Please read my entire post before yelling at me...
I just read the recent article by Jason Schreier about crunch on The Last of Us 2 at Naughty Dog. This issue has been discussed ad nauseam on this site and all over the video game blogosphere. I also know that there has been ton of talk and debate in the past on other posts. This post started as a response to the posting on the Schreier article, but as I started typing, it became what I thought should be in its own post. Maybe I am wrong, but, I wanted to get my thoughts out there in a coherent and logical way. If I get ridiculed for that, so be it.
As I said, I'm sure that I will attacked and will get a ton of push back on this. But I just have to say that while I understand the issue of crunch, when you get into the games industry, it is a known quantity that you agree to deal with. I am an "older" gamer. I am 53 years old, have been gaming since the 70s and still manage to play EVERY major game that comes out, mostly on PS4. Because of my age, perhaps my thoughts on this issue are skewed. I am sure that the younger people on this site will post about how I am wrong and give me all sorts of reasons why I don't know what I am talking about.
Crunch is not something that is unique to the video game industry. It happens in any industry that operates on deadlines. If any of you have friends who are attorneys, you know that lawyers (especially young ones) work on constant hard and fast deadlines that are imposed by the law and the Courts. In addition, lawyers have to bill constantly, hundreds of hours per month, in order to meet their responsibilities and keep their cases moving. Some lawyers (especially when cases are going to trial) have case loads in excess of 100 files and work 60-70 or more hours a week for YEARS on end. Deadlines come with the territory and you have to go into it with your eyes wide open and you have to deal with it in your chosen profession. In the newspaper and magazine industries, staff works a tremendous number of "crunch" hours every time a publication is going to press... that is tough on daily and weekly publications, but they put up with it because it is their chosen profession. The movie and television industry deal with the same thing. Can you imagine how many hours are put in to edit a film, especially an FX-heavy production like we have in big budget blockbusters? How about professional sports? There are a ton of stories about head coaches being away from their families for months on end and working endless hours, not just during season, but during the off-season as well. By the way, none of the aforementioned examples are jobs that pay overtime. Yes, my examples are all for jobs that exist in "highly paid" professions, but they all require a tremendous amount of time and energy to succeed, including often working in a state of constant "crunch". But, how about home-based businesses that are not necessarily "highly paid" jobs -- like an Esty business -- where certain times of the year (during the holidays, for instance), you are working hundreds of hours to get orders out the door. Or at a retail store. Or at a restaurant. Or a food truck operator. Or an Uber/Lyft driver. A UPS driver during the holidays. Etc. Etc. Etc.
My point is that there is a disconnect here. If people are not happy with the industry they have chosen to work in, they can find another profession. Think about this, if there was no "crunch", as it is called, then what happens to game production? I would guess that you are going to see less and less games coming out in anywhere close to a reasonable length of time. Games that take multiple years to create will become twice as long to develop. Not to mention the added cost of having a game in development for such a long stretch of time and the associated delays associated with that.
I'm sorry, but maybe it is just generational. I have been a practicing attorney for about 28 years and I see a far different work ethic in many of the "millennial-age" young lawyers who I have hired. And, please don't take it as me attacking the younger generation. That is not my intent. I just want to point out that maybe I am looking at this the wrong way... I will also say, that as a general rule, I am lazy as hell! I hate working, but I crunch when I have to crunch. I don't have to do that as much as I used to, but it happens and I put up with it.
And before you all jump on me, yes, I have seen all of the arguments against crunch. And, yes, I read all of the articles that have come out over the past couple of years. I feel for those individuals who work at companies that are abusive and that overwork employees. But, it is part of the job that you agreed to take when you made the decision to work in the games industry. And, by the way, it seems to me that the companies that have a reputation of having the most crunch also put out the highest quality games -- companies such as Naughty Dog and Rockstar.
OK.. have at me... I put on my body armor. I know I'm very much in the minority on this site... So, tell me why I am wrong!
