Yikes - Analysis: Is The Game Industry A Happy Place? By Leigh Alexander
greentooth
Interesting article. I would suggest you guys give it a look. What do you think though, are you happy with this biz?
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/29292/Analysis_Is_The_Game_Industry_A_Happy_Place.php
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/29292/Analysis_Is_The_Game_Industry_A_Happy_Place.php
Replies
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/29292/Analysis_Is_The_Game_Industry_A_Happy_Place.php
And then again, piracy, even though you've been told that as a non-corporate, drm-free developer, the pirates wont touch you, they still do.
Creativity comes hand in hand with insanity.
Lets see how i feel in a year or two.
Who the FUCK did that guy work for?!
Obviously it varies from company to company, and from project to project, and from boss to boss, but so far its been great. Being on the developer side is way different from being a tester of course. I never really gave a crap about user comments bashing a game on forums or comments, people like to bitch, and many times they had a point, but I'm not going to get stressed about something like gameplay that I have no control over. Obviously a good game is preferable, but as an artist, all I can control is the art, so thats the only thing I worry about in terms of satisfaction from working on a game.
Some days it is a grind, some days you are psyched to be working on a piece, but thats just the reality of having a job.
Honestly, really none of that article seemed to apply to me, all the criticisms are stuff that don't apply to me as an artist, and aren't really something I've observed from the developer side. Working in games is kickass if you work for the right company, which apparently I've had the good fortune to do. It seemed to focus on being a journalist and being a tester, which are probably the least desirable positions in the industry. I didn't get into the industry to play games all day, in fact I disliked having to playtest instead of working on art. It seemed like the author talked to a handful of depressed people and extrapolated that to the whole industry, when in fact my experience has been very positive.
- they dont read contracts.
- they are willing to relocate for jobs that will last 6 months or less .
- most of the contracts artists sign , they dont even bother to read them, and then to find out that they waver overtime pay and include it on their monthly paycheck , wich means working 12 hours a day is considered a normal work day.
- and all that shit is illegal , its a matter of people gaining matturity and not be the "yes sir ill do whatever you want but please dont take my job" pushovers.
This will only get worse with lots and lots of people fresh out of college willing to work for peanuts because its a "dreamjob" , and they will just accept it.
Basically its a matter of artists to read their contracts , define what terms are illegal according to country law and negotiate with their employers , if they dont accept it , well they werent that professional at all.
I really prefer to work doing models for animation than working for games. It's better paid and the work may be more relaxed.
As far as the US is concerned, you're exempt from overtime laws if you fall into one of these categories: Executive, Administrative, Professional, Computer, and Outside Sales Employees.
I'm happy though, I get satisfaction from my work and no stuffy dress code or "1 personal item at your workstation" kind of rules.
http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,8591/
I found this more interesting:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/28041/Study_Game_Developers_Increasingly_Newcomers_To_Business.php
The statistics show that regardless of whether people are happy or unhappy, most developers leave the game industry after five years. And the pace of them leaving is accelerating (maybe not, Bidendum pointed out the industry is growing, see below) which means less experienced people are filling the gaps. The more experience a developer has, the more likely they are to leave.
The anecdotal stories are interesting but may be dismissed as sour grapes. It's a bit tougher to dismiss the stats.
I'm nearing the five year mark...
But i guess there's similar things you can work on. Commerical, Movie, etc
That is a polling of people currently IN the industry taking note only of how many years experience they have. It does not try to discern the reason for the gap which could easily be attributed to how rapidly the industry and game development has grown as a whole in the last 5, 10, and 15 years. When you think of what the industry looked like in 1995 compared to what it is today it's not hard to imagine how such a huge statistical gap could occur.
The problem with statistics isn't statistics themselves but how people choose to interpret them. If your goal was to figure out if people were leaving the industry at an accelerated pace then you'd need to poll both people in the industry and people that left the industry, which that poll does not attempt to do.
You're right, growth of the industry could account for some or all of the demographic shift.
I did some searching and found the North America census numbers for game industry employees:
2007: 47,800
2008: 53,900
2009: 57,286
I'll take back my statement that the rate is accelerating. I do believe that a significant number of experienced developers leave the industry every year.
I love working, hate not doing it. When I was play testing after the first week I was dying to go back to work. Much rather work 10hr days then play even really fun games for 8 hrs a day.
Of course, In Spain the salary is not good enough and they usually contract young people with little experience.
The average salary is more than 1000 euro per month (we talk about "mil eurista"), and between relocations, taxes, and all the living costs, you can't save a shit. I know various friends that ended leaving the game industry, they were young and they didn't know what they were working in. A few of them ended studying again for other professions (and not one, but more).
