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Businesses Entertainment Games

Work Environment for Game Developers Must Change 54

Posted by Zonk from the not-all-20-years-olds-any-more dept.
Christopher Reimer writes "C|Net is reporting from the GDC that the video game industry will have to improve its work environment as the working population gets older and unionization becomes an issue. From the article: 'Numerous studies have shown that developers and other workers putting in 12-hour days routinely make more mistakes as the midnight oil burns, said Francois Dominic Laramee, a freelance game developer and author. That means any extra productivity is eaten up by hits to product quality. "If your company is in crunch mode, drunken zombies may be checking your code right now," he said.'"
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Work Environment for Game Developers Must Change More

Work Environment for Game Developers Must Change

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  • I want to... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by gimpynerd ( 864361 ) on Tuesday March 08, 2005 @08:25PM (#11883966) Homepage Journal
    I'm not really in the field yet but when I code for long periods of time it is usually of my own volition. If you wait until the next day often you forget some of what you were working on. Reaching a stopping point before you quit accelerates the development process.

    • Re:I want to... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by bladesjester ( 774793 )
      There's a BIG difference in doing something because you want to do it and doing something because you *have* to do it. (Sure, you can NOT do it and then be the first one out the door in the next round of cuts).

      Until companies that enforce policies like this get smacked around (wether legally or through lost revenue, nobody at all willing to work for them, etc), this won't change.
      • I was just trying to say that I probably would work that long whether made to or not. Now they should get some sort of compensation if it is required.
        • Ok, Sure. When you're all hot and bothered about something, and you don't wanna let it slip, work a bit later, maybe sleep in the next day. Right? And how often do you do that?

          The problem is when your project is on the death march, and you are EXPECTED to be there 12+ hours a day, eat nothing but pizza and fast food because you're staying late (which BELIEVE ME makes you sick as hell, and even less productive).

          No one has a problem with being a little bit keen, and pushing a little harder. But you can

    • Re:I want to... (Score:5, Informative)

      by ChaosDiscord ( 4913 ) on Tuesday March 08, 2005 @11:24PM (#11885179) Homepage Journal
      You clearly don't work in the field yet. Trust me, no employer will complain if you log some extra hours because you're in Deep Hack Mode [catb.org]. The problem is that you'll be asked to be working 12 hours days when you're not. You know those days when you really don't feel productive, so you do something else? For example, maybe sleeping for 16 hours after doing two up-all-night coding binges. Well, no break for you; you're expected to put in another 12 hour day and be productive. Repeat, night after night, week after week (weekends included). In extreme cases (all too common in the game industry), month after month. Eventually you're going to hit the point where you need a break. But your boss in more interested in having an ass in that chair than in real productivity. You'll be checking stupid mistakes into the code, you'll be oblivious to minor bugs. Eventually you'll get to a point where each hour of work you do actually sets the project further back instead of advancing it.

      Death marches (as they're affectionately known) aren't "I'm in the groove and can't possibly stop" all night coding binges. They suck the life out of you. You're typically fighting lots of bullshit (the same BS that got you behind schedule in the first place) and your morale is drained because you're never, ever on time. You're asked to the impossible; not a "I'll just work really, really hard" impossible, but "even if I never take breaks to eat, sleep, or use the restroom I'll never make that dealine" impossible. This isn't cool and the sign of a vibrant programming population. Death marches are typically the the sign of large, beaurocratic, grossly mismanaged companies with terribly managers, a complete lack of plans, and no real hope of accomplishing anything.

      • Re:I want to... (Score:5, Interesting)

        by badasscat ( 563442 ) <basscadet75NO@SPAMyahoo.com> on Wednesday March 09, 2005 @01:06AM (#11885749)
        You clearly don't work in the field yet. Trust me, no employer will complain if you log some extra hours because you're in Deep Hack Mode. The problem is that you'll be asked to be working 12 hours days when you're not.

        Not to mention that if your employer gets the idea that you "want to" work all those extra hours, they'll cheerily push you even further than they would have before. Employees train their employers in what to expect from them, and while it can be tricky to do, you ideally want to let your employer know that while you're flexible, you also have limits. Sitting and working 12 hours a day without being asked to tells your employer "I have no life, and I enjoy being here, and I enjoy doing work" - forget about ever leaving that office once your employer figures this out.

        I worked for a major game publisher in New York for several years, and there was this constant push-pull between employees and bosses. Both sides would be trying to stake a few extra minutes out on either side of working longer vs. leaving early. Of course, in the game industry when I say "early" I mean around 8PM. We'd constantly be trying to sneak out around 7:55 or 7:50, and in turn our bosses would routinely throw four hours worth of critical work our way at 7:30 in order to keep us there, when they could have given us that same work at any time earlier in the day. I became convinced that it was done on purpose to get us accustomed to long hours.

