Now, it seems, is the "real" crunch, the one that the producers of this title so wisely prepared their team for by running them into the ground ahead of time. The current mandatory hours are 9am to 10pm -- seven days a week -- with the occasional Saturday evening off for good behavior (at 6:30pm). This averages out to an eighty-five hour work week. Complaints that these once more extended hours combined with the team's existing fatigue would result in a greater number of mistakes made and an even greater amount of wasted energy were ignored.
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Aye, making games is a top job. -
I didn't know Caco was married ;PComment
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if thats true, all I can say is, BASTARDS! No wonder most EA games havn't got the love you find in other games.
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As horrifying as the original post is, the devil's still in the details (or, in this case, the 700+ comments). It seems this code of ethics is fast over-running the gaming industry; hell, perhaps it's already done so.
The only positive I can come up with is that, ultimately, this model of behaviour is going to implode under the pressure of negative press. The moment game engineering stops being the dream and starts becoming the 'mug's game' is when, hopefully, everything can change.Comment
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And then they'll ship out dev to China. Ubisoft have shown that the Chinese are good at using other's tools and producing sequels. <insert obvious EA bash here>Comment
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Hmm, yeah.. sounds about right. I've done those kind of hours working on games in the past :/Comment
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Better to be a code monkey doing those hours for something satisfying (or for some games, perhaps not) than being a code monkey like me...Comment
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Actually this sort of thing is common across the entire industry. It's part of the job, you just have to accept it. I've known people pulling 38 hour shifts, going home for 5-6 hours sleep, then coming right back in again.
Every now and again you hear the same thing, - "the industry is growing up, with better planning we'll be working normal hours!". Never happens, this industry is completely incapable of good planning.
Watch the making of Halo 2 doc on the LE disc for a typical story of development.Comment
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I thought this thread was going to be about a new line of EA titles, a la Sports.Comment
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I'd be interested to know if the guy works in the UK or the US? From some of the comments in the article I'd guess at the UK (companies closing down etc).
All I can say is that for years and years people have been saying how the industry is geting more 'professional' and 'its getting like the movie industry'.
UTTER BOLLOCKS
The industry, specifically in this country, is run on the basis of, you should be glad to be doing this so you'll put up with what we want. Not all companies follow this maxim but I would say the majority do.Comment
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And to think, I wanted to get into this very industry when I was a kid.
Screw that now.Comment
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The journal writer is American, looking at the rest of that entry.Comment
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By 'Industry', I assume you're talking about computer programming in general? Your statement is false, the industry is more than capable of good planning; it relates more to infantile programming methodologies and practices, the lack of true software engineering applied to a development lifecycle. Games programming is no different to any other and can easily adapt with proper training, tools etc... There are plenty of mature-development life cycles out there, practiced world wide and there is no reason why somebody would put themselves through that level of 'abuse'.Every now and again you hear the same thing, - "the industry is growing up, with better planning we'll be working normal hours!". Never happens, this industry is completely incapable of good planning.
I'd be surprised if some of the original story hasn't been exaggerated to fit in with the public's perception of how a large company goes about developing something or other. It's not like the writer isn't bias...Comment
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Bull****.
A company the size of EA does not opearate on software engineering methodologies alone.
Just because some software development can be well planned does not mean that entertainment software production could always be. A good approach to software development rarely takes into account the external pressures facing games production. You are also assuming games development tools are more mature than they could ever be, given the continual development of the platforms.
Neko clearly meant the games industry in his post, too.Comment
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