This article was quite interesting for me, especially with the game that I had. I had my presentation on “Game Dev Story” which is attempting to be a light-hearted simulation of how it is to develop a video game. Of course, the game itself suffers from being too casual, and rather portrays the humans as mere machines outputting numbers. There was no game mechanic that took into account for crunch or overworking. The statistics showing that 1 out of every 5 developers is consistently working overtime baffles me. That doesn’t even include crunch time, where it skyrockets to an unfathomable number.
This article not only looked at how it affected the workers, but rather the other people in their lives outside of the studio. How does a developer working 60-80 hour work weeks to live a life out of work? Short answer: they don’t. As of right now, a lot of talk in the journalism side of the gaming industry is pushing for unions (particularly Jason Schreier) for this reason. We are overworking everybody in this industry, and many are fired after projects are finished.
Reading things like this really helps illustrate the human toll of the video games we consume. I’ve always had a feeling that we need to be patient for these games to alleviate crunch and overtime, or we need to lower our expectations for what a AAA title should be. No spouse should have to live a life where they never see their significant other outside of the bed.
Game Studies 
I believe that this whole article is insane. I just can’t imagine how bad things have to get for a spouse to have to take action in this manner. I feel like it’s unfair for both the developer and spouses. There should be tighter rules in places with unions or structures as such in order to keep situations like this from reoccurring.
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I agree with your response. already working 40 hours a week can be tiresome, but 60-80 hours is just plain insanity. It would be different if an individual working in this field genuinely wanted to stay and work hundreds of hours underpaid, but that is not normally the case. What happens is deadlines are made, and they have to be met or you are out. Personally, I am glad I don’t have to deal with that amount of work, but I hope they start to unionize because it is an unhealthy amount of work.
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That is wild, I can’t believe they have people working those exhausting hours. It’s amazing how these top tier high-end jobs treat their employees. It makes me wonder why they work under these conditions. Most employees would strike and demand better.
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