Messofanego
Banned
Reminded of Orayn's tweet in case people dismiss the work of translators.
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Former Valve employee seeks $3.1M in transgender discrimination suit
- Thread starter duckroll
- Start date
There were some post on reddit months about something going on on with the translations teams at valve
https://www.reddit.com/r/dotamasterrace/comments/452qns/spanish_translation_server_team_of_steam_in/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/44yl24/how_a_whole_language_of_the_steam_translation/
But never gained traction around the web, I bet this will do.
https://www.reddit.com/r/dotamasterrace/comments/452qns/spanish_translation_server_team_of_steam_in/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/44yl24/how_a_whole_language_of_the_steam_translation/
But never gained traction around the web, I bet this will do.
Abilidebob
Member
Didn't this whole translation problem blew up a few months ago? I'm sure I've read about it somewhere about how members of the italian(?) translation team got angry at a Valve employee that promised them things, and that their senior translator got fired, because she supported the translation team, which apparently is the same employee suing Valve right now?
I'm almost sure this had a thread here at Neogaf.
I knew I've read about that somewhere.
I'm almost sure this had a thread here at Neogaf.
I knew I've read about that somewhere.
CertifiedFP
Member
Well, gotta remember, Gaben was part of Microsoft during the height of the Embrace, Extend, Extinguish/other monopolistic practices-era. He didn't leave MS because of objections to their corporate culture, he left because he saw DOOM 2 was moving more units than Windows 95.
Embrace = Half-Life, Counter-Strike
Extend = Steam, Orange Box, opening Steam up to third-parties, Steam Market, Workshop, other Steam APIs, DOTA 2, etc.
Extinguish = Ceasing to make games and rolling in their 30% cut of all money that goes through Steam, whilst being too big for any other services to compete with.
...Let's not pretend that EA's presence on PC has not diminished greatly because of them abandoning Steam.
Oh I definitely remember that. Some people working at Valve are pure scum. So much for their "open culture".
Tinfoilhatsron
Banned
Fucking terrible if true.
Also fuckin' lol at Valve for unpaid translation work. That's common practice for them, I hear.
Also fuckin' lol at Valve for unpaid translation work. That's common practice for them, I hear.
Reminded of Orayn's tweet in case people dismiss the work of translators.
That's hilarious.
You know, I've never really paid attention to this localization problem with Valve. I always assumed they contracted the work rather than fansourcing it. It's really odd. Blizzard employs like a gazillion localization staff to ensure their services and content are in as many languages as possible for an international audience. Valve can't do the same?
I remember hearing some drama about the translation thing and it reflected really poorly on Valve. This woman being one of the employees that got fired as part of that debacle would line up with what I've read. It really seems like Valve HR/higher ups were ignorant or apathethic to some really ugly shit and sided with the wrong person.
Reminded of Orayn's tweet in case people dismiss the work of translators.
"I could translate a book in a day"
pfffffffff what a load a bullshit
Cert.in.Death
Member
After examining the docs, it looks like it's gonna be a drawn-out fight between the two. Valve's asserting of 14 affirmative defenses means there's going to be a bunch of pre-trial activities and discovery costs aimed to bleed out the plaintiff's war chest. If the attorney is working on contingency, he wouldn't have done so if he didn't feel fairly confident in defeating some of those defenses - but Valve's counsel is gonna make him work for it. Likelihood of this progressing to trial is low - the parties will eventually settle and it will likely be forgotten about when they do (it's probably 1.5 to 2 years away, minimum, unless the plaintiff is willing to lowball his/her damages in negotiations).
Also, here's the attorney's website: http://www.bigginslaw.com/
Also, here's the attorney's website: http://www.bigginslaw.com/
Portugeezer
Member
It's healthy to be skeptical, unless this is someone you know personally. I don't, so I can take the wait and see approach and not just assume what is being said is true. I have my personally beliefs; there probably was someone that referred to her as "it" but I just think this because it still happens a lot in the real world. I have no way to confirm this inclination so I'm not going to shit on Valve just yet. Is this victim blaming? Well, for that to be true it would require a lot of assumptions I am not willing to make.
If Valve can't get a good customer support service, why do you expect they would do the same for translations?
Abilidebob
Member
Oh now that I'm looking at the second link, it seems that the OP deleted the post. But I do have a copy of it, I don't know if I should(or can) post it. Reading it again it does seem that the Spanish language admin that was fired is the same that is suing Valve.
can't is very obviously not true, which immediately informs that there is at least one dipshit there making bad decisions
charlequin
Banned
This sort of thing is exactly where the deep-seated problems with Valve's organizational structure become truly clear. When Valve says they "don't have hierarchy," what it means in practice is that there are supervisors with the ability to offer arbitrary promises to employees or external people which the company will not back up or guarantee, and that when someone engages in wildly inappropriate behavior there's no structure to look to that can remedy it. The details of this case are particularly offensive, but it's just an amplified version of what we've heard from other ex-Valve employees: that there's a layer of omnipresent political bullshit that means everyone there needs to ingratiate themselves with an arbitrary set of people or else get muscled out and face mistreatment.
