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Work Environment for Game Developers Must Change
Christopher Reimer writes "C|Net is reporting from the GDC that the video game industry will have to improve its work environment as the working population gets older and unionization becomes an issue. From the article: 'Numerous studies have shown that developers and other workers putting in 12-hour days routinely make more mistakes as the midnight oil burns, said Francois Dominic Laramee, a freelance game developer and author. That means any extra productivity is eaten up by hits to product quality. "If your company is in crunch mode, drunken zombies may be checking your code right now," he said.'"
I'm not really in the field yet but when I code for long periods of time it is usually of my own volition. If you wait until the next day often you forget some of what you were working on. Reaching a stopping point before you quit accelerates the development process.
That may be so, but videogame developers are often the only ones that speak out. I agree that high tech workers don't really need to be unionized, but that doesn't mean that companies should be allowed to run roughshod over the developers. I personally know several people who have worked both in video game testing and development, and conditions are often very, very bad. They may not need unions like laborers, but they deserve the same humane working conditions of other fields. Having to work 18-20 hour days for several weeks should not be allowed.
Check back on this page around 2am. Better make it 3.
...is bad management, plain and simple.
If game development teams had better management and more realistic timelines, the programmers would not have to pull 12-hour shifts and we would be seeing higher quality titles on the market.
Fitzghon
You're making VIDEO GAMES. It's not like you're digging ditches for a living.
:)
As a lead tester, I worked 28 days straight for one project because my supervisor insisted, never mind that was in violation of the six-day work policy and management was looking the other way. On several occasions, I had to work a 32-hour shift to beat a deadline. I usually get hit in my performance reviews for not working enough hours. Go figure.
Knowing video game workers, they would probably start a guild instead of a union.
Game Developers, or really anyone working on a PC for a long time should be given frequent breaks and some physical activity - if not they will turn into freakin zombies. Union isnt a bad idea if you ask me! Caffine and coding can only keep you alert for so long. /me looks @ clock and sips his coffee- wow 79 hours without sleep i better go to bed...... imma recheck this code again real quick
Games have to stop being about money and start being about the players. This will only happen when players actually start to take some ownership of the games they play. This is already happening with MMORPGs but the legalities of virtual property are really preventing any further progress at the moment. Open Source MMORPGs offer an opportunity for greater player ownership. By contributing art to an Open Source MMORPG, and retaining your copyright on it, you are clearly placing a stake in the ground which says "this is mine." At the same time you're showing your dedication to the community of players who play MMORPGs by saying "you can use it for whatever purpose you like." When players start to control the games they play, enjoyment is guarenteed to follow.
How we know is more important than what we know.
That's standard everywhere in the tech industry. If things go bad for one of our customers, I could be up for 48 hours or more. When I started in the industry, I went nine months without a day off. I've never taken a vacation in my life. I typically work 16 hours a day, including weekends. I might get paged at 2am one day and not be able to go back to sleep until 4pm two days later. I may have to be up on an emergency all weekend, then go to work that Monday.
But that's life. That's how things go. I wouldn't mind being paid more for what I do and the time I put in, but hey - the industry blows right now and I'm happy to have a job.
Seeing as video-game developement is a creative field in the entertainment industry. Should IATSE(Internation Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employee's) expand to allow video game developers into it, as well as its curret grouping of Theatre and Film Industry workers? The problem might have already been solved.
Two Roommates and a Boyfriend, updates Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
Not even remotely true. I work for Lockheed Martin, as a software engineer no less, and we have a union that gets us all kinds of good stuff. Unpaid overtime, for example, is strictly forbidden. Admittedly, I'm told Lockheed was already pretty good to their workerbees to begin with (I wouldn't know - I've only been with the company for a few months), but engineers can and do unionize. With the way game developers get creamed, it's bound to happen sooner or later.
That's standard everywhere in the tech industry.
When I got started working in the video game industry six years ago, crunch time was usually for a few weeks every three months or so. Now it's crunch time all the time and you're lucky to get a vacation for longer than a few days.
The video game industry has a history of burning through people from when they come in at 20 until they leave at 30. I honestly don't know if I could another job testing video games since I'm 35 and I'm not willing to work 80 hours for months on end. The best and the brightest typically leave the industry after 10 years. It's no wonder we have shovelware instead of good quality games.
