> because you have to This is a blurred line in the industry. Rarely does your superior walk up to you and tell you that you have to stay long hours or else.

> because you have to This is a blurred line in the industry. Rarely does your superior walk up to you and tell you that you have to stay long hours or else. Instead crunching in the games industry is much more passive aggressive. "Sure you can go home, but look at all the colleagues you are abandoning, I thought you were a team player, are we not a family? Do you not want this game to be the best it can be?" And millions of small variations of that, praising only ever those that do crunch, building an atmosphere of immense peer pressure. Your boss won't tell you to stay, he will actively build and nourish an environment in which you and your colleagues do that job for him. And that doesn't even include the whole topic of benefits, raises, and promotions. Ultimately it is the same as "you have to", but still. Many have a false image of the way crunch is forced upon a team.