knew the whole God of War story was too good to be true and here the dark underbelly is finally exposed, slave labor was used by Cory Barlog with an as of yet untold body count:
https://www.resetera.com/threads/giant-bomb-asked-cory-barlog-about-recent-labor-issue-debate-in-video-game-industry.38762/Cory Barlog: I mean, it's always a tricky thing for us, we, we really... We depend on the passion of the people there, right?
The problem when everybody is #passionate is that then people are wondering why you’re not as #passionate and then maybe you’re not a good #culture fit.
This is a good post. When Cory keeps talking about people being there late, redoing art, etc. because they care, there is an implication that the people who aren't there at 3am either don't care or, at least, care less.
I work in software (not game development) and my company is super guilty of this. My priority is always going to be my marriage. During our "crunch" times, I'll put in 12 hour days and then go home to spend time on what actually matters to me. My company has definitely made comments to me (and others like me) that they expect...more. "More" is nebulous, but the message seems to be that an employee is expected to be an employee first, ride-or-die for the company, and anything else second.
I get the same vibes from what Cory said here. It's gross. These employees likely work to support a life outside of work, whatever that life looks like. To imply that those people don't care as much as the 3am workers is insulting.
"Passion" is a fucking meaningless value and should be of zero relevance to anyone but someone's own personal ambitions and growth.
Because the second you see one employee who has #passion versus another who doesn't, the person that doesn't choose to put their health and personal well-being at risk looks a lot less appealing. "Maybe I should hire more people who have passion versus those that aren't motivated enough to put their health at risk."
I don't think he's a villain, I think he's just misguided like a lot of the rest of the higher-up people in this industry. All throughout the thread we've discussed how "passion" is a misnomer and he just perpetuates that idea.
For every passionate developer goimg the extra mile how many are only there late because everyone else is and they don't want to look bad?
I mean, you're not only wrong, you're willfully ignorant if you truly believe what you say. You're ignoring the facts to suit your own story. You're talking like the CEOs who make often literally hundreds of times more money than the people fucking killing themselves to make a game.
In short: you can't be trusted, and I hope you're never in charge of anything ever. If you somehow are, well, I pity anyone who works for you. Poor suckers have got a real fuckin' problem being at the whims of someone like you.
Fuck absolutely everything about this disgusting, corporate shill of a post.
What a non-answer.
I’d love the chance to work on a game like GoW, but as it stands for most of my fellow developers, overtime sucks and it is most certainly not happening because we are just that excited about the project.
If I’m working on something awesome, am I going to work closer to 50 maybe 55 hours a week to get stuff done? Probably. Am I ever going to want to work 12+ hour days for months straight? Nope. It sucks no matter how passionate you are, at least for me.
We need to bury the word “passion” from our vocabulary.
Yeah that does suck. I was meaning extra time for pet projects related to their main project, though. Like experimenting with new gameplay or revising the art in a completed level. Give the experienced, passionate people an extra day or two per month to do stuff like that (or take to add polish to their regular work) and they might not have to decide to stay until 2 am because they just need to get something in the game.
An extra week every month or two to add something like "I think it's cool" would do wonders. Little prototypes, experiments. Would LOVE that. It's asking quite a bit haha, but still.
That's missing the larger contributor which is the publisher/powers-that-be wanting to release games in certain fiscal quarters to meet cost/revenue expectations. There's no indication that games that are delayed, but still good, aren't as hyped when finally released. Nintendo ... famously sticks to this and their games sell very well. The reason those deadlines 'need' to be met is usually because an accountant somewhere needs "+$100,000,000" on their spreadsheet.
I mean, he proudly discusses convincing various team leads that his scope and vision of the game (aka larger and bigger than previous GoW games) is doable. He either a) thinks they're under performing with regard what can be accomplished or b) doesn't care because he can get them to over produce what would normally be accomplished. Neither are great looks.
Cory sits at the top of the food chain. He probably gives no shits about the people under him, simply by the fact that he has witnessed more mass firings as a lead and manager than most. Otherwise, he would have had the decency to avert the actions of money men to fire (or only hire) short term contractors.
But, that is career suicide, and in america, you are YOUR JOB. He can talk about passion all he wants, but at the end of the day, if it comes down to his kids being destitute or some 20 yo intern passing out at his desk due to """"passion"""" for the project.... figure it out.
Don't trust your bosses.
Don't trust corporations.
Your mentality is what I think it is wrong with Cory. Put on other people's shoes. He is happy and motivated not meaning others are.
looks like those 10/10's were a little premature for Sony Sweatshop Slave Farm's latest literal grinder of human beings to produce giant corporate profits, not surprised that rich fat cats like Cory Barlog would literally murder people rather than give people one or two extra days to take care of issues or invent cool new innovative features all to fatten his wallet
hopefully this story of slave like working conditions enforced by Cory Barlog will get big play and the The Game Awards can be competitive and encompass the work of other cultures like Japan which have a respect for all living things, especially whatever secret major titles Nintendo has planned for release that they won't reveal until the last second at a potential future Nintendo Direct, rather than blindly giving the award to games produced purely for profit as is done in the West like God of War and Red Dead Redemption 2 without any cares about their larger impact on employees, society, labor relations and most importantly the uncomfortable feelings I have when my need to show ideological purity clashes with my anger at LAZY DEVS WHO DON'T CARE FOR PRODUCING TRUE ART THAT JUSTIFIES MY HOBBY TO OTHERS
