Gamasutra - The gaming industri - a bad place to work?

In an editorial at Gama Sutra, Robert Madsen asks if the gaming industry is a bad place to work. He talks about sexism in games as well:

Now let's talk about sexism in games. This is the part where I will really get in trouble. It always bothers me that people bemoan the blatant use of exaggerated female sexuality in games, but no one ever mentions the same (and probably more pervasive) portrayal of women in almost every other visual media including art, opera, movies, and advertising to name a few. So why single out the game industry?

Here's his take on working conditions:

Let's finally talk about working conditions. I agree that companies take advantage of their employees. It was not uncommon for me to work 15 hour days 7 days a week at the studios where I was employed. However, now that I am running my own studio, I am still working the same crazy hours. The difference is that is my own choice. Apparently, 40% of my colleagues feel the same way and stay in the industry because they are willing to put in the hours.

Do you agree with Robert Madsen?

More information.

Yes, there is sexism in games. But there is also racism, homophobia and all kinds of political incorrectness. So what?
It's a game, it's not RL. You're not "hurting" real people in a game. While talking about games' content, morality trolls often forget to say that vivid imagination doesn't instamake a bad person. Brievik who was WoW player case? Yea… It's a case of one lunatic and millions of other normal players who can tell the difference between virtual world and reality.
Sure, it's always hard to work in an industry being under a magnifying glass of censors as you never know if your product will be banned in the end, but there is a risk in every business so let's not go into comparing being a whore and coding a game - both jobs have their risks.

About working conditions again it really doesn't matter if you're into gaming industry. You'll work overtime on any job - if you accept to.
I'm a person who wants to work on any job, as long as it's (normally) 8 hours and max an hour of walking/driving home. Sure, if there is a critical moment, I'll stay and work more, but not if that happens daily or weekly!
CEOs hate my type, they all want a person who works 16 hours, sleeps 8 hours and has no life outside of that. You've heard about so called "team building" crap. Well, sorry, I have friends I've chosen myself and I don't need to socialize with someone chosen by my chief.

I work to live, not live to work (said it before on this forum). And no paycheck amount can turn me into a slave. I'm not working in gaming industry but if I did, and some EA wannabe CEO wanted me to work for more than 8 hours daily, I'd just quit.

In my first gaming industry job I worked longer, because payment was increasing nicely from month to month, so it was worth for me. In the second job payment was nice, but fixed so I didn't work more than 8 hrs.

Professional and careful depiction of sex should be in every serious game of Fallout 1-2 caliber. Look at Game of Thrones or most Hollywood movies, especially like A History of Violence (2005). I think sex should be displayed as in latter, as frequently as in Witcher 1. But in an expert manner, no porn. Also realistic 3D models, no football sized breasts, etc..

Originally Posted by mercy
I think sex should be displayed as in latter… no football sized breasts, etc..

You crazy?

Why don't make a compromise that will make everyone happy except censorship trolls.
Leave big boobs for us to enjoy. For girls, well, give them as much frontal male nudity as they want, noone will probably object. I mean, I won't, it's nothing I didn't already see in the mirror.

I had one job in the games industry.. and one was enough. It was a bunch of children playing at running a company with not a care in the world for the well-being of those who worked for them. I know there are other industries with similar problems, but I've heard too many personal accounts that mirror mine to discount it as hyperbole. Working in gaming is--generally speaking--for young people who don't have children, are still willing to work until 2:00 EVERY NIGHT (including weekends) all for the glory of working on a game.
If you're someone who craves a life outside of the job, you're doing it wrong and should move into a career that somewhat values quality of life. I made the change and have never looked back.
As for sexism, I think it is there, but (as the original article said) not any worse that working in other entertainment-related industries. At least gaming industry execs are having the conversation and trying to change.

In my view, while you're young you should give your job everything you've got and with just a few exceptions, put your job first. It not only gives you a sense of pride but you are more likely to be in a far better financial position as you get older and slow down.

I'm at the upper middle-age and I see a good number of friends, colleagues, and acquaintances who chose not to work very hard when we were all younger that are really struggling now… and live in a bit of chronic financial fear because their earning power is either limited or fixed entirely. Make it while you're young.

I've been working in the games industry for 10 years now, and generally it's 8 hours per day, 5 days per week. When we work towards an important milestone, or have to release a game, some amount of crunch usually happens. For me that has been perfectly bearable even if it has meant a few late nights or, in rare cases, work in the weekends. I *have* tried working throughout the night - but I think I can count these occasions on on hand, even after 10 years

Any sane company will know that constant overtime only kills off your employees and that tired programmers tend to make more mistakes than they fixes. On the other hand; no-one takes permanent damage from working 15 hours a day for a couple of weeks, if that's what it takes to ship…

So some amount of crunch definitely works - and, in my opinion, it can actually be a pretty good experience if it happens rarely enough. It can be pretty cozy to sit late at night with good colleagues and see it all come together. Crushing that last bug, making the deadline and having a cold beer while the build uploads at 3am…

Oh, and btw; I do have a wife and two kids. In fact, almost everyone at our company has kids - almost like normal people with normal jobs!?!

