I just finished my LDJam game and I think he has a point - for indie games. You get passionate about something, you work on it till you drop, then you work on it some more. That's fine and cool because you can look back and think "this is mine, this is what I wanted to make and now it's real"
But if I were forced to work like that on Activision's latest Call of Duty in order not to lose my job, that'd suck major balls and I'd want to get paid some major cash for it. I have all the rights to whine and want a raise in that situation.
In the very beginning, I kinda agreed with him to a degree, but jesus that didn't last long. Especially his remark about the "[I]undiscovered Asperger's engineer[/I]" kinda made my stomach bellow. What the fuck is going on in this guy's mind.
[t]http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/ee56780d2f3635beded71c9ee43ea6e0.jpg[/t]
Like what the shit
The problem is that Alex St. John is probably the kind of gormless jackass who responds to people disagreeing with him with "See? You're just proving my point."
[QUOTE=I am Error;50164569]In the very beginning, I kinda agreed with him to a degree, but jesus that didn't last long. Especially his remark about the "[I]undiscovered Asperger's engineer[/I]" kinda made my stomach bellow. What the fuck is going on in this guy's mind.
[t]http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/ee56780d2f3635beded71c9ee43ea6e0.jpg[/t]
Like what the shit[/QUOTE]
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/q41rih4.png[/IMG]
PEE off Alex
At no point does he infer that you should be thankful for crunch time because you love what you do. If anything he's advocating the death of creativity and innovation in favor of quick and cheap releases despite you know, the entire industry being built on and centered around creative work.
Like if he was advocating crunch time on good games and stuff people enjoy making then he'd have a point but this is directed at massive studios who work you to the bone doing one specific job with no creative control. I guess it does depend on the role but if you're just programmer #52 or artist #73 then there's no way you can be thankful just churning shit out mindlessly for a stupid amount of hours per week.
It's evident there's a lot of people in the bigger dev studios who don't really enjoy the job and moreso are just doing what's expected from their superiors who in turn are more dedicated to developing something that sells to as many people as possible rather than something unique for players and interesting for its developers.
This guy is completely crazy and the rules he presents for game developers are a one-way ticket to destructive mental fatigue. Fair pay and fair hours, or fuck off, really.
Creating games, whether writing code or producing art assets, is a job like any other. Just because it's an ~art~ doesn't mean one should sacrifice their life for their work. 80 hours a week of work isn't healthy, not for you and not for the game.
Passion is great, but you can be passionate about your job without working yourself to death. Games turn out shit when written by people who are on a life support potion of coffee and 'passion'.
Here's a quote from his presentation which shows how misguided he is about people and the world:
[quote]RULE 1: You don’t recruit and retain male engineers you recruit and
retain Wives and Girlfriends
• If the wife or GF is unhappy the engineer is gone
• If the relationship breaks down the engineer is gone
• The paycheck goes to HER
• Why does SHE want her husband or BF to work for you?[/quote]
One could make the argument that working to the point of obsession creates great stuff, but mandating it is stupid. Saying that things should be that way is stupid. Arbitrary struggles are stupid. If people are passionate, they will reach an obsession all on their own.
[QUOTE=wauterboi;50166692]One could make the argument that working to the point of obsession creates great stuff, but mandating it is stupid. Saying that things should be that way is stupid. Arbitrary struggles are stupid. If people are passionate, they will reach an obsession all on their own.[/QUOTE]
I can say from experience that one can be obsessive and passionate about work, and create great stuff, all in ~40 hours a week.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.