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Making Video Games Is Not a Dream Job

nytimes.com

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Re: Making Video Games Is Not a Dream Job

#501

Post by pornel »

armagon wrote: post #107
lvturner wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very easy to say, a lot harder to do Equally, finally leaving the games industry was one of the better things I did.

What is the best way to leave? I look at the experience required on the 'Who is Hiring' threads and sigh -- how am I supposed to get two years' professional experience using a technology that has nothing to do with games, or, how do I pick which tech to invest my time in, given that everything seems to be changing so quickly?

I've moved from games to web development basically by winging it.

If you can code in C++, then becoming competent in JS/PHP/Python/Ruby is a matter of learning their syntax quirks and basics of the standard library. You don't have to worry about the framework-of-the-month churn. These things get popular because they're easy to pick up and well-documented.

Companies recognize that general programming knowledge is the hard part, and happily hire for it. Just avoid recruiters, as they're usually clueless keyword-matchers.

Re: Making Video Games Is Not a Dream Job

#502

Post by watwut »

viraptor wrote: post #482
watwut wrote: post #465

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People do less drugs then they did in the past. Especially young people.

Do they? There are many sources disputing whether DARE had any positive effect, and this specifically https://www.dualdiagnosis.org/drug-addiction/dare-program-wo... also shows growing use. (Then again, it depends what's "now" and "past")

I did not said that dare or any other specific anti drug program worked. It is completely irrelevant.

Simply, young people take less drugs and also have less teenage pregnancies then young people in the past used to.

Re: Making Video Games Is Not a Dream Job

#503

Post by notSupplied »

wmil wrote: post #28

Jason Schreier has been pushing for game developers to unionize for a while now. In the case of programmers, it really doesn't make much sense. There's a lot of BS that can come with unions. They have transferable skills. It's just easier to change jobs. For more specialized workers a union probably does make sense, eg: 3d artists, game testers. But I think union organizers are really only interested in the programme…

Programmers need it the least. They are paid the highest and have the best alternatives employment options. I think we should be talking about the production artist and testers in a completely separate breath from the programmers. In fact, this could explain why people are arguing in circles here, they could be talking about separate groups in completely different situations as far as compensation & leverage goes!

Re: Making Video Games Is Not a Dream Job

#504

Post by magduf »

justin66 wrote: post #169
magduf wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>but by extension that unions are evil, corrupt and lazy organizations infiltrated by organized crime. That's because, in the US, it's all true, historically. Auto unions were a big reason why Detroit's automakers were so uncompetitive against the Japanese automakers in the 80s; autoworkers got ridiculous pay for menial work, which is why Detroit moved a lot of their production to Mexico and Canada, and other automak…

We've had singularly successful industries like Hollywood rely on unions as well - SAG, WGA, IATSE, etc. Their work bears a lot more similarity to software development than the auto industry does, so hopefully that is food for thought. It's fair enough to say that American auto unions (and very importantly, auto company management and ownership) would do well to model themselves after Germany's system. It's not a uni…

>It's fair enough to say that American auto unions (and very importantly, auto company management and ownership) would do well to model themselves after Germany's system.

You could say that about many different things: if we just did it like the Germans, everything would be better, right? But how exactly do you actually do that? We're not Germany. You could go to Zimbabwe or El Salvador and tell them the same thing ("just be like the Germans or Japanese and you won't have all these social problems!"), but that isn't realistic; if it was that easy, every country would be copying the Germans and Japanese.

As for a universal truth, I haven't seen any evidence yet that unions in America actually work well. In Germany, yes, but this isn't Germany.

Re: Making Video Games Is Not a Dream Job

#505

Post by baud147258 »

baud147258 wrote: post #68
gavman wrote: post #31

> For many kids who grew up with controllers in their hands, being a game developer is a dream job, so when it comes to talent, supply is higher than demand. That's the crux of this entire article in one sentence. This might be an upopular opinion here, but right now the supply of developers overall [across all industries] is much lower than demand. No one is forcing a developer to work for a game studio. It might be…

I know one guy who is like that, he realized his dream by doing it as a side job and it look like he's been successful so far (released one game, worked as a writer for a handful of other games)

Apparently the game he's worked on made at least 300k $, to split between the publisher (WE Games) and the guy and his two collaborator. And he used a good chunk of his share to fund games on kickstater
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