I'm probably not the right person to ask, as I have this strange concept of how people should be treated. I tend to think people shouldn't be expected to give unless the recipient gives back, and I'm not talking about money.

If you have the opportunity to work on something you feel passionate about - and your loved ones are fine with you spending a lot of time on it - I guess it can be ok.

Personally, I have very strong doubts that the industry can provide a truly free and creative environment as the bottom line will always loom overhead, so I doubt these crunch periods are healthy in an overall sense.

Then again, I know many, many people who can find passion and drive for something that has almost nothing to do with what they're about - so, again, I'm not the right person to ask.

When I was 18, I wrote a passionate letter to Origin - and they actually invited me over for a job in QA. In the end, I chickened out - because I was still at school and I didn't want to leave everything behind.

Today, I'm glad I didn't go - because I understand a lot about how the industry works - and especially what you can expect when you're working in America. I could never have done that, and if I could - it would mean compromising everything I believe in.

So, I gave up trying to get a job in the industry in my early 20s - simply because I could never get past what it meant to have money as the ultimate motivater for the people calling the shots.

That said, times are different now - what with the crowdfunding craze - and if I hadn't grown weary and cranky, I might have gone that way and become part of the creative world. Oh well

But as to the question at hand, it all comes down to the individual. No matter what you spend your time doing, you will learn something. The industry can be a road to many things - and I'm sure having worked for years under that kind of pressure can pay off, even if you end up outside the industry.

All I know is that it would be a horrible place for *me*.

The problem for the employees is that they want to work in the industry too badly. That is the rock star job in computer science, and everyone who has loved video games has thought about how cool it would be to make them. There is no rock star pay or treatment, unless you have exceptional experience and credentials, so the conditions are typically sup-bar with respect to software development jobs in general.

The rock stars in the industry are the ones who run the show, and for the big names they likely never have to touch code. That is what one aspires to in computer science, to be the one to handle the high-level problems and never have to write code. How gratifying it would be to hand out designs to humans, and be out of the perpetual fight with compilers and hunt for bugs.

The working conditions in the gaming industry, just as any IT industry depends on two factors: How much the company is willing to exploit the worker, and how much the worker is willing to be exploited.

There are studios that are wonderful to work at, with nice people where you really want to work not only the minimum amount of time. As an addition, nobody will expect you to do that. Obviously, those are the rarer case.

Of course there are companies that want to you to work more than the minimum. But those will usually pay the extra hours. If you work at a company doing night shifts without being paid, it is entirely your own choice.

I have not a single time heard of or worked at any studio where it was "you either work 10+ hour shifts, OR ELSE". At least not in a studio in Germany (I don't really have many contacts outside of here ).

The only difference I see in the games industry is that a lot of people WANT to work there and are thus more likely to say "Of course I will stay longer!". Also, payment in the games industry is much worse than in other IT industries where you would do a similar (plus in most cases much easier) job. This is also due to fact that so many people want to work there.
At least as a programmer, I could easily get a job with up to 50% more payment outside of the games industry.
But I never wanted to so far.

And then there are indie studios which have vastly different rules altogether. We're currently busy setting one up and I can say that we are three people working full time (+2 people in their free time) for no money at all, living off our savings, state support and occasional side jobs. Just to see our vision come true.
Honestly, I've never been in a worse financial situation than now (no, I'm not starving, my situation is okay, but still I've never had less money), but I've also never been happier.

My biggest problem is that after this experience I will probably never be able to work "just for money" again (at least not full time), as I just can not find it worthy any more.

Originally Posted by TheSHEEEP
I have not a single time heard of or worked at any studio where it was "you either work 10+ hour shifts, OR ELSE". At least not in a studio in Germany (I don't really have many contacts outside of here ).

Yep, besides of the company you work for, it's also dependent on the country you work in. There are countries where it's just illegal to work more than X hours. Or where overtime is connected with big additional payments.
There are big differences in worker protection between countries like Germany, France or Nordic Countries on the one hand and eastern and american countries on the other.

There is a nice little comparison map over here:
http://www.ituc-csi.org/new-ituc-glo…ghts-index-the

Originally Posted by TheSHEEEP
And then there are indie studios which have vastly different rules altogether. We're currently busy setting one up and I can say that we are three people working full time (+2 people in their free time) for no money at all, living off our savings, state support and occasional side jobs. Just to see our vision come true.
Honestly, I've never been in a worse financial situation than now (no, I'm not starving, my situation is okay, but still I've never had less money), but I've also never been happier.

Congrats!
I hope that I'll someday have the guts (and financial freedom) to try the same What are you setting up, if I may ask?

A game studio, of course
Or were you asking about the game?
Well, it will be an RPG (of course! hehe) and something that does not really exist yet as its own "classification", besides of that, we do not want to talk about it yet.
But soon. We hope.