13 ms·

Is gaming big among tech people and software engineers? I did (while 18 and younger) play video games for most days of my life, with it being the main thing I

Is gaming big among tech people and software engineers? I did (while 18 and younger) play video games for most days of my life, with it being the main thing I did on holidays and also after school on school days, but I kind of lost interest for the most part after I turned 19 (not looking down on others who play them at all). I remember my university (for tech fields like CS) had a room for LAN parties and also had a Discord (mostly a gaming-related chat platform?) set up by one lecturer for informal chat. I'm not entirely sure what relationship our industry (most here are coders in some capacity?) has with gaming and would like to see others' thoughts.

bigstrat2003 3y ago
Yes, gaming is big among people who work in tech (software engineers, sysadmins, etc). It's uncommon to be working in tech and not be a gamer, in my experience. Not unheard of by any means, but not the majority either.
hotpotamus 3y ago
I gamed a lot as a kid and much less as an adult, though it took a bit longer for me to put it down than you did. I'd say that video games are what got me into computers; I wanted to be a game developer as a child. I never really took to straight software development though; I'm more of a devops type these days, and I'm frankly a bit glad to have avoided the gaming industry because I'm not particularly happy with what it seems to have largely become. That said, there are still some smaller studios doing impressive, innovative work and it's very cool to see that.
david2ndaccount 3y ago
I found my interest in video games died when I started working. Whatever button in my brain video games were pushing is now being pushed by the day job and I get paid for it.
- lukeasch21 3y ago
  I'm curious, if you don't mind me asking what field of work are you in?
  - uvesten 3y ago
    You know, shooting demons, solving mysteries, jumping over koopas, that kind of thing…
    - photonbeam 3y ago
      My company is hiring, we’re looking for a rockstar koopa jumper
      - Drakim 3y ago
        A x10 koopa jumper can not only get the work of ten other employees done, but encourage good planning and future building for better koopa jumping in the future, whereas ten bad koopa jumpers will not only jump very few koopas, but also burn bridges and create koopa jumping debt that will sink the company.
  - xarope 3y ago
    unsurprisingly, challenging jobs have all the hallmarks of a challenging game, requiring skills for logistics, resource and project/timeline management, meta-analytical skills to break-the-beta, curious mind to dig further. Oh yes, and rockstar koopa jumping skills too (drats, so thats what my current job is lacking).
x86a 3y ago
To add a datapoint, I also gamed a lot (18 and younger) but quit when I started my SWE career some 15 years ago. Have not had a desire to play since then.
- ghaff 3y ago
  I probably played mostly though never voraciously in my 20s--I was never really much of a console gamer and PCs didn't really exist earlier to any great degree. I sometimes still dabble--like I was into the Wii sports games for a while--but I basically grew out of it more than not. I think that's a pretty common pattern for a lot of people. What I do still play is mostly on mobile when I travel.
tetris11 3y ago
I was a huge console gamer in my teens, then transitioned into a PC gamer in my young adult years (helped by the yo-ho attitude of the era), then became aware of the scene and have pretty much treated any AAA title as guaranteed spyware trash until it gets cracked and (fitgirl) repacked. I play maybe a game a year, where I basically do not sleep for a week, use/develop trainers to get past the grind-ey aspects of the gameplay, and essentially finish the game for the plot, as fast as possible so that I can resume my normal work life of unpaid overtime. I keep up with interesting games by watching good youtubers like Jacob Gellar[0], but essentially I don't really play any small indie games, with the exception of Dwarf Fortress... though I mostly just like to read the colourful dev blog[1] instead of playing it. 0: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMGEjgYJhEc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMGEjgYJhEc 1: https://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/dev.html https://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/dev.html
- groovybits 3y ago
  I've worked in tech for a number of years. I think I'm in the same boat as you. However, I can confidentially say that videogames were merely a conduit to social experiences with friends. i.e. you wouldn't find me grinding a game by myself just for the sake of getting good. For my friend group, that was consoles in our teens, and PC in our early 20s. I've mostly given up on traditional PC gaming. I have a Nintendo Switch and a Steam Deck. I use the Deck occasionally to play games that aren't available on Switch, but otherwise the Switch is preferred, because it enables social interactions so easily. Now that I'm reaching mid-life, I cringe at the thought of taking time off work to play a game. If it means that much to you, more power to you. Apparently I've separated from the hardcore gamer scene.
doublepg23 3y ago
I'd say gaming is similar to sports in that it's an easy way to find common ground with other men when speaking casually, at least in my Zoomer cohort.
saberience 3y ago
Assuming this question is asked in good faith. I find it hard to believe you could work in the tech industry and not realize that a lot of your co-workers probably play games. Unless you're just the type who doesn't ever speak to people. I'ved worked in tech for 20+ years at this point and every tech company I've worked at had gamers across all departments but usually programmers/engineers have a much higher percentage of being gamers. Every tech company I've worked at has some area with consoles hooked up to TVs for playing Fifa or Mario Kart type multiplayer games. Most of those companies also had one or two arcade machines too. And then every company has some internal groups/communities for gamers. Even the most serious and least "gamey" of the companies I worked for (a financial tech company) had internal communities for Dota 2 and Valorant...
