News Ron Gilbert: Developers need unions

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/07/07/ron-gilbert-developers-need-unions/1

Ron Gilbert has spoken on what he thinks needs to change within the games industry if it is to move forward in the coming years.

 

oh joy.. then gamers too can be subjected to delays when Gamers Union of <insert country here> goes on strike :-/

 

Unions are not necessary in most of our modern society. I don't know how they are in the UK but I think that the US could gain a lot by dropping unions in most industries.

 

I originally read the article heading as "Developers need minions", which may be more helpful than unions. Either that or I've been playing too much Overlord recently...

I'm not entirely sure I follow his reasoning as to why unions would be a good thing though and why they would help an ad hoc bunch of freelance developers.

 

Maybe Ron would prefer to develop for consoles, where technology is standardised and stable. Episodic content works better on that kind of platform. Or is he saying consoles are moving on too quickly as well?

The PC market thrives on being at the edge of technological advancement, and is important to spearhead new challenges in game making as new abilities/tools/potential are developed. I would hate for anything to slow that down. Where would we be today if Ron had his way 10 or 20 years ago?

Maybe he's a proponent of the idea of a unified gaming platform that would exist purely for casual and episodic gaming and last decades.