Game Artists: We are the new rockstars!
polycounter lvl 18
So, I go out with my wife and a friend of ours to see this fairly big punk rock band called The Briefs on Saturday. I'm a pretty big fan of the band, so we go over to check out their shwag table. Anyway, there's this guy manning the table, and I start asking about some of the merchandise, etc., and the guy doesn't seem like he's used to working the table, and generally doesn't know what exactly they have in stock. Now this guy looks a bit familiar, so I ask "You're in the band, right?", and he says that he plays bass.
Now, I'm not one to be star-struck or anything, but I do think that this is pretty cool to be able to chat with this guy, so I introduce myself, ask about the tour, when the new album is coming out, etc. He's really nice, and we're chatting for a bit, then he asks what I do for a living, and I tell him I'm a video game artist. At this point, his jaw just about hits the floor, and he says "That is just SO COOL!" So we talk for a bit more, then he's gotta go leave to warm up, as his band was the headliner, and coming on last. The band plays a hell of a show, and we leave after they're done.
Anyway, the next night, I drag my wife to a different punk rock show (Street Dogs/Tiger Army), and who shows up in the crowd? Yep, my buddy the base player from the Briefs again. I say "hey" to him, and he introduces me to one of his friends, and says "Yeah man, this guy makes VIDEO GAMES for a living! Isn't that cool?!" We chat for a bit again, the watch the show.
I just found the whole thing pretty ironic. Here's a rockstar going all fanboy for a lowly video game artist. I never would have guessed.
So, are WE the new rockstars? Obviously, there are a lot of kids out there playing our games more than they listen to music. Hmmmm... Very interesting...
I also highly recommend seeing the Briefs live, if you get a chance. It was a very fun high energy tongue-in-cheek punk show.
Now, I'm not one to be star-struck or anything, but I do think that this is pretty cool to be able to chat with this guy, so I introduce myself, ask about the tour, when the new album is coming out, etc. He's really nice, and we're chatting for a bit, then he asks what I do for a living, and I tell him I'm a video game artist. At this point, his jaw just about hits the floor, and he says "That is just SO COOL!" So we talk for a bit more, then he's gotta go leave to warm up, as his band was the headliner, and coming on last. The band plays a hell of a show, and we leave after they're done.
Anyway, the next night, I drag my wife to a different punk rock show (Street Dogs/Tiger Army), and who shows up in the crowd? Yep, my buddy the base player from the Briefs again. I say "hey" to him, and he introduces me to one of his friends, and says "Yeah man, this guy makes VIDEO GAMES for a living! Isn't that cool?!" We chat for a bit again, the watch the show.
I just found the whole thing pretty ironic. Here's a rockstar going all fanboy for a lowly video game artist. I never would have guessed.
So, are WE the new rockstars? Obviously, there are a lot of kids out there playing our games more than they listen to music. Hmmmm... Very interesting...
I also highly recommend seeing the Briefs live, if you get a chance. It was a very fun high energy tongue-in-cheek punk show.
Replies
"Aw, cool, you made such-and-such game? That's awesome!"
Try telling them about how 72hour work weeks becoming necessary often without extra money and the allure of our industry fades a little heh
I guess that the difference in todays culture is that games are no longer seen as a waste of time like they were 20 years ago when anyone 'wasting their time with videogames'
was thought to be heading for a shitty future.
People are getting bombarded with adverts and promotions and tv news items and interviews with games industry people and the knowledge of the kind of money involved is becoming widespread.
or put simply..
Rockstars? No, but they think we work in willy wonkas chocolate factory and that because our chocolate tastes good, it must be cool to have a taste all the time for free!
r.
Why can't they love me for me instead of my career. *sniff*
Hey Ryno, I'm going to see the Tiger Army / Street Dogs show in LA during E3
/jzero
Personally I loathe hearing the question: "So what do you do for a living?" Telling a bazillion people the same thing over and over again gets old, not to mention the whole can of worms that opens EVERY TIME games come up in conversation.
I enjoy my job immensely, but the glamour has definitely worn off. I feel I'm a better artist for not falling into the ego trap as a result though. Keeping it real keeps me sane, and allows me to focus more on the work than chasing the dream - or living the lie, so to speak.
I think I was actually closer to being a rockstar before I let this business devour the last 6 years of my life, and I can't sing or play a single instrument. =]
yeah, everyone at church thinks im the reason their kids suck at school and that im pretty much contributing to the downfall of humanity. ...think im the antichrist.
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That's the rockstar part! You might not get all the other things. At least you freaked them out for a while.
Only the top bands made anything. All the musicians I ever knew made considerably less than any game artist. But then, they probably did get laid considerably more.
I hate talking about my job since i everybody is bored when the chatting turns into somthing with more substance.
