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IGN: "Inside the Growing Discontent Behind Nintendo Fun's Facade"

Bragr

Banned
IGN is angling without bait. I hate this shit. Like a lot of the discontent-employer stories, it's based on a few employees and not the whole company. This one is incredibly thin though, it's just low-brow argumentation all-around. This usually comes down to a few QA guys who hate their job.

So IGN released this video aimed at problematic working conditions at Nintendo.

- They have one, ONE, anonymous source, that says she worked at a call center for 10 years and didn't get a "red Nintendo badge", and now she is disgruntled. This apparently, is the main cause for this video? they said they "spoke" to many others, but how many or who? this "I heard it through the grapevine" approach makes the entire thing pointless. It's hearsay, for all we know they spoke to 3 guys at the same call center and made all these assumptions from that. (the call-center person also said she loved working at Nintendo.)

- They say that some people who work at Nintendo "view themselves as second-class citizens". Who says that? you? one person? two? three? who? I might as well say "some IGN workers hate IGN". It's nothing based on nothing heard from nobody.

- They say it's problematic that Nintendo hires a lot of contractors because they got fewer rights than full-time employees, and that Nintendo rarely hires a lot of new people but instead keeps them as long-term employees. Do you expect Nintendo to turn into a western company and create a union for non-employees? if you don't have any real data that it's a real problem apart from that one anonymous call-center person, then why even try to build this case? there are plenty of issues with contractor rights, but they haven't really found anything tangible to base this on apart from their own personal issues with contract work. They just have an issue with contract work and take it out at Nintendo.

- They show a clip of Reggie saying he never saw any issues with Nintendo hiring a lot of contractors and said that it was working well when he was working there. IGN then says "this clearly has changed since Reggie left". ??????? WHAT? what exactly do you base this on? there is nothing, no data, no nothing that says it's changed in the last 3 years.

- How many contractors have a problem working with Nintendo and feel disgruntled compared to those who are not? how many call-center employees have issues with Nintendo? what percentage of employees have any problems at all? no answer. Nothing. This is speculation because they found a few (out of thousands) people who have frustrations. Minor frustrations even. They should have just made a video about their issues with contract work rather than tangle Nintendo into this.

They also try to angle Nintendo shutting down Redwood as some sort of "lack of empathy". What a hell does that even mean?

There will always be annoyed QA guys and some people who don't like working there, like any big company, but if you try to shade a company name, at least have a case instead of making up something for clicks. They have nothing.

That's it, that's IGN right there, a fucking beacon of integrity and journalistic capability.

Here is the video:

 

Bragr

Banned
Not to mention Kotaku and their story about issues within Nintendo.

Based on one guy who filed a complaint after Nintendo fired him for leaking stuff. It's all just absolute cornball crackpot fuckhead news stories from people who forgot to spit out the tobacco. You ain't supposed to swallow that shit uncle bob, it fucks your head.
 

ManaByte

Member
Well the whole contractors being treated like second class citizens is pretty standard practice for the industry. Most QA/support roles are filled by contractors working for a temp agency and are not recognized as actual employees and are pretty much treated like expendable dirt and looked down upon by the full time employees.
 

Bragr

Banned
I know people that have worked with nintendo. Its not all roses
Well the whole contractors being treated like second class citizens is pretty standard practice for the industry. Most QA/support roles are filled by contractors working for a temp agency and are not recognized as actual employees and are pretty much treated like expendable dirt and looked down upon by the full time employees.
It's not roses working anywhere.

Point is, they have no sources, no real reasons, other than a frustration towards contract work. They don't have anything here to pin at Nintendo, no matter what you feel about contract work. It's a hit piece.
 

ManaByte

Member
It's not roses working anywhere.

Point is, they have no sources, no real reasons, other than a frustration towards contract work. They don't have anything here to pin at Nintendo, no matter what you feel about contract work. It's a hit piece.

You're basing this on the video. There's a huge article that accompanies it with a lot more detail.
 

SLB1904

Banned
meanwhile-nintendo.gif

Seems pretty fun to me
 

KXVXII9X

Member
I'm getting really sick of IGN and other gaming media. They are shit stirrers who drum up controversy and stupid console wars and reap the benefits of outrage. It gets them clicks. Popular YouTubers are like this too. Especially with speculation treated as fact and then a lot of their followers start circling it around. After said news is said to be false, they play dumb and act like it was obvious.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
- They say it's problematic that Nintendo hires a lot of contractors because they got fewer rights than full-time employees

I hire a lot of contractors because contractors let me have flexibility in my staffing model. If I only need a skillset for 6-12 months I feel like it's better to bring someone in on a 1099 with the up-front understanding that it's just temporary instead of hiring them on full time and laying them off when the job is done.

