Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

The Dark Side of Making L.A. Noire

Posted by Soulskill on from the games-are-serious-business dept.

JameskPratt writes "Long-time readers have no illusions of how awful the video game industry can treat its workers. Eleven ex-employee of Team Bondi, who made LA Noire, have now cited 60- to 110-hour work weeks, unusual compensation rules, and the 7-year development cycle as reasons for frustration and discontent. They claim their boss, Brendan McNamara, crushed office morale with verbal abuse and unreasonable goals. As the saying goes, the two things you don't want to see being made are law and video games." The International Game Developers Association will be investigating the matter.

8 of 242 comments (clear)

  1. No way... by the+linux+geek · · Score: 5, Funny

    Asshole bosses and ridiculous work hours? In the software industry? Say it ain't so!

    1. Re:No way... by Nursie · · Score: 5, Informative

      You're doing it wrong.

      I've had a pretty reasonable software career so far. 10 years, decent money (nothing spectracular, but decent) and outside of about two months of actual, genuine, crunchtime in there I've never worked more than 38-40 hours a week. Often less!

      There are some parts of the industry that are not managed by psychopaths, or permanently in OMG PANIC mode.

    2. Re:No way... by ShakaUVM · · Score: 5, Insightful

      >>There are some parts of the industry that are not managed by psychopaths, or permanently in OMG PANIC mode.

      Yeah, and even game development doesn't have to be crazy like that. LA Noire, IIRC, was handed the GTA engine on a platter, so they didn't/shouldn't have needed to worry about implementation details too much except their game-specific stuff (interviews and the like).

      I'll have the occasional crunchtime... but I generally see crunchtime as a sign of bad time management skills, on my part or someone else's. Or, very infrequently, as the result of a crisis.

      When I used to work doing game development, it was a 9 to 5 job, and I had a perfectly reasonable manager and very intelligent co-workers. YMMV, in other words, in the game industry and outside of it.

    3. Re:No way... by Xest · · Score: 5, Informative

      Yes, I'd say really that situations like this are even the exception in the industry rather than the norm now too.

      From what I understand, much of Rockstar has historically always been like this, I have a close friend who worked in Rockstar Vienna before it collapsed, he got out about a month beforehand and was telling me long before it collapsed how messed up it was with very similar issues as those mentioned here.

      The game industry has had to improve somewhat because developers have begun to realise that there's far more money in business software, and far less stress, because employers are more frequently treated like humans.

      I've also never had a problem doing software development, my hours are 8:30 - 4:30pm Mon - Thurs, and 8:30 - 4pm Friday and I've never had to work a minute of overtime. My last job was only slightly worse in that I finished at 5pm each day, and the pay wasn't as good, but that's really just because of career progression.

    4. Re:No way... by hey! · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The secret is to work in a field that is useful, but unglamorous. Best treatment I ever had was in my first job, working on inventory software.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  2. what about the dark side of playing? by cheeks5965 · · Score: 5, Funny

    the three hours I spent on duke nukem are lost forever.

    --
    -- Flame me and I will happily flame you back. Bring it!
  3. Re:Bad Industry by im_thatoneguy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The problem is that it's destructive to society. There is a halo to the Film and Game Industries. They seem like they're super exciting and people invest a lot of time and money on training to be able to get a job doing it--and then a year in discover that the reality of 10 100 hour weeks back to back is very different than the idea of it.

    So yes, they do eventually quit. And a whole new batch of young and naive fools fall into the meat grinder. The normal market forces where you run out of talent just don't exist.

    Another problem is expectation. As it said in TFA most of these people were told it was a 12 month job and that they would get bonuses/overtime if they stuck around to the finish. You get into the Gambler's fallacy pretty quick. "I've already put in 6 months. I can tough out another 6 for a huge fat bonus." And then 12 months promised turns into 5 years so they quit having put in longer than they had hoped but gotten less than promised.

    The real tragedy is that it doesn't need to be that way. As was pointed out in multiple interviews with ex-staff you have huge waste. You don't have to run a 24/7 crunch for 8 years. That's just poor management excusing their incompetence. I've seen it before many times. The leadership treats the people as dispensable. The people quit. They fall behind. They treat the next people like shit. They quit. They fall further behind. If they had paced themselves at the beginning and been honest that they couldn't match their deadlines then ultimately they would be more productive and finish sooner. But they also have the publisher breathing down their neck and they know that admitting to needing a 100% larger budget will end the project. Asking for 10 10% extensions to not "let the work done so far go to waste so far" keeps their death spiral alive.

    Eventually the game gets released. Eventually if it's halfway decent it'll probably make its money back. The whole fucking fiasco looks like it was the right decision and they do it all over again.

  4. Re:Don't like the conditions ? Vote your your feet by bonch · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Every time I hear a sob story like this, I can't help but wonder why employees tolerate this kind of abuse.

    They're young, naive, and afraid of rocking the boat.