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Why didn't you pursue a game development career?

245

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  • tawesstawess Member EpicPosts: 4,227
    @Yanocchi ;

    Yeah... But that is a bit like saying that you did not need to know much about building cars to get work putting a model A together... =P 

    Now with that said....

     I did not get in to it because i lack the proper skills. My art and code skills are very low and while i can wrangle a project those spots are scarse and the sector in general is locked in a catch 22 like motion where breaking in to it is more about luck and nepotism =P 

    Now i am content making small little snippets of games in unity that never see the light of public day. In my mind they are the most adorable little things. =) 

    This have been a good conversation

  • YanocchiYanocchi Member UncommonPosts: 677
    Sovrath said:
    I think it's because, like anything, there is the public "romantic" view, the one that players get caught up in. Then when someone actually enters the field they realize it's updating excel spreadsheets all day (that was told to me by a friend whose co-worker's husband worked in a larger studio).

    I only have so much room in my life to dedicate to such things so I chose writing and writing music. I think working in the game industry would be soul crushing if I didn't run my own studio.

    I'll agree with Nanfoodle about "consistent pay" and wanting to pick where I live. 

    I guess you might still be able to cross paths with the gaming industry in the capacity of a composer or sound engineer. :awesome: 
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  • SovrathSovrath Member LegendaryPosts: 32,780
    Yanocchi said:
    Sovrath said:
    I think it's because, like anything, there is the public "romantic" view, the one that players get caught up in. Then when someone actually enters the field they realize it's updating excel spreadsheets all day (that was told to me by a friend whose co-worker's husband worked in a larger studio).

    I only have so much room in my life to dedicate to such things so I chose writing and writing music. I think working in the game industry would be soul crushing if I didn't run my own studio.

    I'll agree with Nanfoodle about "consistent pay" and wanting to pick where I live. 

    I guess you might still be able to cross paths with the gaming industry in the capacity of a composer or sound engineer. :awesome: 
    Totally true!
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  • KrimzinKrimzin Member UncommonPosts: 687
    Earning potential is was to low. Would it be fun, absolutely. Earning considerably more and able to play is also fun.

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  • YanocchiYanocchi Member UncommonPosts: 677
    Vardahoth said:
    I'm honestly thinking about starting now. I recently quit the programming industry, because I feel it's taken a direction that is completely unprofessional. I'm going to be working on my own startup. First I have a few languages I want to master, then some disciplines I need to master. After that I'll be researching what it takes to build a game. I figure I'll start small first (like armor games), then work my way up in projects.

    <kind of derail topic here, but explains why I am afraid to invest any time into it>

    Aside from that I have a major problem going on with the government who is stealing (garnishing) 50% of any paycheck I get (before taxes). They do this based on a payment that was never actually payed to me and I never signed up for. No matter how many times I clear up their mistake for them (showing them bank statements, letters, work statements, and other proof) and get them to agree they made a mistake and will clear it up, nothing ever happens except the harassment year after year. Dealing with this has become a full time job in itself, and I will probably die before it's ever solved. So I'm skeptical about making a game that would make me lots of money. The government might just dive into my bank account and take everything (like they did before).

    A good example (read second sentence):


    Unfortunately since the government has denied me my judicial rights (ignoring my filing for a waiver or appeal), and there are no lawyers to defend me, it looks like I'm stuck here. The worst part is, no matter how much they steal from me, their magical debt number never goes down. So far they stole around $15,000 from me, and the amount I owe has increased from $8,274 to $52,854


    I recall a distantly similar case. I'm not sure if I heard it from someone in real life or read about it somewhere online. Some person decided to become an entrepreneur. He had to close the enterprise because the government taxed him based on a predicted evaluation of his potential earnings which he didn't earn in practice. The taxes from predicted earnings were higher than what he was actually earning from the business. Without more capital and with complex and long bureaucractic paperwork it was impossible for him to continue running the business.
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    * more info, screenshots and videos here

  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,483
    Because long hours, low pay, and getting laid off frequently is not my preferred lifestyle.  I'm also not terribly interested in making a mediocre knock-off of some other game that I don't even like.
  • DistopiaDistopia Member EpicPosts: 21,183
    My question is why would anyone want to work in an entertainment industry where your career can be over due to one fuck up? 

    No other entertainment professional I can think of has to deal with becoming stigmatized that easily (based on their work). 

    Directors, actors, musicians, Artists etc... can release bad piece, after bad,  and continue on in life, still living off past respect. Just seems like a dream ready to turn nightmare at anytime...


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  • pantheronpantheron Member UncommonPosts: 256
    I wanted to study economics, not programming.

    I play MMOs for the Forum PVP

  • rodingorodingo Member RarePosts: 2,870
    Vardahoth said:
    I can understand C++ but I cannot debug ANYTHING. Thats why.
    If you code properly, you shouldn't have to be good at the debugger. I almost never use it. Why? Because I use TDD.

    Sorry but I have to throw the B.S. flag here.  Anyone who writes code SHOULD know how to use the debugger in whatever IDE they are using.  Whether it's Visual Studio, NetBeans, BlueJay,..whatever.  As in it behooves them.  Not to mention anyone who writes code knows that unless you are reusing code, then you stand a good chance of your code not working the first time you run it.  Even if you are reusing modules things very seldom run perfectly "right out of the box".  That's just the nature of the beast.  If you don't know how to debug, or are not proficient with your IDE's debugger, then you become a liability.  Just saying.

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  • YanocchiYanocchi Member UncommonPosts: 677
    Quizzical said:
    Because long hours, low pay, and getting laid off frequently is not my preferred lifestyle.  I'm also not terribly interested in making a mediocre knock-off of some other game that I don't even like.

