Indifference is par for the course in today’s consumer society. In our lust for more “stuff” we purchase products every day without even a passing thought as to who made them and how those people are treated. Most of our products today are made in totalitarian countries like China who have been known to use slave labor. Even in the good old USA many products and services are made by prisoners who are incarcerated in the Federal Prison system.
It seems that even the video games industry has fallen prey to questionable practices such as outsourcing to countries like India so they can get cheap labor. Many of them also bring in unpaid interns to help cut costs and boost profits.
I wonder how many people who buy and play video games are aware of the draconian working conditions of the average employee in the industry. Not many I wager. Until the heartbreaking and shameful scandal of the EA Spouse that rocked this industry not many gamers were aware of what was going on. Yet despite the changes that EA was forced to make many people who work in this industry are still forced to put in crushing and unsustainable 60-80 hour work weeks. But somehow it’s ok for artists to suffer for their art? And is it ok for someone to suffer for your video game enjoyment?
Fair is Foul and Foul is Fair
This week it came to light thanks to Greg Costikyan, that the IDGA an organization who’s primary role it is to improve the quality of life for thousands of people working in the video game industry had a member on the board that was not supportive of their mission.
Here’s how Greg summed it up:
Mike Capps, head of Epic, and a former member of the board of directors of the International Game Developers Association, during the IGDA Leadership Forum in late 08, spoke at a panel entitled Studio Heads on the Hot Seat, in which, among other things, he claimed that working 60+ hours was expected at Epic, that they purposefully hired people they anticipated would work those kinds of hours, that this had nothing to do with exploitation of talent by management but was instead a part of “corporate culture,” and implied that the idea that people would work a mere 40 hours was kind of absurd.
Now, of course, the idea that a studio head, which Capps is, would have such notions is highly plausible; but he was, at the time, a board member of the IGDA, an organization the ostensible purpose of which is to support game developers. Not, you know, to support management dickheads.
He continues:
The notion that a f*cking board member of the IGDA should defend (and indeed, within his own studio, foster) such exploitative practices is offensive on the face of it, and has caused a considerable kerfluffle within the organization.
Bravo to Greg for his excellent analysis of the situation. I believe he speaks for many people in the industry (afraid to speak out) who are sick and tired of perpetual crunch mode where they work. Also kudos to Scott Jennings for spreading the good word about this insanity on his blog.
Here he makes a valid point:
Crunch doesn’t work. You simply don’t gain more productivity by applying a 1.5 multiplier to everyone’s work hours. More likely, you start to introduce failure into the system as people get sloppy and careless as a best case scenario, and as a worst case scenario people start to flip you the virtual finger and spend their hours at their cubicle playing World of Warcraft instead. (I’ve seen both.) This is not a problem unique to game development, and there have been literally hundreds of studies that show that the productivity gained from crunching is minimal at best. It should be noted that the management consultant who originally came up with the 40 hour work week was Henry Ford, who was anything but a soft humanist.
After watching the video of the panel I was taken aback at how casually all of them (with the exception of Brett Close who *gets* it) treated this very important quality of life issue. It was appalling how they kept trying to justify how working a 60 hour work week is somehow “normal”. These kinds of excuses and rationales are all part of the management playbook that has been around since the start of the industrial revolution.
Nobody should be forced to work more then 40 hours a week in an industrialized society. Besides, if you can’t make a great video game by not abusing your employees then you are a poor manager and should not be in the business.
Dracula in Charge of the Blood Bank
Here’s some brutal honesty, I have nothing but scorn and contempt for people like Mike Capps the head of Epic. Watching the video as he sits there on the IDGA panel drinking his glass of Chardonnay and pontificating reminds me of Nero fiddling while Rome burns. In this case it’s the good people in the trenches making the games who are getting burned. The fact that he gleefully extols the virtues of working a 60 hour work week to an organization that is supposed to be advocating for quality of life is outrageous.
Having someone like Mike Capps on the IDGA board of directors is like putting Dracula in charge of the blood bank. It’s an affront to the noble mission of the IDGA which is supposed to be bringing quality of life issues to the attention of the industry at large.
Anyone that can base the profitability of their company on making people work 60+ hours a week is undeserving of the support of the video game buying public. As gamers we need to boycott despotic video game companies like Epic and other companies that force their workers to work draconian work hours.
Studio Culture = Crunch Culture
While it’s beyond the scope of this article to delve deeper into the systemic problems of the business model of the industry it’s worth mentioning briefly. Much of the blame is the unhealthy nature of the publisher and developer relationship. It’s all based on meeting the publisher’s milestones so the development studio can get paid. Add to that the vagaries and unpredictable nature of having to creating code, art, scripting and playtesting and managerial incompetence — you end up with the “crunch” culture which means you will be working at least 60 hours a week.
When you visit the careers section of most video game developer’s websites you soon realize that they are trying to promote a unique studio culture. They show picnics and other “fun” outings that the studios put on for their employees. Most of it is an attempt to convince you that it’s *fun* to work there. The dirty little secret is that most likely they are using it as a bait and switch recruiting trick. The bait is the studio culture; the trick is that you’ll most likely end up working 60-80 hours a week as you work toward making your milestone.
