/dev/etc 13 Sep 2007 09:55 am
Ballpit Is Famous, Newspaper Reports
In early June, video game artist John Taylor and software engineer Ben Burbank amused themselves during the busy bug-fixing period by filling the open center of a round conference table with plastic balls — sort of like the ball pits at Chuck E. Cheese’s.
Without the jokes, employees say working at EA would be like working at an insurance company — maybe like the one that shares an office park with Tiburon.
“They hate us because we have fun and they don’t and their bosses would never put up with the kind of crap we do,” Taylor said. “They are all grownups. They are weak. We are cool. They’re not.”
UPDATE: Now the story’s on Next Generation and Kotaku.
on 13 Sep 2007 at 12:43 pm 1.mike! said …
and the awesome flames roll in:
“Its the same god damn game every year, they just update the name - so, sure they have plenty of time on their hands. I guess thats the benefit of being the only game company allowed licensed to make NFL games - you can stick poo in a DVD box, throw Maddens name on it (a name that actually has NOTHING to do with the game) and all of the drones will line up to buy it.”
so… how do you feel with all this time on your hands? i mean… an HOUR A DAY? THAT’S A WHOLE EXTRA HOUR YOU COULD BE EATINGSLEEPINGPOOPINGMADDEN!!11 MIRIGHT?!????
on 13 Sep 2007 at 12:48 pm 2.Ben said …
Seriously.
We did the ballpit because we were here so much and we wanted to lighten up the mood.
But whatever. It’s not like this is easy work. I’m assuming many, many people know this. It’s the guys who sit there refreshing kotaku all day in hopes of a story they can comment on that… well… maybe they’re not the busiest guys in the world.
on 13 Sep 2007 at 12:54 pm 3.mike! said …
it’s fun how the annoyingly loud minority are able to give the impression of being the majority.
i’m pointing at YOU, Parents Television Council.
on 13 Sep 2007 at 2:47 pm 4.Colin C. said …
I always try to avoid reading the posts at the bottom, because they’re always full of uninformed retards who unfortunately do not understand that they are uninformed. But I often slip down below the actual news and and cry a little inside.
Posting from work. Ball pit birthday party today! Woo!
on 13 Sep 2007 at 2:57 pm 5.Ben said …
As Juls mentioned, it’s fantastic how we can be accused of both working too much and too little.