EA: The Human Story

[ea_spouse]

My significant other works for Electronic Arts, and I'm what you might call a disgruntled spouse

Comments

Used to work there, wised up and left.

[anonymous]

I had to laugh, my wife and several others were going to form a Wives Against Maxis and picket the building. As much as I would have loved that, I worried about what would happen. In the end I quit to go to greener pastures.
I worked for EA for over 10 years. I saw crunch time go from 3 weeks to starting the instant a project was announced until it shipped. We were told that 'the executives have complete confidence that we can do this'. The atmosphere inside is very cult-like with a lot of 'you dont want to let us down, we are family'. I almost quit the industry, but checked around and am now working at Ubisoft where I have been part of their self examination on their work processes. The difference between the two companies could be greater on this topic. Ubi has recoginized a problem and is working to reduce it (it aint perfect yet), but EA has a firm policy of "there's dozens more dying to get your job" and seems to be getting worse and worse (so I hear from my old friends). I believe there is a legal challenge on behalf of many artists going on, but of course there is no press coverage of it.
I have my life back, in the industry I love. Was very depressed, am very happy now. I am sure my buddies back at EA know exactly who I am, but I will not give the sharks in the legal dept (their own logo) any identity to sting me. Hi guys! Call me!!! :)

Re: Used to work there, wised up and left.

[ea_spouse]

I talked about calling the wives of other employees and picketing the office, too. I also asked if it would help if I showed up in my Halloween costume (a kimono and geisha makeup) with a sword and staged a rescue operation.

Thank you for your comment, it helps distinctly to have the opinion of someone who has been with EA for this long. It was part of my question, actually, in general... do you believe EA has been on a steady downward trend, or is this behavior something that's likely to bottom out and improve? Either way, I doubt we will stick around to see it, but we both wondered.

Re: Used to work there, wised up and left.

[ranchonmars]

Not a sword; they'd call the police on you.

A cardboard tube. Phear the Tube.

Good luck on all of this. I have friends who works for various major game companies and I hear stories from them. Some you'd hear in any industry, and some make me wonder why the hell people aren't unionizing or suing.

Re: Used to work there, wised up and left.

[ea_spouse]

I have a big poster of Cardboard Tube Samurai. I don't know why it didn't inspire me before this. ;)

Thank you for the well-wishes, and nice user name. ;)

Re: Used to work there, wised up and left.

[ammaoomoogla]

The Tube!!! Yesh.

Coincidentally, I heard about this from PA. Would be interesting to find out how they heard about it. o.O

Re: Used to work there, wised up and left.

[anonymous]

IMHO - I don't see any improvements in the situation. They are making even more money for now and the word on their habits is only slowly seeping into the industry. So for the time being, they have no incentive to change. And the guys responsible for this new corporate tone have filtered their team of flunky's so that only Yes Men are left. Anyone who would speak up has been removed. I really enjoyed my first 6 years there when the founders were still running things. I think Larry is pretty much out of the loop now, Bing is semi-retired and the rest have gone to out to pasture. They were pretty good people persons, the new crop is corporate Texas Raider style to the bone.
There ARE a number of very nice places out there tho, its gotten to be a huge industry. So look around, dont settle for HELLISH. If the employees are bleeding, its a management problem. Dont let your SO think it is his, thats a common mistake.
BTW - your journal has been posted on the IGDA website and more industry people are seeing it there. Its making the rounds! Change starts with one person, you may an avalanche soon. On behalf of all the broken marriages and spirits, I hope so.
Cheers!

Re: Used to work there, wised up and left.

[ea_spouse]

I agree with you from what I can tell about the movements in the corporate hierarchy... the new executives have no experience with actual game studios that I know of, and they are slippery as eels when it comes to answering questions about quality of life.

It does seem as though there are new studios opening up run by talented veterans, and that's encouraging. However, at the last GDC, the usual response to "how should I start my own company?" was "don't." It's an extremely hostile environment to smaller studios, and the medium good guys (Blizzard, etc) have such titanium walls as a result of the huge number of people trying to get into them that we have little hope there. However, ultimately you're right, and there are other places to go.

