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The downward salary slope for game artists [Gamasutra article]

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MagicSugar polycounter lvl 10
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/190895/

Just randomly saw this. This was dated two months before the Examiner's "developers make too much" piece. Don't know if this was mentioned in any threads before.

Gamasutra article used 2012 Gamedev mag data while the Examiner used 2011's. There's actually a dip n the survey average for 2012.

For the new guys, Gamasutra's highly regarded for it's gamedev journalism. Probably just as old as Polycount.

More insights in the commentaries.

It's tempting to blame the decline on the recession, but the trend is actually consistent across the whole decade. The biggest dip doesn't appear in 2009 or 2010 (as you might expect if the recession were to blame); it's actually in 2003. Moreover, that trend line goes back even further. Most veterans of the premillennial days (your humble columnist included) can tell you that the market for CG artists was a lot hotter back in the closing years of the 20th century.

I started in games in 1995, and my starting salary back in those distant days works out to just over $77,000 in today's dollars. The Game Developer survey puts today's starting salary's average at around $45,000. That's a decline of over 45% in real terms over the last couple of decades.

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  • silkroadgame
    Interesting reading,but this is an annual salary in US,not all over the world,because salary in China is much lower.
  • ambershee
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    ambershee polycounter lvl 17
    The reason for it is pretty simple - there's a lot more game artists around than there were before, and you have increasingly popular game courses to blame. Here in the UK, there are at least 40 games related university courses, and each of them will graduate around 30 people per year (1200). There are actually only around 3-4000 jobs out there for artits of all levels of experience, and with competition that fierce it's obvious salaries are going to dip. I suspect it's only going to get a lot worse over the coming decade.
  • Ace-Angel
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    Ace-Angel polycounter lvl 12
    B-bu-but...they said I would be making over 70K! I need my Ferrari's man!
  • JohnnyRaptor
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    JohnnyRaptor polycounter lvl 15
    the competition is so fierce i have to take the bus to work :(
  • HitmonInfinity
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    HitmonInfinity polycounter lvl 11
    Even triple-A dinosaurs need to remember that it's pretty damn awesome to spend your days painting scales on dragons and adding fins to spaceships compared to, say, preparing tax forms for a living.

    tru tru
  • LMP
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    LMP polycounter lvl 13
    I don't know if this has any real influence on anything regarding game artist salaries... but, yeah...

    Productivity_and_Real_Median_Family_Income_Growth_1947-2009.png
  • Fomori
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    Fomori polycounter lvl 12
    I'm no expert on the matter, but I remember hearing that sometime in the 70s it was engineered that the average person's salary increases (that were doing well and rising with inflation at the time) would be slowed so that the gap between the very rich and your average person would become greater and greater.
  • Deadly Nightshade
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    Deadly Nightshade polycounter lvl 10
    I didn't became a 3D artist to make money.
    I knew the situation was bad before I even went to school.
  • WarrenM
    Yeah, I took a pay cut to get into the games industry so I knew what was up. That has since corrected itself, and then some, but yeah .. it's not generally a high paying career! And as was mentioned above, there are a TON of people who want to get in - and are also likely willing to work for less than you are. Sucks.
  • biofrost
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    biofrost polycounter lvl 12
    It's all relative, even with the downward slope, it's still a ton of money to me considering I made a whopping 3K last year.
  • Barbarian
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    Barbarian polycounter lvl 13
    Fomori:

    The story is "more complex" than that. By 1972 several developments were at work. We went off the gold standard, there was the Arab Oil Embargo (the speed limit across the nation was reduced to 55 MPH), gas prices and inflation rose, etc. More women had to enter the work force (not because of "Women's Liberation" so much, but because of the need to overcome inflation and other soaring costs). The "Great Society" of LBJ (let's have "guns and butter" [reference to the cost of the Vietnam War and social programs] increased the national debt.

    The U.S. auto and steel industries were being hit hard by overseas competition and infrastructural changes in industry (robotics, nascent technology that started replacing workers in factory jobs). The global economic changes because of new communications technology and computer technology also slowly started to influence the economy. Taxes started to rise probably out of necessity to pay for programs and government bureaucratic growth (increasing public expectations of the government to "solve problems."). Government growth, inflation, the end of cheap fuel, and many other factors combined to cause the dip in the chart. Also, keep in mind that most people, even into the early 1970s, did not have central air conditioners in their homes, most automobiles did not come standard with air conditioning and other "features" deemed "essential" today. There was more bureaucractic-related "indirect taxation" (government inspectors for various industries, OSHA, etc.).

    The U.S. started to use more electricity (for air conditioners, electronic devices such as video tape recorders, PCs, clothes driers (many people still hung laundry out and did not use driers as much), etc.). Households used to have "one car," but by the late 70s people needed two cars (and eventually even their kids needed cars)--increasing highway building and repair, more gas use, etc. There is more to the story--but many factors, including rising cost of living due to all the new "time-saving" appliances (and cost to operate) and and other things along with inflation caused that dip (including increasing costs of education and other services). Military pay increased rapidly in the 1980s and government offices were computerizing (electric bills went crazy . . .).
  • oXYnary
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    oXYnary polycounter lvl 18
    Barbarian, and this made the pay discrepancy between rich and the rest of us reasonably explainable how? You almost have a subtext in your reasons blaming in part taxation and government. Be careful! Your bias is showing through!
  • marks
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    marks greentooth
    tru tru


    To quote some random guy from the other thread:

    "Because I'm passionate about, and enjoy my job - I should be paid less?".

