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| [Dec 21, 2010, 11:53 am ET] - Share - Viewing Comments |
Eurogamer.net has details from a now-removed blog post ( still cached) written by Zero Dean, apparently a former Rockstar employee who allegedly served as Senior Environment Artist on Red Dead Redemption. The blog described how pressure on the developers from management amplified as the project progressed, with unpaid overtime steadily increasing, leading to him catching flack from above after commenting on the situation in email that turned out to have been monitored. He says he eventually left when a boss took credit for some of his work. "And thank you Rockstar," he wrote. "You taught me exactly how I don't want to run a business or treat employees (or human beings) ever." Thanks Joao.
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| 42. |
Re: Ex-Rockstar Dev Speaks Out? |
Dec 21, 2010, 17:04 |
ASeven |
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Beamer wrote on Dec 21, 2010, 16:47:
I'll use an anecdotal evidence and use myself to counterpoint your argument of working under pressure. I worked at university better when I was doing stuff alone and without pressure. I still do. I work well under pressure, and boy in my line of work we do have pressure, but me and many of my colleagues worked and work best in a relaxed environment, which is why I went freelancer to begin with.
Which is why you went freelance and not into video game development.
I personally can't dunk a basketball, which is why I didn't go into the NBA. More to the point, while I love friendly competition I hate actual vicious competition which is why I didn't follow through with Wall Street recruiting after spending time at some banks a few years back. I loved the actual work but hated the way it got done. I wasn't cut out for it.
Some people aren't made for some things.
Which only proves the point that many who aren't made to work under pressure are experiencing a brutal work environment, as more and more whistleblower sites and people appear on the net to tell about their experiences in the industry. A person that is perfect for making games may not be good at handling pressure, unfortunately the industry will take them all and not have a regard for the personal, and corporate, consequences that it entitles.
Being good at one thing and being able to work under pressure are two different things that happen to cross into each other when you work in the gaming industry.
Beamer wrote on Dec 21, 2010, 16:47:
the younger generation is reading, seeing and sometimes even living the working conditions of the industry and rather go alone for themselves than work under a publisher.
Or maybe it's because it's an insanely hard industry to get into without doing something first, and indies are a good way to do something and get noticed. Now that mods are mostly dead, in the way that we used to have constant Quake and HL mods, that avenue is gone. Indies are really the only way to create something new.
moddb.com shows modding is very much alive, and the indies are reviving modding once again. They do go hand in hand since many indie teams were once mod teams. Most indie games are coming with full modtools and that is drawing the modding community into them.
As for doing something first, I think most indies would tell you that that's a load of bullshit. Most indies went indie because they rather be freelancers, it's not something to do with having made work or not. For some indies that is true, they went indie to impress publishers by making a game first, for most indies I know and anyone can follow in indiedb.com it is completely false, they went indie because they wanted to escape the work environment of publishers to begin with and do a game the way they want to make, without deadline pressures, even if it means financial pressures. And that does prove that working in the industry requires much more than love and handling pressure, it may require being a masochist, because when you rather face financial pressure over working in an industry with guaranteed pay then that's the only conclusion I can draw for the indies staying indie no matter what. |
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