Hundreds of ZeniMax workers go on strike

abkam · November 15

LOL! Everyone knows how to complain and demand their labor rights, but they completely forget that there are also duties that must be fulfilled.
I don’t know the full reality of what’s happening inside ZeniMax, [snip]

"We deserve job security and better working conditions"
You deserve absolutely nothing when we, the players and customers, don’t even have freedom of speech on a single forum.

https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/hundreds-of-zenimax-workers-go-on-strike-to-protest-microsoft-dragging-their-feet-on-negotiations-over-job-security-and-remote-work/

edit:

In the Elder Scrolls Online forum, we deal with a lot of different moderators. If we ask questions about the game, they don’t even bother to help players or customers. But the moment we say something they don’t like, the hammer comes down hard.
If someone expresses dissatisfaction with the game and players start talking about leaving, the moderators couldn’t care less, they’ll even go as far as deleting the topic. How on earth is this behavior of ignoring players and basically encouraging them to quit acceptable to Microsoft? These moderators are actively working against Microsoft by disrespecting players in nearly every interaction.
And now, they’re complaining about their jobs? Your job is, or should be, to make customers happy because you work for us. Sadly, you only seem to remember your rights while completely ignoring the other side.

I genuinely hope Microsoft treats you the same way you treat us, with complete indifference.

[edited for bashing]

Aurielle · November 15

WOW. What a ridiculous post.

"ZeniMax Workers United-CWA members have raised concerns that ZeniMax’s recent unilateral decision to outsource quality assurance work threatens job security amid record layoffs across the videogame industry," the union said. The CWA also noted that it filed an unfair labor practice charge against ZeniMax in October "for contracting out work without notification."

This is 100% a valid reason to strike and has nothing to do with forum moderation. QA in the game has been terrible of late, and performance is on the decline big time. Maybe a company bragging about pulling in huge profits shouldn’t be laying off thousands of workers and outsourcing important work that can be better done locally? The only thing that accomplishes is further enriching upper management while screwing over everyone else — including us as players.

Solidarity with the workers.

Bammlschwamml · November 15

The McDonald's close to where i live is actually pretty decent. The food is always fresh and warm and almost good. The restaurant looks nice and clean, the employees are friendly and even the bathrooms and parking are fine.

Compared to other McDonald's or even some "good restaurants" it's really nice to be there. I am pretty sure it's one of the best McDonald's in the whole country.

I guess people underestimate the impact of good management and happy employees. Giving your employees all the tools and reasons to do a good job can make a huge difference.

abkam · November 15

Aurielle wrote: »

WOW. What a ridiculous post.

.....

"What a ridiculous post." Why? Because we have different perspectives?

As I mentioned earlier: "if the situation within ZeniMax is anything like what we see here in ESO," then I truly hope Microsoft ignores them entirely, just as they ignore us, the players\customers.

I’m not talking about the game itself; I’m referring to how they treat us directly. Support is awful, there’s no real help in the forums for game-related questions, and there’s no free speech without [snip][snip][snip]. As a customer, I really, truly hate how they treat us. It’s so bad that I stopped playing and giving money to Microsoft, not out of anger, but because they clearly don’t care whether I pay or not.

My last interaction with support was the final straw that made me quit. Even worse, support forced my wife to leave the game as well by disabling gifting on her account, even though she had absolutely nothing to do with the issue! They simply disabled the gifting option on her account because they could, which made no sense to her at all. This drove her away from the game too!

When someone says in a forum, "I'm going to leave this game," what do the moderators do? They delete the post and don't care!

Could you help me understand why you disabled the gift feature on my wife's account? Her account has absolutely nothing to do with my main account, my new ESO account, or my Steam account, it was entirely her own account.

Support and forum moderators don't even care what happens. They could at least say something like, "That's not right, something's wrong. Tell us what happened, and let's fix it." But no, nothing!
Well, now they're crying about their jobs. Why? Move on and look for another job. Why should Microsoft care?

You might not agree with me, but that’s how I see things. Most of the moderators here show no respect to the players, and by extension, no respect for Microsoft either. So, why is it a “ridiculous post” for me to feel happy about what’s happening to them now? Is it ridiculous just because someone has a different experience from yours and feels that customers are being completely disregarded?

