Thread by @metasynthie

At #GDC2019 @bombsfall and others are about to talk about starting and running workers’ cooperatives for indie games. A coop is: a business owned and controlled democratically by workers (one vote each) who share in the profits.

Now @cleodee continues with Co-ops 101. Traditionally associated with industrial, craft and agricultural labor, not startup businesses—but there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be, beyond some companies’ reluctance to be egalitarian

Contrasting with traditional top down structure: the job of “being a boss” and making business decisions, supervising others, etc are shared by all the workers.

Reasons to run your dev group as a co-op: @bombsfall describing how they do voting quickly via thumbs-up in Slack. “You’re not just working AT a place, there’s a sense that you’re building something together.”

How do co-ops fit into the larger conversation about unions? Changing expectations of what kind of voice & power workers have. Another option that stands outside typical model as contrast; co-ops can stand in solidarity with unions. And there are co-ops that are part of unions!

Next up, Ted Anderson from @PPU512 talking about how over decades in the game industry he wanted to find a better way. Looked into the suppressed history of labor in the US and was inspired by the IWW (Wobblies): “Who are your leaders?” We’re all leaders!!

Pixel Pushers Union’s version of shop democracy: voting managers into a position works well. It’s not attached to bigger salary, so people who want to manage and are good at it tend to stay and get voted back in as manager. Those who find they don’t take to it? No problem.

“Everyone has voice, but everyone has accountability.” There’s no person whose opinion is sacred and can’t be questioned because they’re the star or boss. Lower development cost: there’s no big boss who makes 5x or 10x the pay of others.

Next up @indiecatapult of @motiontwin. The classic startup story... but with communists! They’ve been running a coop since early 2000s, in part due to horizontal decision-making (everyone can have a say in anything) raising the bar for creativity and quality.

The tricky part: once money enters the co-op, due to vagaries of French legal setup, it becomes property of all current and future workers in the co-op. Makes it hard to pull money back out and make big spending decisions, etc.

They have zero hierarchy and what sounds like total consensus process. This caps max team size effectively at 10, optimally 7. A lot more rules, systems, and process needed to manage accountability and decisions.

Have to have very careful tracking of time to keep each other from crunching and changing the company culture, burning out. Problems with chores: tragedy of the commons in dirty dishes. Firing people: extremely hard. Nobody wants to do these things, someone has to.

Fatigue is a real risk for this kind of input/decision system. When you have seven other people all giving you their opinions about your creative choices, it can be taxing if you’re not prepared.

Firing people ends up similar to Survivor: voted off the island. Feels terrible. Hiring someone into this is an intense commitment, like getting married to a new person. Two consecutive six-month contracts before committing to a hire.

Risk management: co-ops can have a tendency towards being cautious, change-averse. Before betting the farm on Dead Cells, a lot of conversations, back-up plans and future-proofing.

Although @indiecatapult was the black sheep talking about all the hard parts of being in a co-op he stresses that none of these things are a reason not to do it: being in a co-op is great.

Finally Ian Thomas of @tale_spinners discussing how they grew from a two-person partnership to a writing-consultancy co-op. They’re a group of freelancers banded together for mutual protection. In the U.K., and surprised about how little we in the USA know about co-ops.

Why team up as freelancers? Creative, emotional and social support, between coworkers (all under the same NDAs!) You’re not on your own if you’re stuck or questioning or in over your head: the freelancer’s co-op is a family.

Just having a company name and logo, appearing as a group, means you get less hurdles like writing tests or “are you available?” questions. Bigger legal muscles too, if necessary. Economies of scale: payroll, HR, insurance, web presence, marketing, etc etc.

They pool their lists of contacts, their networking efforts to grow that, share their experiences with clients during vetting, etc. When a client comes in, a small % goes to company coffers, rest goes to the freelancer doing the job.

Also, there’s a safety net: some of the company % goes to a fund for tiding freelancers over in case a client takes too long to pay, and the freelancer’s gotta make rent, etc. They also do skill development for each other, and bring each other in if a specialty is needed, etc.

Thomas has observed that the game industry, especially at indie scale, is becoming more like Hollywood: atomized gig workers doing creative tasks. This is a lot harder to unionize (as others like Amy Hennig have noted) but a “micro union” structure like Talespinners can help.

Back to @bombsfall talking about he and @cleodee looking into growing a team for their next game. Who wants to be someone’s boss? They decided to form @theglorysociety instead, but it took forever: creating a co-op almost feels like a lost knowledge in the US.

They were already informally doing a lot of horizontal, consensus decision-making (this is true of almost all small teams that work well!!) and were influenced by experiences with IWW, @DemSocialists and @GameWorkers.
“Tired: Bosses/Employees. Wired: Worker-Owners!”

They see a lot of creative benefits to being a co-op, every invested and able to have voice. Material benefits, of course: crunch or overtime is not one person’s decision, it’s a conversation. You relate to each other differently outside of hierarchy, as equals.

And it’s personally fulfilling: you own what you make and the benefits generated by what you made. Legally! So for them, no reason not to do it? “Why doesn’t every company work this way? You realize how much changes when you eliminate the boss-employee relationship.”

Tough audience question: how do you change from an existing LLC to a co-op? @wildwinter from @tale_spinners suggests a frank conversation listing out what would and wouldn’t change and how everyone feels about it. Communication skills are key in these endeavors.

How do you avoid subcontractors becoming “employees” of a co-op as boss? @bombsfall : first don’t treat them differently. Not everyone can join the voting co-op, it’s a serious change. [note: some co-ops have rules on how many hours a contractor can work without being brought in]

Last thoughts from me: anyone starting a company should be asking themselves: “Is there a good reason this organization shouldn’t be a co-op, or something like it?” Hierarchy has serious harms and costs. And freelancers can band together for more bargaining power too!

Finally, if you want to know more, check out @GameWorkers resource page on starting a workers’ co-op! gameworkersunite.org/worker-co-op-r…