[game_edu] Qol, "crunch" and Education

[Casey ODonnell]

Sorry for being late to the game on this one... Its a new QoL thing for me
actually, dealing with email in new ways. ;) See my final note.

So there are a couple of different issues that we're talking about, and I'll
offer my thoughts on a few of them.

-- Defining Crunch --
One of the first things that I think we need to be clear on is that there is
a difference between "working a lot for a week or a couple of days" and
"working a lot for weeks or months on end." For students those couple of
days or week can seem like "crunch," and it kind of is, but nothing like the
sustained levels that only a company can really provide.

Crunch is also only part of QoL. QoL of life is rooted in attempting to
balance work, home, life, etc. For many students those boundaries are far
from clear anyway and many discussions of QoL simply fall flat because of
lack of life experience for students ("benders" are not something I often
include in my definition). The same is true even for graduate students. QoL
really becomes clear when one has a SO, a home, aging parents, personal
aging, etc. The work/home divide is pretty invisible for most students.

Basically QoL becomes clearer as life happens. This is part of my
frustration with QoL discussions in the game industry, they fall apart
because people leave the industry or become enamored with a new technology
or project.

-- QoL for My Students --
QoL for my students is defined by them. I can help them understand that
spending all night/weekend in the lab is not good, but I can't force that
understanding on them. I can mitigate it by giving them tools and direction
that help them avoid it through planning and project management.

I also strive to ensure that projects are capable of fitting into ~9hours of
labor a week. 3 hours in class and 6 outside. The average student with a 15
hour load then "expects" to work ~45 hours per week. If there are other
things that they do, they need to balance those numbers. Now, most classes
don't demand that much outside work, so I leave it up to them to balance
that. In-class though, projects are kept to a scope that I believe they can
reasonably do in ~9 hours per week.

I can help my students understand that by not learning how to it now, they
actually enable modes of work that push experienced people out of the
industry. 

-- QoL in the Game Industry --
In many ways the culture of overtime in the game industry draws on the youth
and vitality of students coming out of college who still haven't developed
lives. But it changes.

As someone who studies the phenomena, QoL is both a top-down and bottom-up
issue for the game industry. It is linked to broader political-economic
conditions that individuals cannot control. It is linked to local practices
that enable poor QoL. Until developers are willing to take this on from both
directions, crunch will exist. Some studios will do their best to avoid it,
but they remain connected to those conditions that will regardless put
pressure on them to compromise QoL.

When I was a project manager, I prided myself on on-time, under-budget, and
minimal overtime projects. Usually, at the end, there would be a day or two
of late hours, but never crunch. People planned for it and knew where we
would be pressed to ensure things came together. QoL fails when projects
become wildly unpredictable (and often compounded by numerous internal and
external forces at studios). Like Ian noted, its also about internal
politics at companies. I just was willing to get fired to push back and my
people knew it. ;)

-- QoL During the GGJ --
I am still digesting my GGJ11 experience, and will likely blog about it
soon. I worked with 8 other people on a team. All of us slept.

Admittedly one of the other people on the team is someone who I contract
with for game development, so we have a good working personal and
professional relationship. We set "bedtime" for the old-folks at 3AM. Then
we arrived back at 9AM. We stayed at some dorms on campus (which was great,
thanks SPSU!) which also provided some distance, but didn't mean we had to
go anywhere.

The fact that we did this established for the less experienced on the team
that it was important to get rest. I talked to each team member and made
sure they were going to get some shut-eye before I went to bed. I let them
know what time we would be back working. First question I asked of anyone
already up at 9AM was, "did you get some sleep?"

I don't think the GGJ does anything "bad" from a QoL issue. It's so
localized and temporally bounded. If anything it teaches the value of not
being dumb with sleep and thinking critically about scope.

I watched as my team was largely back at work on Saturday at 10AM and other
teams had people passing out at 9/10AM who didn't return until late evening
and were then still often exhausted. Our team managed ~36 hours of good
working time, because we were strategic with getting sleep and thinking
about it. 

During the summers I run an "Athens Summer Jam" that runs from 5PM-Midnight
Friday, 10AM-Midnight Saturday, and 10AM-3PM Sunday. I like both formats.

Personally, because I knew about the GGJ in advance, I could plan for it. I
flew the mother-in-law in to help out at home. I took Friday and Monday off.
The problem with real crunch is that it becomes impossible to plan around.

-- QoL as an Academic --
Ian also briefly mentioned this with his note about "the dissertation." It
isn't a joke. I work, consistently, 60+ hours per week. I've had to adjust
my personal expectations and work habits as I've gotten older, gotten
married to a working professional, had a kid, etc.

My desire for QoL has been detrimental to my work. However, I think in the
long run, that QoL makes me better at what I do, though the metrics by which
I am judged currently say, "no." One less essay a year. Slower
student/teacher response rates. Etc. However, I'm still here accumulating
experience. All of that professional/institutional memory is wealth. So in
my mind I have a net gain...

But, there are a lot of issues at play here.

Best.
Casey

-- 
Casey O'Donnell, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Telecommunications
Grady College, University of Georgia

http://www.caseyodonnell.org