[game_edu] Qol, "crunch" and Education

[Ian Schreiber]

There's a really interesting thread going on at the QoL SIG right now and I 
wanted to bring a splinter of that thread over here. So I wanted to bring up the 
following for discussion:

First: what kinds of QoL discussions do you have as part of your formal 
education of students? For example, I introduce the topic in my Industry Survey 
class (the "ea_spouse" letter is required reading, and we discuss the 
implications and effects of that letter on the industry as a whole), and I also 
regularly remind my students of the sometimes harsh conditions in my other 
classes, particularly if a student complains that they didn't have time to 
finish an assignment or that they have a lot of demands on them outside of class 
^_^

Second: is "crunch" or long work hours something that is (or should be) part of 
the student experience for someone who wants to break in to industry? On the one 
hand, we should be doing our best to simulate real-world working conditions so 
that students are appropriately trained and prepared for the reality of the 
industry (this also likely makes them more marketable as well, if they have 
survived a difficult dev cycle). On the other hand, the industry (particularly 
the IGDA) acknowledges that excessive crunch is a problem, and introducing 
students to what it is like may make them more likely to perpetuate the problem 
rather than solve it (and it doesn't do anything to help the problem of burnout 
-- really, are we doing our students any favors if they graduate, get placed in 
a job, then leave the industry a few years later?).

What do you all think? How do you actually handle this on a personal 
(instructor) level, program level, and institutional level? How do you think 
schools SHOULD handle the subject?

- Ian



      
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