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> Any programmer worth their salt wants to jump ship over to the enterprise side of things ASAP, where both the pay and the conditions are much better I read i

> Any programmer worth their salt wants to jump ship over to the enterprise side of things ASAP, where both the pay and the conditions are much better I read ignorant shit about the game industry all the time on HN, but this is so beautifully ignorant, arrogant and demonstrative of what is wrong with software developers that if wish HN had gold to give. I suppose John carmack, George Romero and jonathon blow would be sad to learn they’re not worth their salt. Lest someone argue that I’m picking outliers, you’ll just have to take my word that in my years at Microsoft and then in games I have seen brilliant programmers (and bad ones) in both environments. And many of the best in games tried to stick it out at “enterprise software” (google, msft, SV unicorns) but always left within a year despite bags of money being hurled at them. Sorry if this sounds harsh but I am so tired of people who’ve never walked a mile in the shoes, telling a walker how they must suck at walking. It’s endemic on HN, for all kinds of things, not just games.

UncleMeat 4y ago
Carmack did leave gaming and is now working on AI and VR. George Romero is a filmmaker so I think you are thinking of John Romero, who was never a stunningly good programmer but instead was focused on game design and level design. Jonathon Blow made two games, neither of which are known for particularly impressive engines, and is now spending most of his time developing a language and compiler. Odd examples to choose.
- muststopmyths 4y ago
  Yeah, I meant John Romero, sorry. And Carmack didn't leave gaming for enterprise "ASAP". He had a long and storied career in games. I would say Romero was "worth his salt" as a programmer, whatever that vague metric means. Jonathan Blow made two games with engines developed from scratch. I don't know how you think that's "not particularly impressive" for a solo person, unless you have never tried to actually ship a game. With or without a custom engine. I was just trying to pick programmer examples that people would know. Probably didn't make my point very well, which was that there are plenty of programmers "worth their salt" in the gaming industry, and who chose to stay in it. To state otherwise is just fucking idiotic.

UncleMeat 4y ago

Carmack did leave gaming and is now working on AI and VR. George Romero is a filmmaker so I think you are thinking of John Romero, who was never a stunningly good programmer but instead was focused on game design and level design. Jonathon Blow made two games, neither of which are known for particularly impressive engines, and is now spending most of his time developing a language and compiler. Odd examples to choose.

muststopmyths 4y ago
Yeah, I meant John Romero, sorry. And Carmack didn't leave gaming for enterprise "ASAP". He had a long and storied career in games. I would say Romero was "worth his salt" as a programmer, whatever that vague metric means. Jonathan Blow made two games with engines developed from scratch. I don't know how you think that's "not particularly impressive" for a solo person, unless you have never tried to actually ship a game. With or without a custom engine. I was just trying to pick programmer examples that people would know. Probably didn't make my point very well, which was that there are plenty of programmers "worth their salt" in the gaming industry, and who chose to stay in it. To state otherwise is just fucking idiotic.