    It's curious that game development can be more challenging than some other types of IT work but the salaries can be lower. I've heard this sentiment from some game developers too. A long time ago I created and contributed some assets for a team that made an MMORPG as a university project. After graduating they were tempted to pursue better salaries in the IT industry but decided to stay and grow their game into a real commercial business.
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    * more info, screenshots and videos here

  • Ammon777_newAmmon777_new Member UncommonPosts: 306
    edited May 2016
    Exactly which is why I dont pursue programming. Everything I coded was broken and I had no idea how to fix it.

    You can know a language like C++ but that still doesnt mean you know how to program in it. You have to have super math skills for modern game programming, as well. I mean 3D math which like trignomotry, advanced geometry, advanced algebra, whatever, not to mention artificial intelligence which is super advanced.

    Besides, programming makes me extremely nervous. :dizzy: 
  • YanocchiYanocchi Member UncommonPosts: 677
    Distopia said:
    My question is why would anyone want to work in an entertainment industry where your career can be over due to one fuck up? 

    No other entertainment professional I can think of has to deal with becoming stigmatized that easily (based on their work). 

    Directors, actors, musicians, Artists etc... can release bad piece, after bad,  and continue on in life, still living off past respect. Just seems like a dream ready to turn nightmare at anytime...



    Well, this made me think how Derek Smart persists with his game industry career. Twenty years ago I was even somewhat fascinated with some of his first :bleep_bloop: games and the way he tried to do them all by himself. 

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  • simsalabim77simsalabim77 Member RarePosts: 1,607
    Entry level positions i.e. fresh out of college don't pay well enough and job security is a joke. 
  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,483
    Yanocchi said:
    Quizzical said:
    Because long hours, low pay, and getting laid off frequently is not my preferred lifestyle.  I'm also not terribly interested in making a mediocre knock-off of some other game that I don't even like.

    It's curious that game development can be more challenging than some other types of IT work but the salaries can be lower. I've heard this sentiment from some game developers too. A long time ago I created and contributed some assets for a team that made an MMORPG as a university project. After graduating they were tempted to pursue better salaries in the IT industry but decided to stay and grow their game into a real commercial business.
    All else equal, a job that a lot of people think would be fun doesn't have to pay as well as one that no one would ever consider unless it paid better than anything else they could find.
  • VolgoreVolgore Member EpicPosts: 3,872
    Because i was too busy not knowing what to do with my life.

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  • waynejr2waynejr2 Member EpicPosts: 7,771
    back in the day it didn't pay and wasn't considered respectable.
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  • MagikarpsGhostMagikarpsGhost Member RarePosts: 689
    I use to be a game dev, though honestly most of the companies out there treat you like crap. hours are iffy and the pay is not the best. (it is better then working at a fast food place or market) but it is no where near as easy or glorious as most think. I worked for NCsoft, i would not work for them again.

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  • ForgrimmForgrimm Member EpicPosts: 3,069
    If I did it for a living I'd probably end up hating games.
  • FFFGFFFG Member UncommonPosts: 73
    Because I was supposed to be in the NHL!!!
  • KanethKaneth Member RarePosts: 2,286
    I wanted to get in on the art side of gaming, but in the area I was living in, the programs were restrictively expensive.

    As I got older, I didn't want to turn a hobby into a career, as most of the game devs I know personally, have more or less learned to not enjoy games for being games.
  • H0urg1assH0urg1ass Member EpicPosts: 2,380
    Because being an international spy is so much more fun.
  • MagikarpsGhostMagikarpsGhost Member RarePosts: 689
    Vardahoth said:
    jircris said:
    I use to be a game dev, though honestly most of the companies out there treat you like crap. hours are iffy and the pay is not the best. (it is better then working at a fast food place or market) but it is no where near as easy or glorious as most think. I worked for NCsoft, i would not work for them again.
    Oh you poor soul. I have years of built up hatred for NCsoft (from the customer end). I can understand why.

    Throughout history, I would say there is probably only one gaming company I would have liked to work for. That was Squaresoft. Of course by the time I was 18, they became squareenix (quality changed to crap and shows what a company is like), and who knows what now.
    It was still fun to work on some of the projects, but yea 12-14 hour days if not more depending on dead line. and then the fact that you can be droped in an instant makes it risky.

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  • YanocchiYanocchi Member UncommonPosts: 677
    Torval said:
    Yanocchi said:
    Torval said:
    Because I learned my lesson in the medical industry which is almost as screwed up, but not quite.

    Six years ago I was surprised to learn that original founders of Bioware, Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip, had been medical doctors. Ever since I have wondered if responsibility and scrupulous approach generally associated with that medical profession was one of the reasons why they were able to create such great games during the early years of their game industry career.

    Many doctors are incredibly smart people. Some of the early electronic medical record software was written by doctors.
     

    The mindset of an average doctor and an average software designer might be built on the same underlying principles. As far as I know, doctors must have a very good grasp of maths, physics, biology and chemistry. Half a year ago I had an opportunity to see some questions from an entrance exam for medical studies. The tasks tested applicants' ability to apply advanced knowledge from multiple scientific disciplines in order to resolve challenging practical problems.
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  • ArglebargleArglebargle Member EpicPosts: 3,465
    I got offered jobs at Ion Storm and Origin, but it was  all due to people I knew.   Of course this was way back when.  Didn't have the right skill set, and the wages were low.  Probably should have done it, as the 'safe' job I had turned out to be not so safe either.  

    If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.

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