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Developer Stress Crippling Game Innovation?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the revenge-of-burnout dept.

hapwned writes "Jason Della Rocca, the executive director of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), looks at the big picture of the grim, dead-end careers of game developers. From the article: 'More fundamental is the notion that immature practices and extreme working conditions are bankrupting the industry's passion - the love for creating games that drives developers to be developers. When the average career length of the game development workforce is just over five years and over 50% of developers admit they don't plan to hang around for more than 10, we have a problem. How can an industry truly grow, and an art form evolve, if everyone is gone by the time they hit 30?'"

6 of 355 comments (clear)

  1. You claim.. by romka1 · · Score: 5, Funny

    You publish an article that software designer is the one of the top 10 jobs to have :)

    --
    Visit my site @ http://www.madtorrent.com
    1. Re:You claim.. by a_nonamiss · · Score: 2, Funny

      You must be joking! A game like that would never sell! Rape, murder one, grand theft auto... nobody would want to commit these crimes in a virtual setting. Now maybe if you added some sort of hack that enabled you to go get some hot coffee or something...

      --
      -Arthur
      Cave ne ante ullas catapultas ambules
  2. So this is why? by umedia · · Score: 2, Funny

    And here I thought cloning the same old games year after year was the problem... my bad. Well that and the fact Duke Forever isn't done yet...

    --
    "Humans are considered to be primitive, the third smartest species on Earth"
  3. Impossible! by ml10422 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Software Developer is the best job in America: http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/0 4/12/1353238

  4. Re:Sad but true... by telbij · · Score: 2, Funny

    Since then, though, I've realized that the job at Maxis would have been high-hours and low-pay in a location that would have been way too expensive to live in.

    You save money on rent by sleeping at the office.

  5. Re:how about nintendo devs? by asuffield · · Score: 2, Funny

    Anyways, I'm rambling. Just wondering if the japanese devs feel the same? Anyone have any insight into this?

    Yes. You can't put time pressure on Japanese developers. The Japanese think that a 90-hour working week is normal; there simply aren't enough hours in the week to pressure them with (or at least not like EA do). They're a nation of workaholics.

    Exaggerated? Well, a little bit - not all the Japanese are like that. Just most of the professional workers.