Thirith on 15/10/2018 at 14:44
Yeah, that kind of thing and the whole crunch culture, that's one of the things that's souring me on the whole industry.
scumble on 16/10/2018 at 11:04
Yes, it's bad management. I hope they don't dump a load of staff after they're done.
Makes me wonder if they'll also cause a load of launch day bugs due to people burning out.
Renault on 16/10/2018 at 16:43
Love how the guy backtracked and said "oh, uh well it was only 3 or 4 or us working 100 hour weeks, and only a few times." Open mouth, insert foot. I'm usually against unions, but this industry really needs it I think. Talented people are taken such advantage of, just because they really strive to work in the game industry.
Sulphur on 16/10/2018 at 16:48
Most industries need unions, especially when country-wide laws and regulations are loose enough to let a business run scot-free with things like crunch.
froghawk on 16/10/2018 at 17:47
My uncle works in the games industry, and when he was part of an activision studio, he told me they demanded not only an unreasonable deadline for the game, but also that it receive certain scores from the press. This meant that everyone had to work severe overtime all the time, and even then couldn't fully reach the goals activision set. So yeah, I don't believe that guy's backtrack for a second. This is standard practice in the industry, unfortunately. I think publishers know they're asking way too much and are making people suffer for it, but it saves them money so they don't care.
EvaUnit02 on 16/10/2018 at 21:58
Reading the between the lines:- Rockstar promotes a working culture where if you don't volunteer to work overtime you're seen as lazy and you're punished as a result.
[video=youtube;XSVda1RcHIA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSVda1RcHIA[/video]
henke on 17/10/2018 at 05:25
Here's Houser's response to the blowback:
Quote:
There seems to be some confusion arising from my interview with Harold Goldberg [in New York Magazine]. After working on the game for seven years, the senior writing team, which consists of four people, Mike Unsworth, Rupert Humphries, Lazlow and myself, had, as we always do, three weeks of intense work when we wrapped everything up. Three weeks, not years. We have all worked together for at least 12 years now, and feel we need this to get everything finished. After so many years of getting things organized and ready on this project, we needed this to check and finalize everything.
More importantly, we obviously don’t expect anyone else to work this way. Across the whole company, we have some senior people who work very hard purely because they’re passionate about a project, or their particular work, and we believe that passion shows in the games we release. But that additional effort is a choice, and we don’t ask or expect anyone to work anything like this. Lots of other senior people work in an entirely different way and are just as productive – I’m just not one of them! No one, senior or junior, is ever forced to work hard. I believe we go to great lengths to run a business that cares about its people, and to make the company a great place for them to work.
Tho even this reads like it's encouraging this culture. "No one, senior or junior, is ever forced to work hard." as if working a regular 40-hour week isn't considered "working hard". Fuuuuuuck off. :tsktsk:
Malf on 17/10/2018 at 10:52
It's the same in the Media & Entertainment sector. But it gets reported even less than in the games industry because, well, they are the reporters.
Even working for a reseller as I do, there's constant pressure to work overtime and weekends.
I decided to stop doing that a few years back, which I'm sure has soured relations with my immediate managers and colleagues who have also bought in to the whole "More hours equals working harder" macho bullshit, but hey, I couldn't give two fucks. I'm unionised.
The last time there was some pressure from this was fairly recently. About 18 months ago, our company got bought out by a competitor. Thankfully, with them being larger and with a fully formed HR department, I took advantage of this and made sure my newly negotiated contract was rock-solid on working hours. I also expressly chose not to opt out of the working time regulations, which stipulates I can't work more than 45 hours a week.
So a year or so before we were taken over, I'd been coming in at 8:30 and leaving at 17:30, taking "lunch" at my desk, effectively doing 7.5 more hours a week then I was contracted to. When they bought us and I'd got my contract finalised and in writing, I started leaving the office at 17:00 and making sure I took an hour for lunch.
After a while, my manager finally noticed this and asked if I wouldn't mind leaving at 17:30 instead.
Fine, no problem, I'll just come in at 9:00.
Nope, he wanted me to continue coming in at 8:30.
So I called the union, let him know I'd done so, at which point he must have gone to his superiors and been told he didn't know WTF he was talking about, because when he came back to me, my new hours were the ones I'd suggested.
Meanwhile, younger colleagues in my department who are on less money are working every weekend up until Christmas including overnight, 12 hour shifts. All in the name of supposedly increasing productivity.
This is definitely a cultural thing, and there's a lot of peer pressure to conform to bad working hours.
Don't get me wrong, I'll stay after work when absolutely necessary, but I know that money can't replace the time I lose.
And weekend work at the end of a full work week is for chumps.
I'm sure there are many people reading this who'll look at my hours and think I've got it cushty. And if that's the case, I suggest you take a long, hard look at your own working hours and weigh up what you value more: your work life or your personal life?
Then start learning about working hours regulations in the country you live in and your legal rights. Chances are, your company's probably taking advantage of you, and thanks to fatigue, you're probably being less effective than you would be if you worked less hours.
In brief: Fuck you Houser.
Sulphur on 17/10/2018 at 11:09
Exactly. The culture's part of the problem. I know I've asked people to come in on weekends a few times, or to stay back to get something mission critical done - but it's always been with the understanding that the choice was up to them and there would be no repercussions; if they didn't want to, nothing, least of all me, would oblige them to stay. If a company's workload regularly spills over to requiring overtime from staff (forecasts and contigency planning failing altogether notwithstanding - emergencies are emergencies), then management is simply doing it wrong, usually for a variety of reasons: lax hiring standards, improper delegation, miscalibrated time and motion studies, 'competitive' tradeoffs to win a contract, etc. If that sort of thing becomes status quo, your best bet is to get the hell out if you can, and find a better employer.
icemann on 17/10/2018 at 16:49
Went for a QA (testing) job at a indie company in Melbourne. Told I'll only be paid 21k per year (that's below minimum wage here), over time is not payed for, and I'd have to buy my own work laptop with my own money on top of that. At the time was in a 45k a year job. So as much as I was eagerly wanting a job in the games industry, got a big no from me. It's annoying as that was the one games industry job (not counting working in a university teaching games development to students) that I got accepted for. Hard industry to get into, unless you create your own indie company.
Got told at one interview, that technically I'm in the games industry already since I have a game on Steam, but to me that doesn't count.