Contractors know full well going into it that they are contractors with an expiration date so I find it weird that they complain about not having the same protections and benefits as full time employees. They literally agree to be temporary. That's why they should negotiate their hourly rates to ensure that they can afford to live on what they're billing me.
 

marquimvfs

Member
I didn't read anything, but it's important to make things clear. They're talking about Nintendo or Nintendo of America? Because They're not the same thing. Nintendo is located at Japan, and it's subsidiary at United States doesn't represent the whole company, despite the main company at japan being accountable for it.
 
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nush

Gold Member
- They have one, ONE, anonymous source, that says she worked at a call center for 10 years and didn't get a "red Nintendo badge", and now she is disgruntled. This apparently, is the main cause for this video?

Read the article, got to about 80% through...

R-C.96447374783f2b1d4a93803e50f95413
 

Arthimura

Member
Actually would be easier and more profitable for IGN to just act like Nintendo games are made by pure love and creativity. Surprised that they are bringing to light these problems.

Of course they won't have complete data about employees's satisfaction from outside, and they need to preserve their anonymous sources, but they can note recurring complains in the reports.
 
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MarkMe2525

Gold Member
IGN is angling without bait. I hate this shit. Like a lot of the discontent-employer stories, it's based on a few employees and not the whole company. This one is incredibly thin though, it's just low-brow argumentation all-around. This usually comes down to a few QA guys who hate their job.

So IGN released this video aimed at problematic working conditions at Nintendo.

- They have one, ONE, anonymous source, that says she worked at a call center for 10 years and didn't get a "red Nintendo badge", and now she is disgruntled. This apparently, is the main cause for this video? they said they "spoke" to many others, but how many or who? this "I heard it through the grapevine" approach makes the entire thing pointless. It's hearsay, for all we know they spoke to 3 guys at the same call center and made all these assumptions from that. (the call-center person also said she loved working at Nintendo.)

- They say that some people who work at Nintendo "view themselves as second-class citizens". Who says that? you? one person? two? three? who? I might as well say "some IGN workers hate IGN". It's nothing based on nothing heard from nobody.

- They say it's problematic that Nintendo hires a lot of contractors because they got fewer rights than full-time employees, and that Nintendo rarely hires a lot of new people but instead keeps them as long-term employees. Do you expect Nintendo to turn into a western company and create a union for non-employees? if you don't have any real data that it's a real problem apart from that one anonymous call-center person, then why even try to build this case? there are plenty of issues with contractor rights, but they haven't really found anything tangible to base this on apart from their own personal issues with contract work. They just have an issue with contract work and take it out at Nintendo.

- They show a clip of Reggie saying he never saw any issues with Nintendo hiring a lot of contractors and said that it was working well when he was working there. IGN then says "this clearly has changed since Reggie left". ??????? WHAT? what exactly do you base this on? there is nothing, no data, no nothing that says it's changed in the last 3 years.

- How many contractors have a problem working with Nintendo and feel disgruntled compared to those who are not? how many call-center employees have issues with Nintendo? what percentage of employees have any problems at all? no answer. Nothing. This is speculation because they found a few (out of thousands) people who have frustrations. Minor frustrations even. They should have just made a video about their issues with contract work rather than tangle Nintendo into this.

They also try to angle Nintendo shutting down Redwood as some sort of "lack of empathy". What a hell does that even mean?

There will always be annoyed QA guys and some people who don't like working there, like any big company, but if you try to shade a company name, at least have a case instead of making up something for clicks. They have nothing.

That's it, that's IGN right there, a fucking beacon of integrity and journalistic capability.

Here is the video:


I agree with all this. Ign editors speak of the need for credible corroboration before going live with an article. While I'm sure this story was vetted, the lack of info provided in the article really gives no context to how wide spread this alleged issue is. Without context this information isn't really useful in any way
 

Fbh

Member
"Guys, you won't believe this but despite their mascot being a happy Italian dude this multi billion dollar corporation works like pretty much every other multi billion dollar corporation"

Ign "journalist":
Jim Carrey Omg GIF



Tune in next week as we explore the shocking reality of working at Disney. Spoiler alert: it's not all smiles and musical numbers.
 
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oldergamer

Member
It's not roses working anywhere.

Point is, they have no sources, no real reasons, other than a frustration towards contract work. They don't have anything here to pin at Nintendo, no matter what you feel about contract work. It's a hit piece.
Dont make excuses. Just read reggies book. First any company that would blacklist an employee for leaving has something more then a typical company. Trying to strong arm people that havent worked for you in years is on another level
 
Its not the worst employer article I've ever read. Was a little illuminating to read the differences between the contractors and the red badges.