Calastir · November 15

The post isn't just ridiculous, but extremely vindictive as well. Mean and disproportional.

Aurielle · November 15

abkam wrote: »

Aurielle wrote: »

WOW. What a ridiculous post.

.....

"What a ridiculous post." Why? Because we have different perspectives?

As I mentioned earlier: "if the situation within ZeniMax is anything like what we see here in ESO," then I truly hope Microsoft ignores them entirely, just as they ignore us, the players\customers.

I’m not talking about the game itself; I’m referring to how they treat us directly. Support is awful, there’s no real help in the forums for game-related questions, and there’s no free speech without [snip][snip][snip]. As a customer, I really, truly hate how they treat us. It’s so bad that I stopped playing and giving money to Microsoft, not out of anger, but because they clearly don’t care whether I pay or not.

My last interaction with support was the final straw that made me quit. Even worse, support forced my wife to leave the game as well by disabling gifting on her account, even though she had absolutely nothing to do with the issue! They simply disabled the gifting option on her account because they could, which made no sense to her at all. This drove her away from the game too!

When someone says in a forum, "I'm going to leave this game," what do the moderators do? They delete the post and don't care!
Could you help me understand why you disabled the gift feature on my wife's account? Her account has absolutely nothing to do with my main account, my new ESO account, or my Steam account, it was entirely her own account.

Support and forum moderators don't even care what happens. They could at least say something like, "That's not right, something's wrong. Tell us what happened, and let's fix it." But no, nothing!
Well, now they're crying about their jobs. Why? Move on and look for another job. Why should Microsoft care?

You might not agree with me, but that’s how I see things. Most of the moderators here show no respect to the players, and by extension, no respect for Microsoft either. So, why is it a “ridiculous post” for me to feel happy about what’s happening to them now? Is it ridiculous just because someone has a different experience from yours and feels that customers are being completely disregarded?

Yes, it’s a ridiculous post. It’s nasty. It’s unfair. You want Microsoft to fire ZOS workers exercising their right to strike and send them to McDonald’s. How is that not ridiculous?

I don’t play the game anymore either because of the ongoing performance problems, but I don’t blame regular ZOS employees for the state of the game. Systemic problems in any industry can usually be traced back to those within the organization who enjoy the biggest paychecks.

abkam · November 15

Calastir wrote: »

The post isn't just ridiculous, but extremely vindictive as well. Mean and disproportional.

"Disproportional???

I can move to another game (and I did).
They can move to another job (I truly hope Microsoft helps them).

I can express my happiness on the forum.
They can [snip][snip][snip] my words.

I can voice my concerns about what’s bad for the game, explain why certain things happen, and suggest changes.
They can ban my account to silence me.

"Disproportional?????? I agree!!!"

Aetherderius · November 15

Did an Azureblight go off in here? Because damn, this is toxic as hell.

gamergirldk · November 15

I genuinely hope Microsoft treats you the same way you treat us, with complete indifference.

[snip]

What a pice a garbage is this ??

This is the reason why so many people dont have a living wage and a decent worklife balance, this ignorant and selfish view. ooh no how dare they strike for a better work life.

[snip]
[edited for flaming]

Aurielle · November 15

gamergirldk wrote: »

I genuinely hope Microsoft treats you the same way you treat us, with complete indifference.

[snip]

What a pice a garbage is this ??

This is the reason why so many people dont have a living wage and a decent worklife balance, this ignorant and selfish view. ooh no how dare they strike for a better work life.

[snip]

Absolutely. And why on earth does the OP think the moderators have any say on what type of posts are / aren’t allowed on the forums? They’re simply enforcing forum rules that weren’t decided by them. Prime example of OP’s misunderstanding:

When someone says in a forum, "I'm going to leave this game," what do the moderators do? They delete the post and don't care!

Who do you honestly think decided that leaving posts are not allowed in the forums? The moderators, or people WAY above their pay grade who don’t actually moderate the forum?

