# # | 417

#しらぬえ #絵まる | 417

YAGOO: Amelia, it's Pride Month. You know what that means.

Ame: what

Ame: do you want me to recruit like

Ame: gay vtubers

Ame: what

People really need to understand the games industry before critiquing anything about it. This is specifically about the use of the phrase ""crunch time"".

Let's define crunch culture.

Work weeks exceeding 40 hours, often to the extent of more than 80 hours a week.

Unpaid overtime, because developers are almost always salaried.

Overtime not being ""required"", but if you don't, your contract is let lapse.

Unreachable deadlines that are completely inflexible.

Emotional abuse from management, from fans, from execs, and at times from coworkers.

Normalized retaliation—leaving employees out of credits, suing, and even blacklisting from the entire industry if anyone speaks up.

Employees falling physically ill and having mental breakdowns, requiring them to take unpaid leave. Sometimes for months.

BioWare uses the term 'stress casualty' to refer to those who take months-long hiatuses—usually unpaid, and sometimes never coming back. According to a creative lead on the game Anthem, the amount of developers who this happened to was literally uncountable.

As of 2014, 81% of developers polled had crunched recently, and an entire half considered it expected of them. This happens to non-developer creatives as well: Jessica Chavez, a localization writer for publisher XSEED Games, lost 10% of her body weight and was unable to find the time to even get a haircut during 9 months of 80-hour work weeks.

This is what almost every game you enjoy is made through. You can't just boycott the new Pokémon because you think it sucks and came out quickly so it must be made through crunch time, then think you're helping—regardless of whether or not it is, almost every other game you enjoy is made through abuse.

(Plus, crunch time at its worst will literally make games take longer, as is true with the game LA Noire, which took 7 years... despite consistent work weeks of over 110 hours.)

Boycott does not work for a cultural issue—which crunch culture in games absolutely is, given 76% of devs working over 40 hours regularly still as of 2017. Ignoring it when it's quiet is enabling it.

If you play games and you are the least bit concerned about workers' rights, support unionization efforts. Boost their loved ones' stories, like ea_spouse's story about her husband becoming ill due to crunch. Vote for mandatory limits on work weeks. Don't stop talking about the Blizzard harrassment lawsuit.

Only caring when the game is bad is insulting—especially to the devs, artists, writers and more that you're ignoring because their games are good enough that them being abused doesn't matter.

🍔 #Laplus_Artdesu

by kanami9731

ペコちゃん4周年おめでとう!!!! | Pinki_O@お仕事募集中