Why ‘crunch time’ is still a problem in the video game industry
[翻译] 为何加班仍是游戏产业的问题
（IGDA将针对业界的加班问题开始自清计画）
缩网址：http://wp.me/pBAPd-vK
原文网址：
http://venturebeat.com/2016/03/20/why-crunch-time-is-still-a-problem-in-the-video-game-industry/
Dean Takahashi March 20, 2016 11:23 AM
[译按：我（NDark）必须事先声明，本篇文章是翻译文章，并非代表我的个人立场，一直
以来我都很关心在游戏产业中管理的议题，我一直希望透过国内外的案例，正反方的论述
，让大家能聚焦在这个议题上，共同试图解决劳工，老板，及工头的三角议题。相关文章
整理请见：http://wp.me/PBAPd-uT ]
Kate Edwards likes to do cosplay (costume play) as characters like Thor, a
valkyrie, Indiana Jones, and Brienne of Tarth from Game of Thrones. That may
give her the fortitude to handle her next big task as executive director of
the International Game Developers Association. Last week, during the Game
Developers Conference, Edwards announced the IGDA is going further in
measuring the “crunch time” practices, or mandatory uncompensated overtime
required to finish projects, at major game companies.
Kate Edwards 喜欢用索尔，女武神，印第安纳琼斯，以及权力游戏的布蕾妮来角色扮演
。这些角色给予她坚毅的感觉来处理她的下一个任务：IGDA 的执行监督。上周，在 GDC
活动时期，Edwards 公布 IGDA 将进一步评估大型游戏公司关于实务上加班的时间或为了
完成专案所得到的加班报酬。
The group has already been doing those surveys for the past couple of years.
Now, it will gather more precise data from employees of game companies, and
it will report on the companies with the best crunch time practices later
this year. And next year, the IGDA will reward the companies that are doing
the best. But if companies with bad reputations refuse to change, the IGDA
might publicly report companies that continue to force employees to work
uncompensated crunch time.
这个组织已经在过去几年做了不少问卷调查。现在它将针对游戏公司员工收集精确资讯，
结论会在今年下半年发表实务上加班时间数字。下一年，IGDA 将会奖励那些执行最好的
公司。如果恶名昭彰的公司拒绝改善，IGDA有可能会公布那些迫使员工无偿加班的公司。
In an interview with GamesBeat, Edwards said that surveys for the past two
years show at least 37 percent of game developers say they are not
compensated for crunch time, when they work long hours in a day or week to
finish a game.
在一场与 GamesBeat 的访问中，Edwards 说道过去两年的问卷显示出最少百分之三十七
的游戏开发者在长时间工时中为了完成游戏无偿加班。
“We know it is a persistent problem,” she told me. “Now, what do we do
about it? We’d prefer to highlight the companies that are doing really well.
If there’s an exemplary company, we will highlight them. If we found an
example that is grievous, we’ll probably highlight that as well.”
她告诉我：我们知道这是一个长久的问题。而现在我们打算怎么改善？我们要表扬那些做
得好的公司。假如有个模范公司，我们就要表扬他们。假如我们发现一个难以忍受的例子
，我们也会公布出来。
Uncompensated crunch time has been a challenge in the industry for the
longest time, and it was drawn into the open by the “EA Spouse”
controversy, when developer Erin Hoffman wrote an anonymous screed
criticizing Electronic Arts for requiring employees to work long hours in the
final process of shipping games — and then moving them on to new crunch time
projects as soon as they finished. The 2004 episode drew a lot of attention
to crunch time, but the issue has almost been forgotten again.
无偿的加班对产业来说是一个挑战，最早可以追溯到 EA 配偶的争辩。当时开发者 Erin
Hoffman 匿名检举：美商艺电让员工在产品上线前超时工作，然后让这个情形在专案结束
持续延长到其他案子。在 2004 年这个事件吸引了对于加班议题的关注目光，显然现在大
家都已经遗忘这件事。
Edwards said the IGDA board of directors will privately raise their concerns
with leaders at companies practicing uncompensated crunch. If those companies
do not change their practices, then the IGDA may take more action, including
publicly speaking out about those firms, Edwards said. Here’s an edited
transcript of our conversation.
