[highwaylights]

To clarify, EA changed solely because of this post. It was a very dirty open secret that suddenly became incredibly public, and the backlash at that time was vociferous.

Ultimately (unless I’m mistaken) EA was forced to pay back pay plus overtime and stopped all crunch for some time. There was a lot of talk of congressional regulation at that time if I remember correctly, too.

From Wikipedia:

“Hoffman's actions, in part, led to the filing of three class action lawsuits against EA and some changes throughout the industry at large, such as the reclassification of entry-level artists as hourly employees, thus making them eligible for overtime under California law.[8] Her fiancé, EA employee Leander Hasty, was the main plaintiff in the successful class-action suit on behalf of software engineers at EA, which in 2007 awarded the plaintiffs $14.9 million for unpaid overtime.[9]”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erin_Hoffman

[jmcgough]

When I was a kid, around 2002, I was lucky enough to tour EA's campus. They joked about how they called it "the dorm" and I saw sleeping bags in offices. Didn't really put two and two together until the livejournal post dropped.