You must have passion for this job.
Here you talk about creating a labor union for the industry workers (like the steel syndicate, that defends the rights of workers), and you can't expect something good from companies, they menace with firing people.
Many Spanish companies have used the crisis as excuse to fire people, when they were very healthy. Reducing costs to gain more benefits.
bah, why talk, all this thing piss me off.
Stability in the game industry DOES NOT exist. That's something we all know. Some people are like nomads, and you may be working in a good-solid company (apparently), and after 10 years of life, the studio closes and you'll see yourself needing to relocate to other country/city.
If a game does not sell well in crisis, end of business, Look Grin.
Taxi dude!
- got your own car
- no need to wash
- play your weird music all day long
- meet interesting people
The pay's good, but after a month I could already feel the life getting sucked out of me. It's like crunch time, but instead of having it near deadlines or any important dates we deal with it almost everyday.
Never again.
The situation with a sea of unexperienced workforce willing to prove what they are worth, waiting out the door hurts the overall industry pretty bad. And as much as everything else I think this paper (maybe even subconsiously, unrecognized by the author) says to potential newcomers "don't go there, it's guys like you who are making it worse, don't you see?".
And I think that this makes as much sense as a compulsory overtime for a year long period. At first you really get some output increase but in longterm you're actually f*cked. I wonder how much more of this scare stories are we going to be hearing around.
Freshmen, who are eager to be worked for sick hours is a sign of pretty crippled labour system. You cut the supply of slavelike workforce and the turnover rate drops down greatly. There's not much incentive to fire one guy for the next one and it ain't a leverage, to make you abuse yourself no more. You stop taking yourself as a slave you stop being treated like one. And stop f*cking up the industry. I'm not pointing fingers here and I don't want to blame anyone. And I don't want to be a hypocrit either, since I myself voluntarily worked 13 hours a day and then took my work home, when I was starting out. But that Is the problem - people are willing to get abused. And we are digging our own grave here, thinking that by abusing ourselves now, we earn respect. Don't forget that company earns money by you abusing yourself. And once you don't want to abuse yourself no more the company sees it as a loss of money...
I think it would be an interesting experiment to legally forbid overtime for employes with less than a year of experience.
Other then for delivering this idea I didn't like the article much, since it's pretty empty and vague. If it was just for the sake of ranting I think the author would be more specific about particular episodes like the guy in the comments was. Articles are made to give you information, to aid you forming your opinion or making a decision. I don't believe in ranting for the sake of ranting. Gamasutra has blog section for this.
I'm just sayin'....not that this is necessarily a good thing...
Point being, I think a lot of people forget what some of the more normal jobs are like and take for granted all the awesome parts of being in the games industry. If you have to work long hours but you love your work, whats the big deal really? Even if the money doesn't match the amount of skill it takes to do your job. Also, if you have a lot of talent and experience you should be able to simply move to another company if you are being mistreated. It seems like now a days companies only want to hire people they either know or have a ton of experience/skill.
All I'm saying is, there are plenty of terrible jobs out there, and working in the games industry is hardly one. There are horror stories, and if you find yourself in that situation, move to another company. If these companies that mistreat there employees loose them all, then they will get the message quickly.
I myself am prob one of those young artists he talks about that would be willing to be hired to do more work for less money. But you know what? I got a job doing what I love to do. Granted I have no idea what the actual industry is like, just stories been told to me like the horror stories you hear around a campfire lol.
But as they say ignorance is bliss. I know I don't want to be doing what I'm doing now for a pay check.
Then again I could never find a job and just end up living in a cardboard box underneath the free way begging for change everyday. Thats always a nice thought lol
Personally I'm tired of people who bitch but never do anything to change their situation. By all means feel out or co-workers to see how they like the conditions, band together to make them better. But don't uselessly bitch and moan for months without doing anything about it. Put you're crap in a box and walk out the door to a happier place.
Places like:
- Cattle Knocker. BOOM HEAD SHOT!
- Animal Shelter Euthanizer. The fun kicks in around your 200th kitten.
- The army. It's like your favorite game, even the part about the new recruits being the first to get shot. Especially those who whine, friendly fire is just your new buddies way of saying STFU.
- Construction. I hear the housing market is about to pick up again any day now in Vegas, putting on a roof in 120 degree weather, you're pasty pink skin will be golden brown on your first day! Or blister and fall off leaving your vital organs exposed...
- Iron Smelting. When you retire, I hear instead of a pocket watch you get to see your eyebrows finally grow back!
