I want shorter, more focused games where there's a clear artistic intent and nobody is abused to make it. Like, can we at least get to the standard of normal work environments + a bit of paid overtime when necessary

crunch is a failure of project management. those failures do sometimes happen. that is OK. but at absolute MINIMUM people who are crunching should be properly renumerated for it. that's like the least thing any workplace should possibly do

right now we have a hell culture where people are guilted into working 14 hour days by reminding them there's a load of other kids who would take their place in this prestige industry and also crunch is seen as a necessary part of the process !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i think a missing part of the convo about crunch is that back in the 90s crunch was regarded as almost fun, in the same way as a big NaNoWriMo binge or staying up all night to finish a cosplay before the con

In Polygon's Oral History of Final Fantasy VII the devs spoke positively about the crunch on the project, because they had a really nice working environment and it was only a brief period which was kind of exciting in a rally-the-troops sense

this is why it's so hard to eradicate these systems we have now where it's 6 months of poorly renumerated sleep under your desk - it's almost a hazing or bonding ritual that in the very short term, in a happy and well-resourced environment, isn't that bad.

already by 2001 you have Hideo Kojima moving his wife and kid's beds to the office, his kid playing unaccompanied in the mocap studio, so he can see his family during the final work on MGS2 because it was important to him that it came out in the Year of the Snake.

if you think of the history of human labour, for the majority of our time on this planet we mostly would spend a few days pulling together to work flat out at important tasks while they were in season, but spend the rest of the year just doing basic day-to-day work and resting

Crunchy jobs happen to fit a certain kind of person who needs to be continually managing crises. They're massive dopamine/adrenaline factories, they're literally addictive. Some people absolutely flourish under crunch, while their health and relationships soon die

And this is why it's so insidious - someone who rose to the top doing crunch is used to being at their best during crunch. So they want to be performing at crunch level for longer and longer times.

You end up optimising your entire workforce for people who are unattached (young women and men, definitely no mothers), who are self-medicating ADHD with workaholism, or who are on cocaine. Everyone else leaves the industry to nurse themselves back to health.