Crunch

Muitas vezes normalizado dentro dos ambientes de trabalho, o crunch na indústria de games é uma prática que explora desenvolvedores para além do limite de suas horas trabalhadas, causando sérios problemas na vida dessas pessoas como doenças mentais, desestabilizações familiares e abandono da carreira profissional. Entretanto, no decorrer dos anos, tal prática vem sendo cada vez mais visibilizada pelos veículos de comunicação, o que está gerando um sentimento de injustiça pelas comunidades de games e pressão pela mudança dessa cultura. Este artigo, portanto, aborda como o jornalismo especializado em videogames vem demonstrando um papel importante na denúncia do crunch e como sua atuação vem causando resultados significados, observáveis por meio de pesquisas de órgãos que tratam sobre a satisfação dos desenvolvedores.

Electronic Arts (EA) is one of the world's leading producers and publishers of video games, renowned for such titles as Madden NFL, FIFA, and The Sims. Despite its success, the company has repeatedly come under fire for working conditions and compensation at its production facilities worldwide. Tensions escalated significantly in 2004 when 'EA Spouse' began posting anonymous online criticism regarding long hours, unpaid labor, and unreasonable expectations. 1 Worst of all, the anonymous spouse wrote, was 'crunch time,' the period leading up to the launch of a video game when workers were expected to put in twelve-to-eighteen-hour days, completing artwork, fixing game bugs, and making sure the final build was polished and ready for the heavily promoted launch date when eager fans were expected to snap up the company's latest release. Such complaints jibe with studies showing that developers are in crunch mode an average of ten weeks per year.2 During these stretches, developers work seven days a week, leaving no time for family, friends, rest, or recreation. The EA Spouse postings created a stir among game developers, leading to a successful class action lawsuit against EA and a reshuffie of company management. 3 In response to mounting criticism from consumers and the gaming community , EA executives pledged to clean up their act, but most observers contend that little has changed. Indeed, despite management claims that crunch time is being ameliorated, similar stories continue to circulate about grueling schedules leading up to the release of major titles. 4 These sweatshop conditions are a telling counterpoint to the common assumption among policy makers that the creative (or knowledge) industries offer the most promising prospects for job growth. 5 Although the number of game-related jobs is indeed growing, it is remarkable that tech-savvy programmers and talented visual artists-seemingly elite members The Crunch Heard 'Round the World 197 of the global labor force-should find themselves in such circumstances. Having developed a rich and distinctive skill set, many of them soldier on despite adverse conditions, while others get burned out and leave the industry. Still others form their own small companies, hoping to realize the beguiling potential of online distribution. Some indies dream of producing a breakout hit while others target market niches the majors overlook. Yet independence carries its own price, with many start-ups failing and even successful companies finding that indie production can be exceptionally stressful and demanding. Consequently, the most plentiful and well-paying jobs in the video game industry continue to be those provided by major video game publishers either directly or indirectly.This chapter focuses on the challenges confronting game developers who work for the majors. The very biggest companies develop, produce, and own the rights to their most popular titles, often contracting services from a network of suppliers. EA, for example, has studios and subsidiaries in more than a dozen countries and a network of suppliers that spans the globe. Overall, the industry and the workforce are huge. By 2017 video games are expected to generate over $100 billion in annual revenue, thanks largely to substantial growth in the mobile space and in emerging markets like East Asia. 6 Overall, the video game industry, along with other forms of software development, is one of the biggest drivers of economic growth worldwide , adding jobs in such cities as Warsaw, Bangalore, and Shanghai. In fact, many of the pressures that led to unrest among EA employees in the United States have been mitigated by the dispersion of tasks to a burgeoning transnational workforce, creating an elaborate global assembly line. Yet despite this calculated globalization of production,7 relatively little has been written about the impact it has on actual video game artists and programmers. 8 This seems especially odd when one considers that far more scholarly attention has been paid to the supposedly 'invisible' free labor gaming enthusiasts contribute .9 Moreover, what little has been written about studio working conditions focuses almost exclusively on North America. Few have broadened their critique to examine the changing contours and increasing dispersion of big-budget game development, and the emergence of development clusters in such places as Eastern Europe, India, and China. 10 In this chapter, we connect the quotidian working conditions of game developers to the global structure of an industry oligopoly dominated by a handful of publishers. Researchers have enumerated three historical stages to the globalization of labor, beginning with manufacturing (product assembly), service (back office operations), and most recently creative (media and design) labor. 11 Each of these stages has entailed a move from integrated mass production to ':flexible' modes of operation…