14 DAY TRIAL // Workaholicism is a serious condition, one that can have dire repercussions on one's health, but imposed workaholicism falls under a different level of problems. And while it's not exactly the stock market, having brokers jumping out of windows, the gaming industry is known for pushing its employees to their breaking point.
Electronic Arts and the "EA Spouse" incident proved that well enough, but it seems like there's at least one studio out there that overworks its employees hard enough to make their families take action. Following a similar path towards exposing the vile business practice, a blog entry on Gamasutra made by the user "Rockstar Spouse" detailed the harsh and inhumane working conditions at Rockstar San Diego.
"Till present, the working conditions persist to deteriorate as employees are manipulated by certain hands that wield the reigns of power in Rockstar San Diego," Rockstar Spouse claims. "Furthermore, the extent of degradation employees have suffered extends to their quality of life and their family members." Apparently, working on Red Dead Redemption means that you have to put up with six days a week of 12-hour working days and deliberate lies about the deadlines.
"The managers at Rockstar San Diego continue in their dishonesty, pushing their employees to the brink promising temporariness fully equipped with the knowledge of another deadline just around the corner," Rockstar Spouse further adds. "The reigns whip again, and it becomes mandatory to work close to twelve hours a day including Saturdays, regardless if an employee has finished all his duties prior."
As for the actual aftermath of this working scenario, it looks like Rockstar San Diego's business policy has taken its toll on the health of several of its employees. It looks like the long hours have caused "some employees [to] have been diagnosed with depression symptoms and at least one among them is acknowledged to have suicidal tendencies." The final note of this accusation against the studio ends with the anonymous author threatening that, "If these working conditions stay unchanged in the upcoming weeks, preparation will be made to take legal action against Rockstar San Diego."
While there's no official take on this story yet, and Rockstar San Diego has not replied in any way, a lot of voices have answered to this blog entry, confirming this story. Comment posts from people claiming to have inside dealings with the studio support the story, bringing further details and making this story more and more believable. And the true tragedy here, as many people have noted, is that Red Dead Redemption doesn't look like it's a game that would be worth all these sacrifices, as expectations for it are mediocre at best, so there's a lot of pain for practically no gain.