Obsidian being reviewed by former employees

[Krash]

Nothing new here. Game studios are p. well known as the worst workplaces ever.

 

[Jaesun]

It's just is more evidence that Obsidian's biggest problem is project management, which in turn effects the quality of their products.

If they ever fix that, we might start seeing some better Action Games from them.

 

[Metro]

So for two weeks or so every half a year or however often they pump out a new title they have to 'work' from 9am to 9pm? And I'm sure a decent few hours of that time isn't even work just being at the office with a lot of downtime/talking with people and still your 'work' consists of sitting and typing at a computer. And, no, they aren't physically sitting down in a chair for anymore than 75% of that time. You don't think people get up and go to the bathroom, walk around, grab a meal, chat with others during that time? I daresay half or more of the current workforce regardless of job works more overtime than that.

Nothing new here. Game studios are p. well known as the worst workplaces ever.

Please... anyone who says that probably hasn't worked more than a month at any other type of job.

 

[Mangoose]

I think you underestimate the horror of staring at code for 12 hours straight trying to find what went wrong.

God fucking shitty ass programming classes was enough programming for my life.

 

[gromit]

your 'work' consists of sitting and typing at a computer

Eat a dick.

 

[Krash]

Problem isn't just overtime, it's the soul crushing cog-in-the-machine syndrome you get from shitty leadership and lack of appreciation, combined with the constant fear of being fired because you exceeded your 200 seconds of weekly coffee break time. Ironically, running the business this way might be more costly than nurturing talent, encouraging pride in what you make, etc., but it sure is an easier path for shitty execs.

 

[Achilles]

Obsidian's description sounds dead-on.

 

[deuxhero]

hmmm, Bethesda is completely absent and Zenimax has no reviews. I smell cover up!

 

[Wunderpurps]

Obsidian and bioware sound like fine places to work. There isn't any company in the world where employees won't bitch about bad management decisions. The guy complaining about contractors is a tard, of course they aren't going to treat some new wannabe like he is MCA, and a bad company will just hire a bunch of people full time and lay them all off except the best few.

 

[Overweight Manatee]

Shitty management in game development? Say it isn't so.

Obsidian and bioware sound like fine places to work. There isn't any company in the world where employees won't bitch about bad management decisions.

I don't know of any other instances of industry-wide practices of 12 hour 7 day workweeks without compensation for overtime.

 

[Wunderpurps]

Shitty management in game development? Say it isn't so.

Obsidian and bioware sound like fine places to work. There isn't any company in the world where employees won't bitch about bad management decisions.

I don't know of any other instances of industry-wide practices of 12 hour 7 day workweeks without compensation for overtime.

For programming it's common, but when people talk about hours they usually exaggerate. Sure, 12 hours a day seven days a week for a few months, then a few months of working 30 hours a week mostly spent in meetings without much to do.

 

[Volourn]

I think you should be paid for overtime. It's garbage - legal or not - to have someone - contracted or not - to work 60-80 hour weeks with no compensation. Shameful.

 

[Wunderpurps]

I think you should be paid for overtime. It's garbage - legal or not - to have someone - contracted or not - to work 60-80 hour weeks with no compensation. Shameful.

Get back in your cubicle and troll the dex half your work day to make up for it like everyone else.

 

[Overweight Manatee]

Game developers are already paid at the low end of the stick (~40-50k or thereabouts I think?). Working at 12 hours a day, your salary is effectively 25-30k as a ratio of work time vs pay rate for "crunch" time (which at many studios seems to be a month or more long for a game being rushed into a 1 year dev cycle). Nevermind the working 7 days a week. That's just despicable, I'm sure they wouldn't be able to do it without the thousands of wannabee kids who think game development is a dream job waiting to take the place of anyone who burns out (which causes further delays and further increases the work as inexperienced people keep getting moved in).


I've never worked (extended) overtime that didn't either get me a nice bonus or extra vacation time. I've also never worked a project that required mandatory overtime, resources were always allocated so that there were no overly loaded people and the only overtime we need to put in is when something genuinely out of plan happens. Its great to have several layers of management above you who have ALL started out from the bottom and put in their time before you, not head-up-ass MBAs who do nothing but search for jew gold.

 

[Turisas]

One must wonder how many of the employee reviews were cut just because they talked about how handsome and perfect MCA is...

Yeah, how anyone could get any work done when basking in the gloriously resplendent aura of MCA is beyond me.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

One must wonder how many of the employee reviews were cut just because they talked about how handsome and perfect MCA is...

Yeah, how anyone could get any work done when basking in the gloriously resplendent aura of MCA is beyond me.

Indeed, being in the same building is already too much, but what about when he walks among the mere mortals in their workstations? Surely the erections and heart attacks alone would take their toll, much less when people feel the need to get down on their knees and bow their heads in prayer!

 

[thesoup]

One must wonder how many of the employee reviews were cut just because they talked about how handsome and perfect MCA is...

Yeah, how anyone could get any work done when basking in the gloriously resplendent aura of MCA is beyond me.

Indeed, being in the same building is already too much, but what about when he walks among the mere mortals in their workstations? Surely the erections and heart attacks alone would take their toll, much less when people feel the need to get down on their knees and bow their heads in prayer!

Someone should ask him on twitter / facebook if that ever happened.

 

[Renegen]

People can call each other pussies for working or not working 12 hour days but the fact of the matter is that if you do it too often you can't have a life. This is all the more important once you're over 30 and want a family. Yeah, those oil rig workers have tough schedules, but then they get time off to come home, and their families all tell how hard it is. And of course it's paid well. A lot of 20 somethings can take pride in working long hours, maybe at a place they like, but at some point that life style has to end. And implicit in the long hours is that they will build a future and a career. Companies that are built on taking advantage of 20 year olds then discard them aren't exactly something to be proud of.

 

[Mangoose]

Being such a field engineer actually only lasts a year or two, anyway. It's simply the entry level position you'd go into before moving up the managerial (or other branches) ladder. You pay your dues, and then you have it easy after that. They also get paid A LOT. Lots of benefits to "motivate" you into bearing with the 4 weeks on - 4 weeks off schedule. Something like $100k/yr, with Schlumberger at least.

I don't think these programmers are going anywhere up.

 

[J_C]

One must wonder how many of the employee reviews were cut just because they talked about how handsome and perfect MCA is...

Yeah, how anyone could get any work done when basking in the gloriously resplendent aura of MCA is beyond me.

Indeed, being in the same building is already too much, but what about when he walks among the mere mortals in their workstations? Surely the erections and heart attacks alone would take their toll, much less when people feel the need to get down on their knees and bow their heads in prayer!

Someone should ask him on twitter / facebook if that ever happened.

Great idea. I assume he is already freaked out of this place. Let's give him the last push, so he never reads the Codex again.

 

[hoopy]

One "crunch" period consisted of 12 straight days of work. 7 of those 12 were 12 HOUR days

Boo fucking hoo! 12 hour days? I have a friend who works on an oil rig and he does 4 WEEKS of 12 hour days.

Cry me a river. I know a guy who breaks rocks with his bare hands 24 hours a day, and if he stops working they'll crucify him as an example to the others.

Anyway, what is it with game development and bad management?

 

[Mangoose]

Because all male nerds have issues with procrastination.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Vogel is right about 8 hour days. Working more on a computer job is fucking retarded. It leads to introducing additional bugs because of mistakes from exhaustion and to health problems.

 

[Ruprekt]

http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=30308

 

[POOPERSCOOPER]

Now the site will be filled with codexers acting as employees.