EA: The Human Story

this is an industry wide issue. If you want this to stop, you need to go to all the big companies and get them all togethere against what is happening to them all. Start with the top 5, if you can get 1-2 of them to change then they will all follow suit

... but it's got to start somewhere.

This is the lengthiest posting I have ever seen. You gave face to a problem of the new world and job market. It is like the jungle out ther, where you can see the enemy but you can

This is the lengthiest posting I have ever seen. You gave face to a problem of the new world and job market. It is like the jungle out there, where you can see the enemy but you can`t get away from it. In today`s world is always nice to have a good job, but sometimes your dignity is sold to please the bottom line of a few. Many times I hear it is business, and if it is business why it impacts so much on a personal level. People suffer day in and day out to get to the end without a proper compensation. I hate when people say business is business, but when they are against a rock and an hard place, they ask you, where are your friendship. In the end when they no longer need you, they dismiss you without looking twice at what you are going through.
I hope people work together for the good of all.

Especially after being /.ed, this forum has started to turn into a true community. I just started a forum over on Google Groups called "UGRailroad", which is dedicated to delivering game industry slaves to freedom. The discussion is intended for proactive solutions to the problems of game workers. Pasted below is the intro to the group. Lets mobilize this energy and make this an industry in which we want to work again.



This group is dedicated to delivering game industry slaves to freedom.
Most of us got involved in the industry because of a love for games.
After working in the industry for a while, you have to ask yourself --
do you still really love it?

For the past two years I have been contracting off and on for EA at a
small developer. A week ago, I handed in my resignation, and have
decided to start a small shareware gaming company and go to business
school. I just wasn't willing to be a cog in that wheel anymore. I
want my own damn wheel.

The games I make will be smaller, aimed at a different audience, will
make less money, and won't get the press hoopla of big studio games,
but at least I can do what I used to love -- make games.

This forum is intended for discussion of proactive solutions to
changing the industry. Making games should be the best job there is.
And it is up to us to figure out how to make it that way again.

Welcome to the UGRailroad. Let's get back to loving our jobs again.

Give me a break man. "delivering game industry slaves to freedom" - what a bunch of nonsense. Don't forget when you sign up with Activision they teather you to the fence with a contract that doesn't allow you leave. Sony Imageworks does the same things with some of their artists. EA folks are "at will" - they can leave of their own accord. The studio will address the concerns and make amends. If they are not satisfactory, individuals will leave. Perhaps I'm wasting my time in replying. This reads like yet another post from someone that left the Dean Nation that is looking for a cause. Get a life.

Check out the reviews of Goldeneye. Pretty pathetic.
Management should take note that setting ridiculously tight deadlines to get a product to market fast does not equate to a good sales. games need to be polished to be top sellers.

management at EA has never heard of the law of diminishing returns

I contracted on GoldenEye. The big problem was the Christmas deadline. Even if we had spent more time polishing, the game would not have sold better because it would have missed Christmas sales. The scheduling problems existed before the project even started and were compounded by the hard wall of the Xmas deadline.

Not to sound like a grinch, but Christmas is the biggest problem with the game industry. Sales are so dramatically higher on this one holiday that there is no room for polish or schedule slippage on many products.

Deadlines will always exist, but how can we keep from constantly overpromising and underdelivering?

Again, for a discussion on fixing the industry in a proactive manner, check out UGRailroad on Google Groups.

http://groups-beta.google.com/groups?q=UGRailroad

Stand up
Tell management to go fuck themselves
Get fired
collect wellfare
then sue em!

Hey EA,

I want to give you a present: easpouse.com, .net and .org. No strings attached - you're doing a great thing shedding light on an industry full of sharp, creative people that's getting stomped.

Please contact info AT cyberlodge.org.

Thanks!

Sorry, but....what?????

I do not see the connection between your clearly troubled childhood and the plight of EA workers.

I thought I read about 50 posts ago that you were retiring from this thread to feed your children or something? What happened to that? Are the kids okay? Are they being bullied in school? Do their shoes fit? Is it time for an oil change for your SO's car, van or truck? Did your parents walk to school or did they bring a lunch?

If you insist on continuing to post please stick to the subject at hand, and wax nostalgic about your own deep-seated issues in your OWN journal.

This is not just a Game industry problem, it’s he software industry as a whole.

