Do you remember the mysterious EA Spouse — the frustrated newlywed wife of an EA employee who spilled to the world the loathsome details of the way in which EA manipulate, extorted and overworked their employees, at the expense of employees' health and families? Her heart-felt outpouring sparked a few class-action lawsuits for unpaid overtime against EA and inspired hundreds of game designers to finally stand up against bullying employers.

Well, she's finally come forward, and her name is Erin Hoffman. Her husband, Leander Hasty, was hired by EA to work on Battle for Middle-Earth and it was their plight that sparked the famous EA Spouse post. Now, a couple years later, things are a lot better for them: Hasty won some cash from the class-action lawsuit and is still a programmer, Hoffman is a game designer at Playable Productions.

We're really glad that things worked out for her and her husband, and they are also starting up a sort of game designer abuse watchdog site at GameWatch.org. So if you're a beleagurered developer, maybe you should stop by and seek commiseration from a couple of people who've been there... and won.

Exclusive: Nicole Wong Reveals Identity Of EA Spouse [Mercury News]

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