After its first appearance on November 10, the EA Spouse essay published on the web has had a remarkable effect. The anonymous complaint about working conditions at the world's largest games publisher drew significant interest from inside and outside the games industry, as well as at least a token response from Electronic Arts itself, which may be looking into reclassifying some of its employees as overtime-eligible.
The proprietor of the now-famous weblog today announced plans to open a volunteer-run organization, Gamewatch.org, to provide a platform for discussions of working conditions and quality of life issues in game development.
"Our goal is to hold up and reward those companies that operate ethically, the better to ensure that top talent can seek out employment where they will be respected and best provided with the resources to do their jobs, namely family time, sleep, and sanity," the announcement reads. "Employees will be able to post anonymously or publically, as they so choose, and will also be offered an in-between option to register with the site but have only their testimonial posted, not their name or contact information. Registered testimonials will be given a greater weight than anonymous ones, but both options will be available. We will also provide forums for advice and discussion for all game industry affiliates, including existing employees, veterans, and aspiring students."
The announcement also requests submissions of a potential logo for the organization, if any amateur artists are interested.
In the meantime, the class-action lawsuit filed by EA artist Jamie Kirschenbaum -- which received substantial press coverage as a consequence of the attention drawn by the EA Spouse essay -- continues apace. At least two more employees have joined the suit, which alleges that EA violated California state law by failing to pay overtime to many employees during "crunch" periods mandating work-weeks of 65 hours or more.
On November 30, EA circulated an internal memo indicating that it's considering reclassifying some employees as overtime-eligible. It's not clear how many employees would be affected or when the changes would take effect, although the memo looked ahead to EA's next fiscal year, which begins in April.