It has been a week of solidarity in the gaming industry. Five days ago, more than 200 developers from Bethesda Game Studios formed the first American wall-to-wall union (which means that various positions and functions are included under the same union). Yesterday, another Microsoft-owned developer followed suit.
According to The Verge, more than 500 employees from the World of Warcraft team at Blizzard have now established the World of Warcraft GameMakers Guild, once again in collaboration with the umbrella organization CWC (Communication Workers of America). As with the Bethesda union, this one will also be broad in scope, representing everyone from designers, engineers, and artists to producers.
The Verge spoke with Kathryn Friesen, a quest designer on World of Warcraft, who said:
“You can tell just by talking to people how much they care about one another and the work that they do in the game. I think that that’s where [the unionization effort] comes from, the desire to stand together to fight for collective bargaining rights at the table.”
Here at the editorial office, we’re huge union fanboys, so we can only extend our congratulations to the developers at Bethesda and Blizzard. May it spread like wildfire throughout the entire industry.