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[Timeaisis]

"Crunch can last a week. It can last six months. It drains you, literally sucks your life away. Time flies by, and you have no idea where it went because you were locked in a dim room for a month, surviving on lattes and Cheetos, the pale glow of your monitor mirroring the fading light in your eyes."

Definitely sounds like something to worship.

It can also last a year and then the studio can lay everyone off. It's not worth it and anyone who thinks it is has a mental health condition or has gotten something good out of the experience, by a stroke of luck.

I will work hard if my reward or contribution is just, but nine times out of ten, in my experience, crunch yields the exact opposite of that. You only hear from the winners, after all.

 

[SoundPulse]

The author's clarifications on Twitter put this excerpt in a better light imo, but I really have to question publishing this without that context.

 

[Shifty]

The author's clarifications on Twitter put this excerpt in a better light imo, but I really have to question publishing this without that context.

Polygon gonna Polygon

 

[Abilidebob]

It feels so good to know that I'll never had to whitelist Polygon from Adblock Plus.

 

[gondwana]

reads like a tim rogers x reason magazine collab

 

[Marcel]

Thread from the author.

I don't need a window into an preening, egotistical white man who is tacitly endorsing labor exploitation in any context. I'm sorry the game industry made him into a self-destructive prick with an awful writing style that made me cringe at my desk but not all stories need to be told. Hopefully he can continue to work out his personal problems away from the public space.

 

[PepsimanVsJoe]

lol the gamer is to blame.

What a joke of an article.

 

[entremet]

It's a personal piece. It's rather clear in the writing style.

He's not advocating for it.

This isn't an endorsement, by the way. It's the confession of an addict. Some people will say it shouldn't be like this, that making games shouldn't come with so high a price. And, in a perfect world, maybe they'd be right. It's clear what kind of world we wish for; its design has repeatedly appeared in our games for decades.

A counter piece would be nice, though.

 

[Gentleman Jack]

The author's clarifications on Twitter put this excerpt in a better light imo, but I really have to question publishing this without that context.

Hm? It's fairly clear that the author is expressing deep psychological problems, referring to himself as an addict making questionable sacrifices in the name of a lie, and the column begins with

Walt Williams has worked in the AAA gaming industry for over a decade. The following is an excerpt from his book Significant Zero.

So what context is missing?

 

[Prime crotch]

This reads like satire. Or from someone who's an addict.

 

[Patch13]

I recognize this. It's the reason early Christians went out in the desert and starved themselves, or stripped down and rolled in nettles. It's the reason Jon Blow pissed in a bottle.

I don't have it. Maybe the lack is the reason I have a film degree, but barely one entry in imdb. Maybe it's the reason I've never got "fuck you money" out of a startup. Maybe it's the reason I play games, but don't make games, despite having a thrice relevant professional skill set.

The ability to lose yourself so completely in something, in part because you secretly hate yourself so much -- that is what drives everything from religion to art to high finance, I think. It's terrible. It is a demon. And yet the upside of the dark bargain that the demon offers is so damn high.

I guess I'll just be in my corner, taking my slow and steady approach. I contribute positively at a nice company. I've published some short stories. I spend time with my family. I sometimes know how to love myself. I sometimes make posts on forums. Maybe I'll make a game someday.

I don't hate those that have accepted the demon's bargain. I don't really pity them, either. I love the strange and wondrous things that they make, purified as they are by the fires of hell.

 

[McDougles]

It's a personal piece. It's rather clear in the writing style.

He's not advocating for it.

Question remains why Polygon is advocating it as a "brutally honest look at crunch."

 

[Tain]

reads like a tim rogers x reason magazine collab

pretty spot on

 

[Sabas]

Yeah, that twitter thread by the author would've been better served in the actual article.

 

[Marcel]

Question remains why Polygon is advocating it as a "brutally honest look at crunch."

I wouldn't put it past Ben Kuchera to miss the point, as misguided as I believe the author is regardless of the additional context.

 

[Chezzymann]

I wish there was regulations to get rid of this shit

 

[Abilidebob]

Question remains why Polygon is advocating it as a "brutally honest look at crunch."

