We NEED To Cherish Those Who Make Our Videogames

The gaming community has always been there for me, and I’ve always stuck my neck out to defend the gaming world and all its beauty. However, it has either grown worse, or a small but wretched minority is so narcissistic and pathetic it is causing me to be extremely disappointed in this world I’ve grown up in and come to love.

Ever since E.T. was developed in less than a month for the Atari back in 1982, there has been “crunch” in the gaming world. Where developers or at least their owners make big promises and tell the world that this great new game will be in their hands on a set date. Even if those actually making the game don’t know if it’s possible. This isn’t just a few extra hours a week, this ranges from 60 to 80 hours a week. This often ruins the lives of the game developers or at least creates long stretches of their lives where they basically live at the office and are stressed and hard-pressed to do nothing but work. They don’t get to have a life, they don’t get home-cooked meals, they don’t get a good night’s sleep, they don’t get anything other than a hope of a nice paycheque when it’s all over. However, these days games get updates, patches, and added content after launch, so even after the game is released the developers still aren’t done.

A lot of people make the excuse that they should work to have the game out by the time they said it should be done and that if they didn’t get their work done in time then they’d get fired. But you aren’t making something that’s never been done before. People don’t seem to understand that trying to make a videogame (unless you’ve made that exact game before) you can’t predict how much time it will take to make it. Creating a new videogame is exactly what it sounds like, these people are creating a NEW videogame. Creating videogames is one of the most complex and demanding achievements that exist and they have to constantly push the limits of the hardware and software and create new ideas that work well with existing ideas. Long story short, they take a lot of time and care to get right. Unlike most jobs where you aren’t creating something new, you’re creating the same thing, just more of it.

Now obviously I disagree with companies crunching their employees to squeeze out games for us because I want those employees to have proper work hours and I want them to get to have a life to enjoy. Not to mention many of them aren’t paid nearly enough to demand such long hours from them. Many countries actually use 6-hour workdays because those last 2 hours of the day people aren’t very productive and they know that a happy employee is more productive. Now I’m not advocating we shift to that, but it’s a solid statement as to why crunch not only hurts the employees but also the productivity to time-spent-working ratio goes down a lot.

In case it wasn’t obvious, I bring this up because Cyberpunk 2077 has been in development for 8 years now and has been delayed many times. Now set to release on December 10th, 2020, many people on the internet are going berserk. I understand gamers are excited and really want to play this game, that we’ve been teased by for years. With more and more gameplay and news from influencers and gaming media sites showing it off and telling us that it’s as amazing as we think it will be. Trust me, I understand the hype. But let us at least strive to be decent people first. These developers have been crunching for months, if not years. They are under insane pressure and if it’s the crunch that we’ve seen from other large game studios, then these developers are likely missing their friends and families. No matter what, the game will eventually be released and our good times of playing Cyberpunk 2077 will be merely delayed, giving us more time to enjoy the things we currently have. I’m one of the biggest gamers you’ll ever meet, but at the end of the day, it is just a game and those making it are human beings just like you and me. If we don’t treat them well, then why in the world would they want to use their talents to create amazing videogames for us? We need to cherish those who create our games.

But that’s not the attitude I’m seeing online. Holy FUCK what is wrong with the human race. I’ve seen tweets of people calling that these devs be treated like slaves, I’ve seen people whine and complain and bitch and moan about this like children. Now people have even sent death threats to the game developers. What in the world is wrong with you? Is your life such shit that you have to attack people who are doing you a favor? People who are already struggling and are under immense pressure? Do you think this videogame is going to be the holy grail? Are you such a pathetic person that you need a videogame in order to live with yourself? Why are you so impatient? Why do you have zero consideration for the lives of other people? Why are you such a piece of shit?

I pray that the people acting like this is a small tiny minority. But I fear this narcissistic and pathetic mentality is growing. Not just in the gaming world, but everywhere. Do the world a favor and think about someone else just once in your life. Stop being the most selfish scum of the earth.

Thanks for coming to my ted talk.