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Article suggests oppressive game dev jobs lead to violent games...

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21 comments, last by jollyjeffers 17 years, 11 months ago
Hi, Being a bit slow, I only just got hold of my print copy of Develop Magazine and have been reading it over the last couple of days. You can download a free copy of it if you do a quick sign-up - I highly recommend it [smile] Anyway, page 46 - "Slaves to the job" article:
Quote:Could it be, asks Thomas J. Allen and Matthew Sakey, that the reason many games offer aggressive, uninspired content is because your average developers are ensnared by a studio's impossible working practices?
It's an interesting article, and it seems to suggest a different angle on violent video games that I've not seen before. Thought I'd start something in the lounge where only deep, meaningful and all round intellectual discussion takes place... A few choice quotes:
Quote:Might developers be making violent content as a way to exorcise their anger at increasingly dismal working conditions? Alternatively, they may be worked to such unhealthy extremes that they're simply too exhausted to innovate beyond the cliches of crazy weapons and crazier boob sizes...
Quote:...overworked, under-compensated drones amass war stories of evil corporations, making it hardly ironic that so many games in our history feature evil corporations, not to mention corollary themes - slavery, psychological oppression, and violent confrontations with 'boss' enemies. These themes appear more and more in games from the last decade.
Quote:Sure, games may simply be violent because they're violent - but it would be ill-advised to casually ignore a link between game content and poor working conditions in all cases
I'm not entirely sure I agree with the strength of the link the article suggests, but its definitely "food for thought". All previous discussion of games and violence seems to be "outwards looking in" but this article seems to suggest that the opposite might, at least, be a factor.. Thoughts? Jack

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Jack Hoxley <small>[</small><small> Forum FAQ | Revised FAQ | MVP Profile | Developer Journal ]</small>

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It's mostly the influence of a few key people, creative directors and producers, that decide if a game is going to be passive, mildly violent, ultra violent and everything in between. The average developper usually has no say in how brutal a game will in the big picture. They will however influence smaller things. I can understand how the opressed FX artist will make the blood splatter more gory (chunks of meat and brains) as opposed to someone who's happily doing their job. Architecture may be a hint darker in style, and character artists may paint the character faces that unconciously reflect their mood a bit.

But I don't think it has much of an impact on the grand scheme of things, unless the creative director / producer / art director is going throuhg a bad spell.
__________________I have a computer!
Develop magazine seems to use the term "developers" to cover everyone - not just software developers.

I dont think its the whole reason... more an interesting observation [smile]

I didn't include it in my post, but they have a few examples of NPC conversations in games that apparently show that the developers "drop in" bits and pieces reflecting their working environments.

Jack

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Jack Hoxley <small>[</small><small> Forum FAQ | Revised FAQ | MVP Profile | Developer Journal ]</small>

I hereby dub this the Office Space theory.
Personally, I know I've left some comments and debug messages in code that reflect frustrations with working environments, but I've generally been very careful not to let that leak out to the public - or indeed even the rest of the team. Poisoning morale is bad juju.

(OK, there was that one time I accidentally checked in a module that spammed the debug logs with "F***ING FEATURE X BROKE FEATURE Y!" at the rate of about 30 per second... but that was an anomaly [grin])

Wielder of the Sacred Wands
[Work - ArenaNet] [Epoch Language] [Scribblings]

Quote:Original post by Ravuya
I hereby dub this the Office Space theory.




if, if, they change my spec one more time, I, I'll set the server room on fire.



Raymond Jacobs, Owner - Ethereal Darkness Interactive
www.EDIGames.com - EDIGamesCompany - @EDIGames

Quote:Original post by jollyjeffers
A few choice quotes:

Quote:Might developers be making violent content as a way to exorcise their anger at increasingly dismal working conditions? Alternatively, they may be worked to such unhealthy extremes that they're simply too exhausted to innovate beyond the cliches of crazy weapons and crazier boob sizes...


Quote:...overworked, under-compensated drones amass war stories of evil corporations, making it hardly ironic that so many games in our history feature evil corporations, not to mention corollary themes - slavery, psychological oppression, and violent confrontations with 'boss' enemies. These themes appear more and more in games from the last decade.


Quote:Sure, games may simply be violent because they're violent - but it would be ill-advised to casually ignore a link between game content and poor working conditions in all cases


Thoughts?


I'm underwhelmed. Sounds like the author just started writing whatever crap came to mind. I'm sure the guys at Bungie are "overworked, under-compensated drones" or the guys from Team Ninja are "simply too exhausted to innovate beyond the cliches of crazy weapons and crazier boob sizes". [sad]

Developers create the types of video games they do because gamers buy them. Look at the innovate games that have come out in the past couple of years and notice that very few of them were blockbuster hits. Why is that I wonder?

Former Microsoft XNA and Xbox MVP | Check out my blog for random ramblings on game development

The connection between "many developers are horribly overworked" and "many games are violent" seems tenuous at best to me. The reality that violent video games sell, and the violent media (not just games!) that we're all immersed in (especially the young male types who tend to become game developers most often) probably contribute much more. Not to mention that violence just lends itself very well to interactive gameplay. (I'm sure there's a compelling game to be made out of the works of Jane Austen or Nick Hornby or whatever, but most people aren't willing to take that kind of risk...)

Anyway, working conditions where I work are pretty good, I love it here, and yet we're making a pretty violent game. Go figure. ;)
Orin Tresnjak | Graphics ProgrammerBethesda Game StudiosStandard Disclaimer: My posts represent my opinions and not those of Bethesda/Zenimax, etc.
The overworked, undercompensated drones aren't the guys deciding how violent the game's going to be. Sure, mid-level programmers might have some minor influence during level design, but by the time you even get there the decision as to how much ripping of torsos there will be has already been made. The artists have more say, but every texture they make they're going to take to a decidedly un-overworked producer for approval.

Cute idea, but I don't buy it.
No. Games offer aggressive, uninspired content because that is what game players want. If game players wanted something else, they would buy it and game developers would have to make it or go out of business.
John BoltonLocomotive Games (THQ)Current Project: Destroy All Humans (Wii). IN STORES NOW!

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