Current Events > Who are the laziest devs in the industry?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'd say It's a tie between GameFreak and Bethesda
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Gamefreak for sure
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EA Sports
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The fuck
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DarthAragorn posted...

EA Sports

EA in general

They are to games what Adam Sandler is to acting
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Gamefreak, Nintendo rehashing the same damn game year after year and the gullible fans keep eating it up
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DarthAragorn posted...

EA Sports

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Gamefreak literally added a couple of things to a game from 2016 and had the audacity to repackage it as a new title in 2017.
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Probably those random guys who post shit on Steam hoping for a quick buck.

I don't think any AAA devs are lazy. Games are freaking hard to make.
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LightningAce11 posted...

Gamefreak literally added a couple of things to a game from 2016 and had the audacity to repackage it as a new title in 2017.

They put sunglasses on the pokemon on the cover of the game and sold it as new
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I would say KoeiTecmo pre-Nioh and Dynasty Warriors 9, but they actually seem to be putting effort in lately.

GameFreak is definitely a front runner of late,

Obsidian
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Darmik posted...

I don't think any AAA devs are lazy. Games are freaking hard to make.

Implying there isn't a lazy way of doing things or that AAA devs never cut corners
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Valve
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DarthAragorn posted...

EA Sports

This and it's not even close.

Darmik posted...

Probably those random guys who post shit on Steam hoping for a quick buck.

I don't think any AAA devs are lazy. Games are freaking hard to make.

This.
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SSJKirby posted...

Valve

Possibly, but Valve is more like the Walmart of PC gaming now as opposed to game developers. Why bother making shit when you can turn a better profit off of selling everyone elses?

ZombiePelican posted...

Darmik posted...

I don't think any AAA devs are lazy. Games are freaking hard to make.

Implying there isn't a lazy way of doing things or that AAA devs never cut corners

Even shitty games like Iron Man 2 have hard working developers.
https://www.kotaku.com.au/2015/05/crunch-time-why-game-developers-work-such-insane-hours/

People crunch on all those shovelware licensed games, too -- the ones you see for $US10 at GameStop just a few weeks after they come out. "You know what's worse than crunch? Death march crunch on games no one wants," said a developer who worked on Sega's Iron Man 2. "Mandatory 12 hour days, 6 days a week. If you were salaried (like I just now was) you did not get overtime pay. You did get food though. Oh and there was a keg in the office."

As a reward for those 70-hour work-weeks, the staff all lost their jobs. On 2 April, 2010, a month before Iron Man 2 came out, Sega shut down the studio. (For a look at why layoffs are also so common in the video game industry, see our feature from last year.)

Lazy devs indeed
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Stallion_Prime posted...

Obsidian

This A lot of their games tend to be buggy as shit and half finished

Gamefreak gets tons of money thrown at them thanks to Pokemon and yet they still do multiple versions of multiple versions of the same game that was already barely above indie-level to begin with

Square Enix because their PC ports are trash
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Slayerblade11 posted...

Stallion_Prime posted...

Obsidian

This A lot of their games tend to be buggy as shit and half finished

That's because they get rushed, not because they're lazy
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Games generally don't turn out the way they do because of 'laziness'

The biggest thing is resources and meeting deadlines.
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Darmik posted...

Lazy devs indeed

Because this totally applies to all devs, right?

Are you really comparing the working conditions of some nameless dev under the thumb of a huge publisher to Game Freak?
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ZombiePelican posted...

Because this totally applies to all devs, right?

Yeah. Most developers have to work under crunch conditions. Which are terrible.

I'm guessing the same applies to Game Freak. The company that has to release a new Pokmon game every 1-2 years for the holidays.
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DarthAragorn posted...

Slayerblade11 posted...

Stallion_Prime posted...

Obsidian

This A lot of their games tend to be buggy as shit and half finished

That's because they get rushed, not because they're lazy

So every company they make a game for rushes them? They have way too many unfinished buggy games to blame on being rushed.

Slayerblade11 posted...

So every company they make a game for rushes them? They have way too many unfinished buggy games to blame on being rushed.

For the most part? Yes. WRPG's are incredibly complex titles to make. Both LucasArts and Bethesda gave them very strict deadlines to hit.

There's a chapter dedicated to their development process behind Pillars of Eternity in Blood Sweat 'n' Pixels. Even their kickstarted indie RPG was incredibly difficult to develop behind the scenes but they had more control over their own development cycle and could delay the game to their standards.
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Slayerblade11 posted...

DarthAragorn posted...

Slayerblade11 posted...

Stallion_Prime posted...

Obsidian

This A lot of their games tend to be buggy as shit and half finished

That's because they get rushed, not because they're lazy

So every company they make a game for rushes them? They have way too many unfinished buggy games to blame on being rushed.

