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What would you be willing to trade in order to get your ideal job in whatever field you wanted in the gaming industry? Would you pay? If so, how much? Work for free? Move across the world? Leave your friends behind? Quit gaming so much?
I am curious to see how bad people want to be in the industry, because I know that I would have done almost anything to make games because that is what I've wanted to do since I was a child. It will put things into perspective of what you are willing to do and how far you are willing to go to get into the field you want.
Be creative, it could be anything and a combination of things.
The following are examples:
I'd give up playing video games to be able to make them.
I'd pay XXXX dollars to be able to get and keep a job in the game industry.
I'd give up partying.
I'd give my life savings to get a job in the game industry
I'd spend as much time as it took to do whatever it took to get the job.
I'd move across the world.
I'd give up my friends
I wouldn't give up anything I'm doing to get a job in the industry.
I'd give up meat.
I'd go to college
For me, I would probably: Move across the country, pay half of my life savings (as long as I was guaranteed to eventually make it back), or pay like $75 a month forever or something, I'd ditch MOST of my friends (they probably need to be ditched anyway), I'd learn a new language, I'd start from the bottom and work my way to where I needed to be, I'd work 12+ hour work weeks, and probably amputate one of my little toes, in order to get the job I've always wanted in the game industry.
The most radical thing I might do if I had the notion would be to invest my time and effort and thus risk my family's stability to officially and seriously go indie. But since I'm not willing to risk my family's stability, this won't be happening.
Alternatively I could invest time, that I should be spending on fixing up my house, into upgrading my skills so that I qualify for whatever job BioWare might be offering down the street from my current IT position. The risk is then that of any new job. But to be honest, working on my own projects sounds more fun to me and would probably be on my mind perpetually.
I like to think I am a programmer by nature and thus programming jobs are appealing to me. By extension that means that a job programming a game would be equally appealing and if I were to get one I'd take it as seriously as I do my current job. But the potential for getting a job in the gaming industry doesn't have me quite as excited as it seems to do for you. Probably why I don't have one.
It is a very dangerous attitude to want to give up a lot of things related to your own quality of life just because you want a job in games. This is not even just dangerous to you, but dangerous to anyone else either wanting to enter the industry or already in the industry. If you start off by saying you'll give up your personal life and will work 12+ hours each day with the addition of freaking paying to keep your job you're just adding to the quality of life problems the industry is already having. People are burning out constantly during extreme crunches, marriages are failing because of it, people barely get to see their families because of it, people lose their sanity because of it, and here you are saying that that's all ok because it's o so glamorous to work in games?
Let's get this straight: Game development is a job. People are trying to make a living off of this without having to sacrifice their own mental and physical health. This industry gets so glamorized by all the gamers thinking it's the ultimate dream job where you get to play games all day and where you get to constantly come up with ideas. This just sends out a signal to a lot of big companies that there are plenty of people who are willing to work under horrible circumstances because these people feel like they won the jackpot "because they work in games".
If you want to work in games that's great, it can be a very fun and rewarding job, but keep in mind that it's not all sunshine and rainbows like many people believe, and it definitely doesn't even come close to just playing games all day. The only way to keep this industry livable for all people involved is to stop glorifying the industry as a whole and to realize that it's not ok to cross that line of total self-sacrifice just for the "privilege" of working in games. The sooner you understand that, the better.
I understand where you are coming from. Really. I do. But that's not the point of this post. I think there's a difference between someone who is willing to sacrifice their life and wellbeing for a job just to pay bills and have a position in a company, the way I was looking at it.
For someone like me, creating games is a huge part of my life. I am constantly working on some part of my game, or an idea for a new game. The games and ideas I create are an extension of myself, so there really is no separation between the two.
That's just who I am as a person, so to try to completely shut me down is actually attacking me as a person and neglecting the fact that it is impossible for me to be the only person who feels like I do.
Not only that, but all of the greats in history all spent significantly more than an 8 hour work day working on their dreams and desires. Mozart, Einstein, John Coltrane, Leonardo DaVinci, Charles Darwin, and countless had worked so many hours, put all of their energy and time into what they loved, and they turned out to be the best of their kind.
