Sega Pays up in $600,000 Game Tester Race Case
Memories at the ready – Filipino scandal laid to rest.
A sega race case earlier today
Those readers with particularly long memories will recall one of the bizarre discrimination cases that befell Sega two years ago, wherein a fierce row erupted over the employment - and subsequent termination - of several Filipino game tester employees at Sega America.
The scandal erupted when one tester of non-Filipino origin threatened to sue when he was dismissed, because in his opinion Sega’s testing department gave preferential treatment to Filipinos. According to the writ, at some point Sega ordered its human resource agency Spherion to dismiss 13 testers on the sole basis that they were of Filipino origin, which caused a wholly expected backlash.
Sega and Spherion both denied liability but paid up anyway, to the tune of $456,000 and $144,000 respectively, though both agreed to review training procedures.
Many of the dismissed testers were eager to expose the truly shocking conditions that testers are forced to work under throughout the games industry. "I look around and see some friends who are game testers, and I talk to a couple of people who are in the industry, and what I get from other people is that game testers at least, are almost disposable," said Beejey Enriquez, one of the fired Filipino testers. "Because you know, 'Oh, we can pull another sixteen year old off the street, all testers are socially misaligned, dumb, all they do is sit in a dark room all day and play video games, no intelligence.' They think they could just basically throw us away because there's a whole world out there who want to become testers. Companies know that kids think of game testing as a dream job."
Companies based in the UK have come under fierce criticism for shocking employment practices, aimed at cynically exploiting QA staff . But it will take several more cases before staff charged with what is one of the most crucial aspects of game development, receive fair treatment in the workplace.
This also casts our collective mind back to the case of the former Sega employees who sued because they were forced to sit in a room with nothing to do for weeks on end. Whatever happened to them?
Everything Sega right here, as it breaks.
The scandal erupted when one tester of non-Filipino origin threatened to sue when he was dismissed, because in his opinion Sega’s testing department gave preferential treatment to Filipinos. According to the writ, at some point Sega ordered its human resource agency Spherion to dismiss 13 testers on the sole basis that they were of Filipino origin, which caused a wholly expected backlash.
Sega and Spherion both denied liability but paid up anyway, to the tune of $456,000 and $144,000 respectively, though both agreed to review training procedures.
Many of the dismissed testers were eager to expose the truly shocking conditions that testers are forced to work under throughout the games industry. "I look around and see some friends who are game testers, and I talk to a couple of people who are in the industry, and what I get from other people is that game testers at least, are almost disposable," said Beejey Enriquez, one of the fired Filipino testers. "Because you know, 'Oh, we can pull another sixteen year old off the street, all testers are socially misaligned, dumb, all they do is sit in a dark room all day and play video games, no intelligence.' They think they could just basically throw us away because there's a whole world out there who want to become testers. Companies know that kids think of game testing as a dream job."
Companies based in the UK have come under fierce criticism for shocking employment practices, aimed at cynically exploiting QA staff . But it will take several more cases before staff charged with what is one of the most crucial aspects of game development, receive fair treatment in the workplace.
This also casts our collective mind back to the case of the former Sega employees who sued because they were forced to sit in a room with nothing to do for weeks on end. Whatever happened to them?
Everything Sega right here, as it breaks.
Companies:
SEGA
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Comments
brainofedsan 29 Mar 2004 11:41
1/4
Tester are disposable, low paid, pay peanuts...get monkeys....that's why Uk game industry never delivers any truly artistic AAA titles.
I used to score skunk of my lead tester while I was at Sega Europe.
I used to score skunk of my lead tester while I was at Sega Europe.
SPInGSPOnG 29 Mar 2004 14:28
2/4
But it can't be a bad life, testing games. I mean, you get to play games all day, which most of us have to take a sick day to do. And you get to say, "I work for EA", or Nintendo or whoever when you visit ECTS and E3.
I mean, I used to be a roadie for a rock band, and the pay was s**t. We earned f**k all! But we got all the drugs and drink we could handle, girls, free entry into gigs and nightclubs, to hang out with the Ramones, and back stage passes out our asses.
Even if I'd been earning a million bucks a year, I couldn't have bought these things.
Being a games tester is, for a few who have a modicum of talent, intelligence and inituitive, the door to the games industry for non-coders. Sure, far more will be used, abused and left in the street... but that's like every industry, not everyone who works behind the counter at McDonalds ends up as European Marketing Director... QA in the games industry is just an internship.
I mean, I used to be a roadie for a rock band, and the pay was s**t. We earned f**k all! But we got all the drugs and drink we could handle, girls, free entry into gigs and nightclubs, to hang out with the Ramones, and back stage passes out our asses.
Even if I'd been earning a million bucks a year, I couldn't have bought these things.
Being a games tester is, for a few who have a modicum of talent, intelligence and inituitive, the door to the games industry for non-coders. Sure, far more will be used, abused and left in the street... but that's like every industry, not everyone who works behind the counter at McDonalds ends up as European Marketing Director... QA in the games industry is just an internship.
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Joji 29 Mar 2004 18:26
3/4
Whoa.....nice wodge of dollars there. Unlucky, got caught with their cheddar in the wind. Perhaps testing is a way into the industry, I wanted to do that once, but not anymore. There are other paths, to glory and the good life, that can be taken.
brainofedsan 5 Mar 2009 22:50
4/4
lol joji idnt thing so