Quite a few of them do. LucasArts absolutely rushed them with KotOR 2 (just over a year), and New Vegas was rushed by Bethesda (year and a half). Sega apparently didn't rush them so much with Alpha Protocol as they meddled with design choices.
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Currently, I'm pretty sure it is Bungie

IIRC, they flat out admitted it was too hard to make decent content so they decided to just focus on the microtransactions for Destiny 2.
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Darmik posted...

I'm guessing the same applies to Game Freak. The company that has to release a new Pokmon game every 1-2 years for the holidays.

I'm guessing you're delusional fool, with all the corner cutting garbage and flat out lack of effort in each new Pokemon game says otherwise.

Also any gen 1 and 2 3D Pokemon were literally ripped from the N64 games.
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Capcom
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DarthAragorn posted...

Slayerblade11 posted...

Stallion_Prime posted...

Obsidian

This A lot of their games tend to be buggy as shit and half finished

That's because they get rushed, not because they're lazy

Yeah. Now they can do stuff at their own pace their own games haven't been as buggy as the old stuff they had to rush
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Darmik posted...

Slayerblade11 posted...

So every company they make a game for rushes them? They have way too many unfinished buggy games to blame on being rushed.

For the most part? Yes. WRPG's are incredibly complex titles to make. Both LucasArts and Bethesda gave them very strict deadlines to hit.

There's a chapter dedicated to their development process behind Pillars of Eternity in Blood Sweat 'n' Pixels. Even their kickstarted indie RPG was incredibly difficult to develop behind the scenes but they had more control over their own development cycle and could delay the game to their standards.

They are the opposite of lazy they bite off way more than they can chew

ZombiePelican posted...

Darmik posted...

I'm guessing the same applies to Game Freak. The company that has to release a new Pokmon game every 1-2 years for the holidays.

I'm guessing you're delusional fool, with all the corner cutting garbage and flat out lack of effort in each new Pokemon game says otherwise.

Also any gen 1 and 2 3D Pokemon were literally ripped from the N64 games.

the latter point is no longer true (it was only true in the gcn and wii games, the 3ds games use new models, though they butchered 90% of the flying types, especially xatu and salamance)
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ZombiePelican posted...

Darmik posted...

I'm guessing the same applies to Game Freak. The company that has to release a new Pokmon game every 1-2 years for the holidays.

I'm guessing you're delusional fool, with all the corner cutting garbage and flat out lack of effort in each new Pokemon game says otherwise.

Also any gen 1 and 2 3D Pokemon were literally ripped from the N64 games.

Only 118 people work in the company and again, they come out with a new Pokmon usually every year at around the same time. That's not easy to do.
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Darmik posted...

Only 118 people work in the company and again, they come out with a new Pokmon usually every year at around the same time. That's not easy to do.

Up until literally half a decade ago they were working with sprites that barely moved as primary combat on top of that they, I hope you're not implying they don't have it way easier than almost any other group of devs in the AAA industry
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ZombiePelican posted...

Darmik posted...

Only 118 people work in the company and again, they come out with a new Pokmon usually every year at around the same time. That's not easy to do.

Up until literally half a decade ago they were working with sprites that barely moved as primary combat on top of that they, I hope you're not implying they don't have it way easier than almost any other group of devs in the AAA industry

The only thing I'm 'implying' is that game development is hard for everyone. Even for shitty games like Iron Man 2.
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Darmik posted...

ZombiePelican posted...

Darmik posted...

Only 118 people work in the company and again, they come out with a new Pokmon usually every year at around the same time. That's not easy to do.

Up until literally half a decade ago they were working with sprites that barely moved as primary combat on top of that they, I hope you're not implying they don't have it way easier than almost any other group of devs in the AAA industry

The only thing I'm 'implying' is that game development is hard for everyone. Even for shitty games like Iron Man 2.

As someone who has done work in a variety of fields, though admittedly nothing like game development, this may be true... However, I can say one thing: Motivation is god in the workplace.

Construction is hard work, but you give people garbage pay and shit hours, and they work in the most halfassed way possible. They do what bare minimum they can to make the house not fall down around them, and that's about it. Apply the same basic idea to everything from cashiers to high-end management--though in their case, they can pass the garbage along to those under them.

So yes, they may have had stupid hours, but if the stories are true... This cost them time with their family, and cost them their steady jobs on this Iron Man 2 project. You can absolutely guarantee the staff wasn't at high morale, and thus not working as hard on the project. Just a realistic look for all the people acting like it's impossible to be lazy in a "hard work" field. As such, there is definitely lazy devs, and the work shows.

