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The effects of chronic stress according to McEwen, 2006.
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The white paper explores video game workers’ experiences and challenges in the game development industry, taking a close look at how game development companies can mitigate negative impacts and cultivate healthy, productive employees who can make great games.
This paper discusses specific industry trends that have negatively impacted the mental he...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... of the key systems involved in allostatic load are elevated sympathetic nervous system activity (commonly known as fight-flight response), which increases cortisol and norepinephrine, elevating your heart and breathing rates to enable fast action in the face of threat (see Figure 1). Additionally, increased allostatic load dampens the parasympathetic nervous system response (this is the calming response after the fight-flight response), which normally slows heart rate and restores critical biological processes such as sleep and digestion (Goldstein & McEwen, 2002). ...
Context 2
... 2017, Kowert and colleagues proposed that the exclusion of females in the video game industry has contributed to a cyclical model of exclusion (see Figure 1) in video game content and culture. They argue that a selfperpetuating cycle of exclusion within the video game industry has contributed to male dominance within the field and contributed to the creation of gendered game content (i.e., a general lack of female protagonists, an oversexualization of female characters; see Beasley and Standley, 2002, Fox, Bailenson, & Tricase, 2013, Downs & Smith, 2010and Ivory, 2006 Figure 2. Model of exclusion and sexism in video game content and culture (Kowert, Breuer, & Quandt, 2017). ...
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Background: Little is known about strategies or mechanics to improve self-regulation of video game play that could be developed into novel interventions. This study used a participatory approach with the gaming community to uncover insider knowledge about techniques to promote healthy play and prevent gaming disorder. Methods: We used a pragmatic a...
Citations
... En los últimos años, han sido numerosos los casos de abuso y vulneraciones laborales en la industria del videojuego. Actualmente, los mayores problemas en la industria son las largas jornadas de trabajo y las malas condiciones laborales que soportan sus trabajadores, seguidos de la falta de diversidad y el sexismo (Kowert, R. et al., 2019). ...
... Estas condiciones cambiantes y de inestabilidad repercuten directamente en el bienestar de los trabajadores de la industria. Las carencias que los desarrolladores de videojuegos señalan en materia de condiciones de trabajo suelen involucrar aspectos como la realización de funciones y tareas ajenas a su puesto, quejas respecto a los salarios que perciben, la falta de diversidad e inclusión en la industria, el sexismo y la masculinización de sus entornos de trabajo y, sobre todo, las largas jornadas de trabajo bajo presión, sin descansos y no remuneradas que soportan (Spindler, E., 2022;Kowert, R. et al, 2019). ...
... Además, 7% de los encuestados se identificaron como transgénero. Aunque las cifras parecen mejorar con especto a otros años, estos datos demuestran la falta de diversidad de género en la industria (Kowert, R. et al., 2019;Weststar, J. et al., 2021). ...
These past years, the video game development industry has been experiencing rapid growth, which has made it one of the industries with the highest annual turnover and has increased the demand for professionals in the labour market. However, this economic boost has not been accompanied by the improvement in the working conditions of these workers.
Recently, different initiatives and campaigns have been taking place, pointing out
the poor working conditions endured by video game developers at global and national level. In addition, these workers have started to unionise and demand, among other things, better salaries, respect for their working hours and the eradication of discrimination and harassment in the industry. Other recent milestones in the industry have been the regular elaboration of the developer satisfaction surveys carried out by the association IGDA and the emergence of the platform Game Workers Unite in different countries, which have
helped to raise awareness of this issue.
Thus, to analyse the working conditions in this sector from a Labour Law perspective, a rigorous study of the video games industry will be carried out in three chapters. The first of these seeks to facilitate the understanding of the origin, evolution,
and global functioning of this technological industry and to define the professional profile and functions of the workers that integrate it. The aim of the second chapter is to diagnose the enforcement problems of labour standards in the industry at international and national level. To conclude, the third focuses on identifying collective initiatives for the improvement of the industry and culminates with the proposal of a Technical Report for Collective Bargaining in the Video Game Development Industry in order to provide future negotiators of a statewide collective agreement for the sector with tools.
... Many studios have poor or sometimes exploitative work cultures due to a lack of workforce diversity [28] [29] or due to an implicit or explicit expectation that staff work mandatory overtime (also known as 'crunch') [24] [30] [31]. Game developers commonly desire industry unionisation [29] [32], and a better work/life balance [11], as many experience mental health problems or burnout [28]. ...
... Many studios have poor or sometimes exploitative work cultures due to a lack of workforce diversity [28] [29] or due to an implicit or explicit expectation that staff work mandatory overtime (also known as 'crunch') [24] [30] [31]. Game developers commonly desire industry unionisation [29] [32], and a better work/life balance [11], as many experience mental health problems or burnout [28]. All these problems can result in high employee turnover which incurs the overhead cost of onboarding new team members [9], and so further exacerbates team dynamics difficulties. ...
