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Take This issues State of Video Games Industry White Paper

Nonprofit organization Take This has issued a State of the Video Games Industry White Paper addressing developer mental health and how the industry can improve this area as a whole.

Ozzie Mejia

July 9, 2019 6:00 AM

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Take This is the first and foremost nonprofit when it comes to the video game world and mental health. Part of the many challenges that the organization faces on a daily basis is analyzing the state of the industry in relation to the workforce's mental health. With that in mind, Take This issued its State of the Video Games Industry 2019 White Paper on Tuesday, issuing out a handful of recommendations and problem areas that the industry as a whole can look to address.

Take This is seriously looking into some of the major hot topics of the last few years, like overworked labor forces and workplace instability. While the nonprofit is not quite ready to issue full recommendations on how to address these issues, it has identified three areas of particular concern.

• Instability: This relates to overtime crunch, overall job stability, and the lack of advancement opportunities that has affected the labor force's mental health as a whole.
• Inclusion: A slow movement towards inclusion and diversity in the gaming industry's labor force has led to a disconnect between game creators and the experiences of those who play games.
• Public interation of employees: This regards negative interactions between game makers and their user base. This can include targets of harassment campaigns, as well as negative public perceptions of their professions.

"Though we have seen a lot in the news on hot topics such as development 'crunch,' online harassment, and company closures and layoffs, we still have much to learn about the unique factors and challenges that affect and impact mental health in this industry," Executive Director Eve Crevoshay said via press release. "Over the next year we will be working closely with members of the industry to identify and incorporate best practices for addressing issues of concern and alleviating mental health issues that affect employees, and also conduct original research. We are invested in this industry because we want to bring support and care and concern to the community."

While Take This does not have a set of best practices or any strict recommendations at this time, the White Paper is meant to help begin a dialogue. With the stigmas surrounding mental health, Take This hopes that a conversation regarding these concerns can begin in earnest in an effort to benefit the greater gaming industry. The full White Paper can be found on the Take This website.

Funding for the White Paper came from the various donations towards Take This in 2018, with the Entertainment Software Association, Good Shepherd Entertainment, Xbox, and Devolver Digital among the donors. For more on Take This, be sure to revisit our TwitchCon interview from October.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?