« Cegep de Matane Looking for Teachers | Main | "Acting for Animators" Workshop with Ed Hooks »

GameCafé: The Future of Work

By P. R. Boudreau

Following on the success of last year’s Gamecafé, IGDA Montreal recently hosted another of its unique brand of casual roundtable discussions. As members of the gaming community gathered at restaurant Los Tios to examine the future of work in the game industry.

Six moderators, each with a group of game development professionals, led the discussions from three different perspectives; Elspeth Tory (Animation Manager, Ubisoft) and Chris Crowell (Creative Director, A2M) covered the future from the individual professional’s POV, Marie-Jo Leroux, (Game Director, A2M) and Alexandre Parizeau (Producer, Ubisoft) looked at the evolution of the team/studio dynamic while Ben Mattes (Producer, Ubisoft) and Jean-Pierre Faucher (Partnership Development Manager, Alliance Numeriqc) explored the road ahead for the industry as a whole. Each moderator hosted three 20 minute sessions, allowing participants to take in all three sub-topics by hopping from table to table between sets.

There was no shortage of ideas or opinions as the game developers of today set their sights on the workplace of tomorrow.

Career level

The first topic on the table was motivation. What drives you? Do you live to work, or work to live? While individual goals varied, the table unanimously rejected money as their prime motivator. Other perks such as time off or travel had more appeal, at least as short term enticements. Personal time vs. company time has long been a central quality of life issue and, with an increase of game industry professionals having families of their own, it is likely to grow in importance in coming years. For salaried employees, job satisfaction and upward mobility ranked high as long term benefits, though the two could sometimes be at odds. Opportunities for advancement tend to come in the form of managerial or directorial positions which do not hold the same cachet for everyone; an animator who simply wishes to work to improve their art might be limited in how far they could rise in a given company’s hierarchy. In the end, however, the most highly valued aspect of the workplace experience was a sense of ownership; a genuine connection to the people, place and product. Long stretches of overtime are more easily endured when working with an entire team under a spirit of solidarity; caffeine-fuelled solo flights through the wee hours of crunch time are less satisfying. Regardless of the changes wrought in this ever-evolving industry, the question of ownership will continue to be a significant factor.

Company level

This discussion segued rather appropriately into the individual’s relationship to the company; more precisely, it began by addressing the growing trend of the industry professional as free agent. Many community members see themselves in that role anyhow, whether they be contracted or salaried, and anticipate a form of labour classification similar to that of the film industry complete with unionization and the emergence of specialized talent management agencies. However, it was strongly felt by some that this would require greater concentrations of game development in large urban centers, in the way that Los Angeles is host to the film industry. But despite the similarities between the mediums of film and video games, new production models are constantly being explored out of sheer need to ride the momentum of a rapidly growing market. The ability to outsource and have employees work remotely has given companies the capacity to decentralize some of the production workload while maintaining a leaner in-house team. The trade-off here is greater flexibility at the loss of some creative and managerial control; how much do you keep under one roof? But while the rise of the streamlined developer or an age of free agents are real possibilities, those present felt that gaming is still one of the most collaborative industries on the planet. There was also a well supported appeal for more time and resources allocated for preproduction. This needn’t necessarily follow the pre/production/post model as long as research and development be given their due. Investing time in a solid, early foundation might be the key to maintaining better control over one’s project and could result in more polishing and less troubleshooting.

Industry level

Moving further into the macro, the third group plunged right into existing and emergent business models. Despite the increase of online financial transactions (both real and virtual), retail still has a strong grip on the marketplace. Retail marketing is built on moving product and catering to the customer, and is not likely to be supplanted any time soon. Digital distribution requires considerably less in terms of overhead but demands a little more work from the consumer. There are some successful examples of pay-as-you-play, subscription gaming and viable micro-transaction economies but which, if any, of these becomes a dominant market force remains to be seen. The real battle for the gamers buck is probably most apparent in the war of the consoles. As the contest heated up, the big players raced to distinguish themselves from their competitors; Sony held up an impressive repertoire of games, Microsoft embraced digital distribution, but it was Nintendo who most clearly illustrated the value of variety by coming out with the Wii. With innovations such as this, we are unlikely to see a “standardized” game console in the near future, and gamers everywhere stand to gain from this competitive clash of the titans. And on the subject of titans, it was put forward that the globalization of the game industry is more likely than not to lead to conglomeration. We are already witnessing the acquisition of smaller studios by larger ones, as well as mergers between groups of mid-sized studios. If gaming follows the course of other industries, it’s only a matter of time before we see the merger of game developers with other entertainment entities and a whole new breed of media giants.

Wrap up

Unfortunately, I could not be everywhere at once and can only offer this modest summary of the discussions where I was in attendance. Some of the questions raised by other groups included:
-Do improved tools result in enhanced gameplay experiences or simply provide for better packaging?
-How do we balance creativity with pragmatism when our tools and workplace are constantly evolving?
-Is the North American gaming industry culturally grounded enough to withstand the pressures of the global marketplace?

In the end, there was a general acknowledgement that gaming is still relatively immature as far as industries go; no one can possibly forecast a complete picture of what is yet to come. However, it is clear that the industry will continue to expand for quite some time; hi-tech expertise will stay in demand as will the need for better tools and improved methods of distribution. And although many questions still remain unanswered, the Gamecafé succeeded in providing to the community a valuable forum where these issues can be discussed. By getting involved and keeping informed, we are better able to help shape the policies that will determine what the future holds for us all.

We invite you to discuss these and other issues on the IGDA Forum at:
http://www.igda.org/Forums/