[PATV] Wednesday, November 2, 2011 - Extra Credits Season 3, Ep. 15: Working Conditions

Dog

[PATV] Wednesday, November 2, 2011 - Extra Credits Season 3, Ep. 15: Working Conditions

This week, we take a hard look at just how miserable it can be to work in the game industry, and the causes behind these terrible conditions.<br /> Come discuss the topic with us in the <a href="http://extra-credits.net&quot; target="_blank">forums</a>!<br /> Nine Dots Studios recently started a RocketHub page for 'Brand', their current project. <a href="http://www.rockethub.com/projects/3824-brand-by-nine-dots-studio">Go give it a look</a>!

Read the full story here

gibsonsg

This is brilliant and absolutely spot on. I worked as a game producer for 9 years at 3DO, NCsoft, EA, and one other developer. Of those, exactly one year was enjoyable for more than 70% of the time (NCsoft). My last 5 years was pure, screaming hell at EA Chicago and another Chicago developer I can't mention due to legal paperwork I signed when leaving. I am now teaching game development at the university level. My first priority is to give knowledge to the students to try and counteract the idiocy which is currently rampant in the industry. This episode will fit nicely with my catalog of dev cycle horror stories. Thanks for taking the time to put this out.

RishiRamraj

It's not just the game industry, or the software industry for that matter.

TheOnlyD

This is exactly why I left Live Music here in Australia. Same high expectations, extremely low pay, and if anyone questions it... "Hey man. You're standing next to Nine Inch Nails/Spiderbait/Offspring/Flavour-Of-The-Month. You're living the dream."

The two great things I learned doing that job were:
1- how to tell employers my expectations of conidition straight up, and
2- how to walk away when basic human rights aren't met (I once worked a 22 hour day with 1 meal break - 6am->4am and was expected back 4 hours later).

I now work in digital media and plan on moving on to Video Game marketing once I've spent some time at the e-learning firm I'm currently contracted to.

Sorry if that didn't help but I felt it should be known that "The love of the industry" is a ploy used to prey on the immature or desperate across other industries and it makes me sick. I'm so happy I stopped drinking the Kool-aid.

lordhoban

Definitely good info to keep in mind..... for any media based field, apparently, based on some of the comments below.

ZombieAladdin

Regarding how people would be willing to spend some overtime to put finishing touches on a game they really liked to make, I was reminded of how Satoru Iwata, already at a high-level executive position in 1998, went out of his way to compress Pokémon Gold and Silver. He managed to leave so much cartridge space behind that the Kanto second quest was added in.

Specula

I'm really surprised a union hasn't popped up in various countries for video game developers. After all, unions were made in the first place for the singular, specific reason of stopping excessive and unreasonable management demands like this.

littlefaith

I used to be married to a programmer working on games, and our lives all revolved around his work schedule. There is no mention in this video of what it means for an aging game development community. Unless you want to force out all the people who would like to actually have families and spend time with their children and spouses, things are going to have to change. Other entertainment industry jobs and lots of jobs that follow production cycles or seasonal work also have unusual schedules. In many careers, unusual schedules, not 9-5, are the norm. However, any career that doesn't respect people's personal and life needs is going to be a limiting factor on who will be able to take these jobs.

If someone WANTS to spend more time making their game better, that is making a choice. To declare crunch time when everyone has to show up, because the team doesn't really function with only a few people plugging away on their own little pieces, that's something a company has to be prepared to make some serious recompense for. Often at the end of a project, there will be the only time you can take a vacation. However, this vacation time is not really easy to plan for. You can't know until the last minute, exactly which day the product will be considered done and you will be set free, so you can't buy plane tickets or book a cruise. There have to be better ways to make life workable while building a game.