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superchunk on 02 September 2011
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twesterm said:
Level1Death said:
If they can't handle the heat get out of the kitchen. No one forced them to get into the gaming industry. Plenty of other professions put a lot of pressure on people's lives. Either they deal with it or they move on to something else.


That's statement...it's just plain ignorant.  I've written and rewritten a response a few times now and it's hard to write this without being too harsh or sounding too whiny.  It's something I'm a little passionate about so please forgive me.  This is also in response to several posts, not just yours.

I've worked in retail, the IT industry, and the games industry.  I've finshed high school, graduated college with a degree and a minor, and I've finished grad school.  I've done long hours, crunches, and even death marches.  I can tell you without a doubt that a light day in the games industry is harder than any of the others and the crunch cycles and death marches are simply soul crushing.  That isn't to say it's not satisfying, it is, but it's beyond difficult and saying you have to work hard at other jobs so you don't see why people in the games industry complains is flat out insulting.

For why it happens, there's not a lot of good excuses, it just does.  The games industry is still relatively new and you're talking about multi-year projects involving hundreds of people with many different hands in the pot.  Comparing building a game to building a website is just wrong.  They're both IT but they're both on different scales.  It's not saying web development is easy or scheduling is easy, it's just game development and scheduling is different.  It's still something that's very much evolving.

As for why people stick around, there are many reasons.  The biggest one is even though your life is drained away, you don't see your loved ones, you work insane hours...... blah blah whiney whine....

You have a degrees and programming experience. You don't like your job... find a new one. There are tons out there. I guarantee you it would take less than a week to find something FAR easier with more pay.

I sit on my ass... make internal applications... never 'work' more than 40hrs a week... take fun long lunches... generally paid... have a great environment with very little stress... and I get paid over $80k a year.

I have also worked commissioned sales, retail, selling meat out of a truck, construction, fast food, and of course app developement and now managing app development. I see tons of openings all over the world in my company and those it works with in relation to software.

My point still stands with your arguement. The industry is what it is to make money in and entertianment market where minor slips really hit ROI. If you don't enjoy it or think your family is worth more... then find a new employer.

EDIT: btw, I don't mean to be an a-hole. It just seems like you're making more excuses to remain stagnant in your career than progressing it to your max potential. If you could make more money for doing less work... why wouldn't you? Leave in between projects... that solves your biggest reason not to.