In order to justify the crunch culture, Tim Train one of the panel members made the inane comment that they expect their employees to be like rock stars on tour. Well that kind of energy and enthusiasm is impossible to sustain. Look at most rock stars and you see a trail of broken marriages and drug abuse because of “touring”. Also most rock stars make millions of dollars and live in fancy mansions which is obviously not the case for the people who work in the video game industry.
Why Things May Never Change
The problem is that every year there are thousands of bright eyed kids graduating from vocational schools like DigiPen who will work 60-80 hours a week because they are desperate to get a job in the glamorous video game industry. Like the music industry, the video game industry attracts many people that would kill for a job. Quite honestly they are young, naive, single and don’t have families — they don’t know jack squat about the world. They are the warm bodies that the industry needs and craves.
It’s this desperation to be a part of this industry and the lack of life experience that contributes to a unhealthy situation where people willingly allow themselves to be taken advantage of by unscrupulous executives.
Anyone with a brain and a few years under their belt soon learns that the video game industry as it currently stands will chew you up and spit you out if you stay part of it long enough. That’s why you don’t see many mature and older people in the video game industry who are not in management. This may also explain why there aren’t enough people who will stay in the industry long enough to lobby for change.
Conclusion
The video game industry is still young. Most industries in their infancy that are exciting and attractive like this one often have the negative side effect creating unjust working conditions that tend to favor the employer. Just because employees are passionate is no excuse to overwork them but that is the mantra that I kept hearing from some of the members of that unfortunate IDGA panel.
As someone who’s worked in the video game industry I know that being constantly creative means that you need to have a life outside of work. That means you need to spend quality time with your family and on other things of *your* choice. Having a healthy life is important as art is a reflection of life. If you chronically end up working 60-80 hours a week then the art you create will ultimately reflect that kind of imbalanced mindless existence.
No video game or job is worth destroying your health, your relationships and your family. No video game is worth buying that is made by destroying the health and families of the people who made it.
-Wolfshead
Exactly, well said. Your employees will lose all the enthusiasm, creativity, make mistakes and burn out if you tell them that a boat race is fun, and then chain them to the galley and start drumming.
Artists need some experiences outside of working all day to create quality art, they need inspiration, and coders need to relax, too, they also need a fresh and rested mind to optimize code and to avoid mistakes. They cannot simply sit down and “code” like chopping wood. The managers of software companies often were coders, they actually should know that
The quality of the product will also suffer. Tons of bugs, missing features, and often an outright boring and uninspired game are the result. I fear this is partially the reason why the new Empire: Total War can only score in terms of mass production of graphics/art and some UI refinements, the fun, little details and overall gameplay are like a bad copy of the previous games, the game is boring as hell and was not playtested at all, it seems. Industrial production, like a laying battery.
King’s Bounty and Mount & Blade have this special ingredient, fun and enthusiasm can be felt by the players. I dare to say they had fun making these games. Mount & Blade was created by a very small company, the brunt of the work is done by the boss, a husband and his wife. Katauri Interactive is also a very small company, here is a statement from their lead designer: “Nobody offered us this game to develop. We made the design document for the project that we wanted to create on our own (King’s Bounty remake) and showed them to our publisher, 1C Company. They liked the idea of a fantasy adventure in the great tradition of King’s Bounty.”
We cannot expect innovation and proper implementation of ideas if a director like Capps sits there drinking Chardonnay and talks about working morale while his underlings have to buckle up.
How can we expect innovative and fun games if the makers have to work and churn out ideas like assembly line workers. Actually, law would not allow that much crunch, at least in Germany. And nobody would expect people working that hard to be “creative” and “enthusiast” about their work.
Is Mike Capps still member of the board of IGDA directors?
I don’t work in the game industry. I’m a consultant. And the thought processes of managers are almost identical… My first years, I honestly slaved at my work, hours after long hours. I was young and naive, then…
It took me some time, and an alert from my body to wake me up. I go home much earlier now, and only stay late when I’m really involved in what I do.
Problem is, I’m now seen in my job as an odd one, who does not play by the rules. They don’t see the fact that I achieve as much as the next guy. They just see that at 18h30, odds are good I’m leaving.
So, i’ve tried to make ME the rule, not the exception, by talking to my colleagues, explaining WHY I want to have a life outside.
95% don’t understand me… They have… Ah, what’s the name of those things for horses so they only look forward? Well, suffice to say they are able to rationalize doing it.
I just hope, HOPE that when our generation will be in a position of management, some at least will try to change “how it’s done”. And that the next will continue. And so on. We can change people, one at a time, until we reach critical mass…
Because I just read that the planned big “April content update” of Guild Wars is delayed to May… someone asked on the official Guild Wars Wiki why one developer (Linsey Murdock) does not post that much anymore:
“Right now Live Team is in crunch mode on the April build. Some days I don’t even have time to eat or sleep, so finding time for the wiki is tough.”
Oh my. Now you know why they need “passionate” people. Crunch really seems to be the norm. Reminds me of Mel Gibson’s “Passion of Christ”, including flogging and cruxification.
