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Is Perfection Worth the Grind? : Naughty Dog



In recent news, the topic of strenuous hours has risen once again to discussion for revision. In the gaming industry, it is well known that industry workers are overworked to the point of making sacrifices outside of their career lifestyle. Although, services are provided to compensate for the amount of hours put into the work of perfection for their consumers, it is starting to seem more like a bribe than a fair trade. With developers and artists leaving companies like Naughty Dog for the overwhelming circumstances that they are faced with when producing new and innovative titles that have high expectations like The Last of Us Part II, will future games be faced with the questionable standards that make a game as great as its nominations? 

The obvious answer is that the cycle will continue, because as technology advances with the correlation of instantaneous gratification, it will be hard to find a balance that meets both consumer happiness, and fair work policies. It has been mentioned that a formation of a union could solve the problems of the current industry's policies, but will that sacrifice the success of the potential a game has for its creation? A trade off to fair work, could be the decrease in salary wages, or even layoffs from the studios receiving less attention for their yearly output. It is a difficult situation to address nonetheless, but with the future direction of gaming production, we may see a dependence upon a company's namesake for its bi-yearly game releases for its success to match the balance that is being desired by the artists and developers working on the game. It could cause a redundancy of sequels that draw out the storyline of a once great game, until it diminishes its stature to squeeze out its financial profit for its die-hard fans.

Is the future of gaming going to rely on multiple companies delivering pristine games at different yearly quarters for the sake of consumer satisfaction, and having to share the profit of both recognition and the chance to be crowned game of the year by the multiple substandard award shows? Or will it be the community that has the final say in how a game is ultimately released, where it is partly buggy (like many releases nowadays) with frequent patches that follow the game's release, or will gamers be able to hold out longer for the picture perfect presentation, even though it may mean they're waiting another year to year and a half, before they have a chance to play it? I believe many will choose to wait for the best possible release, but meanwhile, games do get tiring from the redundancy of mainstream multiplayer franchises like Call of Duty and Battlefield. Will it be the rise of indie games that saves us the time, before getting the big payoff of waiting for a game that promises perfection? Only time will tell, but it will be an interesting path to foresee, before we really understand what's coming in the next wave of video game history.

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