Monday, July 25, 2016
Should You Quit Your Job To Go Make Video Games?
kotaku.com: Your boss just pulled you into another surprise meeting. You’ve got a case of the Mondays. And your raise got rejected. Why not leave it all behind and roll the dice on a new career in video games?
Aside from the design, art, and programming jobs we often think of, the “games industry” includes everything from grips setting up motion capture studios to psychologists studying microtransactions.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
As an avid gamer, it’s interesting to hear where the people who make the games I love to play come from. Video games, with their ever growing popularity, have become a lucrative market for those who can make money in the industry, but it can also be very difficult to get a position in a company or to start one that brings in enough money to keep up a person’s normal lifestyle. I never thought that people for more traditional 9 to 5 jobs would consider leaving and entering the video game industry. As someone looking into all sorts of design and production jobs to try and figure out a possible direction I might want to take with my life, video game production has always been a favorite on my list. It’s kind of crazy how all sorts of people, especially people who wouldn’t have imagined themselves working on games, end up collaborating to make something so many people can enjoy.
I love the idea of working on both a normal job and on games. I am very familiar with the idea of love the job, hate the routine. I tend to desire spontaneity in daily life and a set schedule of office hours could ruin the enjoyment of an otherwise interesting and fulfilling occupation. Especially with the risks being taken by abandoning the standard set work week with no health insurance, inconsistent hours, and a large potential for layoffs, I'd prefer a safety blanket of the normal job to fall back on. I also would prefer having the fall back of a job so that I could feel more comfortable in trying out newer and bigger ideas without hesitation that I would if I needed to garner all my revenue from video game work. There has always been such stigma about working in game development, with it not being thought of as a real job, so seeing as there is so much potential to be part of creating one and in so many different ways I feel more confident in giving it a try.
As an avid gamer myself I have uttered the phrase that anyone who plays games has uttered once in their life, "I'd love to just do this for a living". Everyone who has ever uttered this phrase has had very different intentions behind those statements. Some people wish to pursue this as a career option, and some people relate the instant relief of playing video games, to a theoretical job in which they receive that same relief. But the reality is that a job in the video game industry has just as much stress as other jobs you can work, but if you hold a passion for it, then just like any other job, the stress will all be worth it.
Post a Comment