A widespread problem in the video games industry which forced programmers into 16 hour days and all night coding marathons has pushed one veteran American coder to the brink… And beyond!
Finding himself trapped in a seemingly infinite cycle of long days and working nights, Pfeiffer began to question the sanity of an industry that relies on work conditions rarely seen elsewhere in the Western world. “There’s something fundamentally wrong with an industry when making games is so expensive that the pressure to push your staff to their individual breaking points is completely understandable, if regrettable”, he says.
What’s a hard done by coder to do? Why emigrate to China, of course!
He soon learned that China has laws in place that make such work conditions as he was enduring at home illegal. Work days there can be no longer than 11 hours, and employees are only legally allowed to work 36 hours of overtime a month. “There are places in the US games industry where the base work week is 50 hours and that doesn’t even start to account for the extended periods of ‘crunch time”, he says. “In China, you couldn’t legally run a shop that way. And heck, who wants to live their lives that way?”
And to make the pot even sweeter, his new studio is going to encourage lifestyle balance (God, how many times has the uber-corp I work for said THAT!).
“We will have an onsite chef for breakfast, lunch and dinner”, he boasts. Massages, dry cleaning, company supplied drivers, language and cultural tutoring (English or Chinese), haircuts, fitness memberships, car washing and maid and grocery services are just some of the other perks Balanced Worlds have in store for their development staff.
Well, there you have it folks. Crushing poverty, labour laws that encourage slavery, practical totalitarian rule and a wholly unintelligent (though educated) population, America just doesn’t have the same opportunities as China for this guy. Sheesh.
19,
and you dont think the US is as/becoming as corrupt as these other nations?? the only difference I see is that we Tax, licence, and regulate it to death in every instance.
Try building a house with out inspectors, city ordinances, and council approval, INSIDe a city…
Try building a power plant without federal approval and a $100,000,000 dollar study on how it will work and improve…
The regulatory hurdles in the U.S. are unacceptable I would never argue against that. Full fledged corruption as a means to secure the everyday business requirements, not so much in the U.S. In the U.S. if I were to build a house in a metropolitan area I don’t need to bribe a Mafia boss, could the same be said of real-estate in Moscow?
#14, what, you didn’t want to name Wal-Mart?
That guy Pfeiffer just had to come to Quebec instead of China. All laws are very similar protecting employees.
UBISOFT is expanding here in Montreal, in our beautiful Old Port, over 200 permanent new jobs will be created. Great work conditions, but don’t expect one of those jobs to pay more than 50K per year.
Pour ceux interessés, le bilinguisme est un atout.
I was in China for a week in a western company and pretty much saw what Jaegermeister saw plus there was a strange interaction between upper management and employees.
Also thought I saw how better they treat foreigners over locals, which is not only hypocritical but also one of the core beliefs of communism: “screw our locals, welcome the foreigners from which we can get money & support” or put in another way “controlling locals: beat them up madly. Control foreigners: make them believe we’re friends and if it fails, bet them up madly”
Not to mention that I find the fact that they use westernized names when dealing with foreigners patronizing.
Everything as if trying to be nice and inviting to westeners, something I find mighty suspicious.
The folks are pretty nice people.
24,
It is a proven fact that There is more then 1 way to DEFEAT a country.
You dont need war..
You dont need terror.
Take there money, take there goods, Sell them BACk at HIGHER prices…
China is redeveloping, and has Aquied ALOT of goods from around the world, including WOOD, Metals, from the USA…
Smart move on his part. He’ll profit by being one of those wililng to go to a foreign country to guide engineers in how to make decent games. It might work. I doubt, though, that many of the locals are treated as well as he is.
However, the games industry is not that bad. I’ve been an engineer, including on a project notorious for it’s crunch time, in the games industry for years, and it’s never been as bad as some people say.
Most of these guys who complain are young, often just out of college, and have little or no prior work experience. They expect to party and have a good time like they did in college, and yet have a great job with great perks and a nice car and a wife and family. Many people only dream of getting the sort of perks, pay and on the job fun that employees at EA, Activision, Sony, Lucas, etc. get. But hey – I think I’m working too many hours? Time to call a lawyer!
I’ve worked in other industries where the hours were longer and required more time away from family than any game project ever has.
#24 – Yes, the treatment of foreigners vs locals is stunning. It’s easy to forget that this is the same country still got Lao Gai prisons. The corporate culture in China encourage ass licking way more than in North America. If you want to advance your career, you better got a wide network of contacts, or else you’re going to be stuck doing the same job for the rest of your life. Things will change, but knowing how deeply rooted these traditions is… it’s going to be slow.
I’ll be emigrating to Southeast Asia within six months. My house is built and my ducks are in a row. The middle class is emerging in much of Asia and the momentum is building. Contrast this with the US where the middle class is stagnant at best. I think Pfeiffer made the right choice.
24,
“Not to mention that I find the fact that they use westernized names when dealing with foreigners patronizing.”
Maybe if we could pronounce their names properly and knew which to use they woudn’t have to.
Expect kick ass games with Funny Chinglish dialogue in the future.
“Me harm your anus with my foot evil hearted man.” or something
#29 I thought about that possibility, but is not like the Chinese can pronounce western names correctly, should we do the same thing and come up with chinese names? Can you picture a Chinese trying to say Dvorak?
The scary part I see about this that you really don’t know who you’re talking to. Is like a purposeful anonymity, so you cannot trackback anything.
“- who told you that?
-John Li
- and who’s John Li? I know no John Li”
I would much rather see them spend some time trying to teach me how to say their names than using this “shield”. And actually, I did. I learned the name of one of the persons there and when I was saying goodbye, I used the real name and I made sure I said it right.
#30 I’m guessing you have visited engrish.com
31,
How much time do you have for language lessons at a business convention? I don’t have any.
#32 I don’t mean to learn Mandarin, just how to pronounce a name. Very much like I don’t speak German but I make sure to say German names the way they are intended to sound.
Also, nights can be a very good time for private tutoring, don’t you think? “Repeat after me: Mai Jin”