I love Masters Of Doom, it's one of my favourite books (make of that what you will). But I guess the main difference is that the id guys were pushing boundaries and working themselves to the bone on something they truly loved and felt passionate about. It was self-imposed and unlike the hordes of faceless developers working in sweatshop conditions to churn out the latest CoD or whatever, they actually received a huge amount of credit (and the fame and fortune that goes with it) for their hard work.
I agree, there's definitely this romanticised image of game development in the developer community. It's something I always aspired to get into but the sacrifices don't seem to be worth the rewards, at least in my case.
That's a bad example. I'm sure the CoD developers generally think they're making some of the best games ever, and they have the sales figures and the plaudits to prove it. Gamers like to sneer at CoD, but I'm certain there's a lot of care and enthusiasm that goes into each iteration. It just gets sneered at harder than a lot of games, because it's perhaps overpopular for what it is.
The people making uber-cynical cash-milkers at Zynga or King, or those German shovelware job-simulator games with Microsoft-style trade dress are likely far more likely to fit your description than some blockbusting AAA bestseller like CoD.
Power over ones life is very important. In Norwegian labour law there's strict limits to work hours and overtime (I believe the TL;DR is: 40 hour week, 4 weeks paid vacation, every other Sunday off, no "non-essential" Sunday work, along with some caveats for seasonal work (eg: ocean fishing) - a baseline of 100 hours of overtime a year per employee, with the option to apply for another 100(?) on a case-by-case basis".
But those do not apply to people that can decide their own hours - managers (that are actually managers, and that can choose when they are present), or people in an "especially free position".
The latter one is a bit woollen, but it generally means consultants that really are free to set their own hours.
While the particulars of what's reasonable hours/off-time etc is debatable (and could use more research), I think the core idea, that working hard for yourself is much less harmful than being forced to work hard. While the hours might be similar, the stress is different when you decide for yourself how to spend your time.
I agree, there's definitely this romanticised image of game development in the developer community. It's something I always aspired to get into but the sacrifices don't seem to be worth the rewards, at least in my case.