Edwards 说道 IGDA 董事会私底下针对实行无偿加班的公司领导者进行了了解。假如那些
公司不改变他们的实行方式，IGDA 会采取更多行动，包含公布公司清单。接下来是这次
访问的逐字稿：
GamesBeat: It looks like you’re starting gradually, but it seems like you
have to get your data absolutely right now. It can’t be vague. If you
associate it with named companies, it has to be very strong data.
[GamesBeat]
看起来你正在逐步进行，但你必须取得明确的数据，不可是模糊的描述。假如你指涉了具
名的公司，就必须有明确的证据。
Kate Edwards: This will be the third year of the Developer Satisfaction
Survey. We’re launching today. We have two years of data, which is built on
several years of older quality of life data we’ve been doing since 2004.
Looking back over the stretch, it’s been obvious from the data we’ve
collected — we all know crunch is an issue.
[Kate Edwards]
包含今天发出的问卷在内，这将是第三年的调查了。我们至少已经有两年的数据，那些数
据是来自从 2004 年关于生活品质的数据。拉长来看，我们收集到的数据非常明显，加班
确实是一个议题。
We also know compensation can be an issue around crunch. Seeing the numbers
in the last couple years has given us an indication. Between 2014 and 2015 we
saw 38 and 37 percent of developers, respectively, stating they don’t get
compensation for crunch time. That’s ringing an alarm. That’s a huge
percentage. More than a third of developers get no compensation for something
that’s common in our industry.
我们也知道加班报酬也是另一个问题。从前几年的数据来看已经显示出征兆。在 2014 年
及 2015 年间，我们看见百分之三十八，及百分之三十七的开发者分别都指出他们没有拿
到加班的报酬。那是一个警钟。因为比例很高。超过三分之一的开发者在加班盛行的产业
内没有拿到加班费。
What we’re trying to do now with this initiative, which for now we’re
calling the Crunch Comp Initiative, is the next step. What do we do? We see
data that tells us this is a persistent problem. We’ve known anecdotally for
many years that it’s a problem. We’ve collected data that more specifically
shows it’s a problem. So what do we do?
我们现在试着要做的下一步就是这个自清行动，我们把它叫做加班工人自我审查。根据数
据告诉我们这是一个长久性的问题。我们在台面下也都很清楚这陋习已经很多年。我们收
集的资料也显示这是一个问题。我们要做什么？
The approach we’ve decided to take is to extend beyond that. We’ve
collected data from developers through our survey, but if we can get
developers to start offering their own experiences through a mechanism that
allows them to report in a style like Glassdoor, that kind of method, they
can show us. “Here was my experience. Here’s how I would rate the company
on this issue.” Hopefully, we’ll get a significant accumulation and be able
to see across the board.
我们决定要采取的行动会根据这个延伸，我们已经用问卷从开发者那边收集资料，但是假
如我们能设计一个机制令开发者能够举报这些行为，细节，及评分（如 Glassdoor 这样
的网站一样），希望这样，我们就能累积关键性的证据。
It’s going to take time to ramp this up and get feedback, but as we get that
feedback, we’d prefer to highlight the companies we see that are doing well
and say, “Look, this company is getting good feedback on this issue.” The
board does a positive impact award every year. Maybe if there’s an exemplary
company, we’ll say, “Let’s specifically highlight this company for what
they’ve done.”
这会花很多时间才能真正发酵并得到回应，但当我们得到回应，我们宁愿表扬那些做得好
的公司，这样才能让表示这个行动真正能改变业界生态。董事每年都能够给予正面的奖励
。发现有模范公司时，我们就跳出来说：让我们来表扬这间公司的行为。
Conversely, though, if we found an example that’s particularly bad or
grievous, we would probably talk about that as well. If we’re seeing, on a
scale of 1 to 100 or whatever, they’re rated at five by a lot of developers,
that’s obviously an issue.
相反地，假如我们发现一个特别糟糕的情形，我们也会提出来讨论，关心开发者的评分是
否真的很差，确实发掘问题。
GamesBeat: You do it as a survey now. Would you have to change it at all to
have that Glassdoor capability, where people can approach you and say what
they think?
