Austin Kelmore

Welcome new followers! I've been making video games for over 17 years now, which is a long time. I co-founded and help run the IWGB Game Workers, which is the UK's largest game worker union. www.gameworkers.co.uk I also co-founded and help run www.gameworkersolidarity.com. And I have two cats!

Rockstar workers set to officially vote on union just as GTA VI comes out aftermath.site/rockstar-games...

Rockstar workers secure potentially historic union recognition vote "This is our moment to secure a window onto the decisions that shape our lives"

We're proud to share that in a few weeks' time, Rockstar staff will get to have their own say over union recognition. From pay and pensions to parental leave and overtime, this recognition agreement is a chance for workers to be involved in the decisions that shape their lives.

If you believe in journalism that elevates workers and holds power to account, I encourage you to support Vertical Slice. The site is 16 days old and already making an impact, but paid subscribers are our bedrock. Back the work that matters to you! www.verticalslice.news/limited-time...

The games industry has always been run by autocrats because that's how capitalism operates, but in the past couple of years they've really ramped up their level of authoritarianism. They don't like workers banding together in unions to improve things and they're clamping down harder in response.

"The rich are only defeated when running for their lives." - CLR James, The Black Jacobins

NEW: I spoke with current and former EA employees to understand how the latest layoff round played out and the realities of daily life at the U.S. publisher. The short version? EA is controlled by an executive class that "cannot fail, only be failed." Workers, then, will always pay the price.

This is disgusting on so many levels. www.404media.co/proton-to-re...

Le STJV lance un appel à jeu pour un bundle destiné à lever des fond pour l'aide juridique. Le coût juridique de faire valoir ses droits décourage beaucoup de travailleur·euses du JV alors que le STJV peut justement aider, soutenir et encadrer les actions 🖤♥️ itch.io/jam/stjv-bun...

one of the most important lessons I learned in my time with the union was that all decisions, and I do mean all, come down to a single calculus: can you make those with power believe it is more expensive to say no to you, than to say yes?

We are witnessing the dissolution of the games industry and I don't think we'll be able to reconcile that for at least a couple more years.

This is astounding.

Remember that talking with HR is an action that can cause people in power at the company to take counter-actions, so talking with them should almost never be the first step you take to resolve a problem at work. Talk with your coworkers first and get them on the same page about what to do.

My last repost is why I tell people to not rely on HR processes when they've been harmed or wronged. It's not enough to prove you are right, you have to build and use enough power to force the company to concede the outcome you want.

One of the big findings in my research is that people invested in disbelieving victims are not swayed by evidence. Just like other issues of misinformation, they cherry pick irrelevant details to allow them to continue to believe whatever they want.

NEWS: the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders have unionized and the Cowboys have agreed to recognize the union

Launching this thing has been extremely enjoyable and very stressful. If you see value in what I'm trying to build and believe in paying journalists for their labour, then I encourage you to support the reporting you want to see in the world. www.verticalslice.news/limited-time...

We are about 25% of the way to becoming sustainable. But like I said last week, the launch fever cannot last. Our reporting has already been viewed by over 20,000 people. If just 10 percent of that number were willing to pay, I might actually get some sleep! I'm self-funding this thing, remember.

Not the top Steam review of Dressmaker making me cry this morning!

I wonder if the PopCap founders regret selling to EA. Probably not since they walked off with a hundred million each. The rest of us just got slowly laid off year after year until none were left.

I still think about how EA bought PopCap at the peak of its popularity and in a short six years it killed it so hard it never released anything again. I saw that happen from the inside and it was a slow and painful death of a once beloved studio.

Can anyone recommend a solid offline spelling/grammar checker that isn't genAI-pilled? One of the more challenging aspects of working completely solo as a news reporter is being your own editor. I've tried Harper but it doesn't really like Pages/Mac. Advice appreciated!

Games industry execs have shown us that if we don't organize when the times are good, we sure as hell won't have enough power to stop them when they say our time is up.

I have been union organizing for over 8 years now and it's both the hardest and most rewarding thing I've ever done.

Games industry execs have shown us that if we don't organize when the times are good, we sure as hell won't have enough power to stop them when they say our time is up.

I am tired.

Less than 12 weeks ago, EA was effectively purchased by Saudi Arabia and Donald Trump's son-in-law for $55B in a deal that saddled the company with around $20B in debt. 12 weeks. That's how long it took for them to shutter a decades-old studio in BioWare and deem people surplus to requirements.

A better industry and world is coming. This is a threat

shitposts aside, this one is serious, my loves: if you’re just waking up and you have any service online running PHP 5.4 to latest, you need to take it down RIGHT NOW and don’t put it back online until after it’s patched absolutely catastrophic vulnerability dropped in the middle of the night

Opinion: Xbox already has a marketing team and (unless I'm mistaken) journalists are not on its payroll A conveyer belt of toothless Asha Sharma profiles have shown one thing: reporters who get access must do better

I spoke with Game UI Database founder @eddcoates.bsky.social about the strain he and the platform are being put under by increasingly sophisticated generative AI bots Just another example of how the technology is actively corroding human-made resources with real, tangible value

🎮 4 UK game jobs posted today — mostly Animation, Design & Production/Leadership. Browse them all: https://gamesjobs.co.uk #GameDev #GameJobs #UKJobs

Attention Scottish voice actors! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🎤 We’re gearing up to cast an upcoming project, which will require an (almost) all Scottish cast! So watch this space, if it’s nae bother.

Does anyone else with auditory processing disorder struggle to play proximity chat games? And has anyone managed to find anything that helps? I really want to play them with my friends but I struggle with the muffled sounds like echos or walkie talkies and find directional sound input difficult.

I pay for several different worker owned journalism sites and I love it so much. If you like reading about games and the games industry, consider checking out: @verticalslice.news @mothership.blog @aftermath.site

SCOOP: 'Tommy' from the now-viral exchange with Abdul El-Sayed is Thomas Teepell, a former staffer for Republican Senator Josh Hawley with close ties to Christian Nationalist Sean Feucht. He's the son of a former Bobby Jindal staffer whose consultant work was instrumental in getting Hawley elected.