Games and its harmful effects for work efficiency
polycounter lvl 7
Hello guys.
I have an interesting question to discuss: do games harm your creativity snd efficiency of work? Do you ever have feelings that playin' games is just wasting the time? Becase you can always do smth to develop your skills (modeling, texturing, etc) instead of playin' games. Is it possible to be a good character (environment)/game artist without playin' any games? (maybe it sound a little stereotypically)
Thanks in advance for your opinions!
And excuse for my english![:\](https://polycount.com/plugins/emojiextender/emoji/twitter/confused.png ":\")
I have an interesting question to discuss: do games harm your creativity snd efficiency of work? Do you ever have feelings that playin' games is just wasting the time? Becase you can always do smth to develop your skills (modeling, texturing, etc) instead of playin' games. Is it possible to be a good character (environment)/game artist without playin' any games? (maybe it sound a little stereotypically)
Thanks in advance for your opinions!
And excuse for my english
Replies
Constantly doing work will eventually tire you out and you will more than likely get fed up, so its good to take the day off every so often and kick back, play games or do whatever it is you enjoy doing.
Anyway thanx for answer Raptor_Arts
I sometimes play games when I should be making 2D/3D art. However, not all game time is bad.
I sometimes play games as a form of research. I examine the textures, models, lighting that's running in real time and use this as inspiration, knowledge or a solution to when I'm stumped making something.
This is like saying, can you be a good engineer without playing with LEGO? Or be a Businessman/woman without playing with Monopoly?
You don't need to but, like the above example, it could help as something inspirational or as a way of keeping ahead of everything.
most of the time though, the games that inspire me are a lot older, like at least 5-10 years old. you dont really get inspired from stuff thats out there right now, not saying its not creative, just that someone else JUST did it, not the best thing to use as inspiration =P
My biggest problem is that I dont like playing games any longer, its so much more fun making them. its actually a problem when trying to pick up a new cool game for research or trying to stay in the loop.
I think I enjoyed games a lot more before I started working on them
They can drain your creativity, but I'd imagine that would only happen if you stick to one genre/theme. Some of the random games I've picked up over the years have ended up being the biggest inspirations for me. In fact, if it wasn't for randomly picking up a game during a Steam sale a few years ago, I wouldn't even be working on my current project.
Plus, it's always good to relax after working hard. Some people like watching a movie, some like playing a game, there isn't really a difference I think.
anything can be harmful if your using it to avoid work, watching tv, reading books etc, anything where you're not addressing the root cause and drowning yourself in something else.
Some games with a great and epic story can push up your creativity. If you think from the point of view of a modeller: "this could be better in this way, or this character could be replaced with a better one".
FPS games for example can drain your creativity, or boring and repetitive games such as diablo 3.
If you want to boost your creativity, my suggestion: buy and read a good book. A book is one the best things to feed our imagination.
Not really. Playing games and checking out the art is just as important imo. The important thing to note is that there is a difference between playing through other games and getting some good inspiration from them, and grinding in the same game over and over to try to 100 percent the game. At that point...you are getting less from it as an artist, and more out of it as a gamer imo.
Just my opinion here, but no. Thats like wanting to be a good chef without ever tasting anybody else's cooking. You have to at least keep a beat on what other people are doing, otherwise you are working in a black hole.
Since I was a wee lad,I constantly played titles that interested me; they ultimately they played a large prt in shaping my imagination and career path. Upon entering college I didn't play as many titles as I used to; due to the fact that I felt as though I had to focus all of my efforts on developing my skills.
Playing a game here and there isn't a bad thing; not at all. I often take inspiration from titles that I've enjoyed. I recently crated a character when I played "Dragon Quest Rocket Slime" for the first time a couple of weeks back.
Some titles on the other hand can drain one's creativity, you all know what type of games; I don't even have to say it.
Blaize
You said it for me, meat games and woodland games are bad news.
Dum dum think , screen game good. In screen game , seams. Analyse. Dum dum see how thing made.
Dum dum want too.
dum dum now make stuff and see things
dum dum
In all seriousness , wouldn't know where I would be without games.
I enjoy them , sometimes play them too excessively but through that you see how they approached different things even outside of the art field , balancing , questing and keeping the players entertained. It's very interesting and has a lot of psychology involved too which is always interesting.
2. Game is harmful : yes, everything is harmful if you do it too much.
3. It's impossible to be a good game artist without playing any games. IMO
I never ever met a game artist that didn't play any game. seriously why do you want to become a game artist if you didn't play any game at all ?
I wouldn't say games harm any game artists creativity. We are all inspired by games and game art.
"Do you ever have feelings that playin' games is just wasting the time?"
It can be a waste of time if you do it too excessively or at the wrong time. But that can be true with anything. I believe it's healthy for game artists to find a reasonable balance in working and playing games. I wouldn't consider playing games to be actually working though, at least not from an artists perspective.
"Is it possible to be a good character (environment)/game artist without playin' any games?"
I don't think you necessarily have to PLAY games to be a good character or environment artist. It might help as a level designer for pacing purposes or placing scene dressing. But playing games certainly won't teach you anatomy or make you the next great prop or weapon artist. That comes with hard work and perseverance.