If Valve was ever the "best place to work" it was quite a while ago.
If Valve was ever the "best place to work" it was quite a while ago.
LordRaptor
Member
Uhhhhh.... whats supposed to be the problem with that screenshot?
Uhhhhh... how exactly is that "extinguishing"?
Nobody else offers a service that even offers feature parity, let alone superiority to Steam.
That's on the people not doing better, not on Steam to make things easy for them, and as a consumer I sure as shit don't want Steam to suddenly adopt all sorts of shitty policies just to give 'the other guys' a fighting chance.
Valve wont pay for customer service or market overwatch. Guess translation is another thing they will either cut costs on or that is too beneath them to hire people for.
Yep, after reading the papers on the polygon article is the same guy that the post on reddit were complaining about. Torsten Zabka.
BreezyLimbo
Banned
Its Valve
They have trouble setting up a customer service team and try to automate as much as possible. Im sure theyd automate translation if possible.
SinCityAssassin
Member
Well this is a fucking dumpster fire.
ElectricBlanketFire
Member
How so?
Itaremustbedangeres
Member
wow that's just disgusting. She's a woman now, so fucking call her that way. I hope she finds a better place to work at...
I don't get why it's so hard for people to accept others changing their gender and being relieved from the pain of having to live in a body that must feel like hell for them.
You mean like paid mods? (that the community rebelled against)
Edit: Oh nm I misunderstood so it's not community translation projects but an actual employee. Ok, yeah that's fucked
Tinfoilhatsron
Banned
Because Blizzard actually tries to sell products. Valve? Nope. Just look at their customer service.
valkillmore
Member
Discrimination will never make sense to me. Why the fuck are you so interested in someone else's affairs? How does that have one single thing to do with the work you're tasked with? Shake my fucking head every time I hear this shit. Fucking ignorant shits, the people that practice hatred.
I've seen first-hand racism, sexism, discrimination and harassment in the workplace so I know it happens. I've also been the subject of it so I know from first hand how it can affect one's well being.
I've seen first-hand racism, sexism, discrimination and harassment in the workplace so I know it happens. I've also been the subject of it so I know from first hand how it can affect one's well being.
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
Holy shiiiiiiiiiitReminded of Orayn's tweet in case people dismiss the work of translators.
This would be hilarious if it weren't so offensive.
mckmas8808
Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
Why should we wait?
That's how these things work - you over-inflate the damages in case you have to come to a settlement.
Hari Seldon
Member
What products are these people translating? DOTA shit?
The real issue was not that there were paid mods. The issue was that they implemented it in the worst possible way without wanting to invest in proper oversight and management. Implementing paid mods into a game which has had free mods for a long time and not having the infrastructure and support manpower to handle ownership disputes resulted in that clusterfuck. They didn't pull it because "the community didn't want paid mods", they pulled it because once again when Valve had to choose between actually managing something or not having it at all, they picked the latter. What they want is automation and communities moderating themselves. A world where they don't have to do any of that "unproductive" work.
yeah, this pertains to dota 2
SinCityAssassin
Member
If you start high, they're forced to settle for more than they would've offered if you started low.
MMaRsu
Banned
Wouldnt surprise me from Valve
It hasn't been determined that there is a victim yet. Just as companies have discriminated against employees, there are also individuals who have falsely accused others. There are also incidents in which both parties admit to mutual misunderstandings. The existence of these episodes tells us nothing about the truth in this instance.
Founa a reddit thread that summarize the whole problem with the translation teams at Valve.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Drama/comments/45glk9/drama_erupts_on_rsteam_as_valves_treatment_of/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Drama/comments/45glk9/drama_erupts_on_rsteam_as_valves_treatment_of/
charlequin
Banned
It's possible to have rules like this that are real. Google's 20% time, in fact, was once treated as an HR rule, which meant that people had to track it and managers could get in trouble if they tried to keep employees from taking it. It's only later when it became a "suggestion" that it stopped being real.
Similarly, I think "you can work on whatever you want" is actually a pretty achievable policy at a company like Valve, it's just that you can only get there by actually having a strong HR department that enforces the policy and provides support to help it work.
Think about who on the internet is actually responsible for "lord gaben" and gems like "PC master race" and this won't seem so weird.
Everything here lines up with the picture we've gotten over years and reports of 10+ former Valve employees. The correct conclusion to draw about Valve's culture was negative before this story, this just speaks to how significant the problem is.
Exactly - I'm not sure why she didn't start higher!
Yeah I remember this shit... I never got a good vibe from Valve after steam got big.
RecRoulette
Member
Huh, didn't realize there was more to the story than the transgender discrimination (which is bad enough). Not paying employed translators is terrible.
Turin Turambar
Member
You see people, Valve is all about being efficient. And it's more efficient to... not pay anything to translators (because fanboys will be fanboys) than actually paying up translators!
There was some recent goings on with the Spanish Translation team too right?
http://segmentnext.com/2016/02/11/s...just-and-dubious-practices-of-valve-employee/
http://segmentnext.com/2016/02/11/s...just-and-dubious-practices-of-valve-employee/
