Former Gameloft Auckland head studio programmer calls working conditions 'dangerous'

@HybridPara I think there are smaller devs who work at their own leisure and come up with games 10x better and more original than anything gameloft has done.

@HybridPara No. Tho they do sell well. That's because all their games are knock-offs of other games. Their NOVA is Halo, they're Modern Combat is Modern Warfare, etc.

@HybridPara

After playing through Hero of Sparta on PSP minis (it was free for PS+ a while ago), any morbid curiosity I had in Gameloft died. I thought it might be fun in a B-movie bad sorta way but I haven't felt that dead inside playing a video game in a long, long time.

@Tommy758

Off-topic, but how did you use "their" the right and wrong way in THE SAME SENTENCE?

@Mustang Fanboy
Clarify.

@Mustang Fanboy
By the way,
wayyyy out of topic,
If you have a R3 beta code that was included in SOCOM4 you can download it now from the PSN Store.

@Space Cobra

I hope they XP.

@Mustang Fanboy I believe the above story does state that this is exactly what the whistleblower did, immediately before blowing his whistle.

@Mustang Fanboy

Unfortunately life is a game of chess not checkers . . its not that simple. I spoke up against a manager that was harassing, bullying, and at time even yelling at fellow employees. I put in my notice shortly after and quit, All water under the bridge right? Nope. I was given bad referrals and management even claimed it just quit without warning. Really, after years of working there I just quit for no reason?

Anyway, its never that simple. It just pisses me off when people try to make it sound like its no bid deal when management is abusive. Well some of us have bills to pay and have little choice but to put up with it. . . that doesn't make it right.

@Mustang Fanboy

FYI, watch the movie Horrible Bosses. Kevin Spacey character was just like my boss. I even had a similar conversation about being a minute late. Not 2, 3, 4, or 5. One minute, had not been late for months. Was late two days in a row a minute and he scolded me in front of everyone I worked with. Yeah, @ss hole boss to the power of 10.

@Kimchi Kommando

Some advice for next time: Find a new job before quitting your old one, make sure you actually obtain it and have signed all the necessary contracts before leaving your old one behind completely.

If possible, get proof of the horrible working conditions you and your co-workers were forced to work under, get some other co-workers to help out if necessary and then file a lawsuit.

Is this hard and complicated? Sure it is, but nobody should have to work under those conditions. The first point is mostly to avoid the circumstance you encountered when quitting your job (I had a family member go through the same bullshit), though I'm sure you know that now.

@Kimchi Kommando what you need to do is find a job with the jennifer aniston character as your boss.

@The Minn The problem is, you don't believe that sleep deprivation is dangerous. Sleep deprivation is very dangerous if it goes on for extended periods of time. It leads to ill health, and can get people killed.

Also, I believe the point of this was that the deadlines were NOT necessary, and didn't require so much overtime. If conditions were truly that bad, then chances are they probably had to redo much of their work repeatedly because of mistakes being made from being overtired.

@The Minn

Well living at home has it perks.

@The Minn
Really? The guy is a pussy for saying 14 hour days are not acceptable? I totally agree with him. I've had long days, and towards the end of them I wasn't as focused as I was in the beginning. Not only that, but the massive amount of overtime usually isn't compensated in any way.

Working at 7/11 with 14 hour days, multiple in a row, doesn't compare to coding a game. At least you got free Slurpees and actual overtime pay.

@The Minn

Unsafe? Yes, working 14 hour days for six days on end for a month is absolutely unsafe. You can kind of balk at the effects it has on the long-term body, but let's look at immediate effects.

Your boss has you push a large cart with supplies, maybe a TV or a heavy piece of equipment. You're tired and not paying attention, you slam into another person while pushing too fast. They're injured. Unsafe.

You have to drive some data to another location, or go file some paperwork or something (I'm keeping this on the clock just for your pedantry.) Because you're horribly overworked and sleep-deprived, you nod off at the wheel or react slowly and crash into a tree or child. Unsafe.

In your singular focus on delivering paperwork or making a meeting because of the excessive penalties you fear, you trip down the stairs or on some loose carpeting. Unsafe.

You don't notice the strange noise the electrical outlet is making, or neglect some other obvious hazard that should have been caught. Unsafe.

Even when Frick worked his steel mill employees to death in the mills he only made them work 12 hour days, and that was 100 years ago. 14 hours is beyond absurd. Sleep deprivation and continuous, absurd stress IS dangerous, both immediately (as I've posted) and in the long term, from causing all sorts of health problems, to traffic accidents, to mental breakdowns, to excessive weight gain...

This isn't just working two part time jobs. These are jobs with constant, overbearing bosses and responsibility, which is much harder. And you're not even making Assassin's Creed in the end. You're making Modern Combat. So talk about unrewarding.

@The Minn
How about you look at it the other way.

If 96 hour shifts or 14 hour shifts are required to finish something on time, then that's probably just bad management of time and resources or extremely optimistic deadlines.

@darkhellmutt then you're a pussy, too? it was only a month. it's not even that bad. again i said it was my opinion.

@The Minn It stops being an opinion when you're patently wrong.

@The Minn
Here's a tip: calling people "pussies" doesn't make you "cool".

I know for a fact that you've never worked under those conditions, or else you wouldn't be so smug about proclaiming said people are "pussies" for acting the way they should.

@The Minn how do you have internet over there in north korea?

@Xemplar

well done.

@FakeJamaican

you ain't kidding. Nursing here in america is atrocious. they force those people to work 12-16 hour shifts dealing with life or death situations non stop

I know a group of 7 nurses. all of them but one either has developed a pill problem, or drinking problem.

@(Unverified)

Amen. So glad to see I'm not alone in understanding the sad working conditions here in the US. Corporations have us by the balls, and software development is truly the pits. I'm so glad my days in the those trenches are behind me.