People thinking of getting taken advantage of slaving away at a QA or call center job could benefit from having this info when they start to keep some perspective.
 

nush

Gold Member
Its not the worst employer article I've ever read. Was a little illuminating to read the differences between the contractors and the red badges.

People thinking of getting taken advantage of slaving away at a QA or call center job could benefit from having this info when they start to keep some perspective.

I've worked (many) temp jobs and the 2nd class employee thing is true almost everywhere. I also got bullshitted that there was a route to got temp to perm at one job.

I didn't hang around and hope things would get better, I worked on finding actual full time permanent roles instead.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
I knew a guy who worked at Nintendo Canada during the Wii years. Place was a sweatshop. The stuff sold itself, but you still got to do work. But the Canadian division had hardly anyone working there so you had to do everything yourself.

You'd think a big regional office would have enough staff like all big corporations..... sales, marketing, finance etc.... but he said you had to do a lot of functions yourself as they were too cheap to hire more people.

The stuff sold so well, they'd rather have people quit (which lots did), then hire some more bodies to have more people handling tasks so you had a more balanced and efficient office and less employee turnover.

Not sure if the Japan or US head offices are like this but Canada was back then. Good buddy of mine so I trust what he says.
 
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nush

Gold Member
I haven’t visited IGN in years. It would be funny if Nintendo cut them off.

It's more likley Nintendo are going to send their ninjas to Building #2 kick down the door and ask;

"Anybody not happy working here? Would anybody like to leave or file a complaint?"

"Thought not"
 

Blade2.0

Member
Well the whole contractors being treated like second class citizens is pretty standard practice for the industry. Most QA/support roles are filled by contractors working for a temp agency and are not recognized as actual employees and are pretty much treated like expendable dirt and looked down upon by the full time employees.
Hopefully they can unionize and stop all that
 

sankt-Antonio

:^)--?-<
I hire a lot of contractors because contractors let me have flexibility in my staffing model. If I only need a skillset for 6-12 months I feel like it's better to bring someone in on a 1099 with the up-front understanding that it's just temporary instead of hiring them on full time and laying them off when the job is done.

Contractors know full well going into it that they are contractors with an expiration date so I find it weird that they complain about not having the same protections and benefits as full time employees. They literally agree to be temporary. That's why they should negotiate their hourly rates to ensure that they can afford to live on what they're billing me.
They don't agree to be temporary, they have no other choice if people aren't employing them permanently. The decision is no job or a temp job.
This is a practice done by people in power for the sole purpose of off loading risk onto someone else and generate more money by being flexible, again at the cost of others people security.
 

nush

Gold Member
They don't agree to be temporary, they have no other choice if people aren't employing them permanently. The decision is no job or a temp job.
This is a practice done by people in power for the sole purpose of off loading risk onto someone else and generate more money by being flexible, again at the cost of others people security.

This is true.

However having Nintendo on your resume is a pretty good plus that you can use to get a job under better conditions in the local area. If the person bothers to look and cares more about career progression than the cred of working for Nintendo.
 

sankt-Antonio

:^)--?-<
This is true.

However having Nintendo on your resume is a pretty good plus that you can use to get a job under better conditions in the local area. If the person bothers to look and cares more about career progression than the cred of working for Nintendo.
You don't have Nintendo on the resume, you worked on one of their IPs. Your resume will read "ITFirmXYZ".
 

azertydu91

Hard to Kill
Yeah they barely have anything in this article. It doesn't mean that working conditions within Nintendo aren't shitty but honestly seeing the number of employees that have spilled the beans about working conditions I think it is the case everywhere in this industry and that's not a good thing.
 

sankt-Antonio

:^)--?-<
In the context of this topic I believe this person can put Nintendo on the resume.
I really don't think so.
I worked at other big industries (first as a temp, after years as an intern), it only counts if you have been employed by the big players directly. Every chump can do temp work. Only top talent survive the selection process of getting jobs at the big players. Especially at Nintendo.
 
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nush

Gold Member
I really don't think so.
I worked at other big industries (first as a temp, after years as an intern), it only counts if you have been employed by the big players directly. Every chump can do temp work. Only top talent survive the selection process of getting jobs at the big players. Especially at Nintendo.

As have I.

My big break in the industry was the small no name company I worked for being brought by a big name company. I updated my resume to say that I worked for big name company immediately and sent it out. Which after the company I worked for was brought out was actually true.

I then very quickly got a job at a bigger name company based on the fact that my current employee was a big name. Technically I gamed the system, but I now had two big names on my resume and the rest is history. On paper I'm "Big talent" but more "Fake it till you make it".
 
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