        Over a period of time, I saw my earliest clock-out hour move, on a permanent basis, from a fairly consistent 7PM to an optimistic 9PM even during non-crunch times, with many nights during crunches much later than that. It happened over several years. Before I was hired, I was told "sometimes we work until 7 or 8", and when I first started there, indeed we all left at 7 on the dot. Then during crunch times it would be 7:30, then 8, and a "two steps forward, one step back" pattern emerged, where we'd never quite go back to the way it was before when the crunch was over. After you've been working until 8 for a while, 7:30 no longer seems so bad... similarly, after working until midnight for two weeks on end, leaving at 10PM feels almost like a break. Of course it wasn't, and everybody at the company broke down after a while - the turnover rate was conservatively around 50% from the time I was hired to the time I left. Almost nobody at the company I worked for was over 30.

        This is the reality of the industry, and it's causing problems beyond simply a lack of productivity. You've got an entire industry of people who work at one company for a couple of years and then move on. Nobody ever develops a sense of loyalty, or history; people work on game sequels without ever having even played the original, they come up with new game designs and concepts that they don't even realize have been done a thousand times before. It's part of the reason for the buggy games, the lack of original concepts, it's why a one-time great company like Acclaim can fall so hard, so fast. (For the record, Acclaim is not who I worked for.) It is seriously hurting the industry as a whole and has definitely had a hand in bringing down several publishers. It's partially responsible for the consolidation we've seen in the industry over the past 5 years or so. (Of course, many other factors are involved in that too, but the lack of experience throughout the industry coupled with a high turnover rate and low productivity from unhappy, disloyal workers does not help.)

        People who are outside the industry seem to have a hard time understanding how pervasive a problem this is. It isn't just some companies and it isn't just some jobs. It's all game developers and publishers, and every position, from the company CEO's on down to the product managers on down to the designers, coders, and illustrators. It's everybody, in the entire industry. And it's an industry that's losing a lot of good people every single day because of it, who are then replaced by young
        • Overtime laws are one big hole for this. Especially in California where you can have someone work OT and give them no compensation at all. I REFUSE to take any job that doesn't either pay time and a half or gives comp time with overtime that will be paid out (at least at full rate) if not used. Also, I don't mean OT in the place of standard pay rates. If my coworkers of similar experience and ability are making 60k/year then I expect the same hourly equivilant.

          So far this hasn't limited me very much a

  • Something to say... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Dormann ( 793586 ) on Tuesday March 08, 2005 @08:47PM (#11884148)
    There's a lot I could say on this topic, but it wouldn't be wise for me to post anything from my work machine.

    Check back on this page around 2am. Better make it 3.

  • The reasons behind crunch time... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Fitzghon ( 578350 ) on Tuesday March 08, 2005 @08:48PM (#11884155)
    ...is bad management, plain and simple.
    If game development teams had better management and more realistic timelines, the programmers would not have to pull 12-hour shifts and we would be seeing higher quality titles on the market.

    Fitzghon
    • This argument doesn't sit well with me; if game development (or other) teams at company A had more "realistic" timelines the competitors would get their game out before those at company A. Company A's employers would be out of a job.

      Hell, all the programmers' jobs you're trying to make better would rather be working the 12 hours at the competitor than not working at their newly out-of-business game shop.

      Now, there are questions of these longs hours affecting quality, as you said. The real question to

      • Re:The reasons behind crunch time... (Score:4, Interesting)

        by YrWrstNtmr ( 564987 ) on Wednesday March 09, 2005 @12:06AM (#11885414)
        Its not just that 'last hour' being unproductive, its the entire shift. Not much more gets done in a 12 hour shift vs an 8 hour one. Especially 12 hours day after day.

        But those long shifts look good for the middle manager reporting up the chain. "We're doing everything we can, boss!"

        • That's an argument I can buy.

          Still I, and lots of people I know, can work 10-12 hours a day, 7 days a week. This is not uncommon in the sciences in academia, nor in several ``professions.'' I think some people just enjoy/value work more than others; they just have different levels of work at which they feel balanced.

          So I hope that those programmers working the long hours are doing this because it's what they have a passion for. Unfortunately, I fear your point is probably correct.

  • About Time (Score:2, Insightful)

    by FzArEkTaH ( 865743 )
    Game Developers, or really anyone working on a PC for a long time should be given frequent breaks and some physical activity - if not they will turn into freakin zombies. Union isnt a bad idea if you ask me! Caffine and coding can only keep you alert for so long. /me looks @ clock and sips his coffee- wow 79 hours without sleep i better go to bed...... imma recheck this code again real quick

  • Change focus (Score:3, Insightful)

    by QuantumG ( 50515 ) <qg@biodome.org> on Tuesday March 08, 2005 @09:11PM (#11884304) Homepage Journal
    Games have to stop being about money and start being about the players. This will only happen when players actually start to take some ownership of the games they play. This is already happening with MMORPGs but the legalities of virtual property are really preventing any further progress at the moment. Open Source MMORPGs offer an opportunity for greater player ownership. By contributing art [freeartfoundation.org] to an Open Source MMORPG, and retaining your copyright on it, you are clearly placing a stake in the ground which says "this is mine." At the same time you're showing your dedication to the community of players who play MMORPGs by saying "you can use it for whatever purpose you like." When players start to control the games they play, enjoyment is guarenteed to follow.
    • That's a very noble but misguided sentiment. I'm a huge proponent of "games as art", but I don't want to be developing every game that I play. I love making games and (hopefully) I like to the play the games that I make. Even so, I would hate to lose the pre-packaged complete made-by-someone else experience. When you made the monster that you're fighting, it kind of takes away some of the magic...
    • Your suggestion is that game players take up the slack and start developing their own games to give the game developers a break?
      • What I'm suggesting is that games should stop being hammered out on an impossible schedule with as small a budget as possible so they can be consumed and discarded as if they were unchanging, unmaintainable "entertainment".