[GamesBeat]
你目前是以问卷的形式进行。你会改变为像是 Glassdoor 的形式吗？人们可以举报他们
所知道的事情？
Edwards: We’re planning to continue the survey every year. That’s still a
benchmark we use. We collect a lot of data in there that would not be
collected elsewhere. We’re looking into partnering with a third party like
Glassdoor or one of the others out there. They have the mechanism already.
[Edwards]
我们正在计画每年进行这样的问卷。这是一个用来评量的标准。我们在此收集了的资讯在
其他地方无法得到。我们正在寻求第三方的组织像 Glassdoor 来协助我们。他们已经有
这样的机制。
If you look on Indeed.com, for example, they have subcategories for the
workplace. They have a work-life balance category for companies. If we can
work with them to get a couple additional categories, specific ones about
issues related to the game industry, and partner on those categories …
ultimately I’d like to see, if we can get this set up, we could roll out
all kinds of issues. How are they doing on diversity from an employee
perspective?
举例来说，假如你观察 Indeed.com ，他们有关于工作环境的子分类。关于公司的生活平
衡的类别。假如我们能够跟他们合作设立部分新的分类，关注于游戏产业的议题。如果这
样可行的话我们可以展开各种议题。从员工的多样观点来审视这些议题？
GamesBeat: Your data is good enough to point people out publicly.
[GamesBeat]
也就是说你的数据足够公布了。
Edwards: Now that we’re in this era where that kind of mechanism works and it
’s something that people are used to, we see it across the board with Yelp
and TripAdvisor and all these methods. There are imperfections in all these
methods we have to be aware of. Obviously, all of it’s going to have to be
vetted. We’ll have to look and see what people are saying, so someone’s not
going on there and randomly commenting. Which is why, again, we’d like to
use a method from a third party. They’re already doing that.
[Edwards]
现在我们正在决定应该用哪种形式运作，也会是人们所习惯使用的形式，我们考虑了像
Yelp 或 TripAdivsor 这样的讨论区。当然我们知道所有的方案都有不完美的地方，也
应该被审视。我们依然必须观察大众所说的，而避免只看我们收集到的资讯。这是为何我
们正在找第三方的协助。这件事正在进行中。
GamesBeat: Have you found that some people already feel like they can’t be
honest because they don’t trust the anonymity of it?
[GamesBeat]
你是否已经发现有些人因为不信任匿名性，而不愿诚实以对？
Edwards: Yes. That’s part of it. You look at some of the examples out there,
like Glassdoor, there is anonymity there. You decide what level of anonymity
you want. I’ve seen Glassdoor reviews where you can pretty obviously pick
out who it might have been or narrow it down very closely. Maybe the person
doesn’t care, but they have the ability to dial in and out of anonymity.
[Edwards]
没错。这是其中的一个部分。看像 Glassdoor 的例子就知道，确实是有匿名功能的。你
会决定匿名的层级。我看过
Glassdoor 的设定，在那边你可以选择匿名的设定。也许大家并不在意，但是确实可以
提供匿名性的设定。
Something like TripAdvisor, you can set up an anonymous account with a fake
name or something. A lot of the stuff I see there is people logging in with
Facebook, though. They have no qualms about tying their name to reviews.
Typically, when people do that, they’re giving good reviews.
如同 TripAdvisor，你即便可以设定匿名或假名的帐号。仍有人会用脸书登入。他们回应
时就没有必须填写名称的问题。通常这样的人是准备提供正面意见。
GamesBeat: What do you already know as opposed to what’s going to be in the
next survey? You already know that 37 and 38 percent are a problem. Do you
know other things associated with crunch time?
[GamesBeat]
你在下一次的问卷中是否已经打算要针对什么？你已经知道百分之三十七及三十八是确实
的问题了。你知道其他与加班有关的议题吗？
Edwards: We’re not just tracking compensation, of course, but just the
occurrence of crunch. When we look at the data between 2004 and 2014 — we
didn’t incorporate 2015 data into this particular segment — the occurrences
of crunch are declining. It’s not quite as often, and when it does occur, it
’s not quite as long. But it’s still happening. I’m expecting we might see
that continued trend. Looking at it on a yearly basis, maybe it’s not quite
as good of a snapshot. I don’t think it’ll change that radically. But we’
ll have to see.
