FFXIAH Linkshell Ni

Nice man!!

I wake up to that pic?! Argh! -.-

And needlessly elaborate cake... >.>

lulz

Honestly, it's all a ruse though.

Yes, there are infinite ice cream freezers and walls of drinks and candies, and catered breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Stuff's pretty standard for game/tech companies.

But the point is, most companies space all of it out such that you need to stay at the office juuuuust a bit longer than your typical 9-5 in order to take advantage of it all. Want PS3's and HDTV's everywhere to play with? Done! Want nice couches to sit on while playing them? Sure!

But whatever you do... don't travel too far from your desk, and really, we'd prefer if you just never went home.

I like free food. Yeah, I might have to stay at my desk a bit longer, but that's money I'm saving not having to buy every meal. Also, that'd be more money made for staying just a bit longer at a job that is liked (if you hated the job, why would you have it, since that's not just any ol' retail job that anyone can get), unless you are paid salary and not hourly because then that point is moot.

I used to get free cake at my first job... :3

So about internship...
I cant imagine doing any work while on lunch break though.

We get coffee and a few snacks here.

Do you really have that at your work???!!! @_@ god I would be fat if there was such things at mine.

You say that now, but what happens in most tech companies is:

- You decide not to work for your lunch break.

- Company comes by and buys you whatever you want to eat.

- Logistically it makes sense to stay at your desk because it's super swank and the nicest place to eat. Plus you have your computer there, which is much nicer than the computer you have at home, and you're allowed to use it for whatever you want. So hey! Maybe you'll do some gaming on your break. (Right after you check email...)

- Everyone else around you is eating at their desks and talking about work. The environment is open floor plan, and there are no pre-defined "breaks" (because you're all on salary) so nobody's lunch perfectly overlaps with anyone else's.

- Someone inevitably comes over and asks you a work-related question, or there's a problem that needs your attention, it'll only take a minute, and it's not like you can tell them "screw you, I'm on lunch" unless you want to be forever known as that guy.

- You find yourself back at your desk eating your free food, having solved whatever work problem needed your attention, 20 minutes later, still adamant that you're not going to work for lunch. So you walk over to the drink fridge, but on the way an artist jumps you to demo a cool new model he's working on and wondering if your engine will support that many vertexes, and...

So three hours later, you're done with "lunch," but it turns out you actually spent two and a half hours of that working, even if it didn't feel like it. And the company comes out way ahead, because over time, the bits of pieces of extra work they get out of you are many times more materially valuable than the cost of all the goodies they spent on you.

What is your job, if I may ask?

So did any of that happen to you when you first started?
and sounds like you'd never get to eat your food warm.Hope one of them is sweet chili

Heck, if I had a job where it felt like I wasn't even working in that sense, just being productive without feeling like, "Bleh, work...," that would be a glorious day.

Looks like they hook you up for sure.

J and I are to be married soon! =D

Oh Holy Lord Jesus Christ on a candy coated, chocolate stick!wow... I wish my job was like that. I wouldnt mind not going home.

i'm baffled that people even have to ask what they need to run FFXI. basically anything on market today runs it decently.

So now it's late afternoon and you spent three hours having "lunch," but actually chatting with people and solving problems that folks needed your help with.

You're salary, nor hourly. Your boss doesn't care how long or when you work. You're game industry, so you're exempt from overtime laws and get paid the same regardless. And you promised another internal studio (who's shipping a little RPG) that you'd have such-and-such feature done by Thursday. They've all been putting in long hours to hit it and are counting on you, so you better deliver your crap.

Your boss being mad at you is one thing, but not coming through when your friends blew their weekend working to hit the deadline you promised is quite another.

So you go back to your desk and put on some headphones and crank the music up, but you're stuck on a tough conceptual problem that you can't make work right in code. It needs a particularly elegant solution but you're just not feeling it, and nobody else has any ideas either.

Hrm, maybe your auction house forum needs your attention. You haven't had a chance to check in a few days. So you pop over there, post a few times about something suitably inane, when it hits you. Holy crap! If you just did the thingy with the thingy, you could shave off... wow! Blitz over to your other computer, fire off some code, run it, it works. Damn, you never woulda thought of that one had you not taken that little break.

Just as you're packing up your laptop, triumphantly planning to get out the door on time for once, a horde of folks you vaguely recognize from Web pop by, and they clearly aren't getting ready to leave.

"Hey, we're bored and doing a Starbucks run. SC2 LAN in 15."
"Was just about to head out, actually, but than-"
"Company's buying."

*ding* SMS from friends on another project.

"[Creative Director on X Game] likes Dragon Age II's conversation wheel. Wants to know for his Producer what it would take time-wise to hack existing tiered tree implementation. Spoken lines split from choice strings, plays okay with localization? Deluxe copy in your Steam account."

So you sit back down and accept the coffee, and start downloading yet another free copy of a game to go with other 70 the company's also bought you. It's not technically your problem, but they're being awfully nice, and you've got friends on that project.

Some time later, one of the legions of office managers comes by to ask what you'd like for dinner.

The week wraps up, you've put in 68 hours physically at work, and while the company has blown a metric asston of money on you, they've come out way ahead in the end. Man, you'd barely even have time to get to the gym, if it weren't for the fact they pay for your membership and it's right across the street, so you don't have to go home, and...

See how the whole thing works?

now if they throw in a bed and a PO box i'd just go ahead and live there

Poor J, a slave to gifts.

You can always give me your free games, I've got lots of time <3

Jaerik, if you're trying to make it sound not so pleasant, (I think you've probably noticed) it isn't working. I'd gladly switch places, and so would apparently most people here. :P

I'm not sure I would switch places. Yes the food and what not seems great, but at what cost?

You want to hear about my job? :3

oh yknow, probably just your soul and all

There seems to be little free time. I'm completely fine with having a "normal" job, so long as I can afford food and rent/house payments.

I would much rather have more free time than more work comforts.

Got a job for me?

The day is almost over!!

Sure.