Is Working in The Gaming Industry still your Dream job?

Fuck no. Don't have the... dedication to gain the education and talent to make games.

I still want to get into eSports, with in Munich opinion, Smash Ultimate and Halo : Infinite being the only realistic options I have of going Pro, before I get too old and need to "grow up" and get a real job. That's the farthest into the gaming industry as I want to work though.

If I had a crew like Easy Allies that would be supported through Patreon then yes I would love to :P.

No, I enjoy software development, but I don't want to work more than 40 hours a week. I'll just stick to game development as a hobby.

I used to work as a Games Journalist / Reviewer.

I called it quits because at the end of the day it's all about ads/SEO and making news about games you don't even follow.. Now I'm back at working as a SAP System Admin.. Thought to go back to marketing and all but man I just love computers and systems at the end of the day.

Joey Ravn said:

No, and it never was.

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It's a dont shit where you eat type situation for me.

Yes. :) Working on massive AAA projects, loving it!

Not really. Seems like too much hell.

Being a part of a stream crew like Yo Videogames! would be great though.

I work in the game industry.

I still don't know how I feel about it.

Considered it a dream job until I got it.

Yes and no.

I've had nearly a decade in the games industry; I've seen the crunch first-hand, and while I could handle it in my twenties, now as I approach forty I have absolutely no desire to go back to that. However I still like to tinker with code off my own bat and am increasingly intrigued by the indie scene - and have an original idea I'd love to realise - so if I had the financial security to take the risk of striking out on my own and doing everything on my terms, I'd still be interested. The problem there, of course, is that there's a huge risk involved in doing that which I simply can't afford, so maybe I'm dreaming too much of a fantasy in the first place!

It was never my dream job, but it has been my job for the last 12 years.

Booga said:

I'm a game journalist. And, honestly, 90% of the job is filler. And by that I mean SEO (search engine optimization) and very little else.

My editor never reads or cares about what I write as long as it is over 400/500 words and has a lot of question based headers and lots of keywords (Nintendo, Smash, Fortnite, CoD, etc) that ensure maximum Google visibility.

Pretty much every site exists to generate ad-based revenue. Nobody actually wants to deliver news.

All that negativity aside, sometimes you get to report on something you love, or something you're passionate about. Then for a brief moment it doesn't feel like shoveling cultural snow.

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Oh life. Ha ha.

Eight years across Nintendo and Sony and I can say that it has as many ups and downs as any other job I've had. If you're looking to work in marketing though (my area) it's not without its advantages.

Outside of some moments as a kid where I thought, "I'd really love to make a game like this," It never was. And I don't think it ever will be.

I've wanted to work in the industry as long as I can remember. I busted my ass as an indie and contract dev for 5 years, and now have a stable job.

I absolutely love it. I don't regret any of the challenge I pushed myself through, and I can't imagine ever working in a different field.

Never was. It is a hobby.

The more we glimpse behind the curtain the more it sounds like a tight rope act between passionate game makers and blind corporate greed when it comes to large games and studios.

That sounds like something that would kill my enjoyment for the hobby in the matter of weeks. As a passion project on an indie or AA level, I can see it retaining its luster though.

Good grief, no.

It was when I was a kid, when i was less interested in things like compensation, home life etc.

Yes, sure. This is still my dream job and was from the first day that I played original Pokemon Yellow. Still remember drawing own Pokemons and creating new mechanics, should find those drawings, I think I had them at my home.

Right now I work in similar industry (software development) for 4 years, but think it's finally time to quit current job and pursue my dream. I know all about crunch from current job, so nothing new for me, but at least I would work on something that I'm more passionate about.

But yea, now I need first to start search and it's been long time from the last job interview I had, I'm a little scared heh

AAA development? No way.
I enjoy eating the AAA food but I don't want to be in the slaughterhouse during it's creation.

