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The supply of jobs is much lower in the games industry relative to the demand.

usefulcat 8y ago
Don't know why you're downvoted; that is exactly right. There's nothing particularly unusual about game dev jobs or companies compared to other areas of tech (especially including startups); it's just that there are a lot of people who want to work on games. It's been that way for at least a couple of decades now.
- diminoten 8y ago
  I think people assume I'm anti-developer or anti-union, but I was just trying to remind people stuff they seem to be discounting (but already know -- nothing I said was innovative at all). It really isn't that complicated, I don't believe. :/
robocat 8y ago
And there are way more actors than acting jobs. Yet they have the SAG-AFTRA union which had a strike to force better working conditions from games companies. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016–17_video_game_voice_actor_strike https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016–17_video_game_voice_act...
- diminoten 8y ago
  There are "way more" actors in the sense that there are many people who want to act for a living, but the analogy doesn't hold from an education and experience married to that desire standpoint. Further acting is older than gaming, and those unions were given space to form during a period of time that was very different from today.
  - naravara 8y ago
    >Further acting is older than gaming, and those unions were given space to form during a period of time that was very different from today. In the 1930s back when union organizing was likely to get you beaten by goons or assassinated by hitmen/the mob? Or in the 1940s and '50s, when active membership in the union put you at risk of getting brought up in front of the House Unamerican Activities Committee and blacklisted from ever working again?
    - diminoten 8y ago
      That's not at all how the film industry's unions formed or any of its history, and blackballing a statistically small number of writers was wrong, but completely unrelated to what we're talking about...
  - Animats 8y ago
    If you think they were "given space", read up on the history of the labor movement in the US. IATSE Local 728 has an article about their own history that doesn't gloss over the bad stuff.[1] [1] https://www.iatse728.org/about-us/history/the-war-for-warner-brothers https://www.iatse728.org/about-us/history/the-war-for-warner...
    - diminoten 8y ago
      Labor movement != film industry union movement. A lot of the issues other labor movements experienced simply didn't happen nearly to the extent in film.
      - Animats 8y ago
        See the link, which is entirely about the film industry union movement.
        diminoten 8y ago
        I did, and noted its lack of similarity with other movements.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
andrewflnr 8y ago
I suspect not. My family hosted a couple aspiring actors in LA as boarders. They left because they couldn't get enough work. There's a lot of people out there trying to break in to Hollywood.
egypturnash 8y ago
There's a lot more kids who grow up wanting to be animators than there are animation jobs, and yet they have a successful union.
- diminoten 8y ago
  "A lot" is not nearly as many as there are competent programmers who want to break into the games industry. The concept is similar, the volume of people is vastly different, however.

Don't know why you're downvoted; that is exactly right. There's nothing particularly unusual about game dev jobs or companies compared to other areas of tech (especially including startups); it's just that there are a lot of people who want to work on games. It's been that way for at least a couple of decades now.

diminoten 8y ago
I think people assume I'm anti-developer or anti-union, but I was just trying to remind people stuff they seem to be discounting (but already know -- nothing I said was innovative at all). It really isn't that complicated, I don't believe. :/

robocat 8y ago

And there are way more actors than acting jobs. Yet they have the SAG-AFTRA union which had a strike to force better working conditions from games companies. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016–17_video_game_voice_actor_strike https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016–17_video_game_voice_act...

diminoten 8y ago
There are "way more" actors in the sense that there are many people who want to act for a living, but the analogy doesn't hold from an education and experience married to that desire standpoint. Further acting is older than gaming, and those unions were given space to form during a period of time that was very different from today.
- naravara 8y ago
  >Further acting is older than gaming, and those unions were given space to form during a period of time that was very different from today. In the 1930s back when union organizing was likely to get you beaten by goons or assassinated by hitmen/the mob? Or in the 1940s and '50s, when active membership in the union put you at risk of getting brought up in front of the House Unamerican Activities Committee and blacklisted from ever working again?
  - diminoten 8y ago
    That's not at all how the film industry's unions formed or any of its history, and blackballing a statistically small number of writers was wrong, but completely unrelated to what we're talking about...
- Animats 8y ago
  If you think they were "given space", read up on the history of the labor movement in the US. IATSE Local 728 has an article about their own history that doesn't gloss over the bad stuff.[1] [1] https://www.iatse728.org/about-us/history/the-war-for-warner-brothers https://www.iatse728.org/about-us/history/the-war-for-warner...
  - diminoten 8y ago
    Labor movement != film industry union movement. A lot of the issues other labor movements experienced simply didn't happen nearly to the extent in film.
    - Animats 8y ago
      See the link, which is entirely about the film industry union movement.
      - diminoten 8y ago
        I did, and noted its lack of similarity with other movements.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]

andrewflnr 8y ago

I suspect not. My family hosted a couple aspiring actors in LA as boarders. They left because they couldn't get enough work. There's a lot of people out there trying to break in to Hollywood.

egypturnash 8y ago

There's a lot more kids who grow up wanting to be animators than there are animation jobs, and yet they have a successful union.

diminoten 8y ago
"A lot" is not nearly as many as there are competent programmers who want to break into the games industry. The concept is similar, the volume of people is vastly different, however.