The lootboxes problems facing the gaming industry currently are an ethical

issue that needs to be considered, the ease of access for children to access
lootboxes within games is definitely an issue, while most games allow players
to get some lootboxes for free or for purely ingame currencies that cannot be
bought with real money children can and have gotten their hands on parents
credit cards or other ways to pay for them without permission, this in itself
however is more of an issue with the parents themselves, they need to look
after their bank information very carefully in general, another problem is that
parents have a responsibility to look after their children and make sure they’re
staying safe online, this would include keeping themselves aware of what
games their children are playing, who they talk to online AND what they’re
able to buy within games, video games that utilize lootboxes that are only
available by paying for them or that include ingame items that give an unfair
advantage are definitely an issue, video games will make players feel forced to
buy these to progress the game properly, or they will make the players feel as
though they’re not as good or as important if they do not buy them.
The structure of the gaming industry starts with the publishing company and
the developers when they decide on the video game to be made, a timescale
etc, when the video game is created by the developers it will be promoted,
marketed and then prepares the release of the game itself, then when the
game is ready it will be sent to the distributor who sorts out the logistics and
delivery of the game to the consumers of the game for releasing it, then there
is the platform which is the format the game is played on whether it be a
console or PC, here often little happens however for console games it will also
act as the distributor on their own on console stores too, then there is retailers
which sell the product often in a physical form. The publisher will often own
the developing company as well and may own multiple at once, this allows for
a publisher to publish multiple games in a year often, it also allows for
developers to get a boost in funding and even support from other developers,
however it also means that developers owned by a larger distributor may make
them create games that they may not want to or enjoy, it also limits the
amount of freedom to make the game how they want, often this could mean
things such as loot boxes are put into games because the parent company
makes the developers.

Some games developers that have good conditions of their employment would
include Naughty Dog, this development company uses a very laid back
approach to producing their games, everyone within the company is considered
equals and gets a say when making the game, as quoted on www.latimes.com
“Druckmann shrugs his shoulders at new hires who try to author
comprehensive memos detailing far-off plot points and issues.

“Oh, they’ll learn,” he says. “Documentation can become stale very quickly.”

That belief means Naughty Dog doesn’t lean on producers for organization.
Many game companies have a producer for every 10 developers, Wells said.
They call meetings and centralize planning, acting as guardians of developers'
precious time.

Wells wants everyone to track their own responsibilities.

“Producers become a crutch, where it’s someone else’s job to make that
communication,” he said. “We want people to get out of their chair and get
the help they need immediately.”“

This shows that the company doesn’t want their employees work to become
slow and stale.

On the opposite side companies such as EA have often mistreated employees

and forced them to work extremely unfair hours just to meet a deadline that
was set far too shortly, as quoted from the guardian “Erin Hoffman began an
online journal detailing her husband’s gruelling experience working at an EA
game development studio. For months on end he worked 12-hour days, six
days a week, and when the game’s final deadline loomed, it got worse. “The
current mandatory hours are 9am to 10pm – seven days a week,” she wrote,
“with the occasional Saturday evening off for good behaviour (at 6:30pm).””
Showing the EAs CEO doesn’t care for those who work for them at all, with a
complete disregard for their own lives and wellbeings

A designer will have an effect on the development of the rest of a video game
and have an impact on how the game is made because a characters design may
need specially programmed aspects for it, if a character is designed to have
glowing eyes it will be the programmers job to create the glowing effect within
the games engine, if the character has different body parts than normally
expected such as wings or more limbs or even a lack of some limbs it will have
an impact on the animators as they have to create more unique animations for
them to fit with their character.

A programmer will have an effect on the development and have an impact on

the game because of how the engine may effect things too, a character may
have be have different designs due to how the game engine works or due to
different deadlines on the programmer for creating the character within the
game, glowing eyes and the ability to fly might take too long to code and
create and therefore will effect the design of the character as well as the
animations and the art for it.

The marketing team will heavily effect some of the development of the game,
their entire job is getting as many sales of the game as possible and this could
cause them effect the design of characters, making them wear less or have
bigger breasts if it’s a female character under the idea of sex sells, this would
be done in an effort to get more sales with an attractive character, changing
how the character is designed, modelled and maybe even animated.

The role in the gaming industry that appeals to me the most is none within
normal development structures, I enjoy making games by myself or with
perhaps a small group, working in every aspect from animation to coding as
they’re all fun to do and its rewarding creating a game that I feel like within my
own timetables and not feeling pressured by it, there have been very
successful games created in this way such as Rimworld created by Tynan
Sylvester or stardew valley created by Eric barone.

To find vacancies within the games industry you can look online at websites
such as indeed.com, on there I found a programming opportunity, to cater
your CV for a programming position you will want to include some examples of
your past work that shows your skill at programming, you’ll also want to
include what kinds of programming you are capable of, what languages you
can code in and using what game engines etc, these will all be necessary for
making sure you have the highest chance of getting the position, during an
interview to conduct yourself properly you need to make sure to use formal
language and not to swear at all during it, as well you need to make sure you
look presentable with formal clean clothing.

Full-time and part-time contracts

As an employer you must give employees:

 a written statement of employment or contract

 the statutory minimum level of paid holiday
 a payslip showing all deductions, such as National Insurance contributions
 the statutory minimum length of rest breaks
 Statutory Sick Pay (SSP)
 maternity, paternity and adoption pay and leave
 make sure employees do not work longer than the maximum allowed
 pay employees at least the minimum wage
 have employer’s liability insurance
 provide a safe and secure working environment
 register with HM Revenue and Customs to deal with payroll, tax and NICs
 consider flexible working requests
 avoid discrimination in the workplace
 make reasonable adjustments to your business premises if your employee is
disabled

Zero-hours contracts

Zero-hours contracts are also known as casual contracts. Zero-hours contracts

are usually for ‘piece work’ or ‘on call’ work, for example for interpreters.

 they are on call to work when you need them

 you do not have to give them work

 they do not have to do work when asked

Zero-hours workers are entitled to statutory annual leave and the National
Minimum Wage in the same way as regular workers.
You cannot do anything to stop a zero-hours worker from getting work
elsewhere. The law says they can ignore a clause in their contract if it bans
them from:

 looking for work

 accepting work from another employer

You are still responsible for health and safety of staff on zero-hours contracts.

Fixed-term contracts:

 last for a certain length of time

 are set in advance
 end when a specific task is completed
 end when a specific event takes place

Fixed-term employees must receive the same treatment as full-time

permanent staff.