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Making Video Games Is Not a Dream Job

nytimes.com

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Re: Making Video Games Is Not a Dream Job

#21

Post by jfk13 »

samcday wrote: post #5

> In many of these cases, laid-off employees had no idea what was coming. One developer at a major studio told me in February that he and his colleagues had been crunching — putting in long hours, including nights and weekends — for a video game release, only to be suddenly told that security was waiting to escort them off the premises. Man, that really sucks, if you think about it. I'm sure many people here on HN ha…

In a civilised society, it would be illegal for an employer to behave like that.

(Yes, I know, I'm imposing my view of what it would mean to be "civilised", and not everyone will agree.)

Re: Making Video Games Is Not a Dream Job

#23

Post by DaveSapien »

Uncertainty is the killer. There are many studios that are a dream to work for, make no mistake about it. The worst studios and the best studios, always require you (mostly on the software side) to at some point, work for free. Work unpaid hours to meet a deadline. Which would be ok, if there was some kind of profit share, there however is NOT that kind of compensation. What there is, is an uncertainty that you will have a job tomorrow. You could wake up with no job and zero return in your investment of your many hours of free time. It is though for employers, no doubt, but running a games studio as a standard business leaves a trail of disenfranchised people in its wake. A better approach, if possible, is to run a project as an individual business, each worker with some kind of performance compensation and responsibility for the product...imo

Re: Making Video Games Is Not a Dream Job

#24

Post by lovetocode »

kabacha wrote: post #11
lovetocode wrote: post #6

Game developers let themselves be exploited with low pay and unpaid overtime. They should grow a spine and say no to ridiculous work conditions. I am tired of hearing about it. They don’t need to unionize, they need to realize that they have a unique and valuable skill set. If we are talking specifically about programmers, we have the fortunate leverage to tell our employers to go piss up a rope with the weekly job o…

While you come off a bit rough on victim blaming you do have a point. Video-game developers should have formed a union long time ago but here we are. I somewhat lack sympathy when the industry is clear as water about abuse like this yet people still go into it without precaution.

Fair enough and you are probably right. I come from the position that you can only beat a dog so long before it bites back. But I feel like this could have been prevented if developers weren’t so enamored with the idea of developing games. Yeah it’s cool but it’s not cool enough to throw your dignity away.

Re: Making Video Games Is Not a Dream Job

#25

Post by 0815test »

Good thing that the NYTimes is finally raising awareness about this issue. There are so many alternative sectors that these highly-skilled workers could pivot to, not just the developers/coders but other roles as well, e.g. graphicians, 3D artists, UX designers etc. The pay and conditions in the rest of the industry are so much better, there's really no comparison.

Re: Making Video Games Is Not a Dream Job

#26

Post by krageon »

lovetocode wrote: post #18
Pfhreak wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having worked in the industry they believe it's necessary. I got yoked into a mandated long weekend and was laughed out of the room when I demanded a retrospective. Long hours is a failure, we should know what failed so it doesn't happen again. Their response? That's just the way it is in games. Absolutely zero desire or acknowledgement that it should be different.

It’s toxic culture at the leadership level. When my employer asks for some outrageous development on a compressed time schedule I speak my mind. Maybe that’s why most AAA games suck these days.

If you can still compensate or halt it by speaking your mind, your leadership still has a long way to slide down the toxicity scale.

Re: Making Video Games Is Not a Dream Job

#27

Post by Pfhreak »

lovetocode wrote: post #18
Pfhreak wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having worked in the industry they believe it's necessary. I got yoked into a mandated long weekend and was laughed out of the room when I demanded a retrospective. Long hours is a failure, we should know what failed so it doesn't happen again. Their response? That's just the way it is in games. Absolutely zero desire or acknowledgement that it should be different.

It’s toxic culture at the leadership level. When my employer asks for some outrageous development on a compressed time schedule I speak my mind. Maybe that’s why most AAA games suck these days.

In my experience it was the ic level. Leadership would say, what's a reasonable timeline for feature x. The engineers would spend two hours arguing that estimates are bullshit, then give a trivially small (and obviously wrong) estimate.

Leadership would say, are you sure? Engineers would basically flip them the bird and say yes. Then inevitably be late.

I get it, estimating is inexact. But there's a clear difference between "I broke this down into little tasks, and I think we're looking at x" and "implement multiplayer? Four days."

Re: Making Video Games Is Not a Dream Job

#28

Post by wmil »

Jason Schreier has been pushing for game developers to unionize for a while now.

In the case of programmers, it really doesn't make much sense. There's a lot of BS that can come with unions. They have transferable skills. It's just easier to change jobs.

For more specialized workers a union probably does make sense, eg: 3d artists, game testers.

But I think union organizers are really only interested in the programmers, because they'll probably generate the most dues.

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