LucasArts’ eulogy reminds us of the inhuman cost of game development

Game development culture often involves 18-hour work days during crunch times that last for months. I remember as a teen or college student enjoying a “lost weekend” of doing nothing but playing the latest game (the X-Wing games, The Dig, and Full Throttle come to mind), but expecting the professionals who produce games to work like that is a different matter. In the wake of Disney’s closure of LucasArts, Ben Kuchera reflects on Penny Arcade:

The best thing we can do to ensure high-quality, diverse games is to create a system where the people who make these games can take a day off to go to a museum. Where they can take their spouse to dinner on their anniversary, or watch their children’s play or musical performance at their school. Where they can have a life outside of the office, and become actual adults with functional relationships that don’t involve space marines and lightsabers. You shouldn’t have to give these things up to create video games, and we shouldn’t romanticize these realities when a studio closes. —The PA Report.