L.A. Noire Crunch Culture, Bondi issues, RockStar Boss chimes in #NoCakeDay

rock star can fuck off

i'm not getting red dead 2 because of their labour practices

(maybe i'll get it used one day or on a deep discount)

This made me sad on top of angry. Snuff out any spark of happiness in the workplace. Effin' cake. It's ridiculous.

Let Rockstar eat cake.

LordKano said:

but one of them is particularly striking since it also concerns a Rockstar published game that wasn't reported before

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The working conditions at Team Bondi were pretty notorious after the release of the game.

Brendan McNamara, boss of LA Noire developers Team Bondi, thinks it's totally reasonable for his staff to be "killing themselves" with long hours because that's what this business is about.

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https://kotaku.com/5818019/report-l...ll-rockstar-no-longer-working-with-team-bondi
https://kotaku.com/5816507/la-noires-studio-under-investigation-over-alleged-shonky-work-practices

this is the kind of #metoo the videogame industry has been needing for waaaay too long.

Good that people are coming out.

I hope this really blows up and more people join in the conversation. Something has to be done.

gg rockstar, trash company

Some people watch other people no being "productive" for 15 minutes and start scratching their arms like mad.

Fine, go, go make people feel like they work in a prison so they can be productive all the time while using facebook and youtube in secrecy and being totally not proactive at all because, why bother?

An anecdote that succinctly - albeit depressingly - highlights the essential conflict between labor and capital.

And in this very thread you will have people shilling for the latter.

I've heard that QA testers trying to communicate certain bugs they found to devs is a challenge a lot of the time. I can't image how crazy or frustrating it gets when a studio is in crunch.

Really puts things into perspective. The industry needs to figure something out.

This is so awful. Creation of entertainment and joy via loneliness and exhaustion.

Glad I won't be able to afford the game day one. Will get it used.

Feel like Rockstar should be in the thread title.

Fuckers.

Ruining Cake Day?!

Nothing good is left in the world. Absolute madness.

Fucking suits.

There's too many games around nowadays. Can't we allow more dev time to help get rid of crunch and then we can all buy more games?

I dunno would be interesting if dev cycles just got longer and crunch still had to happen :/

Trago said:

The industry needs to figure something out.

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Unionize.

DrDeckard said:

Can't we allow more dev time to help get rid of crunch and then we can all buy more games?

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That's not how capitalism works though. Main goal of every corporation is to please its board and shareholders. They do that by making bigger and bigger profits each year.

That sounds horrible.

How are those working conditions not illegal?

Anyways, hopefully more and more people from the industry speak up.

This kind of thing was already known of Team Bondi but still, can't have too many examples. Disgusting behavior.
-edit-
Ah, I see Toumari already digged out a few stories.

30 min for a break is pretty long usually you are allowed 10-15 min. 30 min to an hour is a lunch break so if the people who were just hanging out at the kitchen conversing on company time I can see why the higher ups would be mad. If you are working crunch you usually have a lunch and dinner break available. They should have just coordinated their breaks together if they really wanted to have cake.

Man, that really sucks. What a genuinely nice thing she was doing.

hydrophilic attack said:

i'm not getting red dead 2 because of their labour practices

(maybe i'll get it used one day or on a deep discount)

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what a commitment

Time to unionize game devs.

how fucked up is all this. rockstar should be held accountable for running their business like this. i know people literally can't not play RDR2, but i encourage everyone to get a used copy of the game if you can wait a bit, don't support and encourage their behavior.

Liam Allen-Miller said:

what a commitment

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better than nothing

What a garbage company lol. Glad I don't like their games.

That sounds so depressive...I honestly feel bad about buying RDR2 next week,but I guess not buying it would be worse for the devs.
I know this is team bondi,but she made it clear the order came from R.

Dark Ninja said:

30 min for a break is pretty long usually you are allowed 10-15 min. 30 min to an hour is a lunch break so if the people who were just hanging out at the kitchen conversing on company time I can see why the higher ups would be mad. If you're u are working crunch you usually have a lunch and dinner break available. They should have just coordinated their breaks together.

