- Joined
- Sep 24, 2014
NetherRealm Studios (developers for Mortal Kombat 9, MKX, MK11, Injustice, and Injustice 2) has been catching a lot of flak lately over social justice issues. Sexually suggestive female costumes, time travel slavery paradoxes, etc. The most popular NRS fan forum is "Test Your Might," and they have a long history of random bannings and shitstorms surrounding socjus sensitivities, white knighting for feminism, and a pseudo-tyrannical gatekeeping for their gaming community. Almost like a ResetEra light, but focused strictly on NRS fighting games. Most of the community sees it as a cespool, and most competitive players have sworn off the website since around 2015.
Anyways, I was rooting around on TYM, and this thread has been gaining a lot more traction there than the average thread. Poster HGTV Soapboxfan.
NRS working conditions - This NEEDS to be discussed
Archive
Here's the string of tweets referenced in the post. The original post was made by Jiminy Snackmouth @jlongstreet
Tweet
Archive
Okay, seems like the super competitive tech industry is super competitive. As to be expected, but, in chimes someone else, and their complaints are a lot less relatable. Posted by BECK, PLEEEEEASE @beckhallstedt
This might get my ass blacklisted
Archive
BECK, PLEEEEEASE
@beckhallstedt
4 days ago, 23 tweets, 4 min read Read on Twitter
this might get my ass blacklisted but i want to talk about the ridiculous amount of experiences i had/saw at netherrealm for the short FIVE MONTHS that i was there.
NRS needs to be exposed for predatory and abusive behaviors in the same ways that riot, epic, and telltale have.
NRS is in a long building with 3 sets of bathrooms. they turned the woman's bathroom closest to contractors into a "unisex bathroom" b/c there are so few women. men would urinate with the stall door open while women were in there. fem coworkers told me not to bother to complain.
i sat with all the other contract artists in a back room that was stuffed with workstations so they could fit as many temp people as possible.
it was a daily occurrence to hear FT people talk about how many contractors were cramped into that room during crunch cycle.
my second or third week of work, a new temp environment artist sat down next to me and was working on getting his desk set up. the first thing that a FT person said to him was "ready to die from crunch?"
i will never forget that
i and most other contractors, some of the most talented junior-level workers that games have to offer, worked at $12/hour to work on a AAA game
unless you were a woman like me, we got $11/hour
temps work on a 9 month on, 3 month off cycle with zero benefits near minimum wage, strung along with lukewarm messaging that maybe you'll be hired "after the next contract."
some folks have been doing this for 4+ years.
some folks have gone into huge credit card debt b/c of it.
(i hear temps are paid more now due to salary leaking, but it's still within $3-4 minimum wage.)
because of this, NRS's contractors NEED overtime to survive. they NEED the time-and-a-half pay to make rent.
much of the best talent in chicago is paid so little that they go into credit card debt to buy food and seek out 60+ hour weeks to pay their bills
i know women that were not included in scrum meetings because they were "distracting" for the guys
since NRS is the only AAA studio in chicago, they headhunt new grads and then grind them into hell for minimum pay. i know a LOT of people that quit games entirely because of a single contract with NRS made them realize how shitty it can be to work in games.
when things go wrong, they blame & yell at & abuse contractors. there was a major leak that resulted in a higher-up bringing all contractors into a room and having a SCREAMfest at them & threatening all of them collectively
found out later the leak didn't come from a contractor.
the sea of temp workers are rarely invited to any of the outside of work events or activities and are treated as inferior in a LOT of ways
i know contractors that have worked on a game for 80% of its production cycle and didn't get a copy at the end
they literally had to pay $60 to play the game they made
they don't even call you an associate artist
they kept calling me an intern, the entire time i was there, even though i was designing props for literally harley quinn and batman
NRS has one of the worst reputation among devs, especially women and queerfolk, to a point that almost anytime i bring it up with another developer, they say "fck that place"
if you want another company to be pissed at then please add it to your list
please do not boycott. bosses get paid first.
support game workers and be patient with us. a lot is going to happen in the next year across the industry. i believe it.
all this in 4 months. i've heard worse stories, especially about harassment, but those rely a bit too much on secondhand information.
not everyone has these experiences- some workers have a perfectly fine time there- but jeez it's mostly rough
one more thing:
people have tried to sue them over this stuff.
journalists have TRIED to write about nrs before.
but every effort has been shut down
former and current employees that would be open to anonymous interviews: my email is in my bio
follow @GameWorkers
please absolutely do not make an article out of my or anyone else's tweets without permission, that's crazy rude and irresponsible
*woman-identifying, i'm nb masc btw
5 months*
TL;DR - Now that they have QUOTE unisex UNQUOTE bathrooms, women are being disgusted by men's bathroom habits. Temps had to use shared work spaces instead of given offices. They were traumatized by a coworker telling them to, "get ready to die" right before a deadline crunch. They were ONLY getting paid $3-$4 dollars more than minimum wage as a TEMP. Women, LIKE HER, got paid less, although she didn't think that was something she needed to tell her state's labor department. TEMPS were on a 9 month work cycle and were told they'd return to work after contract renewal, and this has somehow driven all of them into massive credit card debt. Complaints about how they have to work overtime to survive in their downtown Chicago apartments. They're predatorily hiring college graduates that have zero experience and not handing them 6 figure salaries. They blame leaks from contractors on the contractors, and that's somehow unfair. Temp workers aren't being invited to business meetings and "outside of work" activities. The company doesn't give their employees free products and makes them walk into a store and buy the game if they want to play it. They call the interns, "interns," and not their preferred pronoun, "associate artist." THEY CALLED ME AN INTERN! I WORKED ON HARLEY QUINN! REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Anyways, I was rooting around on TYM, and this thread has been gaining a lot more traction there than the average thread. Poster HGTV Soapboxfan.
