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More than 500 developers at Blizzard Entertainment have formed a union and established theWorld of Warcraft》Game Producers Association!The union, which is affiliated with the Communications Workers of America (CWA), is made up of employees in art, design, engineering, production, sound and quality assurance teams.At the same time, another union of 60 quality assurance testers joined, called Texas Blizzard QA Union - CWA, which is responsible for quality assurance testing for various Blizzard games.

According to Game Developer, CWA said this was an important milestone in the struggle for improved working conditions for employees, especially those of vulnerable groups, after employees went on strike nearly three years ago due to dissatisfaction with the handling of discrimination and sexual harassment lawsuits filed by California against Activision Blizzard. CWA said through Game Developer: "This victory highlights the growing power of worker organization in the video game industry, and we hope it will continue to inspire other video game industry workers to form unions and raise industry expectations for wages, benefits, and respect for workers' rights."

Senior software developer Kevin Vigue said their team was inspired by similar unionization efforts at ZeniMax, Sega, and other studios, and that recent layoffs and studio closures within the industry have further strengthened their resolve. "By forming a cross-disciplinary union, we hope to keep this value in mind and ensure that World of Warcraft developers, including QA, have a voice in their workplace," Kevin Vigue said via Game Developer. "We hope to not only improve working conditions, but also protect what we love about Blizzard so that we can safely invest our talent and passion into making World of Warcraft."

We are organizing not only for ourselves, but for the people who make games with us. By ensuring we are treated fairly in our own workplaces, we can focus on our shared passion: making great video games.

Our union efforts predate recent layoffs, but witnessing them firsthand only reinforces the importance of our efforts to the gaming industry as a whole. Through our union contract, we can have a voice in future layoffs, minimize their impact, and ensure we retain as much talent and knowledge as possible.

While the union membership will determine what we negotiate, we have had a lot of discussions over the past few months. We suspect our main bargaining items will include layoff protections, improved remote work policies, transparency around performance and promotions, and compensation adjustments based on the expensive areas we live in.”

The World of Warcraft Game Producers Association is now the second-largest union under Microsoft, second only to Activision's 600-person QA union. Both benefit from the labor neutrality agreement reached between Microsoft and CWA, a set of five provisions reached before Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion last October. First, Microsoft will take a neutral position when employees covered by the agreement express interest in joining a union. Second, covered employees will be able to easily exercise their right to communicate union membership information with other employees and union representatives in a way that encourages information sharing and avoids business disruptions. Third, employees will be able to choose whether to join the union through innovative technical support and simplified processes. Fourth, employees can keep their choices confidential and private if they wish. Fifth, if CWA and Microsoft have a dispute under the agreement, the two organizations will work quickly to reach an agreement, and if they cannot, they will resort to a fast arbitration process. The agreement does not affect Activision employees before the transaction is completed.

While described as a comprehensive union covering multiple departments and disciplines, it does not actually cover all World of Warcraft developers, but is said to have strong support from all departments. While most unions are divided by department, which may have different needs and goals, a larger membership also gives the union more bargaining power. This mass movement represents an important and growing trend within the video game industry, as angry employees fight back against an industry that seems to rely in equal parts on tension, burnout and passion.

If you want to find a gathering place for World of Warcraft players, please scan the QR code to join the group!