You’re nuts. The industry will use and abuse you, then throw you out for the next year’s model. Even the IGDA, presumably the voice of reason against this nonsense, has all but thrown in the towel. Apparently, ea_spouse didn’t teach any lasting lessons, though not for lack of trying.
Mothers Don’t Let Your Children Grow Up to Be Game Developers
And the inevitable parody, thanks to the brilliant bloke over at Kloonigames:
The Truth About Game Development
Not incidentally, this is why armchair developers are worth listening to; those in the industry aren’t necessarily the best and the brightest, just the most passionate and ignorant of (or tolerant of) abuse. The best and brightest are working in other industries. (And yes, this means I should probably be making better money somewhere else. We’ll see what happens when the economy tanks. Artists are usually the first to go in social crunch times; art just isn’t seen as essential.)
In other news, Blizzard has positions open… in Irvine, California, one of the epicenters of the housing meltdown. Just sayin’… if you want to work with the big boys, bend over and get ready for the kick. (And heaven help you if you have a family to support and love all at the same time. Good luck, Ixobelle. You’ll need it.)
Edited to add:
I’m actually lucky enough to work for a great company. The industry isn’t all bad, and it’s still fun to work on games. It’s just a young industry, and it’s not learning well from the experience of others. Even Henry T. Ford understood that treating employees well was a good idea. The attitude of the Epic guy in the IGDA presentation is just baffling. These are the dinosaurs who should be phased out.
Despite all my regrets over passing up the chance to get into gaming, and it’s the one thing I’ve truly wanted to do in my life, this is one of the saving graces of not jumping in feet first.
I can only hope 38 Studios has a better philosophy towards its employees but even then, the game developer population is fairly small and inbred. Devs pass from studio to studio.
If I ever get the chance to open my own studio and run with my own philosophies, fine, but I don’t think I could ever work for someone else’s company under these crappy conditions. I have to tolerate it working as a pilot; there’s no way in hell I’d switch to another career under the exact same stresses.
It seems that Mike Capps could the guy “that made the damn best shooter” and got a meta critic of 9.9, just judging from his list of projects. Epic Megagames made some other games, but he was involved in the shooters exclusively. He made Americas Army? And Unreal Tournament 2004? Oh I guess he really loved the cool green Army style player skin, sigh.
This guy is a board director of IGDA, supposed to … “advance the careers and enhance the lives of game developers” – actually, only the employers/developers, not so much that of their employees, it seems!
I wonder if he works 60+ hours because and has the working morale that he expects from his employees. And then also really works, I mean I have had some co-workers that were just staying at work, because they had nothing to do at home. They were basically bored and had nothing but their job and took it easy. They were chatting and going slowly, but were high enough in the hierarchy that they could “work” extended hours this way. One of these guys died one day, and someone made the epic statement, they should hire someone not working extended hours all day, he might be able to reduce the huge pile of work that the “workaholic” left behind.
Something like America’s Army, basically “Bundeswehr Online”/”Germany’s Army” would give a game designer a notoriety similar to Goebbels in Germany. The idea to excite young gamers to join the army through a shooter would also be highly criticized by Bundeswehr officials and the public alike, the usual quote is “we do not play games”.
Mike Capps must be Joe Designer: http://www.wolfsheadonline.com/wp-images/tombstone.jpg
Really, his statement earned him a place in history. Question about “what was wrong in the computer gaming industry around 2000″ should link to his Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Capps
The president of Epic Games is such an Epic Fail, I cannot believe it! Thanks god I already ate my breakfast.
Sorry for the missing words and grammar mistakes, this guy was really driving me crazy.
Aye, Longasc, me too. Hence the slightly testier than normal post in the first place.
I couldn’t agree more. I’m passionate about games – I design them in my free time, and have some concepts I’m sitting on in the unlikely event I come into enough money to develop them. But I’m not working in the industry because the quality of life is simply wretched by and large. I work a 35 hour week and make more money designing products used in cancer surgery than I’d probably ever make working twice as many hours in game design. Do I regret the missed opportunity? Surely. But the industry is a massive turnoff for anyone who’s aware of the way employees are treated at most game development studios. I had an offer some years back that frankly scared me… it was clear I’d be expected to work insane hours in full-on crunch mode indefinitely, for meager compensation. Oh, but the REAL compensation is the love of the job, right? Right? Um, that helps, sure, but not so much if you have no free time and no money… people need to be able to sustain lives outside work, as well, or they burn out.
I can’t say I’m shocked at Epic’s policy; this is all too common. It is wretched that a board member of the IGDA should adhere to these views though… it just goes to show that what game developers really need is a union, since their “advocacy group” refuses to advocate for them.
Bah. This makes me cranky.
The industry wants young, experienced, enthusiast, well-educated and creative people.
At the same time they should be inexperienced young guys that will accept to work for little money and work over time regularly. BTW, german hospital doctors and personnel are in a similar situation. They have to work much harder than physicians in rural areas, cities or private practices and often earn less.
Foolsage is absolutely right, they will either burn out or decide to work in another business.
Some IGDA directors already tried to put Capps statement in another context. I wonder if he just said what the majority of them thinks. Capps should resign and go back to work 60+ hours at Epic Megagames. Maybe they will then release Duke Nukem Forever before the second coming of Christ.
“they will either burn out or decide to work in another business.”
Yup, and the beancounters count on that; it’s how they make budget and still manage to give bonuses to the executives.
…that Capps’ statements may be indicative of a more pervasive attitude is exactly the problem. We should be getting past that, not embracing it behind a veneer of respectability.
*must resist political commentary*
Nice article Tesh! I thought about you when I wrote my article on the very same subject with regard to someone actually having the life/work thing figured out
The video game industry has many quality of life problems right now that are driving potentially good people away. Not to mention much lower salaries then other more traditional areas of software development.
Sadly, as long as there are thousands of new fresh faces graduating from all of these colleges the video game industry will never have a shortage of applicants.
When I was younger I remember I worked at some very menial physically exhausting jobs. I remember we called them “young man’s jobs” back then because only a young man had the stamina to last in those jobs. Eventually once you back and bones are worn down the company fires you and hires someone younger.
Seems to me the video game industry has become the new sweatshop of the high tech era.
I honestly would not recommend anyone becoming a part of this industry right now given the deplorable working conditions.