Love playing video games? Got lots of original ideas? Think you can make a better video game than what’s out there? Want to get a job as a video game designer, artist or programmer?
That was me about 12 years ago before I started working in the video game industry. A few years later, disillusioned, I left the industry and started working for myself.
Video games are a huge part of our culture and naturally, lots of people want to get involved.
Before you take the plunge, think long and hard before you jump into the glamorous cesspool known as the video game industry. And getting a job isn’t a sure thing, it takes talent, passion, hard work and maybe some connections. Once you land a job, then reality hits you like a ton of bricks.
Video game job listings are full of ridiculous demands because they are always looking for “rockstars.” Pro Tip: rockstars = slaves who are expected to do almost anything to be a part of the industry. The truth is that most video game companies will lie to you and promise you a good healthy work/life balance.
Prepare to have NO life whatsoever outside of your job. Prepare to work 16 hours a day for perpetual crunch because of the incompetence of management and producers. Prepare never to see your loved ones. Get used to sleeping on the floor in your cube. Prepare to see your health decline as you eat bad food and stop exercising. If you don’t like any of that, just realize there’s a line-up of hundreds of naive fools standing right behind you that will gladly replace you and sell their souls to be part of the video game sausage factory.
If all of that isn’t bad enough, then realize you must cheerfully believe and regurgitate all of the politically correct social justice indoctrination that is being propagated at almost every modern video game studio. These hypocrites preach social justice for the world but treat their own employees like scum. Not only does the video game company own your body, they now own your soul.
Don’t take my word for it, take the word of an anonymous ex-game dev who recently posted his experiences on Reddit’s Kotaku In Action forum. I have received permission from the author to reprint what you are about to read.
Of course not every studio is evil and not every job in the video game industry is horrific, but there are enough stories like the following to give any reasonable person cause to pause when considering a career in this highly flawed and competitive industry.
Tales of a retired game dev
byu/game_dev_is_dead inKotakuInAction
Conclusion
The video game industry is broken. Look for opportunities elsewhere. Most video game devs are like caged hens that exist in intolerable conditions. But even the free range devs at indie studios are plagued by political correctness, egos, and office politics. Talent is secondary as low skilled groupthink obsessed brown nosing sycophants seem to always rise to the top.
The state of the video game industry is a symptom of our progressive culture and an example of the worst excesses of capitalism.
One way for the industry to change is if the people at the top decide to change them. But they are too busy virtue signaling to care. They care more about fair trade coffee and the condition of workers in a far away country than they do their own employees. They care more about the diversity of fake characters in their video games than they do the people that actually work for them.
Gamers need to start demanding that video game companies start treating their employees with dignity and respect. Better working conditions along with higher wages and fewer hours are needed. Video game companies need to start labeling their video games much like the food industry has done with labels that denote fair wages, healthy work/life balance, a politics free environment, etc. All things being equal, I’d rather support a company that treats its workers fairly than one that doesn’t.
However, I think it will take a big technological change to change the industry in the same way Napster and digital distribution changed the corrupt music industry. In many ways, the music industry is much like the video game industry. It’s an industry that takes advantage of the enthusiasm and hard work of many creative people and rewards only a few at the top. Hopefully, at some point in the future, the technology that is used to create video games will become easier to use much like how digital audio workstations have democratized and revolutionized the recording industry.
Until that day comes, the video game industry is broken and like the author of this Reddit post, I’m not even sure if it’s worth saving.
-Woflshead
Changed the corrupt music industry?
But the music in the 80’s and 90’s was so good. Just compare Justin Bieber to the likes of the late Prince. (or perhaps Boy George would be a better comparison).
As for the video games industry, as the guy in the Reddit post said, just let them die and the industry naturally restart again, in a similar way to letting Rome fall and civilisation be rebuilt from its ashes.
Is the above example of skullduggery how the likes of Jay Wilson (the lead dev on Diablo III who made the major ‘shut up PVP guy’ faux pas) got his position?
How did Diablo ever go from Diablo I to Diablo III? I’m sure many here must have fond memories of playing it around January 1997.
I was lucky I got out of the industry early moved to a gaming industry headhunting corp, then Enterprise software development. The guy in the article isn’t wrong, my final year at TS2, we had more demand for people that fit the politically correct profile than the talent profile.
If you want to know why ESO’s combat was so janked at launch? It’s because my company was instructed to find a female that had “provable progressive sensibilities” So we gave them a recent grad with zero experience, who had a great feminist in pop culture blog. She was immediately hired and placed in the lead combat designer role, with no game development experience and very little programming experience.
The meat grinder and PC culture is what got Chris Metzen, his anxiety was a product of the nutbars who routinely showed up on campus or googled his home address, the last two Blizzcons he attended he had guards with him or just off stage, because him and his wife had gotten death threats and once he did his presentation he was gone, so different from 2006, when he was mingling and taking pictures with the fans. This culture existed at Blizzard because Mike, Allen and Frank are in their shared bubble and to hell with anyone else. From what I hear Chris is pretty much a shut in and I doubt seriously he will stay in OC much longer.
The worst part about all of this is, the gaming industry is poised to be even worse than it is today, so called Indy developers exist and are well funded to inject their political message, larger companies like Blizzard are held hostage by the tumbler and twitter mobs, and anyone that dare complain is blacklisted from the industry.
I know this is a dark representation but it’s one of experience that I’m sure Wolf will agree with.
ESO combat at launch? Oh yeah, the super OP shield bash spam. Kind of miss that, though it made for bad balance. As soon as you charge the enemy, get your shield out and smack him to death.
hey 🙂 SO when the industry is broken what should all the game dev ppl do instead?? I feel kinda the same. I was totally hyped the the beginning of becoming a game artist. But now after a few years I feel burned out and was wondering what i would do instead.. I still have no answer to that. I became an artist because i was the biggest EQ2 Fan ever and wanted to be someone who works on that game or even make a brand new EQ3. But looks like nobody cares anymore. All new mmorpgs are just another fast produced AAA product with no heart and soul. Not all but the most are copied over and over again. Thanks for your thoughts and your great article good to know I m not alone 🙂
I feel your pain. I wish I had some answers for you. Right now, the industry is run by soulless hacks who only care about driving profits. The MMO industry is not really giving their fanbase what they want. In the case of SOE and Daybreak Games, they have continually ignored their fans and disasters like EQ Next and Landmark are the result. I am convinced there are literally millions of MMO players out there that want a great MMO but the industry is unwilling to give it to them.
At least s an artist you have marketable skills – so you always have career options and there will be work for you.
This is the exact case with every single industry, it’s just the most apparent in the entertainment business. This is because it’s all run by satan and his minions. Sprint to Jesus before it’s too late!