Red Dead Redemption 2 [PS4, XBone] - PC in November

[Rossell]

I think it's telling that when I started to sell my PS3 games that RDR is one of the ones I refused to sell. This one may well be a day one.

[The Jackal]

SOLD.

[Pew-Pew]

[Gibby]

[Medicine Man]

[DjchunKfunK]

Not sure if anyone has seen the stuff around the working practices at Rockstar. Last week Dan Houser gave an interview where he talked about the 100 hour weeks people were putting in to create RDR 2 which blew up and had people coming out on Twitter talking about their experiences at the developer. He later tried to clarify this by saying people were passionate and nobody was forced to work long hours, both phrases often used to try and explain away/justify crunching. Additionally, this week Rockstar lifted their ban on employees using social media to try and get them to paint the developer in a more positive light.

http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2018/10/18/red- ... -media-ban

the company’s HR boss sent out an e-mail to staff at several of the company’s studios saying they were allowed to speak up if they felt frustrated by the narrative that had circulated

This led to people working for Rockstar to tweet that they 'only' work 50-80 hour weeks during crunch not 100 which is not much of an improvement.

It's been interested to see people's reaction to this especially within the development community. It also makes me consider whether I want to support these types of working practices by buying the game. The problem is that this often goes on at developers, you just don't hear about it so it feels a bit hypocritical to boycott in this one instance.

[Alan]

They get paid for it! I’d love the option of so much overtime at times!

[DjchunKfunK]

Is that a serious reply?

[Mantis]

This isn't just a thing in game development either. There are many professions where your employer will encourage you to work overtime on that level at a consistent rate, and if you just want to stick to normal 40ish hour weeks then they will find a way of getting rid of you, some just plain bully you out of the job. Even my branch in the public sector does this, if you don't give in to their demands you will be pressured out of your job.

It won't change in the private sector unless you get a senior boss who values their employees more than making money, or if there's a wide shift in public opinion and people start boycotting products that these companies produce. I don't think either are likely, bosses like squeezing their workers as much as possible and the public just do not give a toss. Amazon warehouse workers are sometimes pushed to the point of exhaustion that they pass out at work, will people stop buying things from Amazon? Hell no, too cheap and convenient.

Games are even worse for these practices because it's a buyers market, everybody wants to develop games for a living. Work your staff to exhaustion so they burn out and quit and there will always be a huge pool of new developers excited to have a chance of working at Rockstar.

[Strudel]

I've worked some horrifically long hours before, with one place being so bad I was getting in for 7:30am, leaving at 10-11pm every day, and still taking work home with me every weekend. The first weekend I actually had off that year was in September, and when I tried to take a three day weekend in October I ended up having to work the Sunday anyway. Absolute nightmare.

By happy coincidence though, I now sit opposite our new HR guy and at 6pm today he messaged me on communicator with "You work too much. Go home". Which was a very pleasant change!

[Medicine Man]

Coming to PC next year?

https://www.techtastic.nl/gaming/rockst ... 9-naar-pc/



Obviously the Hogmanay '19 date is placeholder, but it certainly lends more credence to the ex-Rockstar devs LinkedIn profile a few months back...

[Snowy]

I am quite ambivalent on this one. As Phil/Quietmen isn't on here I might not get a verbal battering for saying so, but as per PW the original RDR didn't do it for me. Loved the concept, the setting, but the execution just wasn't there.

That said, I do love open world games and have loved all of R*'s previous open world outings (LA Noire even had moments), so should it come to PC I expect I will bag it. I own a Playstation and have no intention of buying for that though. One of the main drawbacks for me is that the PS4 is in the sitting room, and that is Mrs Snowy's domain. My only play-time would be when she was out.

[DjchunKfunK]

https://kotaku.com/inside-rockstar-game ... 1829936466

Some pretty awful stuff in there. Hopefully this can start a proper conversation about crunch within the industry.

[Raid]

That everyone will ignore because they're all busy playing Red Dead Redemption 2.

[Wizard Of Odd]

I end up having to work 50+ hours a week regularly despite only being paid for 40. I'm supposed to be able to take it back as TOIL, in reality? Never happens.