This is backed up in multiple books: Mastery by Robert Greene and Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell are the ones that I've read that explain dedicating and sacrificing to accomplish your dreams is the key to mastery.
But then again, that said, it's not for everyone. For me to say though that I would dedicate and trade these things in order to breathe or be happy, then it wouldn't be looked at as bad. That is exactly my point. For me, and a few others that I have met, their jobs are their lives. They love their jobs, and then it is not even work.
That said, I was explaining what I would do to have the job of my dreams, and my life goal, both at the same time.
So is it really a dangerous attitude? Plus there was comedy in my trade as well, I wouldn't give my toe. But to achieve my ultimate goal, I would absolutely work more than the average, and invest money, and move across the country. Many people do this, and many people still have their families and are happier than ever.
I actually would like to read your response to this.
For someone like me, creating games is a huge part of my life. I am constantly working on some part of my game, or an idea for a new game.
You just described pretty much anyone in this industry with at least a little bit of passion for their job.
That's just who I am as a person, so to try to completely shut me down is actually attacking me as a person and neglecting the fact that it is impossible for me to be the only person who feels like I do.
I'm not shutting down anyone and I definitely was not trying to attack you. I was however trying to make a point which I feel has to be made now more than ever as it seems to be getting more and more media coverage. Projects are getting more demanding, the AAA development model is becoming completely unsustainable and the people who try to stay outside of this AAA bubble by going indie often have to risk a massive amount of money straight out of their own pocket for that slight sliver of hope that their project is going to be a success.
You are not the only person with drive and passion like this; I absolutely love the job I have right now and I spend plenty of time outside of work tinkering on my own projects, and there are many many other people like that out there. I actually did relocate across an ocean when I got offered the job I'm currently doing. Starting a discussion however on what you'd sacrifice for your ideal job - note here that for a good amount of people having a job in games qualifies as a "dream job" - just sends out the message that it's ok or even required to sacrifice your own well-being for a job in games and that this is normal.
It is good that you have passion, and it's good that you have the drive to do the best you can and to continually improve yourself, but I'm sure that if you want to keep that drive you'll want to do that in an environment which encourages and nourishes you, not one which burns you down to the ground and replaces you with another clueless hopeful person.
I'd start from the bottom and work my way to where I needed to be, I'd work 12+ hour work weeks
You'll probably have to do both these if you work in the gaming industry.
You'll also have to pay half your life savings in fees for university.
Personally I'm happy doing gamedev as a risk free hobby in my personal time as there's tons more easier and safer money to be made in most other sectors of IT and software development.
There's one thing in our lives that does not have the ability to be infinite. Time; the only Finite resource we own. Simply put I would sacrifice my hard earned time to achieve my dreams. To reference the "nay sayers", the "debbie downers", and all together negative nancies can you say you have truly expended all of your extra (everybody can squeeze a few more moments into the day) to realize your full potential and aspirations? Imagine your final moment surrounding you are all of your goals, dreams etc.. who will you have to blame for not achieving them other than yourself? Maybe your dream is to be comfortable, pay your bills, have some money to travel with your wife, retire, take johnny to the ball game, pay for your kids college, become a grandpa, and then leave your kids a house (sounds nice doesn't it) but I feel as if the main point is how willing are you to do all of that and still go the extra mile, the extra 5 hrs a day when johny is asleep to achieve it all. Don't get comfortable you've got a computer, you've got the knowledge, and you've got enough extra time to atleast have one less dream standing around you at your final moments. Also to say "it cant be done" , it's "not glorious", you have to complete WXY before you reach Z ask yourself who are the ones shutting out, adding to the competition, and 'glorifying' passions.
What would you be willing to trade in order to get your ideal job in whatever field you wanted in the gaming industry? Would you pay? If so, how much? Work for free? Move across the world? Leave your friends behind? Quit gaming so much?
None of these. Really, I'm not a big fan of game industry romance. This was the first illusion which has been taken while working in game industry. You don't have a lot of creative freedom, you have lot of pressure, you need to do lot of things which you would do personally in an other way, publisher tell you what you need to add and what you need to remove, in short, it is just a job.
