Advertisement Analysis: You Can Sleep Here All Night
I remember watching the G4 television network quite often in my youth. As a young gamer, I was exposed to countless commercials and advertisements present in a variety of gaming media, all of which were promoting online programs and colleges where you could basically become a professional gamer in a few short years—something that at the time seemed something of a fantasy job. As I got older, I stopped gaming, and G4 eventually went to the wayside; but I was quite surprised to recall these ads from the past while reading the article “You Can Sleep Here All Night.” Its assessment of the gaming industry suggests that the endemic labor practices, and the precariousity as a result, seem to be a direct consequence of these commercials I watched in my youth, as well as a toxic work environment surrounding its most underappreciated employees—the entry level QA. Perhaps one of the main reasons that employees in the gaming industry suffer so much is the fact that gaming is almost an afterthought in the tech
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This series would follow a group of hardcore gamers who decide to turn their love for games into a job. After spending thousands on for-profit degree programs, they struggle to balance their home lives and hobbies along with their new entry level positions; and eventually start to lose their minds in the process. The broken games they play day in and day out begin to invade their minds as the pressure grows, and life itself seems to be travelling nowhere fast in this career path. Periodically throughout the series, one of the cast will give up and find a job at a more fulfilling, albeit non-gaming career, and they will be immediately replaced with a fresh member. Fresh from school, these new cast members will all have one thing in common: they are eager to be exploited for a shot at “the dream,” something that never truly happens to any of the character throughout its
This series would follow a group of hardcore gamers who decide to turn their love for games into a job. After spending thousands on for-profit degree programs, they struggle to balance their home lives and hobbies along with their new entry level positions; and eventually start to lose their minds in the process. The broken games they play day in and day out begin to invade their minds as the pressure grows, and life itself seems to be travelling nowhere fast in this career path. Periodically throughout the series, one of the cast will give up and find a job at a more fulfilling, albeit non-gaming career, and they will be immediately replaced with a fresh member. Fresh from school, these new cast members will all have one thing in common: they are eager to be exploited for a shot at “the dream,” something that never truly happens to any of the character throughout its