[game_preservation] Working conditions then and now

[Andrew Armstrong]

I'm actually writing a little bit of the IGDA QOL's report thingy, 5 
paragraphs on the state of market changes since 2004 (just need to dig 
up some studio-relevant data, painfully - hard to find good figures for 
how it's changed for 6 years in the team sizes, budgets etc. for all 
market sectors - like how MMO's, internet and casual games have popped 
up more).

I'd say - well, apples and oranges in regards to looking back to 80's 
and 90's. The industry has a relatively short life so far, and 
development teams have gone up and down depending on the market and 
product being made (and crashes and burns, buyouts and mergers, console 
releases and PC speed...). It's just a fact that there have been studios 
(of whatever size) since forever, and vice versa been independent one 
man teams forever, while Quality of Life varies mainly between places of 
work; ie companies - I don't know if team sizes have much to do with it 
at all.

Not that you'll ever get a good definition of "worse" and "better" 
(actually, as an art form, can games themselves be said to be 
consistently getting "worse" or "better", hah! :) ). This is the problem 
with something like this - there is no grading system, no union minimum 
standards, and the industry has generally a worldwide basis and is 
relatively spread out (not centred in one major city) so good luck going 
on the basis of quantitative things like pay, holiday time, bonuses or 
hours. Some people love overtime (making games!) but others get forced 
into it, or even those who like making games and want to work more hours 
get terrible conditions to work in, or paltry compensation in holiday 
time between projects or money or bonuses or whatever (this isn't all 
what QOL is mind you, lots more besides).

Even if it can be proclaimed that it has "got better" there's no arguing 
there must be a way to go if people are still complaining so vocally. If 
it has "got worse" you'll find a lot of good examples. The fact the 
industry is so much larger - I mean, mega percents larger - then 20-30 
years ago skews things like this bigtime. More of everything - good and bad.

Oh, of course this is all historically important and worth attempting 
(if rather difficult to without survey data). Once I've finished my 
piece for the QOL report, I'll be saying to the lead writer who has the 
raw data that she should get it added to a historical archive if the 
IGDA agrees (Anyone up for holding a copy with limitations on reading it 
or whatever legal stuff might need to be done considering there might be 
personally identifiable information there even though it is technically 
anonymous? I think leaving it in a vault/storage for X years unread 
might be the easiest idea). This would mean it is available in 2030 to 
check!

There is the main problem that, of course, there isn't any survey data 
for basically anywhere pre-2000's when they got started. You might be 
able to get salary figures and interview people for their personal 
working hours (since I bet the timesheets don't match!), but it'd be a 
lot of work, and more anecdotal then survey based.

Still if anyone knows of efforts to look that far back at the industry 
as a whole I'd love to know for the QOL SIG :D

Andrew

On 25/01/2010 05:38, Devin Monnens wrote:

> There has been a lot of talk lately about the Rockstar wives and 

> working conditions on my local chapter mailing list. I was curious if 

> there has been any historical study comparing how working conditions 

> were back in the 80s and 90s with how they are today. I'm wondering if 

> conditions have generally gotten worse with greater complexity of 

> games and larger demands by investors or if they have improved due to 

> greater self-regulation. This sounded like a historical question 

> relevant to our SIG.

>

> -- 

> Devin Monnens

> www.deserthat.com <http://www.deserthat.com>

>

> The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

>

>

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