[game_edu] Qol, "crunch" and Education

[Ian Schreiber]

Incidentally, I think the difference between what you term "lifestyle crunch" 
and "heroic crunch" is debatable.

Certainly from an emotional (and probably mental health) perspective, what you 
call "heroic" crunch can be fun and certainly isn't draining -- by definition, 
if it's something you choose to do out of passion on your own terms when you 
want, it feels good.

That said, does VOLUNTARILY working long hours still have the same effect on 
productivity? Of course the people crunching out of passion will tell you they 
are more productive, they certainly feel that way, but if actually measured I'm 
not sure that you'll find a real difference. (I admit I don't know the 
literature, but I've heard arguments on both sides, so I'm not willing to take 
it as given.) Though as Dan points out, even one team member crunching 
voluntarily can still be harmful to the team effort, if their colleagues then 
feel compelled to follow suit.

I do know that sleep deprivation is harmful; the statistic I mention to my 
students is that half-sleep per night for a week OR no sleep for a single day 
impairs judgment, reaction times and thinking ability in pretty much the same 
way as being legally drunk.

The question is: how do we handle this as educators? If one of your students 
mentions before class that they were up for the last 48 hours doing nothing but 
finishing your latest assignment... how many of us would just instinctively grin 
and call them "hardcore," versus actively calling them out as idiots for their 
poor time management, versus saying nothing and letting the other students draw 
their own conclusions? And what effect does this have on student culture when we 
react in a certain way?

- Ian




________________________________
From: Dan Rosenthal <swatjester at gmail.com>
To: IGDA Game Education Listserv <game_edu at igda.org>
Sent: Fri, February 4, 2011 8:29:21 PM
Subject: Re: [game_edu] Qol, "crunch" and Education

Mike,

Great post! What about in fields where the vast majority of your students come 
in already on the "heroic crunch" workload because simply feel they have to in 
order to get hired? It's a problem we struggled with in law school -- you have 
hundreds of people who already are type A hard-charger personalities, taking on 
more and more work not because they were ordered to, but because they were 
simply trying to rise above their peers.  Problem is, over time this accretes 
until students start getting dangerously overloaded, and it stratifies the pool 
of graduates. Basically, what happens when everyone signs up for those 
incredibly long hard hours, because they feel like they have to to compete?

I've been kicking around ideas for a while now about ways to prevent students 
from being overworked and overstressed due to occupational expectations. Most 
stress-relief programs schools offer that I've followed generally say things 
like "take breaks, manage your time, have me-time, etc." but never talk much 
about how you learn to draw the line.

Again, the above refers mainly to fields outside of games; I'm trying to figure 
out to what extent this sort of thing affects game education, but it's more of a 
curiosity than anything else. 

-Dan


On Feb 4, 2011, at 12:29 PM, Mike Sellers wrote:

One other note on crunch.  There are three separate kinds that need to be 
considered: 

>

>

>First is a quick sprint, putting in a long week or two to recover from a 

>setback, unexpected bug, or design change in the face of an unyielding deadline. 

> 

>

>

>Second is lifestyle crunch.  This is maybe the most common kind and the most 

>destructive.  It results from habitual underestimation due to wishful thinking 

>all around.  

>

>

>And third is what I'll call heroic crunch. This is often confused and conflated 

>with lifestyle crunch, but they're entirely different.  Sometimes, especially in 

>a startup or similar situation, you knowingly take on a set of tasks that far 

>exceed the time or resources you have to accomplish them because the reward (or 

>even just the challenge) makes it worth it.  "Heroic" here isn't a bad thing -- 

>you could also call it challenge or adventurous crunch.  Where someone says, 

>"yeah, okay, that's crazy, but let's do it."  

>

>

>The problem is that we confuse these all the time.  We think that something will 

>be a short sprint and it turns into a death march.  Or we have executives trying 

>to cajole employees into heroism when it's not really of their own choosing.

>

>

>IMO there's nothing at all wrong with signing up to work incredibly long hard 

>hours (for a while) if you know what you're doing and why.  "Slow and steady" 

>does not always win the race, sorry.  But it's when that effort becomes just how 

>you do things on a normal basis that productivity, morale, and QoL problems 

>quickly flood in.

>

>

>Mike Sellers

>

>

>

>On Fri, Feb 4, 2011 at 11:22 AM, Mike Sellers <mike at onlinealchemy.com> wrote:

>

>Very interesting discussion.  Crunch is a complex phenomenon in any software 

>business, but is highly visible in games.  

>>

>>

>>One thing I would suggest for those teaching students about software engineering 

>>in general and game development in particular is how to make better estimates of 

>>their work.  This takes time, but is a great self- and team-check.