    No thanks, broski. And you can bet your ass that guy preparing taxes for a living isn't doing mandatory unpaid overtime.
  • HitmonInfinity
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    HitmonInfinity polycounter lvl 11
    marks wrote: »
    To quote some random guy from the other thread:

    "Because I'm passionate about, and enjoy my job - I should be paid less?".

    No thanks, broski. And you can bet your ass that guy preparing taxes for a living isn't doing mandatory unpaid overtime.

    He (nor I) was suggesting what you're implying. Just being grateful for our awesome jobs...
  • Barbarian
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    Barbarian polycounter lvl 13
    oXYnary:

    No bias whatsoever. I stated historical facts that can be confirmed. I mentioned no facts about pay discrepancies between rich and poor, just developments that were related to inflation and income not keeping pace with productivity. Perhaps your bias is showing through? My guess is that you are quite young and are not aware of history.
  • danshewan
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    danshewan polycounter lvl 8
    Barbarian wrote: »
    I stated historical facts that can be confirmed. I mentioned no facts about pay discrepancies between rich and poor, just developments that were related to inflation and income not keeping pace with productivity. Perhaps your bias is showing through? My guess is that you are quite young and are not aware of history.

    Unless you are old enough to have personally remembered even some of these events (which I doubt very much), your entire post comes across as the kind of Wikipedia-based armchair economics that has everyone convinced they're an expert, like the guy yelling over the fence in my backyard who thinks he has the secret to fixing the entire nation's economy.

    Regardless, the history behind any of this (whether you're right or wrong, because personally, I don't know) doesn't change the fact that even since 2007, worker productivity in the U.S. has increased by almost a quarter, while the poverty rate has remained at embarrassing levels.

    Do we really need a pedantic history lesson, when what everyone should be mad about is how much we have to work (in any sector / industry) versus what we're paid, and how much it costs to live these days?
  • oXYnary
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    oXYnary polycounter lvl 18
    Barbarian wrote: »
    oXYnary:

    No bias whatsoever. I stated historical facts that can be confirmed. I mentioned no facts about pay discrepancies between rich and poor, just developments that were related to inflation and income not keeping pace with productivity. Perhaps your bias is showing through? My guess is that you are quite young and are not aware of history.

    Barbarian you replied to Fomori: He stated.
    would be slowed so that the gap between the very rich and your average person would become greater and greater.

    I said.
    pay discrepancy between rich and the rest of us reasonably explainable how

    Your reply above? "I mentioned no facts about pay discrepancies between rich and poor."


    Your right. You didn't. But that was part of Fomoris original statement. You only gave facts of why production versus pay has changed. NOT why rich vs poor has.

    And yes, your bias did show with the facts you choose and your wording. Such as "bureaucractic-related "indirect taxation" (government inspectors for various industries, OSHA, etc.). " At least you could have enough intellectual honesty admitting such.

    Also, I find people who use the age card as the end all reply to brush people aside as..... annoying. Lets just say, I was around. :P
  • Barbarian
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    Barbarian polycounter lvl 13
    oXYnary:

    Indirect taxation relates to costs that people must pay (such as government paid meat inspectors and other similar types of indirect costs). Another good example of indirect taxation is having businesses pay people to track state sales taxes imposed by state legislatures. An accountant has to be paid (for most businesses) and the sales tax goes directly to the state treasury. Thus that cost of the salary is covered by increased cost of goods and services (an indirect tax). Direct taxation includes income and sales taxes. If you buy a pound of hamburger, included in the price are costs for meat inspection (and most people are not really aware of this fact). Thus the use of "indirect taxation."

    Bureaucratic-related is a factual statement without bias (reading any bias into this statement is on your side). Government bureaucracy has undeniably grown since 1972 (new departments, larger departments). Such costs are indeed bureaucratic-related. Again--fact without bias. Your claim of intellectual dishonesty is illogical. Perhaps I should play the education and experience cards as well. I am actually confused about your motives in claiming that I was biased. You could have phrased your original reply and noted any disagreement that you had with my facts. When you claimed "bias is showing" you were trying to "brush me aside" by insinuating that I was disingenuous/biased were you not? Get my point? Quid pro quo.
  • RyanB
    Barbarian wrote: »
    oXYnary:

    Indirect taxation relates to costs that people must pay (such as government paid meat inspectors and other similar types of indirect costs).
    ...
    If you buy a pound of hamburger, included in the price are costs for meat inspection (and most people are not really aware of this fact). Thus the use of "indirect taxation."

    Also included are the benefits of meat inspection (and most people are not really aware of this fact).
  • MM
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    MM polycounter lvl 18
    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OavsZltnktQ"]CEOs Make 380x As Much As The Average Worker - YouTube[/ame]
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