A Message to ArenaNet
SHHHHH dont tell that here.
If some bug boss reads this all Dev’s here will get etra 5 hrs of work every week.
OH kitten to late now they got punished and have to stay 2 extra hrs developing atleast 2 new gemstore items.
So, there was a recent post on the Assassin’s Creed Subreddit where a (Supposed) Ubisoft developer went into great detail about how some game companies will run their devs for days on end, working up to 80 hours a week, and basically focusing their lives solely on developing the games in order to make more money for the company.
So, I wanted to ask:
How are the devs treated? Are you guys happy? Game development can be pretty stressful, and I can only imagine what it’s like to read the really long threads complaining about things like the NPE.
You guys should know you’re awesome. This game is awesome. We complain so much because its awesome.
At least according to some anonymous employees, that sounds about right.
And I agree. The game is amazing — our complaints (mine anyway) are about the game’s direction, not the implementation. GW2 is an awesome game!
I love how people keep bringing up the Glass Door Reviews as some sort of negative. 72% of the employees would recommend Anet to a friend and 79% approve of the CEO. The reviews are varied. Some say the work is casual and some say that the company has an understanding of personal life vs work.
Yes, programmers do work hard, but there’s nothing to really imply 80 hours a week of labor or anything even close in those statements.
SHHHHH dont tell that here.
If some bug boss reads this all Dev’s here will get etra 5 hrs of work every week.OH kitten to late now they got punished and have to stay 2 extra hrs developing atleast 2 new gemstore items.
Joking on the GW2 forums is not allowed and will be treated as harrassment.
I love how people keep bringing up the Glass Door Reviews as some sort of negative. 72% of the employees would recommend Anet to a friend and 79% approve of the CEO. The reviews are varied. Some say the work is casual and some say that the company has an understanding of personal life vs work.
Yes, programmers do work hard, but there’s nothing to really imply 80 hours a week of labor or anything even close in those statements.
Those statistics come from anyone associated with the company — from devs to designers to artists to QC testers, and are a very small sample size. They also represent years worth of reviews — and recent reviews suggest that working conditions have dropped quickly in the last year. I don’t really put a lot of stock in those stats.
Reading the reviews to get a feel of the working conditions, IMO, is the way to use glassdoor. I work as a software developer myself, and have used glassdoor to research many jobs, and the contents of a review tell you far more than the accumulated “I approve/disapprove” statistics.
Now, ArenaNet’s reviews and working conditions seem about par for the course when it comes to game studios — the industry is not known for taking care of its talent. The reviews don’t mention 80 hours/week, but they mention endless crunches, continual “crisis” mode, and scattered management directives. I’ve worked on projects like this, and believe me, it is a nightmare.
I believe the point of this post was to say “THANK YOU, YOU’RE APPRECIATED” to the people who are being put through the grind, because our beef is not with them, but they don’t hear a lot of positivity in return for their excellent work.
(edited by dlonie.6547)