[commandertso]

The comments here have a fair number of people baffled at why folks would stay at jobs like this for any period of time. Here’s my thought based on working in games for around a decade; I left after that, in part for quality of life reasons.

For folks that want to work in games, there can be a strong feeling that it is a quixotic quest; there aren’t a lot of jobs relative to the applicants, you’re chasing a dream, and the big places of employment often made the games that made you passionate about everything in the first place.

Once you get that first job, you’re taught that you are not only one of the best, but that you’re lucky to be there. It’s easy to quickly bond with your comrades around the shared, stressful experiences. And to internalize that this is all ok because what quest doesn’t involve some pain?

My first game job was in 2002, and my long, slow falling out of love with the industry started after shipping the first game I’d worked on. Once it had gone gold, we all took a couple weeks at 40 hours a week. After that, I was told by my boss that we all had to go back to 60 hour weeks. I asked why. The answer was, “that’s how we work.”

That was when I started looking for a new job.