[game_edu] Qol, "crunch" and Education

[Jason Della Rocca]

Sadly, I've seen several schools take pride in how well they emulate
real-world crunch conditions as a way to prep students.

I suppose I understand the logic behind that, but is that the best
approach to take?

It would be one thing if these were all entrepreneurial efforts with
hopes of incubating new start-ups where the students owned the IP and
could directly benefit from their sweat equity. But, if the bulk of
them are just filling regular big studio jobs......

Either way, still seems wiser to indoctrinate a whole horde of
students on smart project management skills than trial by fire
endurance training.

Regards,
Jason


On Thu, Feb 3, 2011 at 12:33 PM, Ian Schreiber <ai864 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> 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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>




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Jason Della Rocca
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Perimeter Partners

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Jason at PerimeterPartners.com

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