Changing the Game: Why Game Workers Are Unionizing. Pt. 2 | NYLA Talks

We are continuing our exploration of working conditions in the video game industry. In part one we heard from a developer who worked 100 hours a week. Today at NYLA podcast we are sharing the interview with a union organizer fighting to end such practices.

“Games creation seems like this magical process that no one really understands. In reality, it is very close to a factory shop floor”, says Marijam Didžgalvytė, the chair of communications for Game Workers Unite (GWU), an organization that helps exploited workers and pro-union activists establish unions.

Marijam, herself a fellow Lithuanian who grew up playing videogames in local internet cafes ended up in London as an economic migrant of the 2008 financial crisis. In 2018, she started writing about the video game industry. Around the same time, GWU was starting to form in San Francisco and Marijam was quick to join their efforts.

We talked with Marijam about the importance of unionization, whether unions will change the content of the games, and how an unapologetically leftist DNA of the movement can affect its image within the gamer community.

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