I just read the recent article by Jason Schreier about crunch on The Last of Us 2 at Naughty Dog. This issue has been discussed ad nauseam on this site and all over the video game blogosphere. I also know that there has been ton of talk and debate in the past on other posts. This post started as a response to the posting on the Schreier article, but as I started typing, it became what I thought should be in its own post. Maybe I am wrong, but, I wanted to get my thoughts out there in a coherent and logical way. If I get ridiculed for that, so be it.
As I said, I'm sure that I will attacked and will get a ton of push back on this. But I just have to say that while I understand the issue of crunch, when you get into the games industry, it is a known quantity that you agree to deal with. I am an "older" gamer. I am 53 years old, have been gaming since the 70s and still manage to play EVERY major game that comes out, mostly on PS4. Because of my age, perhaps my thoughts on this issue are skewed. I am sure that the younger people on this site will post about how I am wrong and give me all sorts of reasons why I don't know what I am talking about.
Crunch is not something that is unique to the video game industry. It happens in any industry that operates on deadlines. If any of you have friends who are attorneys, you know that lawyers (especially young ones) work on constant hard and fast deadlines that are imposed by the law and the Courts. In addition, lawyers have to bill constantly, hundreds of hours per month, in order to meet their responsibilities and keep their cases moving. Some lawyers (especially when cases are going to trial) have case loads in excess of 100 files and work 60-70 or more hours a week for YEARS on end. Deadlines come with the territory and you have to go into it with your eyes wide open and you have to deal with it in your chosen profession. In the newspaper and magazine industries, staff works a tremendous number of "crunch" hours every time a publication is going to press... that is tough on daily and weekly publications, but they put up with it because it is their chosen profession. The movie and television industry deal with the same thing. Can you imagine how many hours are put in to edit a film, especially an FX-heavy production like we have in big budget blockbusters? How about professional sports? There are a ton of stories about head coaches being away from their families for months on end and working endless hours, not just during season, but during the off-season as well. By the way, none of the aforementioned examples are jobs that pay overtime. Yes, my examples are all for jobs that exist in "highly paid" professions, but they all require a tremendous amount of time and energy to succeed, including often working in a state of constant "crunch". But, how about home-based businesses that are not necessarily "highly paid" jobs -- like an Esty business -- where certain times of the year (during the holidays, for instance), you are working hundreds of hours to get orders out the door. Or at a retail store. Or at a restaurant. Or a food truck operator. Or an Uber/Lyft driver. A UPS driver during the holidays. Etc. Etc. Etc.
My point is that there is a disconnect here. If people are not happy with the industry they have chosen to work in, they can find another profession. Think about this, if there was no "crunch", as it is called, then what happens to game production? I would guess that you are going to see less and less games coming out in anywhere close to a reasonable length of time. Games that take multiple years to create will become twice as long to develop. Not to mention the added cost of having a game in development for such a long stretch of time and the associated delays associated with that.
I'm sorry, but maybe it is just generational. I have been a practicing attorney for about 28 years and I see a far different work ethic in many of the "millennial-age" young lawyers who I have hired. And, please don't take it as me attacking the younger generation. That is not my intent. I just want to point out that maybe I am looking at this the wrong way... I will also say, that as a general rule, I am lazy as hell! I hate working, but I crunch when I have to crunch. I don't have to do that as much as I used to, but it happens and I put up with it.
And before you all jump on me, yes, I have seen all of the arguments against crunch. And, yes, I read all of the articles that have come out over the past couple of years. I feel for those individuals who work at companies that are abusive and that overwork employees. But, it is part of the job that you agreed to take when you made the decision to work in the games industry. And, by the way, it seems to me that the companies that have a reputation of having the most crunch also put out the highest quality games -- companies such as Naughty Dog and Rockstar.
OK.. have at me... I put on my body armor. I know I'm very much in the minority on this site... So, tell me why I am wrong!
