Do you wish you worked in the game industry?

[BAD]

I hear some abysmal stories of layoffs and worker abuse by major game companies left and right.

I also hear stories of great success and expression.

But I'm curious:

What percentage of you would actually like to try working in that industry in some way? Let's include game journalism as well.

 

[Prophet Five]

Not in the least. I could never handle the criticism/hot takes/negativity. Not at all.

 

[Deleted member 14313]

I'd never want to work for a company in the industry but might try indie development at some point.

 

[lazygecko]

Any professional work in games ought to qualify to be "in the industry" and that doesn't necessarily include the giant corporations with the stigmas associated with them.

 

[Lumination]

Not even for a second. From what I can tell, it's just an underpaid and overworked vertical across multiple profession tracks.

If I was passionate about making games, I'd do solo things in my free time while building my career over working in that kind of environment.

 

[LightKiosk]

Nope, don't want to make my hobby my job in that regard.

 

[DaCocoBrova]

Nah. A childhood friends worked for Sony, Rockstar during GTAV development... Now he's at Volvo.

 

[shaneo632]

I do work in games journalism but there's not really enough money to go around for it to be my main gig. And too much expectation that "it's fun so we shouldn't pay you time for actually playing the game".

 

[Dremorak]

I can't leave the industry because I'm not good at anything else lol

Also I still enjoy going to work most days, which is more than I can say for my other jobs

 

[molnizzle]

Yeah, but not enough to uproot my life and move somewhere else, which I'd have to do.

 

[Dezzy8]

I've never wanted to and I never will want to.
Well, I would if I was one of those streamers getting crazy amounts of money on twitch.

 

[Doctor Doggo]

Hell no. Maybe when I was a young teenager. I have a very close friend who has been a discord employee for quite a long time now though. Not exactly the same thing but similar.

 

[PowerThroughLov]

Nope. Software Engineer. Worked at various tech companies including "Big 3". Have absolutely no interest in working in gaming. Terrible conditions and terrible pay.

 

[Deleted member 18360]

Maybe if they unionized.

 

[stumblebee]

I always wanted to, but if I ever changed careers, I'd only settle for a community management job, or a forward-facing position at a top-tier, personality focused game journalism site.

 

[Ignis]

Lol hell no. I used to work in the industry and it was garbage. Thank god that's over.

 

[NCR Ranger]

I used to, but then all the stories have come out over the years about what a hellhole many companies are to work in and I went "nah". Didn't help that everyone i meet personally who worked in the industry pretty much confirms it as well.

 

[anexanhume]

I wanted to be a programmer growing up. Got accepted to Digipen and dad said no due to cost.

Seeing what they go through, I'm happy I'm not in the industry. I'm confident I could have pivoted out of the industry though.

 

[EndlessNever]

Everything I've heard about the games industry makes me want to stay away from it (apart from playing the games of course).

 

[Siggy]

I do work in it and I'm quite happy. I was concerned before entering, but the horror stories you hear about come from the kind of soulless corporate investor pleasers that are terrible to work for in any industry.

 

[xxracerxx]

Not making games, no. But I would definitely make websites for said games in a freelance capacity.

 

[JamboGT]

I work in it, am happy. Came to it late compared to most and by far enjoy it more than working in the "real world"

 

[Laser Man]

Not under professional corporate conditions, that sucks major ass from all angles. I do love the 3d art creation that is also used in games and in the past I thought that would have been cool to have a job like that, but the time/pressure environment in such a company would probably have killed my enjoyment of it!

 

[MAX PAYMENT]

Hell no.

 

[Deleted member 54320]

I've been working at IGN for about a month and a bit now but before joining, I never would of thought I would be where I am now. I would see a site like IGN as way out of my league on-the-job spectrum.

As a heads up, I'm still a University student living at home. My career in games mainly consisted of the odd bit of freelance, my own YouTube channel and live streams but then I effectively landed my dream job.

I'm probably not adding much to this conversation but I do want to say, if you want to get a foot in this industry then get writing, producing or recording.

A strong portfolio of work is the best thing you can have, in my opinion any ways.

 

[J_ToSaveTheDay]

If it turned out that I had the talent that a studio needed to work on a game, I'd gladly hop on board. I'd also do games coverage. I don't have a portfolio that indicates that I'm capable of either, though, so it makes perfect sense that I do not.

I'm content enough in my current career field, but I do think about using my downtime to bolster a skill that would be useful somewhere in the games industry.

 

[exodus]

I would absolutely love to work in game development, but would definitely not to work in the industry given the working conditions. I can do software dev at a reasonable pace for reasonable pay outside of game development, so that's what I do.

 

[Rolodzeo]

No way. Not gaming related, but I've been in the IT industry and it was a miserable experience.