I worked for Microsoft on Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 (MOM) as a Software Test Engineer until October at which point I was laid off. Over the last year and a half I work 90 to 100 hours a week. I went 9 months without one day off (yes you heard me, not one day). We shipped MOM is late August, and for all our hard work 97 people where laid off in early September. There was no fiscal reason to lay us off, our previous product was still making lots of money, our market share went up 200% in 2004, and our division was on track to earning a billion dollars in 2005. We where given 10 weeks of severance, but have sign away our rights to sue to get the severance. I had just bought a house so I had to take the deal. I have never felt more abused in a job. I tried very hard not to get another job with Microsoft but I had to take a contracting job with them.

This seems to be an all to common problem and the abuses are many. I fear there is not much that can be done to change this industry. I am going back to school for engineering so I can get out of software. By the way I am more than willing to go on the record about my experiences. If you ever do get the media involved please let me know.

dgjedde@yahoo.com

So let's just assume the problem is insurmountable and that we can't do anything about it because it's industry-wide not limited to just one company?

The media IS involved, dgjedde, have you read previous pages in this blog?

EASpouse's gripes sound very familiar. They sound like every other GenX employee (and their spouse) I've ever had the "pleasure" to work with.

Most younger employees don't understand the meaning of "hard work." It's easier to blame upper management or the man than it is to own up to your own shortcomings and attempt to fix them. Chances are the team is actually doing something wrong and EA_S's SO can't get it through his thick skull. There is probably some not-so-trivial detail of production that routinely gets neglected and the team is being pushed to compensate or correct. Again, it's easier to scream "injustice" than to put yourself to *work* correcting the situation.

If the long hours truly didn't change deadlines or their being met, then the bottom line and P&L arguments here are invalid. No company pushes people that hard without drawing returns on the effort--it just doesn't make business sense. (Note the MOM Xmas push falls into exceptions due to the revenue thought to be made by releasing for Xmas.)

I'm not saying that bad working conditions don't exist--they do, in almost every industry ('cept probably the DMV and US Post Office ;) ). But a lot of details in the post and in this comment thread smack of exaggeration and being one sided. (No, I haven't read EA's response to get the other side of the story yet, but EA_S's post makes no effort to try and comprehend that there may be valid reasons for the injustices suffered.)

Lastly, EA_S should consider if her SO is truly "at work." Perhaps work is just an excuse to get out of the house and into the bar or otherwise step out?

Glad to see you've read the blog and are commenting in an informed, intelligent way, particularly the insightful comment 'work is just an excuse to get out of the house and into the bar or otherwise to step out'.

The thread is not exaggerated; the descriptions are accurate, beyond stupid and the reason I resigned.

'No company pushes people that hard without drawing returns on the effort--it just doesn't make business sense.' Whatever you say, Professor of Economics. If you're so much smarter than everyone else here, why the hell do you even have time the blog?

Here's my guess... EA_Spouse is actually a pseudonym for "I'm going to whip some folks up into a froth and then profit from the Class Action lawsuit and ensuing media attention 'cause I'm a lawyer, or a lawyer put me up to this".

I feel bad for the employees at EA if much of what this person writes is true. And, I wouldn't be amused if I were working in those conditions. I doubt anyone having worked at another studio joined EA with any illusions of whether the job would be hard, the hours long, or the "balance" crappy. I also doubt the personnel nor extra time are overtime eligible under the Fair Labor Standards act.

Grow up. Leave the job if you don't like it. Quit trying to drag what's probably otherwise a good company through the mud in the media.

If you don't like just leave...

This is definately the solution for an individual (or couple) to pursue. And in the game industry many people do just that. The problem is what this does to the industry. What remains are seniors that have been promoted to management only because they have survived, not because they have the appropriate skills to manage a project. Finding experienced seniors is difficult for most development companies, so they have no choice but to make the situation worse.

I think many people would like to stay in the industry if only it can change, even a little. I know i would, but my patience is running thin.

If people get tired of the flamewars going on here and want to discuss how to fix this industry, head over to UGRailroad on Google Groups http://groups-beta.google.com/group/UGRailroad. I'll be moderating it. Proactive discussions only.

There's nothing there yet, but I'd rather have a small community interested in fixing our problem than a large community that denies that the problem exists. Please post.

Thanks again to EA_Spouse for igniting this firestorm.

Hey, see if you can get some metaphors there. I hear they're great problem solvers!