I recommend better project management and some compassion for the workers.
Modran: Horse blinders?
They are also of great use in several industries, like the game industry. Tell people they have a dream job and let them go forward in their job. They probably do not miss what they miss to see and experience left and right, it is called life.
But unlike Horses, Humans use their mind to betray themselves: They tell themselves and everyone else they are doing a dream job, they are passionate about it and so on. Because if they would actually think about their situation, the “dream” to work in the games industry would turn into a nightmare.
And so they crunch and crunch and crunch and still do not meet deadlines. I also fear it burns people out, and makes them dumber. Hard to communicate with people outside of work if everything you know is your work… plus some experiences you made before you worked in your “dream” job.
Passion is really a code word for “I’m willing to work 60-80 hours a week”. Forget about your health, your life, your family and friends you must give every ounce of your blood, sweat and tears just so you can make a video game that some idiot reviewer can trash in 30 seconds.
Ever wonder why the video games are so crappy these days? They are made by zombies — good people that are pushed to the edge of exhaustion. A person with a brain and a soul would never stay in the video game industry and accept that kind of mental and physical abuse. I wonder how many great people could be making video games but refuse to put up with the exploitative working conditions imposed by the industry?
To all of those “soldiers” in the video game industry that think that crunch is just a part of doing business and a reality. Come back and see me in 5-10 years tough guy. We’ll talk then and you can tell me how rosy your life is. There’s a reason why most people burn out after 5 years in the industry if that even last that long. It’s people like Mike Capps and the corporate culture that like vampires sucks the blood out of warm fresh young bodies entering the industry.
There’s an old saying: slow and steady wins the race. Having a successful career is all about pacing and getting your work/life in proper balance. I sympathize with your situation and I think you are doing the right thing by sticking to your guns. You know your priorities. Stick to them and you’ll do fine!
There’s always a few idiots in each workplace that have no life. They work obscene hours. They are usually social misfits in poor health with no lives or family to come home to. The problem is that management sees this and thinks: “Hey Frank, why can’t you be more like Dave? Look at him, he’s a very hard working employee.” People like him are the outliers yet they are seen as the example of a “good worker”.
Let me be clear, I’m all about working hard and working smart. As Scott Jennings so eloquently said increasing everyone’s work time by a factor of 1.5 does not work and is unsustainable in the long run.
I dont know what are the working conditions in the USA, as I work in Eastern Europe. My observations of working culture in the EU, however are quite the contrary to what you guys describe.
Surely, there are always firms willing to exploit their workforce, but in the good firms and in jobs that are generally regarded as high class (such as pretty much any job in IT) the working conditions are quite slack.
The notion that you need to keep an employee after 18.00 has to be pretty strongly backed up, and you will still have to parlay with the employee in question about it.
Apart from making project deadlines and such, working hours, overtime and benefits are pretty well adhered to, again I say, in the renowned, high-tier firms.
There was one time a boss of mine made a joke to another employee about him eating on his desk. The answer was quite sharp – “What do you expect me to do? Starve? Do you want to starve your workers to death?” Of course he was joking as well, but you see that pretty much any move against a worker’s benefits is met with very sharp resistance, in most developed European countries.
And in the end it is true that it is the long-distance runners who win those races, not the sprinters. Which, ironically, was the motivational speech of my previous employer, who was crunching us with 12 hour work shifts 🙂
*shrug*
GOOD companies do treat their people well. I’m in a small studio right now that knew up front that I’m fiercely protective of my family time, and will not crunch. They have been great at respecting that, and I appreciate it, and do great work for them in return.
More often than not, it’s the big guys that think they can get away with this sort of HR abuse, since they feel they can count on the next year’s bumper crop of victims who just want to work in games (in their companies). EA, Blizzard, Epic, that sort of thing.
@Longasc: Yeah, Horse Blinders… Thanks. English is not my first language XD.
@SsandmanN: I’m in Europe, too. And in IT. And I constantly see friends with the same problems I’ve been mentioning :).
But oh well, we’ll see how our endurance is !
Guild Wars had its 4th Anniversary lately. It was accompanied by a rather minor content update, not much content was actually added.
Now the part relevant to the topic: Despite working crunch, one of the best ideas, “Nicholas the Traveller”, and some other ideas like the “Zaishen Menagerie” were done by PASSIONATE employees in their SPARE time.
“Boss, I have a great idea!” -“Superb, feel free to implement it in your spare time!” – “Oh this is so lovely, thank you!”
Enthusiast, passionate young worker bees will burn out quickly in such an environment. This corporate culture to look for and hire “passionate” workers is something the IGDA has to stop.
Or we will have soon young geeks paying for the “job of their dreams”.
We cannot blame the management for hiring such potential super workers, but this is just asking for immoral exploitation that will happen in such an environment.
Thanks god I am neither passionate nor working in the games industry. :>
Thanks for that Guild Wars update Longasc! It seems that “passion” is a code word for “I will work long hours for free”. It’s only a matter of time before video game industry workers become unionized to stop these kinds of abuses.