Following a high-profile lawsuit against Electronic Arts, the video game industry's leading recruitment firms have formed a new trade group. The goal of the new Professional Electronic Entertainment Recruiters (PEER) is to establish and maintain ethical work standards and optimum recruiting services for game industry developers, publishers and related industry companies. With an aging work force of video game creators, the game industry is going through growing pains similar to what Hollywood once experienced. Today there are more programmers, artists and producers in their 30s, 40s and 50s, many with families, who are looking for better pay, fewer work hours and improved benefits. PEER will focus on representing these experienced programmers. At the same time, video game publishers are spending more money on bigger games and trying to meet tight deadlines to satisfy shareholders and earn bigger profits. The result has been a tumultuous tug-of-war that led to a class-action suit against Electronic Arts last year that accused the video game giant of requiring its employees to work overtime without compensation. EA reached a $15.6 million settlement in that case, but while it was pending, at least two other suits against EA followed, as did waves of negative publicity about the working conditions of some other game publishers and developers that did not lead to legal action. David Musgrove, PEER's president, said late last week that although there is a difference between interactive and traditional entertainment, there are many similarities between the people making games and the people making movies and TV shows. "When we heard game makers complain about bad practices at game publishers and developers--and there are a lot of examples of bad practices beyond Electronic Arts--we decided to launch this organization and create a stringent standard of professionalism and conduct within game recruiting," said Musgrove, who has been an external recruiter in the games business for 13 years with International Search Partners. Musgrove believes that by giving game makers a choice in where they can work and being honest with them about their options, "quality of life" problems like those that surfaced last year eventually will subside. He added that an open system of internal and external recruiters that operate fairly will provide an alternative to any potential unionization of game creators. "There are a lot of good developers and publishers out there, and by giving game makers a choice, they will gravitate to those companies," Musgrove said. He added that by taking this proactive approach, workers' motivations for unionization can be eliminated. "My own personal opinion is that, over time, unions can create more problems for their members than they solve," Musgrove said. "Over time, many unions become more about sustaining themselves than helping their members. I see a lot of problems in this country because of unions." PEER is made up of eight charter members: Digital Artist Management, Entertainment Technology Source, Exclaim Recruiting Agency, GameRecruiter.com, International Search Partners, Mary-Margaret.com, Premier Search and Prime Candidate. CNET