Instead of actually playing games, your work can benefit much more by actually breaking down the game assets via modding tools. For example, with Skyrim modding, you can pretty much go through and see the texture flats, topology, etc. of all the assets and characters that are in the game. That is much more enlightening for artists than clicking through a dialogue to progress a story.
Don't get me wrong, playing games in a moderate amount at the right time is fine. I wouldn't blur the two though, work and play, as some have.
I waisted 2 months playing league. I could have improved massively at anything in those 2 months but i got caught up in he IP grind just to continue Losing games with my friend.
I'm not a slacker and I'm not one to give in to an addiction like this. I'm ashamed of myself and since the new summoners rift update was revealed I want to play even more. I dont know why.
I say play whatever the fuck you want, when you want, for as long as you want.
If you feel you aren't devoting enough time to art, then be an adult and manage your time.
I can say if all you do is make art, you will get burnt out and you will not be doing yourself any favors.
"oh look everybody's making combat exosuits! I wanna make combat exosuits now aswell"
Just perpetuates 'cghub syndrome'.
I play games I find interesting but I try to avoid taking inspiration from them, dangerous cycle.
Gonna have to second this.
The older I get, the more attracted I am to single-player, cinematic games that I can start whenever I want, and end whenever I want, and just play and enjoy without having to get a degree in that game first (i.e Dota, LoL, MMOs, etc.). No stress, no BS, just a little bit of fun.
Totally
Do we really need another thread about wether someone should be playing games after work? I like to fish on the weekend, but I could be making more digital art. maybe I should make a thread about the value of catching fish vs working like a single minded, boring sod
You will quickly realize, that you sometimes spend more time blinding looking into screen and doing exactly nothing. At that point it's better to play something or take a nap.
As for me I don't remember when I played game for more than few hours. Creating games is so much more fun nowdays. Especially once you get to the point where most o things start to click, and your project get that gamey (that 100% correct term, that I invented right now) feeling. Then I just want to add more, and more to. At that point I must force myself to stop, and do something else, or it would take over my entire time.
It's even better that getting to this point using something like UE4 is very fast.
Fixed.
If you're an artist in the game industry and you don't like art at all, then there's a problem.
can be really nice for inspirations in art styles, models, or environments though.
if its as a hobby in free time, its fine, even helpful in cases. but if its eating into work time, then play less, work more.
In my early days, they were fun and a great way to pass time.
Were people ever discussing if reading a book was waste of time?
Yep. There are thousands of other things you could replace this title with. It all comes down to how many hours per week you're putting into improving as an artist. As long as you're putting the hours in your down time is yours to do whatever with.
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as for the topic, If you are specific about art production, I'd say its great if you play a little bit of every game just to see whats been done out there, as other have said, to gage yourself is important.
Just don't complain your art isn't improving when you know you spend 5 hours a day playing dota...like I used to do XD . I have had my fun, now, studying art is what makes me feel better than pwning dota newbs.
Personally, I find reading to be much more inspirational - fiction and non-fiction. Reading for me is like exercise for the imagination - I have to construct the visuals in my head before I can see them. Whereas after playing a game or watching a movie, i'm more likely to be biased toward the aesthetic i just consumed (which is okay if it's dope i guess).
yea - i look at games as research - but i do wish sometimes i could really just get immersed like used to.
I don't play games alot now, i have other interests that eat up my none working time and alot of releases just dont interest me anymore, but normally once or twice a month, ill binge a game(normally a civ match and messing around on pokemon... xD) for an entire day and just chill out, eat ice cream etc, its fantastic. I don't think its healthy to work all day on games/art, and use all your free time just on games/art, you(I) need to do other shit, i find more inspiration for my actual work that way, otherwise i will burn out super fast
Can't say this enough. The competition is how it is, you really don't have a ton of time fking around. You'll eventually find hours to play your games, but prioritize what's important to you.
It probably wasn't that good compression honestly.
My point was that you can't be really good in something you don't enjoy.
If you don't like cars and you design them (be it from how the look to how they work), you will never be very good at it. You just don't have heart to it, and it is like washing dishes "I have to do it, but whatever".
But then. I guess such people are never car engineers at companies.
The trick is to not start a game of it in the first place and go straight to work, if it's too hard to resist I would go as far as uninstalling completely.
That and having some foresight, e.g. "Well, after a year my portfolio hasn't progressed at all and I'm nowhere closer to achieving my life goals, at least my Dota skills have levelled up though" -_-
Because I can't stop when I start until I fall over being tired. And then I feel bad for not having done anything.
So I don't start it as often ;P It's really giving me a lot of inspiration though.
In truth, I was in little depression when wrote the original post. Feeling like "oh, I'm 23 and have so little time to succeed in game art" but instead of doing art I have played BF3 daily :thumbdown:
For now I came to the conclusion that my weaknesses is self-organization. I'm reading books and listen some lectures about motivation.
It would be great guys if u recommend good books/or youtube lectures about self-management, that's my weak point.
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2078303&postcount=18
And every time productivity comes up here I have to share this link. It's a really great way to easily see how much time is spent on art.
http://strlen.com/procrastitracker/
seems I didn' t notice that post.
If you're gonna watch motivational videos btw, try "buying" each one with ~10 minutes of labor first. You might find sooner or later that you stop even switching to the video.