Why not call it "A brutally honest look at the mind of someone broken by crunch and affected by some sort of Stockholm syndrome"?
It's even less than 140 characters!

 

[ThatStupidLion]

Fuck crunch time. Such bullshit. Its no way to work and live.


Currently been going through crunch for the past 3 weeks myself

 

[wrowa]

I actually like this quote:

Polish and innovation come at a cost. Not to you, of course. You’ll only pay sixty bucks and not a dollar more, because you lack the ability to measure the value of digital goods either through cost or effort. If we try to sell you five-dollar downloadable content, you’ll attack us with negative reviews, claiming we’re trying to nickel and dime you. But if we package our game with a plastic figure and book of concept art, you’ll shell out an easy hundred because it’s “limited.”

Rather condescending in tone, but he does have somewhat of a point. A lot of us will happily pay extra for quickly thrown together plastic garbage, but when it comes to DLC dozens, maybe even hundreds of people worked on for months we are extra critical of every cent we are supposed to pay.

 

[Lime]

The author's clarifications on Twitter put this excerpt in a better light imo, but I really have to question publishing this without that context.

It's a personal piece. It's rather clear in the writing style.

He's not advocating for it..

The text itself in the article is advocating for it.

That’s not our world. In this plane of existence, we are limited. We can accomplish almost anything, but only if we’re willing to pay the price. It may not be fair, and it definitely won’t be the same price quoted to someone else, but it will still need to be paid. In this industry, we all make sacrifices: love, life, health — those things we’re told we cannot live without. It’s natural to wish things weren’t this way, but it won’t change anything. You either agree to the cost or move on with your life. Those who rail against it are either naïve or bitter — they paid the price and didn’t go as far as they had hoped. That’s the risk you take. Being an artist is not easy. Selling your soul will not always bear a profit.

 

[ElBoxyBrown]

Why not call it "A brutally honest look at the mind of someone broken by crunch and affected by some sort of Stockholm syndrome"?
It's even less than 140 characters!

It probably would have been seen as a disrespect to the writer.

 

[keraj37]

A writer's experience in crunch is VASTLY different from a developer in crunch.

Thank you for that. Putting equal sign between crunching game engine programmer and lets say game designer is complete mistake.
I remember me feeling pain in brain, not understanding simplest lines of code, all this cause extreme tiredness during crunch.
Programmers mind must be clear and rested not only to deliver quality work with efficiency but also to deliver whatsoever.

(game designer crunching) != (programmer crunching)

Beside that if there is a need for crunch - that would mean that managing level of employees failed and they need to pay largest part of that bill.

 

[Sad Affleck]

From the article.

Your situation is truly as bad as it seems. Afterward, once you’ve stopped feeling sorry for yourself, be happy with the fact that your sacrifice is helping bring someone else’s vision to life.

This is just disgusting.

 

[Mifune]

This book is great by the way. Really fast and funny. Walt Williams doesn't make for the most likable narrator but he certainly is engaging. And no, he's not advocating for crunch. He's a deeply messed up workaholic and writing from that perspective.

 

[BossDarkseid]

→ https://twitter.com/TimOfLegend/status/900399375750316032

Schafer is our new god.

There's something to be said that Crunch is people showing how much pride they have and love in their work...but it's obscenely exploitive and a horrible work practice. This feels ill judged in a similar fashion to TBs op ed on Kotaku about internet harassment...

It's really easy for me to say because I'm a student and not a professional developer in a studio but I would hate myself if my vision forced someone to work in those conditions or this way.

 

[hotcyder]

I feel like we get this article every year, and we have the same reaction every year, and the game industry returns to a cycle of businesses exploiting the pride of it's developers to meet a release date and high expectations, that uses articles like these as a counter point to never having to change its ways.

 

[ElBoxyBrown]

But really, I wouldn't be surprised if almost half the people working on games share this sentiment. I have no doubt that game development fucks you up.

 

[UserDoesNotExist]

The 40-hour work week isn't traditional. It's a industrial age invention based on studies commissioned by Henry Ford that indicated that was the most efficient work schedule for assembly workers.

In the information age? The number is likely lower. This is off the top of my head, but the amount of useful creative work (not answering emails or attending meetings) that can be expected out of a person is around four hours a day. Not 12.

