Abusive industry?

There are alot of (young) programmers out there that want to make games (in a childhood dream sense). With such a large and *eager* supply its easy to treat them like dime a dozen workers.

Look at how John Romero''s Daikatana office worked: Long hours and little pay, yet there was no shortage of people wanting to sign up for the chance to be "Romero''s bitch" (I belive the actual quote was "John Romero wants you to be his bitch", correct me if I''m wrong).

quote:

---

Original post by Michalson
(I belive the actual quote was "John Romero wants you to be his bitch", correct me if I'm wrong).

---

Nope. You're right.

[edited by - Big Sassy on May 29, 2002 7:24:59 PM]

quote:

---

Original post by gn0m3
Alright i have been reading up on programming games for a living and have found a suprising amount of people who shun game companies because they abuse newly hired coders to make their projects. If i want to program games would it be better to get a different job and program games on the side or to join this "abusive industry". Just wondering if it is really as bad as they say...

-Your human mentality screams for vengeance and thrives on the violence that you say you can hardly endure...

---

I have been thinking about this topic for a while and i think
you are correct. From my experience I see that business people
will try anything to get the games made for as little as possible. Even though you may be qualified and have have
experience there are 50 people right behind you in a line
waiting to take your position. Therefore companies don''t have to pay a high salary because you have no bargaining power. The
other problem is that newly hired coders do not know the
business end of it, there just so happy to have a job in the industry that they''ll work for next to nothing. The industry
needs to be unionized and that would protect the reputation
because I think the same thing you do and so do alot of other people that it is an abusive industry.

It''s all about supply and demand.

If you don''t like how you''re treated, fine... piss off.. there are 50 people standing in line to take your place.

which ironically is exactly how strippers are treated (i used to DJ at a strip club).

quote:

---

Original post by aegrimonia
which ironically is exactly how strippers are treated (i used to DJ at a strip club).

---

How''d that go for ya.

I've got that impression too. It seems I could earn twice as much doing database design. It's a bit of a stupid attitude for companies to take though, because decent game programmers, artists and designers etc are very hard to find.

All this is not helped by the fact that that the retailers regularly rip off the distributors, who rip off the publishers, who rip off the developers, leaving little money left for employees.

____________________________________________________________
www.elf-stone.com

[edited by - benjamin bunny on May 29, 2002 9:31:15 PM]

It was a lot of fun.

besides the obvious benefeits, my best friend since jr. high school was my boss (i''m 28).

It was back when Napster was still running full steam ahead. The club used all MP3''s for their music using a program called DJ Power.


The DJ computer was networked to a computer down stairs that had a cable modem. On slow days (like sunday afternoon) we would sit around and try to think of the most off-the-wall song we could think of, he''d go down and get it, and copy it to my computer and i''d que it up.

Lots of Sundays where the girls had to dance to patsy cline, dueling banjos, and Liberace.

The old guys that were in there loved it

The pay sucked though, and i started my own business so i stopped... plus i got tired to being the babysitter. (management and the owners treat the strippers pretty bad) It was my job to ''boost em'' up'' after they got a tounge lashing (not in the literal sense)...

Not only that, but it seems that most companies exist nowadays to steal fresh IP from the new recruits.

I think it would be better to work a non-programming job, and keep your own IP.


Maybe in a few years, the internet will have matured enough to allow independent game devvers to be able to survive. We need to break the stranglehold that the big 4 companies have on the game publishing market.

They are doing a good job of that themselves.
I know a little bit about business and when ever a small game company has a hit one of the big ones comes in and over
pays to buy it out.

Check out this link for an example.

A lot of those big companies are in debt big time.

A lot of games companies assume you have no lfie and will work long hours for them for no extra money. This attitude stinks, and proves that the management at these companies cannot do proper project management.
If you cant make a profit on a game by working 35-40 hours a week, then your business model isnt viable and you need to rethink it, not bully your staff into working late every night.
Sadly there are enough idealist young kids willing to put up with this kind of treatment.
Its far better (and more rewarding) to work on your own projects, although there is a lot to be said for working in the industry (no dress code, network games at lunchtimes, cool working environment).
Best advcie is to try it for a year and see what you think. Nothing compares to the actual experience you will get by wqorking for a games company, even if you then split to do your own thing.

http://www.positech.co.uk