  • IATSE? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by skyman8081 ( 681052 ) <skyman8081&gmail,com> on Tuesday March 08, 2005 @09:34PM (#11884474) Homepage
    Seeing as video-game developement is a creative field in the entertainment industry. Should IATSE [iatse-intl.org](Internation Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employee's) expand to allow video game developers into it, as well as its curret grouping of Theatre and Film Industry workers? The problem might have already been solved.
    • The software developers working on a video game are no more "creative" than any other software developers. The guy optimizing a 3D drawing algorithm is doing the same kind of work as the guy optimizing an operating system's memory manager.

      The level designers are doing creative work, because their job is a lot like architecture. But if only creative people get to work normal hours, then the software developers will be the only ones working late nights.

      • Nor is programming any more "creative" than hammering Luan sheets to a frame of 1x3's. A guy building a flat or setpeice for a Stage Show or Film Production is no different than a contractor building a wall for a house or building.

        IATSE is not just for the designers of shows, they also cover the people who do the low-level grunt work of building sets, flying scenery, and pushing setpeices around the stage.
    • God I hope not. My wife works in the film industry and the minimum health and retirement coverage required by IATSE is horrible. There is little incentive to provide more coverage than is required by union contracts.

      Don't forget that although unions represent employees, they are bureaucracies and a form of private governance (as are neighborhood associates) in and of themselves and suffer from the same inefficiences and institutional problems and large agency suffers from, and as a union member, you are re

    • Re:IATSE? (Score:2, Informative)

      by AppleTRON ( 669357 )
      There are many fields of game development that could and should probably be covered by the IATSE. Audio editing and sound design (an area especially close to me) is one. Union sound editors are covered in a contract when they work for TV and Film hiring union labor. As yet, there is no union for game audio editors and sound designers. Should it fall under Local 700? Or should there be a new union of Interactive Entertainment Employees? I don't know, really ... just pay me for what I do. And well, please.

  • "If your company is in crunch mode, drunken zombies may be checking your code right now," he said.'"

    Sounds like the next spinoff... Code Auditing of the Dead. Guess this one will support a keyboard and mouse as controllers.

  • This is indeed ludricrous. We can't expect game programmers to routinely work 12 hours shifts. Think of the inneffective programming taking place. Only doctors and nurses should work those kind of hours, since apparently they don't need to be on their toes when doing their jobs.

    • Re:Indeed (Score:3, Insightful)

      by ShawnDoc ( 572959 )
      Now you understand why malpractice insurance is so high.

    • Re:Indeed (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Sure, doctors and nurses work 12+ hour shifts. They even do it for 3-4 days at a time. However, they then get a day or two where they don't have to come in to work at all.

      Game developers on the other hand, get to work 12+ hour shifts, 7 days a week, for weeks on end.

      And for the people out there who say, "You aren't doing 'hard' work like digging ditches!", I say, "You're right, I'm not digging ditches. If I were digging ditches, I'd work a 6-8 hour shift, 5 days a week, with paid overtime."
  • Caffeine is not a substitute for sleep.

    A recent study by Jan Born et al. of the University of Lubeck in Germany showed how a night's sleep enabled 59% of subjects to discover a trick to simplify a tedious calculation, compared to 23% of a control group who didn't sleep between two trials of the task. (Time magazine, 12/20/04).

  • No Unions... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Momoru ( 837801 ) on Wednesday March 09, 2005 @12:18PM (#11890027) Homepage Journal
    Unions usually start out with good intentions, and us coders would get better hours, better working conditions, fair wages etc...but eventually every union turns into a monster. Because once it has accomplished its primary goal, it doesn't know what to do...so it keeps pushing and pushing for more. Want your job to be outsourced quicker? Unionize. You've seen it in the automotive, airline, and sports teams unions that the union keeps pushing for higher and higher wages to the point where a guy that screws car seats in for a living makes $35 an hour, and an airline can no longer make a profit, or a hockey season gets cancelled. Unions make competition with other countries and non unionized companies extremely difficult. (Part of the reason Walmart makes so much profit). I know all the pro-union people may jump down my back, but this is coming from someone who's from 3 generations of union workers.

  • false alarm (Score:3, Informative)

    by LordMyren ( 15499 ) on Wednesday March 09, 2005 @07:23PM (#11895310) Homepage
    false alarm, there's still hordes of sharp young'uns beating down the door trying to replace your lazy ass.

    dont go into the game industry expecting a nice cushy job. expect hell, like fending off the fifth of all computer science students who would probably kill to get a gaming industry job.

    definately an exagguration, but i imagine google and pixar to be the only similarly employer-driven markets out there.

    -Myren

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