Electronic Arts

I had a blast working at Electronic Arts. The people are the best part. Only at a video game developer will you find so many like-minded individuals who are as passionate about video games as I am.

Electronic Arts has some of the greatest perks, from parties to massages to free coffee and food. I was fortunate enough to work at their Black Box Studio (which is in the process of being shut down as I write this) in Downtown Vancouver. This studio is located at probably the best location in Vancouver, overlooking Coal Harbour.

A party was held every Friday in the cafeteria, which was the perfect way to end a week (unless, of course, you were working the weekend too).

Long hours. Everyone knows this about the games industry.

The problem is that a lot of these people want to work this much. They are passionate about their work and maybe have just a little bit of workaholism.

But who can blame them when you know hundreds of thousands of people will see your hard work.

Sometimes it can be frustrating when design decisions are in the hands of the wrong people, or when you know that end-project crunch is coming because it really is expected.

It can often feel like the only role of the managers is to slave-drive the developers.

The worst part of EA at the moment would have to be the mass layoffs.

A more agile development process would help developers spread out the crunch periods of projects.