[Edwards]
我们不只是希望追讨加班报酬，而是希望追踪加班的事实。当我们查看 2004 年到 14 年
的资料时－这里还不算 2015 年的部分－加班的事实是在下降的。这很少见，加班发生时
不会很长。但这件事仍然发生了。我期待这个趋势继续。虽然以年作为基准观察并不是一
个好的级距。但我不认为这会快速改变。我们仍要持续观察。
We always ask — and I don’t expect the answer to change — about the cause
of crunch. It’s pretty consistent. Poor project management. Inexperienced
managers. Things like feature creep. Those are usually the big ones.
虽然并不期待该做什么才会改变，我们还是问加班的成因。答案很一致：差劲的专案管理
。没有经验的经理。新规格的加入。
GamesBeat: I always thought that mobile was going to be different. I wonder
about the categories now, whether you’d be able to identify problems in
certain categories. It seems like mobile would be worse for crunch time
because the updates happen all the time in free-to-play games. They operate
24 hours. They’re always connected. It’s an always-on environment.
[GamesBeat]
我以为行动游戏可能会不一样。我想知道详细的分类，在指定的分类中是否也能够看出问
题。似乎行动游戏加班更加剧烈，因为在免费游玩的游戏中，更新发生频率更高。二十四
小时都上线。总是有玩家连线上来。没有停机的环境。
Edwards: The thing that helps with mobile, though, when it’s always on, there
’s a level of predictability. It allows you to predict staffing and content
flow and work flow better than when you have something like a massive RPG
that you’re trying to do over the course of years.
[Edwards]
随着行动平台而来的变化是，当持续上线时，就导致一定层级的可预期性。员工的调度，
内容增加，工作流程。比做多人角色扮演游戏时预估得更好。
A lot of the mobile stuff tends to have better control over feature creep for
example. It’s usually a specific type of game. There isn’t often room for
feature creep, depending, although you might have cases of something like
adding a whole new set of power-ups you can buy. But even there, when I’ve
talked to people in the industry, they have an understanding of what work
that entails. It’s not as if at the eleventh hour someone says, “We need
another power-up set.”
行动平台的开发者应在控制新规格处表现得更好，举例来说，因为游戏类型很明确，没有
空间作规格变动，虽然你可能要增加一系列可购买的装备。当我跟业界的人谈过后，它们
都了解相关的工作互相之间的关系。在超时的情形下不会有人说要加规格。
The potential is there for any game project to feature creep or just run away
with people. But in mobile, it comes down to a company culture issue. If they
want people to be constantly crunching on their content that will never end,
that’s a pretty dismal future for most developers. I don’t think it would
be sustainable from a workplace standpoint. With something like a large
triple-A title where you expect a light at the end of the tunnel, even if the
light keeps creeping further away because of schedule changes or features.
但潜在的问题仍在那里，规格变动的时候就会造成人员流动。在行动平台时这变成是公司
文化的问题。假如公司希望员工持续加班增加那些永远不会停止增加的内容，对大部分的
开发者来说这情况是凄凉的。我认为这情况将无法支撑好的工作环境。在高预算的案子中
，对专案结束的希望引领我们前进，即使规格变动导致彼岸越来越远。
The problem I’ve seen in the triple-A space with crunch is partially just
because it’s part of the creative process. Whether or not they call it that,
people crunch in film, in television. Writers crunch to finish that last
chapter the editor is yelling for. It’s the nature of creative work, that it
’s never really done. The only reason a film releases is because someone
sets a date and backs up the schedule with marketing and everything else that
has to happen.
我所看过的问题在于高预算的专案中加班部分是因为创意发想的流程。不管他们怎么称呼
，在电影业或电视业的加班。编剧加班把编辑逼着要的剧本写完。创意发想流程的本质就
是如此，永远都不够好。电影业的发售日订下来之后，其他东西就只好达标。
It’s why we have director’s cuts. “Well, that wasn’t exactly what I
wanted. Here’s this version that shows you what I would have done.” With
games, we can kind of do that. We just release DLC or do a patch.