In other words, people that advocate for crunch are idiots twice over, since the 40 hour work week itself is an unrealistic expectation for useful creative work.

 

[Marcel]

This book is great by the way. Really fast and funny. Walt Williams doesn't make for the most likable narrator but he certainly is engaging.

If you find prose on the level of Ready Player One about toxic work environments funny then that's your business. The nerdcore writing just makes it worse to me.

 

[HandsomeCharles]

The guy who cleans the shit out the toilets at DICE works in the AAA industry.
Doesn't mean his views on crunchtime amount to much

IMO, I only care about the views of Programmers and Artists when it comes to crunch. Granted I don't know what it's like to crunch in a writers role, but I'd imagine its volumes less stressful than people responsible for implementation.

 

[peanutbutterlatte]

This kind of thinking, in the gaming industry and outside of it, is absolutely disgusting.

 

[TumblingHippo]

Gamers should be made aware of how much their hobby literally kills people slowly, but the tone of this article isn't doing anything to help those negatively affected by crunch.

 

[poodaddy]

All this article has done is assure I won't buy any more games written by Walt "Relish your position peasants!" Williams in the future. People come before profit,always, and justifying crunch makes you a fucking dick.

 

[Marcel]

All this article has done is assure I won't buy any more games written by Walt "Relish your position peasants!" Williams in the future. People come before profit,always, and justifying crunch makes you a fucking dick.

Don't buy his book either.

 

[Mifune]

If you find prose on the level of Ready Player One about toxic work environments funny then that's your business. The nerdcore writing just makes it worse to me.

Did you read the book or just the excerpt? He honestly tackles the workaholic mindset in a way I've never seen before. It's full of great war stories, too.

 

[Lunarwhale]

never thought i would see the "fuck yours got mine" mentality applied to crunch but here we are! I haven't read his book. After this, I don't intend to so consider this reply entirely to this Polygon article.

Crunch needs to fuck off because it drags literally everything else down with it. This guy needs to fuck off because, on a team, it doesn't matter if one person thrives off of it. The entire team now has to adjust to this one person's schedule, held back by one person's lack of effort until the last minute, and all because they're the weak link when it comes to executive functioning and scheduling. If you're going to put everything off until the last second, you don't get an extra pat on the ass for eventually doing your part.

This shouldn't even have been published without a fuckload of asterisk regarding the writer's crunch experience. In the gaming context, it regularly refers to programming team crunch - something which is a failure of project management and is extremely exploitative and almost never successful. This guy clearly just does it by choice.

 

[konjak]

The text itself in the article is advocating for it.

He's recounting his mental defense against people telling him to stop. The article also says he's not advocating it.

 

[kiguel182]

Crunch is bad and it should not be romanticized. It should end unless there’s a problem or an impossible deadline that requires an extra couple nights of work. Not fucking 6 months.

 

[Zooboomoofu]

It's difficult to get past the shitty writing to begin evaluating hius arguments.

But crunch is the result of failure in project management.

Yea, his writing style is awful. Williams strikes me as the type to revel in being hated, so the dog pile going on in this thread doesn't even seem mean spirited.

Crunch is an avoidable means to an end, he knows this and outlines this fact.

The true meaning I got from this excerpt is not about "Crunch" at all, it's about Williams and his need to immerse himself into projects to the point of exhaustion. He's an overindulgent person who needs to be consumed by his work, because that's what he defines himself by. If he wasn't crunching away developing video games it would be something else.

tldr; this excerpt isn't about video game crunch, it's about Williams highlighting his character flaws.

 

[SpinningBirdKick]

Working extended hours without compensation should be ridiculed not celebrated.

Fuck that and fuck the writer for promoting it as acceptable.

 

[Interficium]

Guess who has the worst crunch in the industry.

Your Naughty Gods.

 

[Marcel]

Yea, his writing style is awful. Williams strikes me as the type to revel in being hated, so the dog pile going on in this thread doesn't even seem mean spirited.

Crunch is an avoidable means to an end, he knows this and outlines this fact.