It's great if you're working on a game you really care about (as I'm lucky enough to be doing at the moment) but sometimes it can be pretty soul destroying working on something that you have little interest in. I consider myself quite lucky because I've only worked on a couple of games in my ten years in the industry that I've felt deflated by and there also haven't been many occasions of mega crunch.

It was as a child, as I got older I realized developing games sounds like miserable work, and gaming journalism sounds like a financial struggle at times.

I work as a translator specialized in video games for an external company, we work with publishers big and small, and I feel the variety of projects I get to lay hands on makes this an amazing job for me personally.
The frustrating parts are super grating, but I worked enough jobs to understand that a lot of the bad parts are not exclusive to the game industry. The good parts really make up for it, and I consider myself lucky have only met awesome teams at all the gaming companies I worked at so far.
Since we're an external service provider I'm also detached enough from some of the more frustrating stuff that comes with some of that. A new project is usually just a few emails away to keep you busy enough. At the same time, since we're an external teams, we have our fair share of projects that were taken from us or clients that didn't choose to work with us again. That's always devastating, but I assume people working with that sort of creative work will have had similar experiences of giving it your all and still being told it wasn't good enough or "not what we're looking for".

I understand a lot of the comments from people that fear the pressure of having to work with something you consider part of your personal space, but it's really part of the fun for me. The fact that I am passionate and knowledgeable about games is one of my biggest assets after all, and one of the reasons I got this job. You should at least give it a go, and see for yourself.

I used to work for a music promoter before, and I left that business for good because the music industry was a much worse grind of talent and people's time and efforts. I'm much happier working in the games industry, where you don't pay people in beer and "your big chance to make a name for yourself". :L

kaisersephirot said:

But yea, now I need first to start search and it's been long time from the last job interview I had, I'm a little scared heh

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You'd be surprised to hear how hard it is to find people that are passionate for the field they are working in. I honestly think you're already one step ahead of the competition if you can bring that passion and interest to your job interview. I went through the whole interview and job hunting thing earlier this year, so I can relate to the scariness and stress this induces, but with work experience and motivation under your belt, you can be confident that people will notice you. Don't be afraid to show yourself off!

I would still like to as a writer.

Crossed my mind more than a few times, the whole idea of making your hobby your job.

But with a close friend who's a dev, seeing what he's gone through I'd much rather my current gig which enables me to enjoy my hobby all the more.

traillaitor said:

Oh life. Ha ha.

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Yeah, doesn't matter what you do. the trick is to pull out one element, or moment that makes it worth doing. Then the rest doesn't seem that bad. First world problems huh?

Nope, have the degree to work in the industry, chose to do a softwaer job with almost double the wage, Mon-Fri 10-6pm that I enjoy alot, still can work on my own things if I want as well

I would love to as a writer or creative lead position. I have entire gameplay mechanics designed (some that I came up with years ago are that are now in AAA games being applauded. I've got full narratives and very "pitchable" concepts that would make for some amazing games that may never see the light of day. I wouldn't know where to start to get there though.

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The gaming industry used to look like a canvas to me but right now it's nothing more than a nylon bag.

Even indies are struggling in an increasingly crowded market.

I have a degree in software development and I did dabble with the idea of going in to gaming a long while ago. I ended up working in hospitality for a short while to pay the bills when and now I'm operations manager for a pretty huge hotel having worked my way up the food chain. My dreams have now changed and I think I want to go into talent and culture and focus on training new members of our group. I've started getting a bit of a passion for it.

I always wanted to work with games in some form or fashion, since I was a kid. And I've been working in the industry for about 9 years now, as a sound designer.
I love it, especially with my current job, can't really imagine doing anything else. Maybe I'm lucky, but I haven't crunched much during these years either (or maybe it's because I've stayed away from AAA studios).
My interest in games has remained intact - for me, making games is a very different thing from playing them so I never had an issue there. Well, apart from the games I've actually worked on. I grow tired of them to the point where I usually never want to play them once they release. lol

Not anymore, it's too time consuming and you rarely get to make your dream game. Going indie could be cool but it's too much risk and sacrifice for me. I'm happy playing the best games.