>>

>>

>>One (educational) way to do this that I have used in industry to extremely good 

>>effect is to have team members (students) create typical schedule estimates as 

>>part of planning a project.  This is fairly standard Gantt-chart stuff, but 

>>we're always dealing with unknowns that make any task estimate risky. So then 

>>expand this into 10/50/90 estimates: they have to define their most optimistic 

>>estimate (10% probability, if everything goes well), their midline (50%, should 

>>have been their initial estimate), and their conservative estimate (90% 

>>probability of completion by that time, absent a meteor hitting their computer). 

>> 

>>

>>

>>Then, throughout the course of the project (on a weekly or even daily basis), 

>>have them continually re-estimate their tasks.  Those that they're actively 

>>working on should see the 10/50/90 estimates converge.  If they don't, there's 

>>something wrong -- a task that was 3 days from being done 2 days ago, and is 

>>still 3 days from being done needs critical review.  

>>

>>There are three great things the students or team members get out of this: first 

>>is a quantitative understanding of how their own schedule estimates differ from 

>>reality.  Second, a quantitative measure of how their ability to schedule can 

>>improve (on a second short project they should be able to give better estimates 

>>of what can be done in a given time).  And third is a clear and again 

>>quantitative understanding of how it is that projects get behind.  Whether it's 

>>someone's laziness or being unprepared, changing or unknown requirements, 

>>unexpected bugs or design taking longer than expected, it quickly becomes clear 

>>where the sources of crunch come from.

>>

>>

>>It's easy to blame designers, programmers, or execs in game studios for crunch, 

>>but the fact is they all play roles in this.  Without question to me the key in 

>>avoiding crunch-as-lifestyle is sizing reachable goals to the time and resources 

>>available -- and the only way to really do this is to know, quantitatively from 

>>past experience, how accurate your task estimates are likely to be (this is 

>>still a rare thing in industry, but is incredibly useful).  You can even get to 

>>the point of saying, "okay, those estimates look and feel pretty good to me. 

>> But I know from past experience that my 'looks good' estimates of ill-defined 

>>tasks need to be multiplied by 1.12 to get a historically accurate measure of 

>>how long it will really take."  

>>

>>

>>Armed with this, students can learn to avoid crunch whenever possible, or at 

>>least not contribute to it being a way of life.

>>

>>Mike Sellers

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>On Fri, Feb 4, 2011 at 10:13 AM, Jose P. Zagal <jzagal at cdm.depaul.edu> wrote:

>>

>>I have a question for you, Jose, about the 40 hour work week and Ford.

>>>>The processes there were for efficiency of assembly line workers. Fewer

>>>>errors when workers aren't over tired. I can see the parallel between

>>>>being more efficient when you have a good nights sleep (GGJ aftermath

>>>>still fresh in my mind.).

>>>>

>>>>

>>>>But with relatives that work in film production, I know that there are

>>>>exceptionally long hours there and some 'crunch' to get things done on

>>>>time. The main distinction I see is that those fields are unionized and

>>>>there is a financial penalty in terms of overtime for poor management.

>>>>

>>>>

Sometimes creative work necessitates long hours. But the difference here

>>>>is that creative professionals in game development are not compensated

>>>>at the point where those hours are incurred in the development process.

>>>>

>>

>>There's a difference between occasional long hours and crunch as it is used in 

>>the game industry. In a nutshell, here's what we know (and this started with 12 

>>years of research at Ford, but has continued in various other industries):

>>

>>1. Overtime results in productivity gains, these gains are the highest in the 

>>first week and then rapidly decrease over the following weeks.

>>

>>2. You need a recovery period following overtime to get back to "original" 

>>productivity. (in other words, you may get a productivity boost for 2 weeks, but 

>>you'll have to "pay" for that later on, in terms of productivity).

>>

>>And...in the creative industries, the numbers are actually lower. Performance 

>>begins to decline after 35 hours a week, not 40.

>>

>>So, yes, overtime can be used to achieve short-term goals (e.g. work a week of 

>>overtime to get that presentation ready for E3) but it must be followed by 

>>reduced time (work 30 hours a week the week after) if you want to maintain 

>>productivity.

>>

>>The MAIN problem when we look at educational settings is that students have a 

>>much harder time seeing (and experiencing) the loss in productivity that results 

>>from sustained overtime. Pulling an all-nighter for that one project might work 

>>(productivity boost) because you'll rest for two entire days after that project 

>>is turned in...and then you're ready for another all-nighter for the next 

>>project...  As far as I know there's no school out there in which students are 

>>working overtime throughout the entire quarter/semester...

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>-- 

>>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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