My opinion is that a lot of this conversation is being had by people who haven't actually worked in creative industries where deadlines, budgets and overtime are a thing.
I suppose a good starting point would be to ask how much work is too much work?
How much personal choice should employees have in how much work they do?
Should Employee A be given greater rewards and recognition for the five back to back 16 hour shifts that basically saved the project 2 months before release compared to Employee B who was just a Monday to Friday, 9 to 5, kind of guy?
Even looking at Jim Sterling's videos I would be VERY surprised if Jim himself and the people he employs don't work very long hours trying to get the videos finalized.
Most games release with some kind of issues. Could be performance issues. Could be that some mechanics aren't fully fleshed out. Could be the story is not quite right. So basically it would be possible to work 24 hours a day on a game for years and STILL be coming up with little things that need to be tweaked or improved.
In the end most developers are releasing something that's "good enough" so it will come down to how good they really want it to be.
If people are being well paid in accordance with how long they need to work then I don't see the issue.
Personally, the occasions when I am working well into the early morning, sleeping 4 hours and getting right back into it, are done because I have pride in my work and because I stand to make more money, or get a future promotion, or get access to other opportunities, if the job is done well. The other side of this is I get to take it easy during non-busy times.
I suppose a good starting point would be to ask how much work is too much work?
How much personal choice should employees have in how much work they do?
Should Employee A be given greater rewards and recognition for the five back to back 16 hour shifts that basically saved the project 2 months before release compared to Employee B who was just a Monday to Friday, 9 to 5, kind of guy?
Even looking at Jim Sterling's videos I would be VERY surprised if Jim himself and the people he employs don't work very long hours trying to get the videos finalized.
Most games release with some kind of issues. Could be performance issues. Could be that some mechanics aren't fully fleshed out. Could be the story is not quite right. So basically it would be possible to work 24 hours a day on a game for years and STILL be coming up with little things that need to be tweaked or improved.
In the end most developers are releasing something that's "good enough" so it will come down to how good they really want it to be.
If people are being well paid in accordance with how long they need to work then I don't see the issue.
Personally, the occasions when I am working well into the early morning, sleeping 4 hours and getting right back into it, are done because I have pride in my work and because I stand to make more money, or get a future promotion, or get access to other opportunities, if the job is done well. The other side of this is I get to take it easy during non-busy times.