Thanks for the heads-up about the IGDA posting. I queried Gamasutra with this article, but I was concerned about timeliness, and they're swamped with submissions -- if they would even consider publishing something specifically attacking a publisher, which seemed unlikely.

My SO and I are fortunate to be a sort of 'gaming couple' -- we both work in the industry so we understand how it works. Others are not so fortunate. I could easily see how life in this industry would break a marriage, and it's tragic. Thanks again for your comment.

Re: Used to work there, wised up and left.

[chgowiz]

Added you as a friend. Unfortunately, your story crosses all lines in IT development and with the advent of offshoring, more and more people are feeling the heat. I have often wondered how long it will take before game development feels offshoring as yet another pressure.

BTW, your journal made Slashdot - I have a feeling you are going to get a LOT of exposure in the next few days to weeks - wonder how that will affect EA.

Good luck to you and your spouse!

Re: Used to work there, wised up and left.

[anonymous]

The fact that "The Saint" himself has chimed in on the subject of outsourcing game development ( check out this months issue of CPU Mag ). Apparently this is how WildTangent has made itself into how big ( or how little depending on how you look at it ) as they are now.

He actually touts the WORTHINESS of his endeavors, and how that's bringing better ( and supposedly cheaper ) games to market. The funny thing is that only until recently Ad-Aware had targeted WildTangent and it's drivers as being "Spyware" ( some of the other spyware scanners still do ).

I've always known DirectX stunk ( he was "supposed" chief architect ), and now I've just got more reason to love OpenGL.

And for the detractors floating around out there.....you don't have to be a democrat to realize that outsourcing is BullHockey. It can only hurt the overall economy to piss away technical expertise externally.

Re: Used to work there, wised up and left.

[ingaborg]

Yes, EA has been moving steadily downwards, at least in the UK. Five years ago, the UK Studio was a great place to work and people hardly ever left. Now it's not as bad as what you're describing, but it's exactly the same in principle. People are quitting as soon as they can find an alternative.

Re: Used to work there, wised up and left.

[anonymous]

I think I might know you, but from farther up north in the land of the hippies? :) If so, then how ye been? Hope you make it back through town again soonm says the qa->engineer->outa there

Re: Used to work there, wised up and left.

[anonymous]

heya. Yeah, you probably know me as Wombat. I 'came out' on Joe Straitif's weblog, so what the heck. Maybe THEY cannot reach me here?
I can be reached at wilywombat@hotmail.com

Re: Used to work there, wised up and left.

[anonymous]

fun-and-games has never been the same

Re: Used to work there, wised up and left.

[anonymous]

I think I might know you, but from farther up north in the land of the hippies? :) If so, then how ye been? Hope you make it back through town again soon

qa->engineer->outa there

Re: Used to work there, wised up and left.

[jrronimo]

As a gamer who wishes he could program (heh, I kinda topped out in QBasic... I'm 22 and my mind just won't wrap around C...), I can say that the difference in Ubisoft and EA shows 100%. Even the fact that Ubi is /trying/ shows.

Prime example:
Ubisoft made Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (and yes, the sequel that'll be out soon). I picked up the PC version, and I can honestly say that I've never seen such a polished game before. It doesn't even feel like a shitty port like most games *cough*deusexinvisiblewar*cough* that come out for PC and consoles. As Penny Arcade said, the game literally oozes quality.

EA... discounting the sports games (because I do not like sports, let alone the concept of doing something inside in front of a TV, alone that I could be doing outside, with friends, and getting a workout whilst doing), what're the recent releases? Oh, look, another Sims variant (Okay, Sims 2 isn't bad, I'll give 'em that one); or wait, is that a First Person Shooter? Oh, and it's a World War II FPS... based on the Quake 3 engine you don't say.

I'm sorry, but I can't even bring myself to buy a game called "Def Jam Fight for NY" when instead I could be a "persian ninja" who can follow a path to dual-sword learning.

I doubt I have to reiterate it at this point, but, in my mind, as an average-joe gamer, Ubi makes Quality Games. EA... buys other companies.

Re: Used to work there, wised up and left.

[ridethefader]

I'd have to agree with that one. I think most gamers who even care about what publisher is what (ie, the non-casual ones) regard EA at the bottom of the pile in terms of quality releases. And the reason for that is becoming quite obvious now...