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was playing Hardspace Shipbreaker last night & got to the bit where Lou is like "we should get the union in!" to a group who are all pretty sceptical of the union and... that does not accord to my understanding of good organising practice.
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you're supposed to build a base of support with private conversations first! you're not supposed to refer to the union as an external entity coming in as opposed to a thing that we form together!
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maybe this stuff is addressed later on in the story, but for now i gotta say: if you want to understand how to organise through a pop culture depiction of an over the top workplace & workers rebelling against it, Sorry To Bother You is where it's at
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anyway, i'm still find cutting spaceships apart in zero-gee a nice thing to wind down with before bed, so I reckon I'll play on.
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the more interesting tension i'm enjoying chewing over is that it is a game about labouring, it makes doing that labour interesting and satisfying. but it is narratively about the terrible conditions under which you do that labour.
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so the ways in which it is terrible have to be expressed narratively & not felt by the player. you're in awful debt (but you can pay it down reliably). you have barely any time to do anything but work and sleep (so you can get back to the fun bit quickly).
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the job is awfully dangerous (but when you die you're resurrected as a maybe a little memory impaired clone for a nominal fee), the management are controlling (except you can do what you like in the yard with few consequences save your debt going up a bit)
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this is good news (still feel like the game would've been better if it was made by devs who had unionised their workplace) @Polygon/1572956983300325376