这是为何我们还会有导演版，那是创作者真的想要的东西。也许游戏我们也可以做类似的
事。可以开放下载内容或更新。
GamesBeat: Although it seems like DLC’s made it so you lost whatever
downtime you used to get when you finished a game. Now, a game’s never
finished.
[GamesBeat]
下载内容让时程可以在完成游戏后继续。但似乎导致游戏开发似乎永远不会结束。
Edwards: Exactly. That’s one thing that brings it closer to the mobile
model. With mobile, games tend to be more confined in their scope and more
predictable in how their content rolls out. The DLC model being applied to a
triple-A console game is almost like you’re trying to apply the mobile model
and expecting people to sustain that same workload — especially if a game
becomes really popular. “Oh, we need more DLC.” That’s not sustainable.
[Edwards]
没错，这是行动平台的模式。行动平台游戏对于内容方向比较侷限，知道自己要端出什么
内容。下载包的形式就是把行动游戏的模式套在高预算家机游戏，期待开发者承受相同的
工作模式。已经有名的游戏，却会被要求要有更多内容，这是难以承受的。
GamesBeat: The Zynga team on FarmVille got more relief when they opened an
India office. They didn’t have to be on 24/7 anymore. They could hand it off
to a team on the other side of the world. It seems like that’s one way to
relieve the time pressure.
[GamesBeat]
Zynga 的 FarmVille 团队开启了印度办公室后得到了解脱。不再需要加班，而是将超出
的工时交给地球另一端的员工。似乎这是唯一的方法。
Edwards: Absolutely. It’s just making sure you staff and plan for it. We’re
seeing a lot of companies where .. as we see crunch time diminish a bit in
the industry, that’s part of a maturation process. I hope it’s a maturation
of management at game companies, understanding that this model had its time
in our industry’s histories, but … as industries mature, like we’ve seen
in the general IT sector, a lot of companies are pushing their employees to
take better care of themselves. Even if it means being in something like a
company-town environment. “Go use the gym at our office.” They lavish their
employees with ways to take care of themselves. We’re seeing some game
companies do that too. But I’d say not on the scale that we see outside the
game industry.
[Edwards]
没错。只要确保团队对此有计画。我们看到在产业缩减了加班情形，这是成熟的表现。我
希望游戏公司的管理更加成熟，了解加班在业界确实应该被解决，并向一般IT产业效法，
希望员工能更加注重自己的身心。有些公司在公司建立生活圈及健身中心。我看到有些游
戏公司已经这样做了，但还没有到产业的层级。
GamesBeat: They’ll also do it just to keep employees at work all the time.
[GamesBeat]
但这会让员工持续被绑在工作上。
Edwards: No, certainly. Developers think about the ulterior motive. “Why do
they give me this incredibly good food for dinner every night? Oh, they want
me to stay here and eat it.” It can be a trap. I understand why companies do
it. But that kind of model, where it becomes something we’re used to …
during the DICE awards, some of the winners on stage accepting awards were
talking about how they missed … their kids. It struck me as I was listening.
I’d love to ask them as a parent — OK, 10 years from now, what would you
rather have? The award or the time with your children? I can guarantee what
the answer’s going to be.
Edwards：不，不是这样。开发者有时会脑补。公司给我这些食物就是因为想把我留在办
公室。这一定是圈套。我很清楚了等等的。但是我看过在 DICE 的颁奖典礼上得奖人会说
他们留太少时间给孩子。这让我很困扰。我想要问那些身为父母的得奖者，十年后你希望
得奖还是把时间留给小孩？我打包票答案仍旧很明显。
It’s about the value of your time. Trying to get a perspective on that in
our industry is something we still struggle with. We’re passionate about
making games. We love making games. Developers want to make games
indefinitely. When we ask them these questions, they’re very clear about
that. But you don’t want to do it at the expense of everything else in your
life.
这是关于我们时间的价值问题。业界对此问题的角度是很纠结的。我们对制作游戏有热情
，甚至是爱。开发者当然想要做游戏，当我们问他们这些问题时答案很清楚。但是你不想
占据生命中的其他时间。
GamesBeat: You’re almost trying to tell people this for their own good.
Sometimes they’re not realizing that crunch has a cost for them.