R_Jackal posted...

Darmik posted...

ZombiePelican posted...

Darmik posted...

Only 118 people work in the company and again, they come out with a new Pokmon usually every year at around the same time. That's not easy to do.

Up until literally half a decade ago they were working with sprites that barely moved as primary combat on top of that they, I hope you're not implying they don't have it way easier than almost any other group of devs in the AAA industry

The only thing I'm 'implying' is that game development is hard for everyone. Even for shitty games like Iron Man 2.

As someone who has done work in a variety of fields, though admittedly nothing like game development, this may be true... However, I can say one thing: Motivation is god in the workplace.

Construction is hard work, but you give people garbage pay and shit hours, and they work in the most halfassed way possible. They do what bare minimum they can to make the house not fall down around them, and that's about it. Apply the same basic idea to everything from cashiers to high-end management--though in their case, they can pass the garbage along to those under them.

So yes, they may have had stupid hours, but if the stories are true... This cost them time with their family, and cost them their steady jobs on this Iron Man 2 project. You can absolutely guarantee the staff wasn't at high morale, and thus not working as hard on the project. Just a realistic look for all the people acting like it's impossible to be lazy in a "hard work" field. As such, there is definitely lazy devs, and the work shows.

They're not working 80 hours a week for fun or simply because they're told to. They're working 80 hours a week to get the game out on time. Even if it sucks. I don't see them sitting around and wasting time. It's called crunch for a reason.

Getting a shitty game out for the deadline is generally preferable to missing out on a milestone and the possibility of getting the game cancelled. That's why games often release with issues.
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Mobile devs in general would be laziest but when you talk about the companies that make AAA games, they're generally not very creative/willing to take risks with game types or even mechanics so it ends up being boilerplate shooters etc. every time.
Individual dev teams work with the budget/constraints/timeframs they are given and usually bust their ass accordingly and should not be equated with scum like EA or whoever.
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I won't say Bethesda is the laziest in the industry but god damn, Fallout 4 VR is one lazily put together, overpriced piece of shit. Its like they didn't put any effort into at all, a modder could probably do a better job but I guess that's par for the course with Bethesda games. Especially when you compare it to something like LA Noire VR which is the same idea of taking an old game and adding VR support, but they actually added a bunch of features to make the game work in VR better and the game is only $30.

Darmik posted...

They're not working 80 hours a week for fun or simply because they're told to. They're working 80 hours a week to get the game out on time. Even if it sucks. I don't see them sitting around and wasting time. It's called crunch for a reason.

Getting a shitty game out for the deadline is generally preferable to missing out on a milestone and the possibility of getting the game cancelled. That's why games often release with issues.

That is where you overestimate people. Also, already touched on it. Simply put, the longer those 80 hour weeks carry on, the lower morale gets, the shittier the project gets. They're not wasting time, but being burnt out is a thing. Equivalence wise I could see staring at code, facedesking, yelling at people, a million "why doesn't it work?" scenarios, so on. While that carries on, people suddenly become less and less motivated to actually work in my experience, and more motivated to pretend to work.

When those are the requirements, I quickly see "crunch time" devolving in to "What is it that I can do to avoid being fired?"

Activision, obviously.
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R_Jackal posted...

That is where you overestimate people. Also, already touched on it. Simply put, the longer those 80 hour weeks carry on, the lower morale gets, the s***tier the project gets. They're not wasting time, but being burnt out is a thing. Equivalence wise I could see staring at code, facedesking, yelling at people, a million "why doesn't it work?" scenarios, so on. While that carries on, people suddenly become less and less motivated to actually work in my experience, and more motivated to pretend to work.

I fully agree these developers would be burnt out. But that's not being lazy.

Also when it comes to game development projects pretty much all of them go through months of crunch. The best games have usually gone through a shitload of it. Naughty Dog basically went through non-stop crunch from developing The Last of Us until they released Uncharted 4.

It's seriously a miracle most games aren't completely broken when they release. Developers pretending to work or being lazy isn't the issue at all.
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Gotta be GameFreak if we're talking about devs that are actually a big deal in gaming. There's no excuse for how clunky and cheap modern Pokemon games feel, even as 3DS games.
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WrestlinFan posted...

Gotta be GameFreak if we're talking about devs that are actually a big deal in gaming. There's no excuse for how clunky and cheap modern Pokemon games feel, even as 3DS games.

I get why they're doing it though. Why bother putting in any effort if you can release something half-assed and it will still sell millions of copies? Same thing with the other Nintendo brands. Throw out the same old rehash seen for the last 2 decades and you see people on here shitting their pants in excitement over it.
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rockstar. ever since they started profiting a lot from shark cards, they haven't released any new games yet
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