- 0cf8612b2e1e 3y ago
  I would go further and state that many probably owe gaming for their tech career. In the dark ages, installing and running a game could take significant technical effort. Scouring forums and looking for magical configuration or patches that could make it work. That technical knowledge builds upon itself.
  - no_wizard 3y ago
    when games were far more open to supporting mods and had big communities around it, its where I first cut my teeth programming in earnest without even realizing it. At some point, the programming became more fun than the playing for me
    - dvngnt_ 3y ago
      now kids are modding roblox and minecraft
      - PawgerZ 3y ago
        My programming journey started in like 2013ish with making guns on roblox which eventually turned into working on Minecraft mods.
tiborsaas 3y ago
It is. Some games I completed in the last few years: Cyberpunk 2077, Horizon, Mass Effect series, Max Payne, Deus Ex, Alan Wake... My 30-40ish friends and colleges also play casually or actively and they are in tech.
koito17 3y ago
The replies to this comment surprise me a bit. I'm in a similar situation as you. I used to play video games all the time as a teenager. When I went to university, I stopped playing at all. In hindsight, it was a mix of inconvenience (I wouldn't dare to bring a desktop to a tiny dorm, and good luck playing on a laptop!) and the fact that I wanted to try many things that were new to me at the time. Even then, I still lack motivation to try downloading and play a game. None of my coworkers seem to play games regularly either. There are plenty of social activities one can do that isn't gaming.
- fluoridation 3y ago
  >None of my coworkers seem to play games regularly either. Are you sure? Since you don't game, I imagine you normally don't ask people what they've been playing lately. Just because they don't bring it (or don't bring it up when you're around) doesn't mean they don't play games when they're alone. >There are plenty of social activities one can do that isn't gaming. What a strange thing to say, especially since I can replace the last word with just about anything and the idea remains equally true. Are you saying to you an activity has no significance or importance (or at least not enough) if it doesn't have a social component? I'm not trying to be combative, just trying to understand your point of view.
- acjohnson55 3y ago
  I'm similar. The ability to socialize and party at-will eclipsed my desire to game.
gopher2000 3y ago
I would feel very confident saying that the percentage of gamers is higher among tech people than people in general. It's easy to point to pretty direct relationships with tech and gaming - and with overlapping cultures.
racl101 3y ago
I find a lot of millennial devs like me are old, have responsibilities, kids, a family, barely have time to game. I bought a PS5, only own one game and I barely play with it. I just have either no time or little energy to play. I wanna get Spider-man 2, but I know I'd just end up not playing it. Now the Nintendo Switch is another thing. I still play it quite a bit, especially the Zelda game. It's just so easy and convenient to pick up anywhere anytime. It boots up quickly and it's just so convenient. And that's it. That's life for a lot of us, squeezing in gaming here and there whenever there's time, whenever the wife gives the go ahead or whenever you've tackled your day-to-day responsibilities.
- tcmart14 3y ago
  As a millenial devs with kids, the switch is really the only reason I game for what you mentioned. Quick, easy and convenient. Also, my son is of the age of playing video games (7) and the switch just has good games to play two player with him on. (Time honored tradition of kicking the kids butt in Mario Kart).
  - lotsofpulp 3y ago
    My main concern with games is avoiding the gambling. My kids are not old enough to video game on a console yet, so they just play some educational iOS game or maybe some from Apple Arcade. I used to play games on Xbox like Modern Warfare 2 and Halo, but I lost all interest many years ago. The games got too complicated, and as I understand, now you have to pay for more and more add ons. It all seems very complicated.
    - tcmart14 3y ago
      Oh yea, that is another thing I enjoy about the Nintendo ecosystem. I have co-workers who are single and still game a lot and the whole paying for add-ons to be competitive, or to get a feeling of completeness about a game and what not is something I really enjoy about the Nintendo ecosystem. Sure Nintendo games can have DLCs, but I've not met one yet where I felt like the DLCs were required to make the game feel complete or to be competitive (like map packs on Call of Duty). You can play BoTW without the DLC and still have a really good time, also really re-playable. Edit: Sure, Map packs weren't required. But it was shitty when all your friends had the map packs and wanted to play the new maps online and you didn't have them. But yea, I really hate the gambling aspects some of the big AAA studios have adopted.
codexb 3y ago
There are a lot of tech people and programmers in the game industry and in game-industry-adjacent industries (like mocap, lidar, etc), especially around LA. A lot of that work is somewhat thankless, but getting industry-only passes to E3 was a one of the few cool perks, especially back when E3 was off-the-walls with porn stars and insane swag.
timack 3y ago
I'm surprised this has been asked. The majority of sw engineers I have worked with over the past 20+ years have been gamers. I'd prepared to go out on a limb and say the most effective and productive people I have worked with have tended to have been the biggest gamers.
bigger_cheese 3y ago
It depends on the age I think. I used to play a lot of games but as I've gotten older I've found myself with less time. I've also noticed my reflexes have gotten a lot worse, I'm in my late 30's I struggle with some multiplayer games like Counterstrike or Dota those competitive multiplayer games are no longer fun for me anymore. I still like to chill out with a good single player game from time to time like Civilization or Total War series. I enjoyed Baldur's Gate 3 when it came out earlier this year. I'd say gaming went from something I did often in my early 20's to occasionally by the time I was in my 30's.

