3 ms·

For decades gaming has been the programmer equivalent of the waiter-actor/waitress-actress in Hollywood trying for their big break. The competitiveness and des

For decades gaming has been the programmer equivalent of the waiter-actor/waitress-actress in Hollywood trying for their big break. The competitiveness and desire to work there is what drives these insane working conditions. The big difference is this: If you have the skills to work in the gaming industry, you also have the skills to work in another software industry that will compensate you appropriately. Nobody needs to work 100 hours a week on salary for at a AAA studio who will discard you. The key message is this: AAA productions are losing touch with their audiences and spending unholy amounts of money on garbage games. (this is accelerating just like Hollywood). Unlike the poor actor/actress who has to suck Spacey/Wienstein's dick, YOU have options. Go work a boring 9-5 webapp job with benefits and then hack on a game with a few passionate friends with a vision of something AWESOME. The Internet levels the playing field for us. Minecraft is an excellent example of this.

sangnoir 9y ago
> For decades gaming has been the programmer equivalent of the waiter-actor/waitress-actress in Hollywood trying for their big break The game industry is not made up entirely of programmers! There are lots of other roles that do not map to the software industry such as animators, modelers and artists. They can't just switch to making enterprise CRUD apps. Even the programmers might have difficulty meeting the requirement of having 2-4 years experience on framework that got its first stable release in 2017.
- gnarbarian 9y ago
  And again I will claim that: "you also have the skills to work in another software industry that will compensate you appropriately" If you are capable of learning how to use the apps necessary to be a animator/modeler you DO have the skills to work in another industry! Nobody is entitled to work whatever job they want wherever they want, and nobody forced you to take out loans to get a degree in Art/3d modelling or animation. For example, I'd love to be a beer taste tester for 150k per year and live in downtown SF, but the demand isn't there. How would a Union of beer taster's improve the lot of people who want the job? They would establish rules to exclude up and comers with more talent who are willing to work for less. The sad truth is a union will help people in the gaming industry just as much as a union would help the NBA. No matter what there will always be a shortage of jobs compared to the number of people who wish to work there. But the union will exclude a significant portion of people who are willing to work for less from competing at all. Hint:(Similar to minimum wage, this is where unpaid internships came from) So either you compete on price/working conditions, Or you end up with a Union cabal who set artificial standards of entry and keep out talented newcomers who are willing to work for less. You have choice. Make good decisions.
  - pjmlp 9y ago
    Actually, in Europe many countries do have unions for sport players as well. Here is the Portuguese web site for football (soccer) just as an example, not going to list everything here. http://sjogadores.pt/ http://sjogadores.pt/
  - dignan 9y ago
    The NBA players have a union https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Basketball_Players_Association https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Basketball_Players_...
- vvanders 9y ago
  Yup totally and I'd argue that if you have chops for Game Design then you probably would also do very well doing IxD[1]. If you're an animator there's plenty of gigs doing motion design in places you wouldn't consider. I know a ton of ex-gamedev who've landed in these roles and done quite well. [1] Interaction Design
watwut 9y ago
Majority of workers in game industry are artists, not programmers. And programmers are not the ones having "big breaks" or ability to influence what the game is going to be like.
- sgroppino 9y ago
  It will be interesting to see some stats on this breakdown.
  - watwut 9y ago
    One place to look at is credits in games that have credits. Look at all the details in big games - people drawing those details are not programmers.

sangnoir 9y ago

> For decades gaming has been the programmer equivalent of the waiter-actor/waitress-actress in Hollywood trying for their big break The game industry is not made up entirely of programmers! There are lots of other roles that do not map to the software industry such as animators, modelers and artists. They can't just switch to making enterprise CRUD apps. Even the programmers might have difficulty meeting the requirement of having 2-4 years experience on framework that got its first stable release in 2017.

gnarbarian 9y ago
And again I will claim that: "you also have the skills to work in another software industry that will compensate you appropriately" If you are capable of learning how to use the apps necessary to be a animator/modeler you DO have the skills to work in another industry! Nobody is entitled to work whatever job they want wherever they want, and nobody forced you to take out loans to get a degree in Art/3d modelling or animation. For example, I'd love to be a beer taste tester for 150k per year and live in downtown SF, but the demand isn't there. How would a Union of beer taster's improve the lot of people who want the job? They would establish rules to exclude up and comers with more talent who are willing to work for less. The sad truth is a union will help people in the gaming industry just as much as a union would help the NBA. No matter what there will always be a shortage of jobs compared to the number of people who wish to work there. But the union will exclude a significant portion of people who are willing to work for less from competing at all. Hint:(Similar to minimum wage, this is where unpaid internships came from) So either you compete on price/working conditions, Or you end up with a Union cabal who set artificial standards of entry and keep out talented newcomers who are willing to work for less. You have choice. Make good decisions.
- pjmlp 9y ago
  Actually, in Europe many countries do have unions for sport players as well. Here is the Portuguese web site for football (soccer) just as an example, not going to list everything here. http://sjogadores.pt/ http://sjogadores.pt/
- dignan 9y ago
  The NBA players have a union https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Basketball_Players_Association https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Basketball_Players_...
vvanders 9y ago
Yup totally and I'd argue that if you have chops for Game Design then you probably would also do very well doing IxD[1]. If you're an animator there's plenty of gigs doing motion design in places you wouldn't consider. I know a ton of ex-gamedev who've landed in these roles and done quite well. [1] Interaction Design

watwut 9y ago

Majority of workers in game industry are artists, not programmers. And programmers are not the ones having "big breaks" or ability to influence what the game is going to be like.

sgroppino 9y ago
It will be interesting to see some stats on this breakdown.
- watwut 9y ago
  One place to look at is credits in games that have credits. Look at all the details in big games - people drawing those details are not programmers.