 

[Snefer]

Its pretty fucking awesome, so I'm happy that I do :)

 

[AxeVince]

I've been in the industry as a programmer for ~5years.
Harsher moments are when you need to deliver a milestone and when people on forums/reddits criticize your work without knowing anything about it or how it came to be.
But I arrived in a studio which tried its hardest to improve the QoL of its devs (and greatly managed to), so might be better where I am compared to other places.

 

[Deleted member 41178]

No interest at all, by the sounds of it it doesn't pay enough.

 

[PrimeBeef]

Never been interested and I've already worked in a cesspool of an industry already no need to go to another.

 

[overcast]

Naw, unless I got a high paying gig that wasn't awful.

 

[Gakidou]

*hacker voice* IM IN

tbh all the complaints are legit, theres plenty to change about the general culture. I don't buy into the whole "you have to be grateful because your job is fun and prestigious so you shouldn't expect to get paid a decent living wage and be self sacrificing" thing. naaaahh
Honestly the problems with the games industry are often present across all kinds of industries, and some jobs have it way worse and stuff. So the reality of it is, my particular job and setup works for me and its fine. I really lucked out in the stability department, and crunch culture and sexism are things u can push back on as an individual.
I'm from a "cool job no money" type of lineage anyway, so its all pretty normal to me.
Plus this is probably the stablest kinda job I can get as an artist?

 

[Ferrs]

lol fuck no , never.

 

[DarkFlame92]

Depends on the money. I think it's quite a lot of heavy work with quite the crunchtime,so I'd have to be rewarded quite well

 

[Mupod]

I mean if it was realistic to be one of the 8 game journalists on the planet that are still employed...

Anyways, I've worked far worse jobs than the worst I've heard from the game industry, but I can't say I'd be cool with 80 hour weeks of unpaid overtime unless I was making a LOT of money. Granted my idea of a lot of money is probably way less than most people here.

I'd like to work at a game company in my current field as an IT person. I've never seen a posting for one despite looking quite often in the Toronto area.

 

[bjork]

Interviewed for a QA spot a couple times, but looking back I'm glad they went with other people.

 

[Rodjer]

Yes, as a CEO of EA or Activision.

Wilson and Kotick are getting a lot of money and i want that money.

 

[Loan Wolf]

I used to growing up but hearing those crunch times and unrealistic goals from AAA publishers made me glad I didn't.
Maybe in the future if the industry unionizes.

 

[IamPeacock]

I used to, but I think work conditions are abysmal and it also takes away the magic games have for me. I'm ok working in IT now :-)

 

[Vincent Grayson]

I wish I worked in the higher levels of it, in a Kojima kind of "this is his vision, supported by a fuckload of talented people" way. Growing up, I was pretty well obsessed with the idea of designing my own games, but I could just never get into the hardcore coding and programming stuff. I wanted to write, direct, design characters and art, that kind of stuff.

But depression had me fucked up pretty bad and all sense of artistic drive I had was burned out of me by the end of high school. Looking back, I was never that great at it, because much as I liked it, I wasn't *driven* to create constantly, over and over and over. It's interesting now to see my oldest daughter in that spot. She's far more driven and talented than I ever was, and her dream is basically that - rise through the ranks and someday be a game designer whose broad vision guides a big project.

 

[ckareset]

Yes. But as a director or ceo

 

[Necromanti]

Not really.

On one hand, the salaries seem higher than in many other fields and there seems to be a real sense of community. When there are layoffs, people in the industry seem to try to help each other out, which seems unusual. If you're lucky, you get to work on projects that could be interesting.

On the other hand, the work-life balance seems poor overall, your hourly wages rapidly decrease if you're working very long hours (and I'm assuming they're salaried and aren't paid overtime), and the pressure seems high. Certain positions seem particularly awful.

 

[NoKisum]

If post-high school went the way I wanted, it would've been a dream to compose a video game soundtrack in a similar vein of games like Jet Set Radio and Crypt of the Necrodancer.

 

[Torpedo Vegas]

Nope. It is my understanding making video games is not a lazy man's job, and I am a lazy man.

 

[ultracal31]

I did QA for EA games and while some people may not consider it an industry job I'd say thanks to that experience I'll never work in the game industry again

 

[jml]

Nah. It seems pretty thankless and full of pressure. It could even dampen my enthusiasm for gaming as a whole in the long run.

 

[Dynamite Cop]

Left and never looked back. Seriously, wish for better things.

 

[Yunyo]

I gave it some consideration, but being a game dev and competing with the guy who is working for "passion" and thus is willing to work for way less, creates a kinda nasty environment where you are "disposable". Not my jam.

Not talking about PR and such of course, I'm sure those industries are a lot more benign once you use nepotism and rubbing elbows to rise the ranks out of say, the pits of being a community manager or low level marketing grunt.