NRS working conditions - This NEEDS to be discussed
Archive
Here's the string of tweets referenced in the post. The original post was made by Jiminy Snackmouth @jlongstreet
Tweet
Archive
Okay, seems like the super competitive tech industry is super competitive. As to be expected, but, in chimes someone else, and their complaints are a lot less relatable. Posted by BECK, PLEEEEEASE @beckhallstedt
This might get my ass blacklisted
Archive
BECK, PLEEEEEASE
@beckhallstedt
4 days ago, 23 tweets, 4 min read Read on Twitter
this might get my ass blacklisted but i want to talk about the ridiculous amount of experiences i had/saw at netherrealm for the short FIVE MONTHS that i was there.
NRS needs to be exposed for predatory and abusive behaviors in the same ways that riot, epic, and telltale have.
NRS is in a long building with 3 sets of bathrooms. they turned the woman's bathroom closest to contractors into a "unisex bathroom" b/c there are so few women. men would urinate with the stall door open while women were in there. fem coworkers told me not to bother to complain.
i sat with all the other contract artists in a back room that was stuffed with workstations so they could fit as many temp people as possible.
it was a daily occurrence to hear FT people talk about how many contractors were cramped into that room during crunch cycle.
my second or third week of work, a new temp environment artist sat down next to me and was working on getting his desk set up. the first thing that a FT person said to him was "ready to die from crunch?"
i will never forget that
i and most other contractors, some of the most talented junior-level workers that games have to offer, worked at $12/hour to work on a AAA game
unless you were a woman like me, we got $11/hour
temps work on a 9 month on, 3 month off cycle with zero benefits near minimum wage, strung along with lukewarm messaging that maybe you'll be hired "after the next contract."
some folks have been doing this for 4+ years.
some folks have gone into huge credit card debt b/c of it.
(i hear temps are paid more now due to salary leaking, but it's still within $3-4 minimum wage.)
because of this, NRS's contractors NEED overtime to survive. they NEED the time-and-a-half pay to make rent.
much of the best talent in chicago is paid so little that they go into credit card debt to buy food and seek out 60+ hour weeks to pay their bills
i know women that were not included in scrum meetings because they were "distracting" for the guys
since NRS is the only AAA studio in chicago, they headhunt new grads and then grind them into hell for minimum pay. i know a LOT of people that quit games entirely because of a single contract with NRS made them realize how shitty it can be to work in games.
when things go wrong, they blame & yell at & abuse contractors. there was a major leak that resulted in a higher-up bringing all contractors into a room and having a SCREAMfest at them & threatening all of them collectively
found out later the leak didn't come from a contractor.
the sea of temp workers are rarely invited to any of the outside of work events or activities and are treated as inferior in a LOT of ways
i know contractors that have worked on a game for 80% of its production cycle and didn't get a copy at the end
they literally had to pay $60 to play the game they made
they don't even call you an associate artist
they kept calling me an intern, the entire time i was there, even though i was designing props for literally harley quinn and batman
NRS has one of the worst reputation among devs, especially women and queerfolk, to a point that almost anytime i bring it up with another developer, they say "fck that place"
if you want another company to be pissed at then please add it to your list
please do not boycott. bosses get paid first.
support game workers and be patient with us. a lot is going to happen in the next year across the industry. i believe it.
all this in 4 months. i've heard worse stories, especially about harassment, but those rely a bit too much on secondhand information.
not everyone has these experiences- some workers have a perfectly fine time there- but jeez it's mostly rough
one more thing:
people have tried to sue them over this stuff.
journalists have TRIED to write about nrs before.
but every effort has been shut down
former and current employees that would be open to anonymous interviews: my email is in my bio
follow @GameWorkers
please absolutely do not make an article out of my or anyone else's tweets without permission, that's crazy rude and irresponsible
*woman-identifying, i'm nb masc btw
5 months*
TL;DR - Now that they have QUOTE unisex UNQUOTE bathrooms, women are being disgusted by men's bathroom habits. Temps had to use shared work spaces instead of given offices. They were traumatized by a coworker telling them to, "get ready to die" right before a deadline crunch. They were ONLY getting paid $3-$4 dollars more than minimum wage as a TEMP. Women, LIKE HER, got paid less, although she didn't think that was something she needed to tell her state's labor department. TEMPS were on a 9 month work cycle and were told they'd return to work after contract renewal, and this has somehow driven all of them into massive credit card debt. Complaints about how they have to work overtime to survive in their downtown Chicago apartments. They're predatorily hiring college graduates that have zero experience and not handing them 6 figure salaries. They blame leaks from contractors on the contractors, and that's somehow unfair. Temp workers aren't being invited to business meetings and "outside of work" activities. The company doesn't give their employees free products and makes them walk into a store and buy the game if they want to play it. They call the interns, "interns," and not their preferred pronoun, "associate artist." THEY CALLED ME AN INTERN! I WORKED ON HARLEY QUINN! REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
