly waiting on L4D2 last year would have read that the TF2 development team did indeed take part in the development of L4D2, and I suspect that this sort of continuity has several big benefits for Valve:
1) Familiarity with the software means quicker development and bug fixing
2) Such good knowledge of a product should also mean better quality overall
3) Sharing of best practice between teams and (a controversial one here) *learning from mistakes*
4) Ability to deliver new products and attract new developers as needed
5) Reputational benefit tied to good / fair treatment of staff
Think of any field of work where long term training is required for high quality professional work to be done. It makes sense to retain and look after the experienced staff, especially where the team has had great success.
What can the game playing community do about situations like IW and Activision? How would you know whether a developer had been treated fairly or not? Well, you wouldn’t know and I think that most people just don’t care. If I were a joking man I’d say that it is time for software to contain a statement like the one that fair-trade uses:
“The developer of this software has been treated fairly by the publisher”
Maybe at some point in the future, this will all be too necessary. In the meantime, I can salute Valve for at least giving the appearance of a dedicated, retained development team!
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Further Links
http://kotaku.com/5485703/ousted-infinity-ward-founders-lawsuit-against-activision-the-court-documents/gallery/
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=243161
http://playstationlifestyle.net/2010/05/07/infinityon/
http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/702911/Security-Appears-Unannounced-At-Infinity-Ward-Studio-Heads-Missing-Staff-Freaked-Out-.html
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