[GamesBeat]
你正试着说，人们并不了解加班损耗了他们的人生。
Edwards: It does have a cost. It has a long-term effect. It takes a real toll
on health. If you work 70 hours a week, that’ll affect your health without a
doubt. We understand that there are reasons it happens, but there are also
many good reasons it doesn’t have to happen or at least not to the degree it
does.
[Edwards]
确实是损耗，而且是一个长期的影响。影响健康。假如你一周工作七十小时，那无疑会影
响健康。我们知道加班发生一定有理由，但是有更多好理由告诉我们可以不要这样做。
Better project management is part of that. But one of the things that will
feed that, especially in the game industry, is having a better handle on the
creative scope of what you’re making. That’s a harder task. When you set
out to create whatever massive project it might be — I understand. I’ve
worked on many games. I get how the energy of the creative process is so
important that it changes the scope and changes what you have in mind. I’ve
been involved with projects where that last-minute inspiration hits. It’s
the weekend before cert and somebody says, “Oh my God, we need to do this. It
’ll change everything. Let’s stay for a 72-hour stretch and get this done.”
更好的专案管理是其中一个部分。但在游戏产业中，我们更希望能贡献的是创意发想的流
程，这是更困难的问题。我在很多案子工作过，我知道当巨大的案子要填入各式各样的创
意时会如何。持续创意的能源是很重要的。我遇过很多次创意都是在最后一刻上架期限前
才发生，也通常就会导致加班的时候。
You have to weigh it. Is the player going to care that much about the time you
’re spending? Or is it something you can do in another version or in DLC
later? Is it really something you have to put yourself out there for? I don’
t know if game companies tend to be as judicious as they need to be in
thinking about the overall effect of that. It’s hard. They know their launch
must be successful. But in my view, if you’re not already sure about that in
the creative vision you started working on, maybe you should have had a
different creative vision.
你必须权衡这些。玩家是否真正在意你所花的时间？或是其实可以放在下一个版本中？是
否这是应该要牺牲自己去做的东西？我不知道是否游戏公司能明智的权衡利弊得失。这很
困难。大家都知道发售不能延迟。但从我的角度假如你还不确定这样的创造流程是否能够
真的实现你要的东西，不如跳脱出来用不同的角度来看事情。
GamesBeat: Do you get a sense of whether good managers are the ones who
restrain their employees from doing crunch? Do employees want to crunch
without realizing the cost to it? Or are people being forced to crunch when
they’d rather not?
[GamesBeat]
你是否觉得好的经理会阻止员工加班？员工是否不知道加班会造成的伤害？还是员工是被
迫要加班？
Edwards: It’s a mix of both. Long-standing tradition in our industry has
been one where it’s been more about forced crunch. Sadly, I’ve heard this
many times from different developers. They say, “I can’t complain about it,
because the standard response is just, ‘Go ahead and go. We’ve got 20
people to take your place.’” Which instantly ascribes a lack of any value
to the specific employee in the company. You’re just a cog and easily
replaced. That’s not a great morale-builder to begin with.
Edwards：两者都有。长久以来是有被迫加班的传统。遗憾地，很多次开发者自己却讲：
我没办法抱怨，因为一贯的回应都是"要走就走，你的位子有二十人排队要干"。也就是指
出公司看员工只是认为是劳力，随时可以取代。这样无法建立士气。
When I give talks, sometimes I have a slide that’s a frame from Bridge on
the River Kwai. In that movie, the Japanese general kept telling the POWs, “
Be happy in your work.” Sometimes we get that attitude coming in the game
industry. Just be happy. You’re lucky to be here. We want to see that go
away. People should have a choice.
当我演讲时，有时候我会放上一页有着桂河大桥的投影片，在那部电影中，日本将军告诉
英国战俘，要乐在工作。有时候我们在产业也接受这样的态度。我们很幸运可以在产业里
，我们希望那些事情不存在，人们应该可以有选择。
A lot of it comes down to, when you’re hiring into a company, if you’re
interested in working for a company, companies should be explicit about how
much they typically crunch. Be upfront about it. “We look back on our work
data over the last few years, and we generally crunch a third of the time.”
Disclose an idea of what crunch is like, and tell people about whether or
not they’ll be compensated for it. Then, developers can at least make an
informed choice.