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Is it long in a crunch though?

I feel disgusted.

Will skip rockstar games for a while.

I know RDR2 will sell one trillion copies, but one of those won't be from me. Infuriating and despicable.

LordKano said:

Tried to but couldn't figure out how to put it in within the space limit.

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I tried this

L.A. Noire Crunch Culture due to RockStar #NoCakeDay

All these things coming to light is really disheartening.

Dark Ninja said:

30 min for a break is pretty long usually you are allowed 10-15 min. 30 min to an hour is a lunch break so if the people who were just hanging out at the kitchen conversing on company time I can see why the higher ups would be mad. If you're u are working crunch you usually have a lunch and dinner break available. They should have just coordinated their breaks together if they really wanted to have cake.

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Fuck off

edit: stupid double post error 404

Let them eat cake!

management: the fuck they will!!

LordKano said:

That's not accurate though, because L.A. Noire was also famous for the terrible management of Team Bondi themselves.

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Maybe

L.A. Noire Crunch Culture, Bondi issues, RockStar Boss chimes in #NoCakeDay


Feel like cake and rockstar should be in that title lol

Fuck that shet. Working that many hours is truly awful, especially if you are limiting employees from having breaks (highly unethical). I am glad that I have zero interest in any of Rockstar's games

Anyone that thinks it's okay to push people through a meatgrinder to get your derivative cowboy game out the door can fuck right off.

Well, I already have more than enough stuff to play for now and was considering waiting for RDR2 anyway. Will get it used off eBay later after all this.

Not like it's gonna make a difference, but hey.

Dark Ninja said:

30 min for a break is pretty long usually you are allowed 10-15 min. 30 min to an hour is a lunch break so if the people who were just hanging out at the kitchen conversing on company time I can see why the higher ups would be mad. If you are working crunch you usually have a lunch and dinner break available. They should have just coordinated their breaks together if they really wanted to have cake.

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Is this some kind of sarcasm?

Dark Ninja said:

30 min for a break is pretty long usually you are allowed 10-15 min. 30 min to an hour is a lunch break so if the people who were just hanging out at the kitchen conversing on company time I can see why the higher ups would be mad. If you are working crunch you usually have a lunch and dinner break available. They should have just coordinated their breaks together if they really wanted to have cake.

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I hope you never get into management.

So are we just taking someone at their word that it was Rockstar pressuring Team Bondi to shut down cake day, or was it Team Bondi's management being shit? Even given Rockstar parted ways with the studio after the controversy regarding working conditions?

Dan Houser's comments yesterday refuting 100 hour crunch weeks don't seem too innocent in light of this.

finalflame said:

So are we just taking someone at their word that it was Rockstar pressuring Team Bondi to shut down cake day, or was it Team Bondi's management being shit? Even given Rockstar parted ways with the studio after the controversy regarding working conditions?

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It says right in the OP it was the publisher (Rockstar) putting on pressure on her for cake day.

TheZynster said:

Maybe

L.A. Noire Crunch Culture, Bondi issues, RockStar Boss chimes in #NoCakeDay


Feel like cake and rockstar should be in that title lol

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Changed title to this. OP let me know if you'd like something different.

TheZynster said:

Maybe

L.A. Noire Crunch Culture, Bondi issues, RockStar Boss chimes in #NoCakeDay


Feel like cake and rockstar should be in that title lol

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Rockstar can be shortened to R* if fewer characters have to be used.

Dark Ninja said:

30 min for a break is pretty long usually you are allowed 10-15 min. 30 min to an hour is a lunch break so if the people who were just hanging out at the kitchen conversing on company time I can see why the higher ups would be mad. If you are working crunch you usually have a lunch and dinner break available. They should have just coordinated their breaks together if they really wanted to have cake.

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holy shit. are you serious?

The flood gates have opened.

After the recent studies have shown how much better 3 days off work per week actually helps people work better we really should be striving to have companies give their employees time away from the desk and downtime like this.

As a game fan I can wait an extra few months/year or more for a game if it means the employee's making it will have a much happier and better work environment.

Crunch needs to go.