bigstrat2003 3y ago

Yes, gaming is big among people who work in tech (software engineers, sysadmins, etc). It's uncommon to be working in tech and not be a gamer, in my experience. Not unheard of by any means, but not the majority either.

hotpotamus 3y ago

I gamed a lot as a kid and much less as an adult, though it took a bit longer for me to put it down than you did. I'd say that video games are what got me into computers; I wanted to be a game developer as a child. I never really took to straight software development though; I'm more of a devops type these days, and I'm frankly a bit glad to have avoided the gaming industry because I'm not particularly happy with what it seems to have largely become. That said, there are still some smaller studios doing impressive, innovative work and it's very cool to see that.

david2ndaccount 3y ago

I found my interest in video games died when I started working. Whatever button in my brain video games were pushing is now being pushed by the day job and I get paid for it.

lukeasch21 3y ago
I'm curious, if you don't mind me asking what field of work are you in?
- uvesten 3y ago
  You know, shooting demons, solving mysteries, jumping over koopas, that kind of thing…
  - photonbeam 3y ago
    My company is hiring, we’re looking for a rockstar koopa jumper
    - Drakim 3y ago
      A x10 koopa jumper can not only get the work of ten other employees done, but encourage good planning and future building for better koopa jumping in the future, whereas ten bad koopa jumpers will not only jump very few koopas, but also burn bridges and create koopa jumping debt that will sink the company.
- xarope 3y ago
  unsurprisingly, challenging jobs have all the hallmarks of a challenging game, requiring skills for logistics, resource and project/timeline management, meta-analytical skills to break-the-beta, curious mind to dig further. Oh yes, and rockstar koopa jumping skills too (drats, so thats what my current job is lacking).