很多事情归结于，当我们被公司雇用的时候，假如你关注公司的工作状况，公司会明确说
明加班的情形。坦白说：在过去几年的数据中，我们有三分之一都在加班。揭露加班的实
际状况，告诉员工是否有加班费。开发者至少能有选择。
When it comes down to individual managers, it’s important for them to be
monitoring both the physical and mental health of their employees. “Hey, you
’ve been here three days straight. Maybe you should take a break?” At the
same time, there’s a certain level of creative freedom you want to allow. If
you have someone who says, “I don’t need to go home. I don’t have a family
to see. I want to work another 12 hours on this because my train of thought
on this issue will be complete, and I’ll get this done. Then, I can walk
away feeling good about it.”
到个别的经理等级时，他们必须观察他们员工的身心状况：嗨！你已经三天连续工作了，
你应该休息一下。当然也有一种情形员工能对创意的执著有所任性：我不需要回家，我没
有家庭，因为我现在状况正好，我想要再作十二小时直到做完，才会觉得事情结束心满意
足。
There’s a balance. To some degree, if somebody is that into a particular
task — even then, managers need to step up and draw a line. “You’ve been
working on that for three days, and you still don’t have an end in sight.
Maybe you should clear your head and come back to it.”
这是一个平衡。某种程度来说，即便有些人会陷入特别的工作状态，经理也都应该介入设
定下红线。你已经工作三天，似乎短时间不会有结果。也许你应该让脑袋清醒后再回来。
GamesBeat: Is there already any established practice as far as compensated
crunch at particular companies?
[GamesBeat]
对于特定的公司是否已经建立了针对加班报酬的实际规范？
Edwards: I don’t know specifics. It’s hard to get that information from
companies. We’re looking into it, though. If you look in the DSS data, we
have people reporting that they get certain bonus structures. We ask all
kinds of questions around bonuses, around whether or not the bonuses are
performance based or project based and so on. The 37 and 38 percent we’re
identifying are people who say, “We don’t get any of that. We just do it.”
[Edwards]
我并不知道个别的情形，从公司不容易取得这些资讯。但我们正在了解。假如你查看那些
资料。我们知道有些公司是用奖金制度的方式。我们问了各种关于奖金的问题，奖金是基
于怎样的数据。百分之三十七及三十八的人说：我们没有拿到任何东西。
GamesBeat: For the companies that show repeated problems, how are your board
members going to communicate with them? What are the steps you’d take before
going public?
[GamesBeat]
对持续有这些问题的公司，你们的董事成员在真的公布之前打算要怎么与他们沟通？
Edwards: First and foremost, board members will approach the company
directly. “We’ve been noticing a lot of people reporting issues around this
problem in your company.” We’ll just sit down and have a conversational
approach. We’ll get the company’s perspective and understand their point of
view on the issue. We’ll see if there’s any acknowledgement or
understanding that it’s an issue. If there is, we’ll try to discern if there
’s a plan in place to fix this and change the way business is done. Or, is
this based on a specific anomaly, a specific project? Maybe it’s not normal,
but it spiked because of something in particular.
[Edwards]
首先，董事会成员会直接与公司连系：我们注意到很多人举报你公司有这个问题。我们会
试图坐下来沟通解决这个问题。我们想要了解公司针对这件事的态度。想要知道公司是否
知道有这个情形。我们想要知道是否有个计画来改变现况，或是改变工作流程。这是否只
是特例吗？
Basically, we’ll just do some discovery and learn more about it. The process
from there is ultimately going to be up to the board to decide as far as how
vocal they want to be. Our perspective is that if we see an example of a
company where we’re able to determine with certainty that it’s a problem,
they know about it; they’re not willing to do anything about it; they’re
not taking steps to fix it; then, it’s likely at that point that the IGDA
will speak up publicly. “Hey, developers, if you’re looking for a job, here
’s an example of a space that you probably don’t want to consider. After
our repeated engagement with them and after collecting data on the situation
there, it’s probably not the best situation.”