- Landscaping. Hey you're outside away from that pesky temperature controlled office!
- Repo guy. It's always fun kicking people when they're down, if you can make a buck off of it... awesome...
- Meat packing. That pesky safety gear slows you down but exposes your vital arteries to razor sharp blades, do you:
A) ditch the gear to keep up with everyone else.
C) Go back to your cushy office job riding a keyboard and mouse and shut your stupid mouth?
These are all industries that eagerly await your cynical attitude and look forward to chewing you up, and spitting you out all in the same week.
I'll close with "if you made art half as well as you bitch, we would all be rich"
Don't worry, be happy!
Already experienced. Never again. Thank you anyway
I'm also fed up of whines, hardships and lamentations, noone moves a finger to change the situation (at least in my country). But as D1ver stated, people are willing to get abused. A businessman won't pay more than the habitual when the "level" is too low, with people working as slaves or teenagers playing as professionals.
The best personal exit is to get better, and find a better job, to be more competitive and more ambitious. As far as i know, in good companies (with good titles) you may work more happy but sometimes i hear things i dislike.
Anyways, in all jobs we have problems. And well, if you like 3d Art, expect to hear horror stories.
I dont know if its our soft keyboard hands or how egos/sense of entitlement tend to explode in our industry but a lot of the time people make a big deal out of a small issue. We all have to work overtime, after your 1st year or so in the industry its not that amazingly fun, but everyone has that honeymoon period when they 1st get in where they will do anything to try to "leave their mark" in the industry or gaming history or something.
I'm still grateful I have a job where I can leave early if I need to, or show up late due to some appointment and no one says shit. Honestly I couldn't go back to a clock in clock out job where you get harped on for taking an extra 2 mins on your break or lunch or something. I would laugh in their face, their meaningless job with stupid rules that they really dont care about and are just power triping. so yea Im super grateful to be making things that bring other people enjoyment when they play them, but its not all sunshine and roses, just like any other job, its called work for a reason.
the way I look at it, for the 1st year or so in the games industry you are probably an idealist, after a couple years you are a realist.
lulz, this is just like people saying all we do is play video games but in reverse!
I can't stand a whiner who is whining just to whine and never does anything about it. They often focus solely on the negative and even if they where handed a check for a million dollars they would bitch that they had to cash it.
Of course there are legitimate complaints and issues that need to be addressed but there are a lot of spoiled Nancy boys that love to hear the sound of their own voice drone on and on.
Thankfully I don't work with any of those type of people currently. My current employer is really good about keeping us happy, not working us to death and keeping out those bitter souls who are doomed to lament.
But I have in the past and the conversations normally went something like this:
"You don't want to work here, no one wants to work with you any more, so why are you still here?"
"Because I need a job."
"Then shut up and be thankful you have the one thing you need"
"But I'm not happy"
"You've made your views known, why do you insist on making everyone else around you, miserable?"
"Pardon me. I'm going to go throw myself off the roof now"
"I'll get you a ladder..."
Sometimes it's best to just suck it up and shut up, or atleast make your issues known in a calm and collective manner (even thought it's still a hit or miss)
ha I want this as a tattoo
fixed.
not really, but if it's possible, try to get the HR dude to give you a quick office tour. If the office is a cramped messy hell, then the studio probably won't care much more about its employees either, if they don't even care about proper work places. Just look around, keep your eyes open...
I think part of sticking together means not dragging down your fellow comrades with constant whining. By all means organize and work to make things better, but constantly complaining without doing anything about it is counter productive.
If it bothers someone to the point they feel the need to bring it up at least every day then they need to get off their can and do something about it. Even if all they can do is walk out. If they're not willing to do anything about it, then its never going to get any better and they should accept that their inaction will only yield a toxic environment for those around them.
If people want to make things better I'm all ears, if people just want to harp on what I already know then they can take a hike.
People should work where they want.
If you don't want to work there, there are many other studios to choose from. Management will never positively respond to a passive aggressive- I hate working here but am staying anyhow- can't be pleased attitude... no matter how good you are.
In all honesty, if that's what an employee noticeably and consistently conveys, they'd be better off just leaving anyhow. Management will never be comfortable or willing to give you much of anything, inclusive to additional responsibilities, increased compensation, time of day, etc...
People need to remember, there's no such thing as a perfect job. In ALL jobs (in other industries too!), you have to take the good with the bad. If the good outweighs the bad, then you're golden. If it's the other way around, then you have a better idea of what to look out for when you send out your resume.
I think I've strayed from the topic of the thread! :P
I was actually missing the stress of working in games after a while.