3 ms·
I think it's any industry which is a very common childhood dream that doesn't have a high barrier to entry. I wanted to be a game developer - I was briefly too
by erulabs 3y ago
I think it's any industry which is a very common childhood dream that doesn't have a high barrier to entry. I wanted to be a game developer - I was briefly too - but I'm not anymore. It's the perfect environment to get 20 year olds to work 80 hour weeks for close to no pay - because it's so cool we're making video games!.
- bena 3y agoI did it on the hobbyist scene for a bit and then my place of work tried to spin up an indie shop. It can be fun. It can be interesting. However, it is not as lucrative as just writing YACS (Yet Another CRUD Site). Now, I would like to get back to hobbyist development, just for giggles, but I've wound up with so many obligations, it's hard to find time.
- CM30 3y agoYeah, this is very accurate. Which in turn is why games journalism is such a broken industry in of itself, because it mixes all the problems of the games industry as a whole (people accepting miserable wages for a 'dream job', fairly low barrier to entry, toxic conditions) with those of the media industry (people accepting low/miserable wages, low barrier to entry, toxic conditions and almost no way to make a decent amount of revenue). Hence you get situations like the focus of this discussion; the people who actually do the work and draw in the visitors getting treated terribly by out of touch execs, and many sites cratering as a result of similar poor decision making.
- depereo 3y agoLots of industries with low barrier to entry have their 'rock stars' who people aspire to be and will work hard towards, at least for a while. Carmack or Bowie or Ramsay. But they're the 0.1% of the 0.1%.