基本上，我们会做一些调查，收集情报。流程会上报到董事会，让他们决定是否要发声。
我们的观点是假如我们在这间公司看到一个例子，那么可能这就是一个问题，他们可能知
道这是一个问题；他们可能不愿意处理；他们可能没有采取行动来修正；那么 IGDA 就会
把这件事公开：嗨！开发者，你正在找工作吗？这里有间公司记得要跳过。当然这并非一
个最好的结局。
GamesBeat: Companies won’t be happy about that. Have you felt any backward
pressure yet on that topic?
[GamesBeat]
公司肯定不会喜欢这种情况。你是否有因为这样的议题感到压力？
Edwards: Some companies are uncomfortable with the topic because they
recognize that it’s an issue. A lot of what we’re dealing with, too, is a
certain degree of legacy. We’ve been on this industry train that just keeps
chugging along at a very fast pace. “We got the first game done. We have to
get the sequel out. We have to get the DLC done.” It keeps moving, and there
’s no chance to step back for a moment and say, “What are we really doing
here? What’s our workplace like?”
[Edwards]
一些公司对此并不愉快，因为他们知道那是一个问题。这些问题多半都是因循的陋习。这
个产业变动很快：随着第一个游戏作完，还有续作，及下载内容。总是没有做完之后能够
回头好好想想工作环境的时候。
I don’t know to what degree there’s any deep introspection at the company
level. I know some companies do that. A lot of companies say they do. I’m
not saying I disbelieve that, necessarily, but I don’t know about the degree
to which they take action when they hear from their employees about issues
that come up.
我不知道公司层级是否自省到什么程度。我知道有些公司做了。很多公司说他们有做。我
并非说我不相信。实际上来说，我不知道的是：公司从员工听到这些问题时采取行动到甚
么程度。
That’s why, when it comes to the method we want to use, we want to do a
quiet engagement and give the company a chance to talk with us. Along with
this initiative, we’re going to take some of the data we have and stuff we’
ve done in the past around best practices and how you can avoid crunch and
create an environment that works. We’ll share with the companies and see if
they want to employ those ideas.
这是为何当我们要采取行动的时候，我们想用低调的方式进行，让公司能够与我们对话。
当然随着这个自清方案的进行，我们会取得一些数据，提出我们基于过去经验的建议来避
免加班，创造一个工作环境。我们会与公司们分享这些资讯，同时邀请公司贡献意见。
I don’t think it’s going to be swift. Obviously, we want to give companies
a chance to react, especially if they’re open-minded. But I’m sure there
are some that won’t be. In those cases, the last resort we’d want to do is
basically outing a company as a potentially problematic workplace for
developers. That’s an absolute last resort.
我不认为这会转变得很快。显然地，我们要给公司一点机会反应，特别是假如他们也能够
接受这些想法。但我确信有些人不会这样想。在这些例子中，最后的行动就是指出一间公
司不是开发者应该去的地方。当然这是最后手段。
GamesBeat: Do you have a timetable for when you’ll get to finished data?
[GamesBeat]
你是否已经有实行这些计画的时间表了？
Edwards: We probably will do some kind of listing, like what we do out of the
developer survey right now. We ask developers which companies they’d most
like to work for from a general perception standpoint. Valve is always at the
top of the list. We’ll do something like that — which companies were the
highest ranked every year in terms of how they deal with this specific issue.
I’m hoping that we can crank this up and get something open by Q3 of this
year. That’s when we’ll have something we can invite developers to start
giving input on.
[Edwards]
我们有清单，像是对开发者的问卷。我们从一个通用的角度询问开发者想要在怎样的公司
工作。价值的问题当然在清单之上。我们会问哪些公司你认为是好的，基于他们做了什么
事情。我希望我们可以让这件事动起来，至少在今年第三季有东西可以公开，那时候我们
也会邀请开发者贡献他们所知。
Kate Edwards is the Executive Director of the International Game Developers
Association (IGDA), appointed in December 2012. She is also the founder and
principal consultant of Geogrify, a Seattle-based consultancy for content
culturalization, and a unique hybrid of an applied geographer, writer, and
corporate strategist.
Kate Edwards 在2012年十二月开始担任 IGDA 的执行监督。它同时也是 Geogrify 的创
办人及主要顾问。Geogrify 是一间西雅图针对内容本地化的顾问公司。Kate 也同时有地
理学家，作家，及企业战略分析的背景。