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 Send to email | Examining Quality Of Life In The Games Biz [Quality Of Life] in CrunchCultureEa SpouseIndustryquality of life |  By Leigh Alexander
el 16-May-2008 |
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 Obvious sentence of the day: It takes atomic tons of effort and man (or woman)-hours to build a game. The game industry may have a bit of a checkered history with the "QoL" or "Quality of Life" issue, but since the infamous ea_spouse dished on her husband's seemingly-endless eighty-five hour work weeks in 2004, the industry seems to have been taking a closer look at its practices.
A new Gamasutra feature on games industry quality of life asks, "Does Anyone Still Give a Damn?" On hand to answer the question is Jason Della Rocca, executive director of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), the workers' organization that followed up the ea_spouse scandal with a QoL survey in an attempt to improve the landscape.
Four years later, what's the state of things now? Electronic Arts, the publisher-accusé in the ea_spouse controversy, just as recently as this week included a "significant improvement" since 2004 on its employee satisfaction survey as part of its annual financial results announcement.
In the Gamasutra feature, ea_spouse herself, freelance game designer and writer Erin Hoffman, agrees that the situation's gotten better at EA:
"I think EA is tremendously reformed, having made some real strong efforts to get the right people into their human resources department," she says.
But the quality of life issue was far from being only EA's problem. Industry-wide, is this progress enough?
Now, says Della Rocca, "every studio head, every producer, every HR person is keenly aware of this quality of life issue, of this working conditions issue and, believe me, none of them want an EA_Spouse to surface in their company."
As a result, he says, the number of companies being proactive and deliberate about QoL has increased substantially. "But the issue hasn't disappeared, that's for sure," he says. "The average developer at the average company is still overworked, underpaid, and doesn't have the right tools or training."
Della Rocca told Gamasutra that his Association is making slow progress in developing a set of standards, as, ironically, it requires a lot of the Association's constituents to donate time away from their jobs on a volunteer basis. So while there are improvements, Evan Robinson, an author and consultant on the subject of industry quality of life, contributes to the conclusion that there is still a ways yet to go:
"I have a developer-friend in the business who spent about two months of required evenings and weekends last fall," Robinson recalls. "And though that is less common than it used to be... and is far from the incredibly egregious long-term crunch that Erin [Hoffman] described... it still occurs. We've made dramatic improvements, but the problem has not gone away, regardless what anyone says."
Quality Of Life? Does Anyone Still Give A Damn? [Gamasutra]
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Gossip, news and leaks for obsessive gamers Kotaku As if you don't waste enough of your time in a gamer's haze, here's Kotaku: a gamer's guide that goes beyond the press release. Gossip, cheats, criticism, design, nostalgia, pred |
| Examining Quality Of Life In The Games Biz [Quality Of Life] | | Obvious sentence of the day: It takes atomic tons of effort and man (or woman)-hours to build a game. The game industry may have a bit of a checkered history with the "QoL" or "Quality of Life" issue, but since the infamous ea_spouse dished on her husband's seem [..] Read complete article | | Published 16-May-2008 by Leigh Alexander in CrunchCultureEa SpouseIndustryquality of life
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| Life improvement devices |  There’s a lot of commercial technology out there intended to improve our quality of life (in a sense, almost all of it). A speaker @ Bay Area Maker Day mentioned a few devices she found effective for modifying her own behavior -
Sleeptracker watch - wakes you at the end of the REM cycle [...] [..] Read complete article | | Published 03-May-2008 by Nerdblog in General
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| Kotaku`s The Gamers Guide | Blogger | XBOX 360 Gamers Weblog
Gossip, news and leaks for obsessive gamers Kotaku As if you don't waste enough of your time in a gamer's haze, here's Kotaku: a gamer's guide that goes beyond the press release. Gossip, cheats, criticism, design, nostalgia, pred |
| Kotaku`s The Gamers Guide | Blogger | XBOX 360 Gamers Weblog
Gossip, news and leaks for obsessive gamers Kotaku As if you don't waste enough of your time in a gamer's haze, here's Kotaku: a gamer's guide that goes beyond the press release. Gossip, cheats, criticism, design, nostalgia, pred |
| 20-year-old Memories of a Life Not Lived [Hot Flashes] | | Gamers of my generation may remember Activision's Alter Ego, released in 1986. It was a text-and-graphics, choice-based somewhat-precusor to later games like The Sims or Second Life. The game fascinated me, even as a 13-year-old, with the idea of living another life ? and hel [..] Read complete article | | Published 17-May-2008 by Owen Good in Activisionalter egoClassic GamesCulturehot flashesNostalgiaSimsVirtual lives
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| Kotaku`s The Gamers Guide | Blogger | XBOX 360 Gamers Weblog
Gossip, news and leaks for obsessive gamers Kotaku As if you don't waste enough of your time in a gamer's haze, here's Kotaku: a gamer's guide that goes beyond the press release. Gossip, cheats, criticism, design, nostalgia, pred |
| Kotaku`s The Gamers Guide | Blogger | XBOX 360 Gamers Weblog
Gossip, news and leaks for obsessive gamers Kotaku As if you don't waste enough of your time in a gamer's haze, here's Kotaku: a gamer's guide that goes beyond the press release. Gossip, cheats, criticism, design, nostalgia, pred |
| Kotaku`s The Gamers Guide | Blogger | XBOX 360 Gamers Weblog
Gossip, news and leaks for obsessive gamers Kotaku As if you don't waste enough of your time in a gamer's haze, here's Kotaku: a gamer's guide that goes beyond the press release. Gossip, cheats, criticism, design, nostalgia, pred |
| Microsoft Responds To Community Games Quality Concerns [Microsoft] | | When former XNA community manager David Weller expressed concerns about crowding and quality standards when the new Community Games launch on Xbox Live, it resembled some of the discussions that have been had in the past regarding Xbox Live Arcade. However, a Microsoft representative w [..] Read complete article | | Published 28-Jul-2008 by Leigh Alexander in Microsoft community games Indie Original Xbox 360 Xbox Live
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| Kotaku`s The Gamers Guide | Blogger | XBOX 360 Gamers Weblog
Gossip, news and leaks for obsessive gamers Kotaku As if you don't waste enough of your time in a gamer's haze, here's Kotaku: a gamer's guide that goes beyond the press release. Gossip, cheats, criticism, design, nostalgia, pred |
| Former XNA Community Manager Airs Quality Concerns [Microsoft] | | Microsoft's recent announcement that it would let community developers earn money for games they make with the company's XNA toolset came as good news to some, but former XNA community manager David Weller is concerned about the lack of quality standards. On his blog, Weller wrote: [..] Read complete article | | Published 25-Jul-2008 by Leigh Alexander in Microsoft community games Xbla xna
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