My dream was to work in the industry, and now that I am it still is my dream job.
I can't see myself doing anything else. It's interesting and challenging every day in different ways.
My company also treats employees properly and crunch is not a thing, which is a big contributor to me not being burnt out by the gaming industry.

Having worked as a game designer at a major company, no. Terrible work hours, terrible office politics, terrible corporate crap. Very few people get to the lead position where they can "just be creative" and even then very few get to do anything like Breath of the Wild or God of War. Praise heaven you get to that point, you still have to deal with a lot of BS.

Add lower than standard pay, job instability, having to move around the world job hunting, and more than the usual level of difficult personalities and it's not worth it.

My thoughts and feelings are solely as a game designer moving towards programming. Artists generally have a chill job where the stress is manageable. Managers I've worked with, in gaming as well as business software, have fairly relaxed jobs, but that's a boring career.

I still love it, yeah.
For me its about having a job that I have an aptitude and passion for. I feel confident in my ability to get work done and a high tolerance for the conditions.
As a kid I loooved video games but I always figured I wouldn't really end up in any industry that seemed so exciting and prestigious to me. I guess I wasn't very entitled. But I knew I wanted to make a living doing what I felt I was good at and when I realised I could at least try to pursue such a career, I went and did.
There are definitely problems with the industry. But as an individual, I learn to look after myself and avoid burnout while campaigning to improve conditions just to make the industry more accessible to other talent.
Would I like a cushier job with more pay? Yeah probably, but they don't exactly go around handing those out to lower middle class single women last I checked.

Never thought of joining the big companies in the gaming industry but I've always been interested in creating my own games.

Will probably stick to creating small mobile games as a hobby during my spare time.

Dee Dee said:

You'd be surprised to hear how hard it is to find people that are passionate for the field they are working in. I honestly think you're already one step ahead of the competition if you can bring that passion and interest to your job interview. I went through the whole interview and job hunting thing earlier this year, so I can relate to the scariness and stress this induces, but with work experience and motivation under your belt, you can be confident that people will notice you. Don't be afraid to show yourself off!

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Thank you, this makes me a little bit less scared. Will probably start to send CV's with the start of the 2019, fingers crossed :)

Not to actually make them, but to write about them (like a reviewer or something) I wouldn't mind. Not a day goes by when I don't read about games or visit game related websites.

lolno. Getting overworked into the ground and harassed by "fans" doesn't sound very appealing.

I have been working in the industry for 12 years, and its still my dream job, and no, its not as bad as you hear (but some places are worse than others).

Not anymore. I kinda regret getting a bachelor's degree for it but there it is.

hell yeah, as a marketing person not a dev. just looking to start my career though maybe OP can give me some pointers

I very much wanted to compose music for games.

That seems like a ridiculous notion now, but I still think about it.

Yes. And maybe that's because I don't look at video games as a hobby. I really don't have a title to describe how I feel about it in my life. All I know is that at some point years ago certain games installed a feeling of wanting to make the same type of games myself. Will I ever achieve doing so? I really don't know.. But I'll give myself a chance, despite all my disadvantages.

Not as a game developer anymore. I can't sit on a pc for hours on programs, I'd love to do the marketing though for companies.

Rotimi said:

hell yeah, as a marketing person not a dev. just looking to start my career though maybe OP can give me some pointers

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My experience of marketing in the industry has been among the most positive. Very varied and challenging.

too old for that by now, but still a young man dream

Yup, doing it right now.

Absolutely my dream job.

I wanted to be a 3D Artist in the gaming or film industry as a kid. I still do 3D art as a hobby, but if I had to make it my job I'd get into architectural or product visualization. Way less stressful. None of the 3D artists I know who worked in the gaming industry lasted for more than 5 years.

RunesmithCaryll said:

My experience of marketing in the industry has been among the most positive. Very varied and challenging.

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Thats great I would really love to hear more about that. nothing comes easy trust me I know.

It was never working in the game industry, but making games yeah