Hey all – so as I witnessed recently *cough*PORTAL2*cough*, there seems to be a growing trend (strangely enough, in IT wtf? haha) of people taking sick days off from work/school/uni around major game release dates to stay home and play/finish new releases.

My girlfriend is a Journalism student looking to write an article on it and wants people who have either done this, or can attest to its occurrence (maybe team leaders or managers who have seen their team's productivity affected by it) for an interview.

She's also looking for any other Game releases that you witnessed to have had a pretty big impact on work/school attendance...think Halo 2, GTAIV, CoD4, Crysis2 etc.

Anyone up for a short interview?

As I work for a government department that frowns on talking about work in the media, no, but I will vote.

Hey Thanks for the vote.

I think my first instance was chucking a sickie from school to sit at home and play Phantasy Star on the Master System. It was worth it.

I've never done it at a game release as far as I can remember, but I have chucked sickies when I cant be fucked and just wanna stay home and play games. Usually on those days I don't even play anything though -.-

As a pesonal note, the games I want to play are coming out far enough in advance to plan a few days leave with no trouble. Work doesn't have the right to ask what I do with my leave, and they don't.

Chucked a sickie for the launch of Halo 3: ODST, stayed in line for 7 hours. Got the Limited Edition with the ODST branded controller, plus because I was 1 of the first ten people in line at the time, I got a years free access to Xbox Live Gold. Never again.

Also chucked another sickie to go to the city for the launch of Super Paper Mario for the Wii, but the main event was meeting Charles Martinet; the voice of Mario.

You... have photographic evidence of being not-sick while out at a public event? I am assuming that's a photo of yourself?

Ew, ODST...I bet you regret that.

Yep, and besides, my dodgy employer at the time didn't even raise an eyebrow when I told him that I had a cold. He never saw the photo.



At the time no, it was a good tie-in into the series, and I still don't regret the purchase.

I like how you're both looking at different cameras.

Meh I've never taken a day off for a game release - I have however taken a day off so I wouldn't be tired for a finals match -_-

I went to the midnight launch for Wrath of the Lich King and installed it with the intention of having a quick look at the Death Knight, then going to bed. I didn't get to sleep until 9.am. Just after I called my boss and told him I was "sick".

I also took time off work (annual leave) for the release of Aion. That was a waste...

I don't buy games at release anyway. I have called in sick after being caught up in a game and not realising it was now 6am and I was still going. Snow bros on mame....

Hmm, not on the day of release... but I have on the day after, when I got home, played all night, then realized it was too late to get a decent sleep and the fact I wanted to play mooooore.

I think the last time I recall was GTA IV, though.

A day off for myself, though... is as simple as sending an sms to my workmate (who acts as a kind of supervisor, but not -- my workplace is odd), saying I don't feel well and won't be in to work for the day.
Nobody bats an eyelid.

Woot.

I used to have days off school all the time to stay home and play CSS and COD4 my grades suffered for it, I only ever just got pass marks for things and even now I am still teaching myself things that I would have learnt whilst being at school, I guess my mum was never to tough on me for it, always happy to lie for me :/ I know I won't be the same if I have kids, the way the education system is nowdays its bad enough as it is (well in QLD anyway) offering subjects like english and maths com at a grade 11 and 12 level.

I get sick a lot due to a really shitty immune system, but I still go to work when I'm sick and power through the day, I save my paid sick leave for times like these! ;)

I haven't taken a sick day for a game release day but I have taken a weeks leave to play a game that was released that week and that game wass mass effect 2.

I was luck enough to have just finished Uni exams and had 3 months off when that came out :D

The week off was great. Time well spent IMO. I was playing it on PC then.
Still playing through all the DLC for it on the XBOX it certainly worth a second play through as this time I have gone all renegade as opposed the my first play through where I only made Paragon choices.

I never do it anyway. And given how I'm the only guy that's capable of doing my job, I can't afford to do so.

Never ever.

In my industry, we can't take days off on a whim, even if very sick there's alot of fucking around to make it work for me to have time off.

Faking sickies is childish imo

I work in the industry, so we never get to take off big releases. We have to be around incase something goes tits up.

I've never had time off work for a game, as much as it would be tempting to in some cases (like Elder Scrolls releases).

I plan to take leave (or just an RDO) for Skyrim :D

Just one day so I can sit down and fully sink my teeth into a game thats going to have a lot of hours of exploration and whatnot.

November the 11th is a Friday. So just wait til the saturday :P

Your assuming the date wont be changed. Anyway, if its being released on the 11th (American ) wont it be released on our Saturday anyway?

In any case - RDO the following monday, Long weekend of Skyrim goodness and just play the absolute shit out of it just like I do with the other thing I take holidays for.

Your mother.

;)

Double Post

=(

WORD.

I can pretty much wait for games "after" release day. Because getting ASAP is just stupid, if not silly. Its like waiting for Windows Vista at 12 midnight so you could be the first users in the world to install Vista...

I did something similar for Burning Crusade, and I regretted the decision to do so. It was silly, annoying, and a waste of time. Also I don't see a point of playing games "immediately" i usually wait a while because of quick patches which can make or break the game. :).

Yeah I went to the midnight launch for TBC, never again. Especially now that I can just preload most games on steam (and in the case of cataclysm I preloaded and bought that off blizzards site)

Last time I did it was for the release of UT2004, back in.....shit, what year was that....

Haha, I went to the midnight launch for TBC as well. Had a LAN set up back at home with about 5 of my mates who also played at the time, it was seriously the best night ever, no bad experience, logged straight in and played. Was a heap of fun.

But I get what you mean with some games Zhaker - can be a shitty experience.

Shit load better than taking a day off for the abomination that was UT2003! =O

Where I work the whole company stops and plays new releases, on company time! ...if the release is significant enough... should have seen it when WotLK and then Cataclysm came out! It was a good month before we got completely back to doing work at work.

The guy I used to work with took his annual leave whenever there was a WoW expansion released.

I still hit level cap before him working full time (and supporting my healthy drinking habit).


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Same, if i take a sick day a dozen clients lose their appointments and since i'm booked about 1 month in advance they get very pissed off.