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Clint Gage

@clintgage.bsky.social

@ign for a while, CineFix for even longer, exceptional bio writer

11 Posts533 Follower176 Folgt
IGN Creators Guild@ignunion.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Union says fuck it, takes lunch at 11:30am to show our solidarity ✊ Today, the IGNCG is celebrating May Day! We’re a bit early, but we’re just too excited about getting our first contract done. We’ve got pizza and pride in the work we’re doing to make IGN a better place for all of us. 💜

The IGN Creators Guild Goes To Lunch! (A lovely screenshot of the IGNCG on Zoom, taking lunch together)A lovely picture of the IGNCG at a park, taking lunch together
IGN Creators Guild@ignunion.bsky.social · last yr.

Today, IGN laid off eight extremely valuable members of our union and workforce via directive from our parent company, Ziff Davis. This, after two incredibly successful live events IGN Live and SDCC, and yet another corporate acquisition. Please take a moment to read and share our full statement:

Today, IGN Entertainment announced that it would be laying off eight members of the IGN Creators Guild. This is 12% of our bargaining unit, and comes just days after our sister union, the Ziff Davis Creators Guild, underwent similar layoffs impacting 15% of their members. It also comes just months after our multibillion-dollar parent company, Ziff Davis, instituted a company-wide buyout that shrunk our unit numbers, with the express intent of avoiding future layoffs. And it comes just a little over one year after three of our members were laid off almost immediately after our union went public. The company has told us that the reason for this layoff stems from a Ziff Davis-mandate to cut costs despite several quarters in a row of year-over-year revenue increases, to which IGN Entertainment responded by coming for our members' jobs. This is perplexing to us, as we are told again and again that IGN Entertainment has had a tremendously successful year thus far thanks to their hard work. In just the last few months, our members have been absolutely essential to major events and livestreams, including San Diego ComicCon, Summer of Gaming, and IGN Live. Every single person impacted today was involved in and critical to the success of those events. Meanwhile, IGN Entertainment continues to spend money on costly acquisitions, only to turn around and gut those companies in the same way it is cutting away at IGN itself. For instance, last year, it acquired Gamer Network, and almost immediately laid off a number of staff critical to making those sites successful. The company has not responded to the union's questions about whether its budget for future acquisitions is being reconsidered as a cost-saving measure alongside these other apparently necessary personnel cuts. At a time when it is more necessary than ever to support its creators, IGN Entertainment is choosing to eliminate the individuals who ensure IGN remains competitive as generative AIthreatens our reach. We have been told that expert opinion pieces, original interviews, and work that leverages our staff's deep knowledge of gaming, tech, and entertainment are all essential to combating AI summarization and regurgitation of our work. Management has responded by cutting several individuals who do that exact work, as well as others whose job it is to ensure that these written and video pieces are published in a speedy manner — another component of combating AI we're told is critical. This continued cycle of repeated, aggressive cuts to our staff and being asked to do more with less, only for management to continue to spend on new business it isn't interested in sustaining cannot continue. We will enforce our interim agreement that guarantees better severance and other protections to laid off members, as well as demand additional support for those impacted. We will continue to bargain over our first contract with the aim of enshrining even better protections against further layoffs, working conditions continuously degraded by understaffing, and the encroachment of generative AI. And we won't stop fighting to ensure IGN remains the best destination for trustworthy, original, exciting, and creative work covering video games, entertainment, and tech. While IGN Entertainment management may not value us, we value one another and the incredible work we can do together. Behind the articles, videos, social posts, playlists, and maps of IGN are human beings, not just numbers on a spreadsheet to be pushed around when some number at the top isn't big enough. Without us, there is no IGN.
Clint Gage@clintgage.bsky.social · 2y ago

Just FaceTimed with my in-laws to help them turn closed captioning on and turns out they’re watching John Wick 2. Watched the whole catacombs sequence until Keanu talked again to confirm the subtitles were properly on and I guess I could’ve been hanging out with my in-laws this whole time.

Clint Gage@clintgage.bsky.social · 2y ago

These are always fun to make, even if we have to work on them sporadically for like 3 years but happily @scottcollura.bsky.social doesn’t mind that too much.

Scott Collura@scottcollura.bsky.social · 2y ago

Just in time for the holidays, our latest mini-doc! Justice League’s Dirty Secret (They Made It The Marvel Way) youtu.be/3Cm7cjbw1JA?... Featuring @susaneisenberg1.bsky.social @phillamarr.bsky.social #MariaCanalsBarrera #BruceTimm #AndreaRomano the late, great #KevinConroy & more! #JusticeLeague