You do have a good point there. But on the flip side, how many people do you know that do jobs like that for 20 hours a day, for several weeks at a time?
I know several nurses. In and of itself, it can be very demanding work, both physically and mentally, especially depending on what subfield one goes into. However, even with the great shortage of nurses, they do not have to work overtime.
Some of the game programmers I know have to though. And it isn't the fact that the work is fundamentally different. It's the fact that working conditions like this (18-20 hour days, for several weeks) are extremely detrimental to a person's health.
The wife of a ex-gametester has talked to me about visiting the company during crunch time. People there would be wearing jackets and several comforters off of beds, while they were working in a normal temperature room. Do you know why? Because they had been awake and working for so long, there body was starting to shut down. They could no longer produce sufficient body heat.
Anyone who says that the video game industry doesn't need to change, or that makes light of the problems in it doesn't fully realize what those problems are, and how drastically major changes are needed.
It used to be that construction workers did 12+ hours shift, worked in unhealthy conditions, crunched to finish on time, etc. building skyscrapers. But then one of the construction companies realized it was cheaper to hire a larger work force and have a safe workplace than to pay for repairs and death/disability. That company flourished and several other companies followed before legislation and unions forced the rest to comply.
What's the difference between them and us? Well, the game companies obviously don't mind putting out crap products, so they don't have to redo the work, so we need to get them on death&disability.
While I doubt anyone would be willing to work themselves to death, try going crazy if your insurance covers it:) Stress disorders, carpal tunnel, narcolepsy. Have fun with it!
Now you understand why malpractice insurance is so high.
Isn't that attitude the reason that so many games are buggy pieces of crap with half the promised features missing?
Unless you're writing VBA for a living, software development is a mentally challenging process. It's physically not possible to keep up the same rate of coding for 20 hours. Your brain needs time to relax and process data.
Personally, I tend to come up with better solutions to problems a few hours after I stop working on them and my subconcious has had time to process.
Crunch coding is not only a bad idea for the workers, it's bad for the company too.
Amen brother. Actually, FDL (in the article) has been my editor for two books now and we've covered this very topic before. Every quality assurance textbook screams that productivity dramatically decreases after 10 hours to the point that it costs more to correct the mistakes they make than what you gain from making them slave away.
I miss the game industry, but I wouldn't ever go back to it until I found a company that didn't force the 80 hour workweeks. I've only found one company (Gearbox) that seems to get it. They normally work a three-day week and when crunch time hits, they move to a five-day workweek. They were still able to get their title out on time and they were able to keep their employees sane.
The solution to working conditions is obvious, it's just that few are willing to take that bold step of saying "Stop the madness!" and cutting back hours.
Unions usually start out with good intentions, and us coders would get better hours, better working conditions, fair wages etc...but eventually every union turns into a monster. Because once it has accomplished its primary goal, it doesn't know what to do...so it keeps pushing and pushing for more. Want your job to be outsourced quicker? Unionize. You've seen it in the automotive, airline, and sports teams unions that the union keeps pushing for higher and higher wages to the point where a guy that screws car seats in for a living makes $35 an hour, and an airline can no longer make a profit, or a hockey season gets cancelled. Unions make competition with other countries and non unionized companies extremely difficult. (Part of the reason Walmart makes so much profit). I know all the pro-union people may jump down my back, but this is coming from someone who's from 3 generations of union workers.
If you think your situation is "standard" and you are happy with it, you have a great deal to learn about a healthy employer/employee relationship. It is attitudes like yours that allow such treatment to continue.
Overtime happens, yes. But I've been working in the software (not games) development industry for about 7 years now, and I've only had one employer that asked me to work unreasonable amounts of overtime. I define "unreasonable" as regularly having to stay more than an hour late, and working weekends for more than 2 weeks in a row. Turnover was high, and I made it clear to my supervisor that if things didn't change I would be the next to go. They were having trouble finding people to fill open positions, and quickly stopped asking us to come in on weekends because they couldn't afford to lose more of us. I still left the job a couple months later, but mostly because I got a much better offer.
false alarm, there's still hordes of sharp young'uns beating down the door trying to replace your lazy ass.
dont go into the game industry expecting a nice cushy job. expect hell, like fending off the fifth of all computer science students who would probably kill to get a gaming industry job.
definately an exagguration, but i imagine google and pixar to be the only similarly employer-driven markets out there.
-Myren