This Is How They Get Away With It:" Former NetherRealm Studios Contract Devs Reveal a Troubling Studio Culture

[Pizza]

Himmerick is such a douche. I can only imagine how toxic and uncomfortable that working enviroment must be.

"Some of those Fatality sequences you love are from temp workers," revealed one source. "NetherRealm will send out an email early in production to get people to submit ideas for fatalities. Of course, they invite the temp workers because they can just give away an awesome idea without having to pay them extra for it. One person in QA made storyboards for their suggested fatality sequence. Their idea made it in, but they never got that full-time position they were chasing."


What's more, the hierarchy of management and full-time employees at the top versus the lack of power from contractors was baked into the company culture. When asked whether there was a feeling full-time employees knew about the power they held over contractors, a source told USG, "Definitely. They would definitely take advantage of it. I know full-time employees that would take extra long lunches and told contractors when they could take their lunch, or when they could take their break. They would micromanage us." A source said working as a contractor was "kind of a popularity contest."

How about someone steps down from Mount Olympus and explains what has been going on

 

[Warbro666]

I don't work in an office environment, but I do work in a factory that manufactures products that go worldwide to major companies and all of this stuff seems pretty regular to me. Low wage employees always get treated the worst, management gets away with murder, etc.

It doesn't excuse the behaviour I guess but these people aren't special for the way they're being treated.

 

[Nickolaidas]

 

[Nickolaidas]

I used to want to be a video game developer. At one point I was even looking into jobs and who/what they were looking for to get hired so I could start focusing my efforts on getting the skills I needed to do so. But over the past few years of really paying attention to the gaming industry, almost every studio sounds like a nightmare to work at. It's either the pay sucks, management sucks, harassment is ignored, constant lies being spread, higher-ups being condescending on the rest of the studio, or what's more likely; multiple if not all of those things and many more, unfortunately.

I know a lot of jobs are like this, but it's really out of hand with the gaming industry. It really sucks hearing that NRS is no exception. I know it sounds cheesy, but part of me really wanted to work at NRS because I love MK so much, that would be the ideal job, right?

Not to mention the ungrateful, whiney, death threat sending crowd which is actually your clientele.

 

[Ram]

Before starting to work somewhere, doesn't a person get a chance to speak with current employees? Couldn't these contract workers, before starting work at NRS, talk to other people who have worked there or currently work there to get a sense of the work environment so that they know what they're getting in to? Because how do we know this is not a case of:
person agrees to work at NRS --> person doesn't like pay/environment --> person starts publicly complaining that this wasn't what they signed up for (when it actually was)

 

[trufenix]

Being a contract employee sucks in all fields, huge bummer to see its poisoning the fighting game industry.

 

[Gamer68]

Being a contract employee sucks in all fields, huge bummer to see its poisoning the fighting game industry.

You aren't wrong, but it's poisoning more than just fighting game development.

It's poisoning the entire gaming industry.

 

[Tanya-Fan-28]

I'm in the minority who actually likes the new female art direction but its ironic that NRS preaches about de-sexualizition and how oh-so-noble they are because of it when they treat their REAL life women employees like crap, with the 'nicknames' given to them, not giving them a bathroom ect

 

[trufenix]

You aren't wrong, but it's poisoning more than just fighting game development.

It's poisoning the entire gaming industry.

Its poisoning everything, but it shouldn't discourage anyone from working in any field or industry, this kind of shit can crop of anywhere. This is going on at google, at mcdonalds, at comic con. I did the contractor dance myself for a couple years in the middle of my career, hated every minute of it, but it was that or not feed my family, even when I knew I was getting rooked.

I feel for these guys, especially when they're doing my dream job and getting abused for it.

 

[trufenix]

I'm in the minority who actually likes the new female art direction but its ironic that NRS preaches about de-sexualizition and how oh-so-noble they are because of it when they treat their REAL life women employees like crap, with the 'nicknames' given to them, not giving them a bathroom ect

If you don't think there are any sexist / racists / bigots / assholes in the 200+ people working at / for NRS, you're kidding yourself.