x86a 3y ago

To add a datapoint, I also gamed a lot (18 and younger) but quit when I started my SWE career some 15 years ago. Have not had a desire to play since then.

ghaff 3y ago
I probably played mostly though never voraciously in my 20s--I was never really much of a console gamer and PCs didn't really exist earlier to any great degree. I sometimes still dabble--like I was into the Wii sports games for a while--but I basically grew out of it more than not. I think that's a pretty common pattern for a lot of people. What I do still play is mostly on mobile when I travel.

tetris11 3y ago

I was a huge console gamer in my teens, then transitioned into a PC gamer in my young adult years (helped by the yo-ho attitude of the era), then became aware of the scene and have pretty much treated any AAA title as guaranteed spyware trash until it gets cracked and (fitgirl) repacked. I play maybe a game a year, where I basically do not sleep for a week, use/develop trainers to get past the grind-ey aspects of the gameplay, and essentially finish the game for the plot, as fast as possible so that I can resume my normal work life of unpaid overtime. I keep up with interesting games by watching good youtubers like Jacob Gellar[0], but essentially I don't really play any small indie games, with the exception of Dwarf Fortress... though I mostly just like to read the colourful dev blog[1] instead of playing it. 0: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMGEjgYJhEc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMGEjgYJhEc 1: https://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/dev.html https://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/dev.html

groovybits 3y ago
I've worked in tech for a number of years. I think I'm in the same boat as you. However, I can confidentially say that videogames were merely a conduit to social experiences with friends. i.e. you wouldn't find me grinding a game by myself just for the sake of getting good. For my friend group, that was consoles in our teens, and PC in our early 20s. I've mostly given up on traditional PC gaming. I have a Nintendo Switch and a Steam Deck. I use the Deck occasionally to play games that aren't available on Switch, but otherwise the Switch is preferred, because it enables social interactions so easily. Now that I'm reaching mid-life, I cringe at the thought of taking time off work to play a game. If it means that much to you, more power to you. Apparently I've separated from the hardcore gamer scene.

doublepg23 3y ago

I'd say gaming is similar to sports in that it's an easy way to find common ground with other men when speaking casually, at least in my Zoomer cohort.

saberience 3y ago

Assuming this question is asked in good faith. I find it hard to believe you could work in the tech industry and not realize that a lot of your co-workers probably play games. Unless you're just the type who doesn't ever speak to people. I'ved worked in tech for 20+ years at this point and every tech company I've worked at had gamers across all departments but usually programmers/engineers have a much higher percentage of being gamers. Every tech company I've worked at has some area with consoles hooked up to TVs for playing Fifa or Mario Kart type multiplayer games. Most of those companies also had one or two arcade machines too. And then every company has some internal groups/communities for gamers. Even the most serious and least "gamey" of the companies I worked for (a financial tech company) had internal communities for Dota 2 and Valorant...

0cf8612b2e1e 3y ago
I would go further and state that many probably owe gaming for their tech career. In the dark ages, installing and running a game could take significant technical effort. Scouring forums and looking for magical configuration or patches that could make it work. That technical knowledge builds upon itself.
- no_wizard 3y ago
  when games were far more open to supporting mods and had big communities around it, its where I first cut my teeth programming in earnest without even realizing it. At some point, the programming became more fun than the playing for me
  - dvngnt_ 3y ago
    now kids are modding roblox and minecraft
    - PawgerZ 3y ago
      My programming journey started in like 2013ish with making guns on roblox which eventually turned into working on Minecraft mods.

tiborsaas 3y ago

It is. Some games I completed in the last few years: Cyberpunk 2077, Horizon, Mass Effect series, Max Payne, Deus Ex, Alan Wake... My 30-40ish friends and colleges also play casually or actively and they are in tech.

koito17 3y ago

The replies to this comment surprise me a bit. I'm in a similar situation as you. I used to play video games all the time as a teenager. When I went to university, I stopped playing at all. In hindsight, it was a mix of inconvenience (I wouldn't dare to bring a desktop to a tiny dorm, and good luck playing on a laptop!) and the fact that I wanted to try many things that were new to me at the time. Even then, I still lack motivation to try downloading and play a game. None of my coworkers seem to play games regularly either. There are plenty of social activities one can do that isn't gaming.

