Crunch is inherently toxic (Gaming)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Monday, May 25, 2020, 10:38 (1646 days ago) @ someotherguy
edited by Cody Miller, Monday, May 25, 2020, 10:45

Set reaistic goals in the first place and you wont have to kill your staff to get the work done.

Here's the thing. Sometimes they don't care.

I'm in an industry where crunch is penalized. On my last Job, we were not allowed to go into an overtime period unless a producer specifically asked us to. I ended up going over ONE day, as did the other editors. For the rest of the time, we were out on time. It would cost them. Going over would go into double pay. Having less than 12 hours between the end of one day and the start of next would go into double pay. 6th and 7th consecutive days would be 1.5x and 2x pay. These things compound, so if you worked overtime on a 7th day, you'd be making a shit ton.

But when you have a lot of money it doesn't matter. Take say, Marvel. For them, getting a movie out there and hitting a certain date is way more important. They have enough money where they just pay these penalties and don't really care. I know people who worked continuously 12+ hours 7 days a week on these films. No life. There were divorces. There is no incentive to relax schedules because the movie's release date is just more important.

Nobody HAS to do this yes, but as Cruel said someone will always be there to take the job. And so it won't change. Folks I know who have cut some of the best Marvel movies have said they will never work for Marvel again. But the machine will roll on without them.

"It's a choice" does not solve the problem in this situation. Not ALL crunch is bad, but when it is systemic then there is an issue. I don't ever want people making things to feel like it's not okay to crunch when necessary, but we need to evaluate 'necessary'.

The thing is, I wasn't there at Naughty Dog. I don't know what was 'necessary', and what was just systemic mismanagement. Look at Halo 2. Nearly everyone I've asked about its development said it was rough, but they were ultimately glad it came out the way it did (versus what it would have been otherwise).