 

[RexAeterna]

Humanity honestly disgusts me, more than the most disgusting fatalities in MK. You have games [and corporations in general] making hundreds of millions in profit, where everyone could be paid enough to live decently and work happily, and yet the people at the top are sociopaths who don't even care about their own employees.

 

[Tanya-Fan-28]

If you don't think there are any sexist / racists / bigots / assholes in the 200+ people working at / for NRS, you're kidding yourself.

Its not that 'I don't think", of course in a large amount of people there's bound to be bad apples but there's nothing wrong with calling it out when the chance arises, the internet is powerful and if atleast one person reads a post about this topic and feels validated or atleast prevent one potential asshole who reads it and think 'oh so peple react/feel this way if I do this' than I feel justified in spreading just a little awareness.

 

[redrum_am]

Sounds like an over dramatic story with a bunch of cry babies. The contracted help should feel blessed to get their foot in the door, and should suck it up when it comes to crunch time. Crying about having to work long hours, this happens in damn near any industry trying to build something new. I'm an electrician who works commercial construction and when the job has dead lines your expected to work long hours. It is not like these hours are forever. Sometimes people get yelled at when shit goes missing or something breaks or to many people don't show up. Your at the bottom of the totem pole, you get the shit work and hours until you have proven yourself. Happens everywhere don't cry about it. Do your work and be humble and maybe you will be a full time employee. Suck it up, if it doesn't apply to you then let it go in one ear and out the other. Those people who get work straight out of school with such a great development studio should feel blessed they get this opportunity. This whole article seems to be a smear piece for a studio we all love, you should be ashamed of yourself. Not to mention your salty sources who don't work there anymore. This kind of thing happens everywhere, if your an adult and don't know this all ready, you have spent to much time in safe spaces. I am done ranting about how disappointing and underwhelming this cry baby article is! Over!

 

[Swindle]

Funny, I’ve heard none of this from people who’ve worked for/are working for NRS.

 

[Scyther]

Sounds like an over dramatic story with a bunch of cry babies. The contracted help should feel blessed to get their foot in the door, and should suck it up when it comes to crunch time. Crying about having to work long hours, this happens in damn near any industry trying to build something new. I'm an electrician who works commercial construction and when the job has dead lines your expected to work long hours. It is not like these hours are forever. Sometimes people get yelled at when shit goes missing or something breaks or to many people don't show up. Your at the bottom of the totem pole, you get the shit work and hours until you have proven yourself. Happens everywhere don't cry about it. Do your work and be humble and maybe you will be a full time employee. Suck it up, if it doesn't apply to you then let it go in one ear and out the other. Those people who get work straight out of school with such a great development studio should feel blessed they get this opportunity. This whole article seems to be a smear piece for a studio we all love, you should be ashamed of yourself. Not to mention your salty sources who don't work there anymore. This kind of thing happens everywhere, if your an adult and don't know this all ready, you have spent to much time in safe spaces. I am done ranting about how disappointing and underwhelming this cry baby article is! Over!

Shaun....is that you? Come on man, come clean...

 

[Pizza]

Sounds like an over dramatic story with a bunch of cry babies. The contracted help should feel blessed to get their foot in the door, and should suck it up when it comes to crunch time. Crying about having to work long hours, this happens in damn near any industry trying to build something new. I'm an electrician who works commercial construction and when the job has dead lines your expected to work long hours. It is not like these hours are forever. Sometimes people get yelled at when shit goes missing or something breaks or to many people don't show up. Your at the bottom of the totem pole, you get the shit work and hours until you have proven yourself. Happens everywhere don't cry about it. Do your work and be humble and maybe you will be a full time employee. Suck it up, if it doesn't apply to you then let it go in one ear and out the other. Those people who get work straight out of school with such a great development studio should feel blessed they get this opportunity. This whole article seems to be a smear piece for a studio we all love, you should be ashamed of yourself. Not to mention your salty sources who don't work there anymore. This kind of thing happens everywhere, if your an adult and don't know this all ready, you have spent to much time in safe spaces. I am done ranting about how disappointing and underwhelming this cry baby article is! Over!

Shut up, clown.

