[game_edu] Qol, "crunch" and Education

[Roberts, Scott]

To clarify, I wasn't going off on Global Game Jam in regards to crunch.  I don't think that working through the night on a fun activity like that is bad at all, and doing it by choice for fun is very different than being forced to do it by your employer.  I just think the timing of this discussion so close after was humorous.  My experience is that students like the idea of working all night every once in awhile, and there is an appeal to the camaraderie of having conquered it with your friends.  As I get older it has less and less appeal, but it's different when you're 20.  For them it can be very fun (and many of them stay up all night gaming anyways).

For example, at the end of the quarter we discussed with animation students whether they'd rather have the labs open longer on Sunday night or be able to work all night on a Saturday.  They overwhelmingly chose to work through the night (I told them they were crazy).  The UCLA Animation Workshop has been running "Falling Lizard," a 48 hour animated short film weekend marathon session, for over 30 years, and we're thinking about doing something similar.  Because it can be FUN.

Scott



From: game_edu-bounces at igda.org [mailto:game_edu-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Susan Gold
Sent: Friday, February 04, 2011 10:56 AM
To: IGDA Game Education Listserv
Subject: Re: [game_edu] Qol, "crunch" and Education

Just a note... the QofL SIG and many forum trolls went off on GGJ last year at the same time. Not only did the GGJ stress that people get sleep, last year it was one of the achievements. No matter what GGJ does say via the website or words of advice, QofL feels that this is the time to strike on a yearly basis. I think QofL needs to find a way to speak to the issue, but feel that they use GGJ as a good place to take out all of their frustrations.

Susan


On Feb 4, 2011, at 11:38 AM, Corvus Elrod wrote:


I stressed the importance of sleep and proper diet at our jam this year. As a result, a lot of the teams ensured they got proper night's sleep. At the postmortem we held last night, it was the teams that got sleep that had the most complete and polished games.

I'm hoping that the Jam will continue to serve as proof that crunch doesn't work as well as sleep. But it takes putting that message out there continuously to make it stick.

--
Corvus
On Fri, Feb 4, 2011 at 8:27 AM, Jose P. Zagal <jzagal at cdm.depaul.edu<mailto:jzagal at cdm.depaul.edu>> wrote:

The timing of this thread, in the week following Global Game Jam, is
hilarious.

"We should not encourage students to "crunch", or expect that they
will, or assign them work such that they have no way of completing it
without having to put in crunch-style hours."

Unless it's fun.

You raise a good point that I've wrestled with over the years.

Does Game Jam somehow legitimize (in the eyes of the students) overtime and crunching? I don't really have an answer for that, and I hope that someone explores the question...

I am concerned that it does, and this year I almost cut the "overnight" aspect. What I have done, as far as organizing Game Jam is:

1. On Friday I send everyone home. Game Jam only runs overnight from Sat to Sun.

2. We end earlier on Sunday (11am, rather than 3pm)

3. I make sure to provide decent meals (within budgetary constraints) rather than snacks to create opportunities for participants to take a break, step away from the computer, and nourish themselves properly.




--
José P. Zagal
Assistant Professor
College of Computing and Digital Media
DePaul University

http://www.ludoliteracy.com/
http://facsrv.cs.depaul.edu/~jzagal
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--
Susan Gold
In a completely sane world, madness is the only freedom!
- J. G. Ballard







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