"Crunch" Glorification
Apr. 20th, 2016 04:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
owsf2000Recently, one Alex St John posted something a bit retarded. He basically tried to make "crunch" time in the video game industry - you know, where programmers/developers are expected to work 80+ hour weeks for months (all that overtime being unpaid mind you) in order to get games out the door "on schedule" - look like something positive.
He's currently being bitched out by most if not all of the video game industry.
Basically he likened making games to creating art. And people should be just fine with sacrificing all their time and energy (And social lives, etc) without expecting to be paid properly for the work put in. I think he tried to coin a term of "Wage Slaves" to those who 'complain' about their pay (or lack thereof) when putting in those 80hr weeks.
The article at PC Gamer pretty much covers everything so go read that. I particularly love Rami Ismail's comment/response to Alex. “Your complaint here is literally that someone asked to be paid fairly.”
I pretty much agree with the article. Crunch Time has become "expected" and for the most part now PLANNED for by marketing when they're setting deadlines. And when bars go up, they don't come back down. So if a crew manages to pull off one crunch time successfully, they're now expected to be able to do that work all the time. Even as burnout sets in, which seriously fucks up a dev group.
This is actually one of those things that have caused the plague of buggy games that have become the norm these days.
He's currently being bitched out by most if not all of the video game industry.
Basically he likened making games to creating art. And people should be just fine with sacrificing all their time and energy (And social lives, etc) without expecting to be paid properly for the work put in. I think he tried to coin a term of "Wage Slaves" to those who 'complain' about their pay (or lack thereof) when putting in those 80hr weeks.
The article at PC Gamer pretty much covers everything so go read that. I particularly love Rami Ismail's comment/response to Alex. “Your complaint here is literally that someone asked to be paid fairly.”
I pretty much agree with the article. Crunch Time has become "expected" and for the most part now PLANNED for by marketing when they're setting deadlines. And when bars go up, they don't come back down. So if a crew manages to pull off one crunch time successfully, they're now expected to be able to do that work all the time. Even as burnout sets in, which seriously fucks up a dev group.
This is actually one of those things that have caused the plague of buggy games that have become the norm these days.
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Date: 2016-04-20 06:38 pm (UTC)Also, based on some of the other misogynistic horseshit this shitbag was spewing in his stupid fucking PDF thing (http://www.alexstjohn.com/WP/download/Recruiting%20Giants.pdf) that they linked to (e.g. "Real engineers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman) don't value money (the money is for the wife or GF)," or "There may actually be more female engineers but nobody can identify them..."), this asinine motherfucker could even be a perfect poster manchild for Irredeemably Toxic Shithole (http://kane-magus.livejournal.com/tag/fuck%20gamergate) as well (assuming he isn't already, hell if I know or care to look up). And his "Be on the lookout for the holy grail... the undiscovered Asperger's engineer. (They work like machines, don't engage in politics, don't develop attitudes, and never change jobs.)" pearl of wisdom there is pretty goddamn abhorrent as well.
Yeah, this guy is absolutely full of some Jurassic Park levels of shit (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnun8y7r8_U), for so many reasons. Been a while since I've felt the need to bust that one out, but if anyone deserves it, it is Mr. Alex St. John here. Truly, what a fucking douchenozzle. This is a guy who got fired from Micro$hit, of all places. Just... just think about that, for a minute. And why? Because, among other things he was, get this, burned out. Yeah, what a hypocritical asshole. I'd never even heard of this guy before today, but he has immediately skyrocketed up to the level of Cliffy B (http://kane-magus.livejournal.com/tag/cliffy%20b%20says%20stupid%20things) on my list of game industry "veterans" who say stupid bullshit.
And yeah, that bitchslap of a response (http://ramiismail.com/2016/04/an-inline-response-to-wage-slaves/) by Rami Ismail is pretty great.
And here is another rare instance (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8RCV0UWJgE) of Jim Sterling using his dark powers on the side of good. (Hell, if Mr. Sterling, a guy who I ordinarily despise, keeps on managing to do that, I may just have to give him another chance.)