 

[Vslayer]

To be fair though, the reason they forced themselves to work all that overtime and didn't talk to bosses about the BS happening with the namecalling and whatnot was directly because they wanted to get a full-time job at NRS. So they're more at fault than anyone. They were naive, they let themselves be used because they wanted to work there and now they're angry because of the abuse they suffered, the abuse they also forced upon themselves.

 

[Tanya-Fan-28]

Sounds like an over dramatic story with a bunch of cry babies. The contracted help should feel blessed to get their foot in the door, and should suck it up when it comes to crunch time. Crying about having to work long hours, this happens in damn near any industry trying to build something new. I'm an electrician who works commercial construction and when the job has dead lines your expected to work long hours. It is not like these hours are forever. Sometimes people get yelled at when shit goes missing or something breaks or to many people don't show up. Your at the bottom of the totem pole, you get the shit work and hours until you have proven yourself. Happens everywhere don't cry about it. Do your work and be humble and maybe you will be a full time employee. Suck it up, if it doesn't apply to you then let it go in one ear and out the other. Those people who get work straight out of school with such a great development studio should feel blessed they get this opportunity. This whole article seems to be a smear piece for a studio we all love, you should be ashamed of yourself. Not to mention your salty sources who don't work there anymore. This kind of thing happens everywhere, if your an adult and don't know this all ready, you have spent to much time in safe spaces. I am done ranting about how disappointing and underwhelming this cry baby article is! Over!

"you should all be ashamed of yourselves" As if we are picking on an orphanage. This is a giant industry we are talking about, they don't care about you or me. Telling people to work and be humble is the same as *Keep being a slave for your bosses and don't cry about". Judging by your pic with Ed Boon shows me your bias so I don't think any one of us will get through to you.

 

[Ram]

"you should all be ashamed of yourselves" As if we are picking on an orphanage. This is a giant industry we are talking about, they don't care about you or me. Telling people to work and be humble is the same as *Keep being a slave for your bosses and don't cry about". Judging by your pic with Ed Boon shows me your bias so I don't think any one of us will get through to you.

C'mon, seriously?

 

[ColdBoreMK23]

yawn

 

[Marlow]

To be fair though, the reason they forced themselves to work all that overtime and didn't talk to bosses about the BS happening with the namecalling and whatnot was directly because they wanted to get a full-time job at NRS. So they're more at fault than anyone

I don't know if buy this argument. If your choice is either put up with the BS and hope that someday you can climb ladder, or leave the industry entirely, that's not really much of a choice. I definitely wouldn't say they're more at fault than anyone. That just sounds like blaming the victim.

 

[Tanya-Fan-28]

C'mon, seriously?

Am I scooping to his level? Usually I ignore comments like these but I won't let someone getaway with bashing the working class and shaming people for calling it out.

 

[Kratilim]

A colleague of mine did animations for NRS. I think I'm going to see what he has to say. Multiple perspectives and whatnot. I'll post here if its noteworthy.

 

[Ram]

Am I scooping to his level? Usually I ignore comments like these but I won't let someone getaway with bashing the working class and shaming people for calling it out.

All I'm saying is, I think it's totally fine to address someone's post, but there's no real merit in calling someone out/judging them based on their display picture (except for some extenuating circumstances, obviously)

 

[Living Corpse]

I used to want to be a video game developer. At one point I was even looking into jobs and who/what they were looking for to get hired so I could start focusing my efforts on getting the skills I needed to do so. But over the past few years of really paying attention to the gaming industry, almost every studio sounds like a nightmare to work at. It's either the pay sucks, management sucks, harassment is ignored, constant lies being spread, higher-ups being condescending on the rest of the studio, or what's more likely; multiple if not all of those things and many more, unfortunately.

I know a lot of jobs are like this, but it's really out of hand with the gaming industry. It really sucks hearing that NRS is no exception. I know it sounds cheesy, but part of me really wanted to work at NRS because I love MK so much, that would be the ideal job, right?

I think we've all had that fantasy at one point or another.

Fucking hell, 12$ an hour? McDonalds pays more than that. This is beyond horrible.

But hey their name will forever be immortalized in the credits, food doesn't have credits.

sarcasm/