Ex-BioWare Dev, James Ohlen, Details Burnout That Led To Departure From Archetype Entertainment
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There’s a fine line between hard work and toxic work mentality, and in the pursuit of profits over everything, the corporate culture that pervades the United States, burnout is a reality. It’s a reality that’s been a common characteristic of the game development industry. Words like crunch and reports of 100-x§hour work weeks are a well-known part of the process. It’s that culture that ultimately led to James Ohlen to leave BioWare, and even the company that he founded after that.
Ohlen started working at BioWare back in 1996, and at that stage of his life, and with his passion for creativity, he simply shrugged off the notion of 100-hour work weeks. The reason, he claimed, was the small-team nature of the projects. He was able to write and script, which is what he really loved to do. Unfortunately, he claimed, in a piece by PC Gamer, that was the last time he “was truly in love with [the] job.”
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The writing began to grow clear on the wall when he was asked to head a new MMO. That MMO would turn out to be Star Wars: The Old Republic. Now he was managing hundreds of people, someone who has to say no at times, and the politics were too much for him. The breaking point came when EA shot down his idea of rebooting the franchise years later as a New Republic game. They didn’t see the value in pouring more money into a game like one that cost them nearly $300 million.
Not much changed when he left and started his own studio, Archetype Entertainment. They launched as a subsidiary of Wizards of the Coast, and they began work on a AAA game, and he found himself right back in the same situation. This led to him leaving the very studio he launched, because he concluded that he needed to listen to his own limitations and he’s not built like other people who like to head studios.
Ohlen’s journey highlights the high-pressure and long hours workplace that has been a staple of the gaming industry, but more and more people are pushing back, forming unions to protect workers and protect their mental health. Ohlen is now focusing on what he jokingly referred to as his “book empire.”
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Source: PC Gamer
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