The true meaning I got from this excerpt is not about "Crunch" at all, it's about Williams and his need to immerse himself into projects to the point of exhaustion. He's an overindulgent person who needs to be consumed by his work, because that's what he defines himself by. If he wasn't crunching away developing video games it would be something else.

tldr; this excerpt isn't about video game crunch, it's about Williams highlighting his character flaws.

I like reading about flawed people that are actually interesting or people who can actually write about themselves, not gaming industry schlubs who romanticize toxic work environments and write like the Diet Coke version of Anthony Burch or Ernest Cline.

 

[JackDT]

Reposting:

https://twitter.com/waltdwilliams/status/900405022734909440

Hey. I'm a mess of a human being who also makes video games. I wrote a book about that. It's a memoir, not essays or an expose. Just me.

Crunch is destructive. It is not necessary (w/ good planning), and should not be forced on people. It is also seductive to certain types.

For w/e reason, I'm broken in certain ways. Destroying myself to make something fills an emptiness that I can't shake. That's bad.

The excerpt is from a moment in my life when I was at my lowest & giving in to my most self-destructive tendencies.

I wanted you to see that through my eyes; to hear the things I tell myself when I consider throwing my life away for a work binge.

Living and working that way led to a breakdown. I'm healthier now, but you know what? I still crave it. It is a CONSTANT fight for me.

As an industry, we need to talk about crunch - how we define it, and especially how exploitative it can be.

I didn't go into that, b/c I didn't want it to seem like I was forced to work this way. I did this to myself. Still do, tbh.

And, if I'm being just really open about it, I wasn't sure I could do that discussion justice b/c I have a hard time seeing it clearly.

But, we're talking now, and that's good. My hope was that by being honest, it would encourage others to do the same.

 

[Mifune]

He's recounting his mental defense against people telling him to stop. The article also says he's not advocating it.

The book thoroughly inhabits his frame of mind during his 2K days - obsessive, addicted, and pretty fucking nasty. Like you said, it's not meant to be advocacy of any kind.

 

[Lunarwhale]

Reposting:

https://twitter.com/waltdwilliams/status/900405022734909440

Why is Polygon so unbelievably bad at publishing? This article gains nothing by being vague and without context.

 

[Tater]

Jesus, this guy has a problem:

I've edited scripts in ICU rooms, responded to emails while begging lovers not to walk out the door, sent brainstorming lists during the birth of my child. I held my grandfather's hand while he passed away, then went into his office and wrote text for mission descriptions. None of this was expected of me, and no one would have dared to ask. I did all these things for me.

I've worked AAA games before, and crunch time is pretty terrible. The worst is when your manager has a viewpoint like this, because they've already decided to spend their life at work, so why can't you?

But his viewpoint is telling:

Or, you can Crunch hard, keep your wits about you, and try not to lose your head. If you manage that, someday you may get to be the asshole building their dreams on the backs of those less fortunate.

He's basically bought into the MLM version of corporate America, where everyone is just a temporarily embarrassed CEO. Nevermind that it's virtually impossible to get promoted from something like a junior artist to a position where you'd get to make "real" decisions, because internal structures just don't work that way.

Oh, and of course when he says (paraphrased) "If you don't like it, quit!" most people do - when they realize that they're not going to be promoted to a level they want, and that they can get a huge raise and better quality of life just by changing industries. Which is why there's such a brain drain in so many game companies.

 

[Drencrom]

Guess who has the worst crunch in the industry.

Your Naughty Gods.

Source? They're definitely crunching but from what I've heard Rockstar is the worst.

 

[Mr. Phellps]

Thread from the author.

He could've admitted his addiction while still painting Crunch in a bad light. The entire article read like he was justifying something that even he admitted damaged his life because it made him feel good and forget his problems.

Even worse, the entire article reads like a drug addict trying to justify his destructive behavior, except we're talking about something that isn't obviously wrong and can still be seen as something positive and natural to the industry by most people.

 

[Iva Demilcol]

This is embarrassing.

 

[zoodoo]

My crunch experiences did not involve lattes and cheetos...

They involved actual catering from local GOOD restaraunts so I can't complain too much

I can never understand the justification of working late hours and people saying: "we had food". I find it insulting however fancy the restaurant is. I can afford my own meal and I would be having it with family or friends, not some random guy working on the same project as me.