A little shout out to (aspiring) game industry pros

[Sprony]

As some of you might have read I'm currently experiencing how it feels to be put aside even though I did my very best at work. Combined with the recent news of people getting fired at Irrational and Santa Monica made me realize something important. 

 

The game industry has no unions (as far as I know) and little job security (as far as I can tell). People are often expected to move around the world and even the most casual gamer has heard of crunch time. There are so many news report about bad working conditions, unpaid over time, temp contracts, mass lay offs, extreme crunch time, etc that you really start to wonder why someone would want to work in this industry.

 

The above sounds horrible and I'm sure there are great places to work and enough companies that care about their people. I'm just an outsider  so I could be totally wrong (hopefully not, because this post would be embarrassing otherwise). It just seems to me that what's left is pure passion and the determination to pursue that.

 

Plus a lot of discipline in remaining motivated. Because it's not just the companies and publishers, gamers can be terrible too. You put your heart and soul in a game and people can get so negative that they personally attack you (extreme example).

 

Where I'm going with this is that you all know should know that there are people out there (like me) who really appreciate what you guys are doing and respect the hell out of it. I ain't trying to gas you all up, I just call it how I see it and I feel that this is something that should be said. So in short:

 

[PogoP]

Thanks for your support! I'm doing great things for the industry right now. For example, just today, before lunch, I've fixed 10 collision meshes to make YOUR experience that much better.

 

You're welcome.

[knj]

[Sprony]

Thanks for your support! I'm doing great things for the industry right now. For example, just today, before lunch, I've fixed 10 collision meshes to make YOUR experience that much better.

 

You're welcome.

 

Your red devil you.....

You sir, are a boss!

[KoKo5oVaR]

Thanks for your support! I'm doing great things for the industry right now. For example, just today, before lunch, I've fixed 10 collision meshes to make YOUR experience that much better.

 

You're welcome.

 

They never told me i will have to do this when i signed for the vietnam....  *breaks his whisky glass*

[Chimeray]

I fucking love my job.   (Bear in mind I'm young, single, no kids...)

 

I know there's people out there that are having a rough time and even within the same studio or even position things can vary drastically but these days I absolutely love waking up in the morning to get to my job

 

That being said, just gonna do another shout out to recently affected people, sucks really hard I hope you folks land on your feet and find a developer/publisher to work for soon! (And hopefully in better conditions if things were awry) 

 

And Sprony you spelled that wrong, it's:

 

Edited February 26, 2014 by Chimeray

[Em']

Ahah Chimeray, I thought the same thing : Restecp not respect !

 

Speaking of my job, i don't feel like i'm working in the industry (mostyle because i'm working with mobiles and microscopic team).... I just feel like i'm still the student i was 2 years ago.

[Furyo]

Thanks Sprony Means a lot to more people than you would imagine.

 

On the subject of layoffs, here's my latest article on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140226221055-14325978-rational-layoffs-and-the-transformation-of-the-aaa-games-industry?trk=prof-post

[Steppenwolf]

It's still better then working in a sweat shop or cleaning the pipes of the Mumbay sewer system. So can't complain too much.

[Sprony]

Thanks Sprony Means a lot to more people than you would imagine.

 

On the subject of layoffs, here's my latest article on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140226221055-14325978-rational-layoffs-and-the-transformation-of-the-aaa-games-industry?trk=prof-post

 

It's just the simple truth dude but if this is the result, I'm very happy with. 

Great article btw.

[Skjalg]

The games industry is made up of some of the brightest people, why haven't we made any unions yet?

 

Should we make one?

How can we do it?

[Sprony]

The games industry is made up of some of the brightest people, why haven't we made any unions yet?

 

Should we make one?

How can we do it?

 

They are probably busy fixing collision meshes

[Furyo]

You can't make one union, you need to make as many unions as there are countries, or at least regions. Legally speaking, the unions in the US wouldn't even work in Europe, and vice versa.

I still think we're going to see one being made, but it will be some time before it happens. We need to wait for the proper conditions to be met, which are:

 

 - Shift of negotiating power from publishers to content makers

 - Global consolidation of the different segments of the market in a specific city/region (think all AAA in X, all indie in Y etc like Hollywood and multiple festivals)

 - Less "This is my dream career, I will do whatever I can" mentality and more "This is a great job and I love it, but I'm not going to bend over and take it" on the part of developers.

 

Look back on the history of Hollywood, you'll see the same patterns before unions were created. But we're decades away (comparatively) from that. If United Artists being created by Chaplin and co as a reaction against the main studios is our equivalent of the indie scene bursting out from EA and Activision, then we still have to wait a bit.

[selmitto]

I just played and replayed a specific section of a game for dozens of times to find a couple of crashes that would terrify players' experience.

 

You're welcome.

 

[PogoP way of life]

[Sigma]

You can't make one union, you need to make as many unions as there are countries, or at least regions. Legally speaking, the unions in the US wouldn't even work in Europe, and vice versa.

I still think we're going to see one being made, but it will be some time before it happens. We need to wait for the proper conditions to be met, which are:

 

 - Shift of negotiating power from publishers to content makers

 - Global consolidation of the different segments of the market in a specific city/region (think all AAA in X, all indie in Y etc like Hollywood and multiple festivals)

 - Less "This is my dream career, I will do whatever I can" mentality and more "This is a great job and I love it, but I'm not going to bend over and take it" on the part of developers.

 

Look back on the history of Hollywood, you'll see the same patterns before unions were created. But we're decades away (comparatively) from that. If United Artists being created by Chaplin and co as a reaction against the main studios is our equivalent of the indie scene bursting out from EA and Activision, then we still have to wait a bit.

 

I might butcher this but... The USA sector might be able to forge ahead if some legal complaints filed recently regarding the movies industry go through. The MPAA wants to recognize digital goods as imports. That in turn legally requires enforcement of some trade agreements that create trade tariffs on those goods originating from countries that subsidize the VFX industry. If the VFX argument holds there is room to maneuver it into the games industry quite easily due to the prevalent subsidization of studios throughout the EU. Essentially it would lead to better labor standards and practices.

 

I will see if I cannot locate the original article reporting.