Posts like this are a perfect example of why working in public/government service industries and/or private customer-facing roles can be so terrible — clients and customers almost always take their frustrations out on the wrong people, and treat those they directly interact with as subhuman.

[edited to remove quote]

Calastir · November 15

abkam wrote: »

Calastir wrote: »

The post isn't just ridiculous, but extremely vindictive as well. Mean and disproportional.

"Disproportional???

Proportional would be wishing their posts would be moderated or their topics closed. Not losing their job. If you can't see how that's disproportional, I don't know what to tell you.

Aggrovious · November 15

abkam wrote: »

I genuinely hope Microsoft treats you the same way you treat us, with complete indifference.

When is the last time something good was released under Microsoft? There was already 3 threads made on this and all of them were closed. I am not sure what there is to gain here?

carlos424 · November 15

abkam wrote: »

Aurielle wrote: »

WOW. What a ridiculous post.

.....

"What a ridiculous post." Why? Because we have different perspectives?

As I mentioned earlier: "if the situation within ZeniMax is anything like what we see here in ESO," then I truly hope Microsoft ignores them entirely, just as they ignore us, the players\customers.

I’m not talking about the game itself; I’m referring to how they treat us directly. Support is awful, there’s no real help in the forums for game-related questions, and there’s no free speech without [snip][snip][snip]. As a customer, I really, truly hate how they treat us. It’s so bad that I stopped playing and giving money to Microsoft, not out of anger, but because they clearly don’t care whether I pay or not.

My last interaction with support was the final straw that made me quit. Even worse, support forced my wife to leave the game as well by disabling gifting on her account, even though she had absolutely nothing to do with the issue! They simply disabled the gifting option on her account because they could, which made no sense to her at all. This drove her away from the game too!

When someone says in a forum, "I'm going to leave this game," what do the moderators do? They delete the post and don't care!
Could you help me understand why you disabled the gift feature on my wife's account? Her account has absolutely nothing to do with my main account, my new ESO account, or my Steam account, it was entirely her own account.

Support and forum moderators don't even care what happens. They could at least say something like, "That's not right, something's wrong. Tell us what happened, and let's fix it." But no, nothing!
Well, now they're crying about their jobs. Why? Move on and look for another job. Why should Microsoft care?

You might not agree with me, but that’s how I see things. Most of the moderators here show no respect to the players, and by extension, no respect for Microsoft either. So, why is it a “ridiculous post” for me to feel happy about what’s happening to them now? Is it ridiculous just because someone has a different experience from yours and feels that customers are being completely disregarded?

Umm, if you don’t play the game any more, why the post? Why the care? Seems pretty vindictive to me. And if they are striking because quality assurance work is being outsourced, as somebody here quoted, maybe this is the reason for some of your complaints.

FelisCatus · November 15

When houses can cost 14k I have no sympathy.

spartaxoxo · November 15

Video Games < Real Life

Solidarity with the workers. ✊🏾

spartaxoxo · November 15

FelisCatus wrote: »

When houses can cost 14k I have no sympathy.

What makes you think the QA team sees any of that? What makes y'all think the moderators dictate their job to the mega corporation rather than the other way around?

Y'all be so real right now.

madman65 · November 15

You work with what they give you until there is a tipping point. Looks like it happened.

abkam · November 15

My entire topic focused on making a fair comparison regarding the complaints they do.

Once again, I truly believe they could do a better job dealing with us, the customers of Zenimax/Microsoft. Forum moderators are, or should be, the middle ground between us, the customers, and the company. My post was entirely about that! They do a very poor job as "middlemen" because they seem completely indifferent to whether their "big boss" loses money (and customers) or not. This should never be the case!

So, I’ll say it again: in my opinion, the forum moderators/support team are the frontline for us customers to voice complaints about the game or anything related to it. However, from what I’ve seen, they do a terrible job!

We live in strange times where speaking freely is often labeled as toxic, and those who stand up for their beliefs are met with others defending what is clearly wrong.

ZOS_Icy · November 15

Greetings,

While we understand that you may have interest in other topics, we ask that threads remain focused on ESO. As we want to keep the discussion on the forums focused on this game, we've closed this thread.

Thank you for your understanding.