Comments on: Electronic Arts promises workplace change
In wake of charges of abusive work schedules, a company memo admits that "there are things we just need to fix."
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After all, people who don't have a problem working a person for 80+ hours a week consistantly, and not properly compensating them, are not the most trustworthy folks around. As everyone knows, this announcment is pure PR, and nothing substantial will change without serious pressure. The only thing EA management regrets is having this travesty made public.
"We have resisted this in the past--not because we don't want to pay overtime but because we believe that the wage and hour laws have not kept pace with the kind of work done at technology companies, the kind of employees those companies attract and the kind of compensation packages their employees prefer," the memo stated."
Yes indeed, blame the labor laws for your unethical practices. Who do they think they are kidding?
After all, people who don't have a problem working a person for 80+ hours a week consistantly, and not properly compensating them, are not the most trustworthy folks around. As everyone knows, this announcment is pure PR, and nothing substantial will change without serious pressure. The only thing EA management regrets is having this travesty made public.
"We have resisted this in the past--not because we don't want to pay overtime but because we believe that the wage and hour laws have not kept pace with the kind of work done at technology companies, the kind of employees those companies attract and the kind of compensation packages their employees prefer," the memo stated."
Yes indeed, blame the labor laws for your unethical practices. Who do they think they are kidding?
current employee sees it just the way I do; what Rusty said
makes no sense!
Rusty says that artists are the 'creative' and coders are the
'technical' - what kind of crap is that? He tries to draw a hard
line between the two, when in fact, these games couldn't exist
without either! Have you ever seen a coder try to draw?
Horrible! And, they usually sneer at the artists claiming that an
artist's work is so much 'easier' than theirs. There is a huge
blurring of the lines of what individual talent made the game
possible. What about the story/character developers. It's those
people that make movies like "Finding Nemo" so engaging. It is
known in the movie industry that gaming companies are trying
to take talent from that section in an attempt to add a more
cinematographic-like experience to the cut scenes and overall
game atmosphere. What about those creative persons?
Drawing a hard line between who matters and who doesn't is
clearly irresponsible and smacks of utter greed. Rusty is just
trying to make it sound like EA actually cares. If they 'actually
cared,' this wouldn't be news. This is exactly what the entire
creative industry has been suffering from Disney to game-
making to TV. No one wants to pay for the 'meat' of the
product. When will the mass realize how important the creative
portion to the end product is? How come artists constantly get
$#!@ on?
As an artist, I had a lifelong passion for all artistic, just like
some 'nerd' had with computers. I paid just as much for my
diploma at the local university as 'Joe Coder' did. You know, if
anything, an artist has to be *more* adaptable because he/she
has to learn how to use an increasingly complex 'paintbrush'
called the computer. Nerds/dorks/geeks seldom try to express
their creative side by paint or charcoal, but rather in how a
particular problem can elegantly be solved and expressed in
bytes and clever algorithms. The creativity and the talent lie
within each respective 'type' of person; artistic or analytic. There
lies a basic logic in art as much as math. Da Vinci expressed art
to most, however there were numerous geometric patterns in his
work, like "Madonna of the Rocks." Have you ever tried to draw
someone's face and get recognizable results? It's tough! Even
to some artists.
Equity among disciplines is what is needed first and foremost.
Then, EA and the like need to hire double the people. Thus, 80-
hour weeks become a sane forty.
This is why I would never work for a company like EA.
current employee sees it just the way I do; what Rusty said
makes no sense!
Rusty says that artists are the 'creative' and coders are the
'technical' - what kind of crap is that? He tries to draw a hard
line between the two, when in fact, these games couldn't exist
without either! Have you ever seen a coder try to draw?
Horrible! And, they usually sneer at the artists claiming that an
artist's work is so much 'easier' than theirs. There is a huge
blurring of the lines of what individual talent made the game
possible. What about the story/character developers. It's those
people that make movies like "Finding Nemo" so engaging. It is
known in the movie industry that gaming companies are trying
to take talent from that section in an attempt to add a more
cinematographic-like experience to the cut scenes and overall
game atmosphere. What about those creative persons?
Drawing a hard line between who matters and who doesn't is
clearly irresponsible and smacks of utter greed. Rusty is just
trying to make it sound like EA actually cares. If they 'actually
cared,' this wouldn't be news. This is exactly what the entire
creative industry has been suffering from Disney to game-
making to TV. No one wants to pay for the 'meat' of the
product. When will the mass realize how important the creative
portion to the end product is? How come artists constantly get
$#!@ on?
As an artist, I had a lifelong passion for all artistic, just like
some 'nerd' had with computers. I paid just as much for my
diploma at the local university as 'Joe Coder' did. You know, if
anything, an artist has to be *more* adaptable because he/she
has to learn how to use an increasingly complex 'paintbrush'
called the computer. Nerds/dorks/geeks seldom try to express
their creative side by paint or charcoal, but rather in how a
particular problem can elegantly be solved and expressed in
bytes and clever algorithms. The creativity and the talent lie
within each respective 'type' of person; artistic or analytic. There
lies a basic logic in art as much as math. Da Vinci expressed art
to most, however there were numerous geometric patterns in his
work, like "Madonna of the Rocks." Have you ever tried to draw
someone's face and get recognizable results? It's tough! Even
to some artists.
Equity among disciplines is what is needed first and foremost.
Then, EA and the like need to hire double the people. Thus, 80-
hour weeks become a sane forty.
This is why I would never work for a company like EA.
- Shades of Henry Ford...
- by gutthans July 10, 2006 11:51 AM PDT
- Since when has American management truly been prioritizing the welfare and status of employees? As near as I remember, our economy is still ruled by the arbitrary 'law' of supply & demand, and the investors principle of 'greed'. At least Henry was wise (shrewd) enough to compromise by giving us weekends...although the sole (purported) purpose was to give people a reason to buy his cars (no one needed to drive with a 7 day workweek). Perhaps we should move to tie profit margins (by law) to employee satisfaction or product reliability, or both...
- Like this Reply to this comment
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