Typical situation:
Shim: "I am more or less in the gamebiz as an charcter artist, I do contract work next to school"
chatpartner: "Wow thats sounds cool/intersting/awesome/whatever. Do you draw all the characters or what?
shim: "no i model them"
cp: "ah... how do you do that? With some special application or what"
shim explains all the stuff,from concept to unwrap till texturing, rigging and animation
cp is bored after 3 seconds and says at the end: "cool, ahrm sounds like a easy job"
shim: "Not as hard as working in a mine but its not THAT easy. I had to work through some nights to get the things done on time"
cp is not intersted in the gamebiz or in me anymore . though he still dont know how much experience, patience and time you need fo creating a game.
We are more or less the producers of the rockstars. Everybody wants to play the guitar and get all the groupies, but nobody would want to mix a album and care of the micros in the recording room....
I always appreciate the glossy-eyed newbs who are new to the bizz though...reminds me what it used to be like to be excited about something related to work.
-R
Get back to work!
Well, I've noticed that as long as you look the part and talk the talk the rest really doesn't matter, most people don't really know much about what we do and rarely feel as passionate about this kind of stuff, so I found cliffyb's way of going about it is the best way, confront them, shit when people ask me what I do I tell them I make violent video games, its a conversation starter, not a lecture, most people that I'd like talking to will think thats pretty cool, and then we can move on to talking about more interesting things ... like in case the peer is a female that would be sex. And the people who don't think its cool... well chances are we wouldn't really have much in common anyway. so fuck them.
Although being a game artist rarely puts you in the center of attention, its a job that'll turn some heads but will most likely not get you laid unless u drive a lamborghinni and have pockets full of cash, but then again that'll work even if you mop floors for a living.
they pretty much think im the antichrist.
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That is probably nothing compared to the look you sometimes get when you say that you work in a genetics research lab
I sometimes get the feeling they must be thinking I am cloning three headed children
I dont think my profession has ever been the segue to a shag so HELL NO!
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You wanna work on your patter a bit then mate.
I do know what you mean, I've had it on 2 work trips recently. We also get mistaken for people in a band. It's probably that 6 of us we go to a nice swanky restaurant where everyone looks down on you. 6 scruffy mostly scottish blokes wearing jeans and shirts, getting drunk and talking shite is not what they are used to, especailly ones that can affod to eat or drink there. The only thing then can equate scruffy+drunk+money=band.
I bags being the drummer.
It's all worthless really.
(mind you we did get into CBGBs on the guest list. And got to meet the suicide girls.)
No, people just think we sit around playing games all day and that doing that must be cooler than having to work for a living 'like they do'.
r.
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Bingo... The first words I hear out of someones mouth after I tell them I work for a company that makes video games is;
"that must be pretty cool sitting around all day playing games?".
Almost verbatim from every person I have talked to that is not in the industry. I now fire back with;
"yeah its almost as cool as working in a slaughter house, those guys must sit around, drink beer and BBQ all day?"
After the puzzled look starts to fade I explain its not all trampolines and hookers like they think and actually the area I work in is pretty much the ass-end of the industry (next to retail) so yeah a slaughter house looks pretty good somedays.
Some people just don't understand that making games and playing games are two totally different things in most cases.
Actually when I was having my hair cut the other week the hairdressser aske me if they have to animate every position possible for a character in a video game.
'No, er we have cameras and skeletons and stuff'.
I felt my self being boring as soon as I opened my mouth.
I only ever break out the tech-speak when I want to confuse people. If people start discussing their jobs in technical terms that I don't understand, I just start talking about UV-mapping, vertex weighting and texel densities
Daz: Yeah, I know :P
When we were in SF for the CA workshop, Ben, Eli and I were trying to think up chat-up lines based around 3d modelling ... they are surprisingly few.
AHAHAHHA
b1ll
Whatever else you are, you are Artists, and it will be a cold day in hell when women are disinterested in artists, writers or musicians!
r.
1. job is not as awesome and fun as people think
2. doesnt pay as much as youd think
3.you get screwed alot
4. and you have to compete with every tom,dick and harry out there to make a name for yourself
My response now to "wow, you make games" ia a shrug and "meh, it's a living"
well tis all sex drugs and rock and roll where I work.
Actually when I was having my hair cut the other week the hairdressser aske me if they have to animate every position possible for a character in a video game.
'No, er we have cameras and skeletons and stuff'.
I felt my self being boring as soon as I opened my mouth.
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My hairdresser told me she went to Paris and learned an incredible new way of working: Instead of roughing out shapes and refining them later you put everything into final shape on your first pass! Incredible, isn't it?
I kept quiet, didn't want to talk with her about WHY block-out is more popular than pop-thru in pretty much any field of work.