fluoridation 3y ago
>None of my coworkers seem to play games regularly either. Are you sure? Since you don't game, I imagine you normally don't ask people what they've been playing lately. Just because they don't bring it (or don't bring it up when you're around) doesn't mean they don't play games when they're alone. >There are plenty of social activities one can do that isn't gaming. What a strange thing to say, especially since I can replace the last word with just about anything and the idea remains equally true. Are you saying to you an activity has no significance or importance (or at least not enough) if it doesn't have a social component? I'm not trying to be combative, just trying to understand your point of view.
acjohnson55 3y ago
I'm similar. The ability to socialize and party at-will eclipsed my desire to game.

gopher2000 3y ago

I would feel very confident saying that the percentage of gamers is higher among tech people than people in general. It's easy to point to pretty direct relationships with tech and gaming - and with overlapping cultures.

racl101 3y ago

I find a lot of millennial devs like me are old, have responsibilities, kids, a family, barely have time to game. I bought a PS5, only own one game and I barely play with it. I just have either no time or little energy to play. I wanna get Spider-man 2, but I know I'd just end up not playing it. Now the Nintendo Switch is another thing. I still play it quite a bit, especially the Zelda game. It's just so easy and convenient to pick up anywhere anytime. It boots up quickly and it's just so convenient. And that's it. That's life for a lot of us, squeezing in gaming here and there whenever there's time, whenever the wife gives the go ahead or whenever you've tackled your day-to-day responsibilities.

tcmart14 3y ago
As a millenial devs with kids, the switch is really the only reason I game for what you mentioned. Quick, easy and convenient. Also, my son is of the age of playing video games (7) and the switch just has good games to play two player with him on. (Time honored tradition of kicking the kids butt in Mario Kart).
- lotsofpulp 3y ago
  My main concern with games is avoiding the gambling. My kids are not old enough to video game on a console yet, so they just play some educational iOS game or maybe some from Apple Arcade. I used to play games on Xbox like Modern Warfare 2 and Halo, but I lost all interest many years ago. The games got too complicated, and as I understand, now you have to pay for more and more add ons. It all seems very complicated.
  - tcmart14 3y ago
    Oh yea, that is another thing I enjoy about the Nintendo ecosystem. I have co-workers who are single and still game a lot and the whole paying for add-ons to be competitive, or to get a feeling of completeness about a game and what not is something I really enjoy about the Nintendo ecosystem. Sure Nintendo games can have DLCs, but I've not met one yet where I felt like the DLCs were required to make the game feel complete or to be competitive (like map packs on Call of Duty). You can play BoTW without the DLC and still have a really good time, also really re-playable. Edit: Sure, Map packs weren't required. But it was shitty when all your friends had the map packs and wanted to play the new maps online and you didn't have them. But yea, I really hate the gambling aspects some of the big AAA studios have adopted.

codexb 3y ago

There are a lot of tech people and programmers in the game industry and in game-industry-adjacent industries (like mocap, lidar, etc), especially around LA. A lot of that work is somewhat thankless, but getting industry-only passes to E3 was a one of the few cool perks, especially back when E3 was off-the-walls with porn stars and insane swag.

timack 3y ago

I'm surprised this has been asked. The majority of sw engineers I have worked with over the past 20+ years have been gamers. I'd prepared to go out on a limb and say the most effective and productive people I have worked with have tended to have been the biggest gamers.

bigger_cheese 3y ago

It depends on the age I think. I used to play a lot of games but as I've gotten older I've found myself with less time. I've also noticed my reflexes have gotten a lot worse, I'm in my late 30's I struggle with some multiplayer games like Counterstrike or Dota those competitive multiplayer games are no longer fun for me anymore. I still like to chill out with a good single player game from time to time like Civilization or Total War series. I enjoyed Baldur's Gate 3 when it came out earlier this year. I'd say gaming went from something I did often in my early 20's to occasionally by the time I was in my 30's.