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Is Nexus Blitz Wage Theft?

orcthott·12/6/2018, 11:52:00 PM·1 votes·724 views

"Help us test a new, experimental mode!"

Not happy with this recent wave of video game companies releasing unfinished products and painting it as a privelege that we get to "help them test the new game."
Video game testing is a paid position starting at $10 an hour, and trying to manipulate consumers into performing that labour for free is wage theft in my opinion.

Not to mention the targets of most of these game companies being children, who not only are less likely to understand their rights in relation to labour compensation, but also shouldn't be performing labour at all.

League has been patching constantly all night, so we know this isn't just badly worded. They are watching us play, watching chat logs, taking note of our opinions and making changes based on that.

Make no mistake, your time and opinions are worth money to these companies and Riot owe us all compensation.

Do not let this become the norm for video game testing. We as consumers deserve better.

Thoughts?

And any ideas re course of action - boycott, protest, legal action if they don't remove the feature and get it properly tested by staff under fair contracts etc.

I'd be open to helping to organize it.

12 Comments

ModThe Djinn12/6/2018, 11:55:33 PM8 votes

Thoughts?

A video game testing position is not a mandatory part of a company's payroll, and no amount of paid testing is a substitute for a large-scale release (Nexus Blitz has likely been tested internally any number of times to get to the point where it is). We're talking the difference between dozens of players and millions of players, and giving feedback to a company or playing their games are not things that entitle you to compensation. They've given a playable game that you can choose not to play if you consider it theft: that's your option. Playing it in the knowledge that they may use your data to improve the experience and then complaining you aren't getting paid seems odd to me.

Chibi Templar12/7/2018, 12:01:36 AM3 votes

I dunno. Kinda sounds more akin to an open beta test, rather than the early access shit that gets shoveled out on steam all the time.

MagicFlyingLlama12/7/2018, 12:03:22 AM3 votes

I for one, enjoy playing nexus blitz.

Nobody is forcing you to play it, though.

Jinxsterr12/7/2018, 12:12:09 AM3 votes

There is NO comparison between QA testers, and the 67 MILLION people who play.

We now have what? 140 champs? Well someone did the calculation when we had 134 available champs and there is 111,462,183,100,944,676 possible combinations of champs in a 5v5 with no bans. That is over 111 QUADRILLION!! not to mention 67+ Million different computers all with their own differences, Operating systems, Quality, Possible problems with each...

They have "67 million active monthly players." So to make you happy they would need to hire 67,000,000 people and pay them AS YOU SAID $10/hr. It would cost them $26,800,000,000 a WEEK to test a FREE game mode on a FREE game.

That is $26.8 BILLION A WEEK... To satisfy you?? come on now, be realistic.

Riot has plenty of QA testers and they worked hard to make this mode. The "experimental" part is whether or not WE WANT to keep this mode PERMANENT. Nothing to do with QA.....

Think before you act.

PS. This mode is FREE. There is NO paying for it. The game is F2P. I see ZERO logic in your argument. NONE. Your acting like you paid good money for something and it was not what you expected. psh..

Lord Dusteon12/7/2018, 12:29:31 AM3 votes

Nexus Blitz is testing to see if there is enough player interest to justify making it a permanent gamemode, not to test the gamemode itself. There is no realistic way to do a actual test for player interest outside of seeing how players interact with it.

ºFerrAhriº12/7/2018, 12:15:01 AM2 votes

sure, go get yourself a degree, start writing up test reports and maybe they'll consider

rujitra12/7/2018, 2:29:33 AM1 votes

You signed no contract with Riot. You are not an employee of Riot. You are not in any way an agent of Riot. You have no wage contract with Riot. They have not made any implicit nor explicit offer of wages to you for this. By playing the mode, you are voluntarily, with no expectation of payment, agreeing to play the unfinished game mode.

They can’t steal something that they never offered, you have no expectation of, and they are not obligated in any way shape or form to provide. This is glaringly obvious and honestly this seems like a post designed simply to troll or clickbait.