| twesterm said:
You don't get into game development because it's all fun and games or for the money. I could easily make more than double what I do now with loads less stress but even on a bad day at the end of the day I'm happier than most people that have jobs like yours. I don't strive to make more money because I want to enjoy life and enjoy going to work. Excluding the death march and the occasional bad day, I do enjoy life and work. It's really about how you measure success. My wife is a project manager for a large company that many people, here especially, know and hate. She works on the web development side and most everything there may like what they do or are good at it, but their constantly unhappy and constantly complain. They all make much more than me (my wife makes well more than double what I do even though I've been in my industry longer than she's been in hers) but they're never happy when they arrive at work in the morning and never happy when they leave. Me, I make less money than they do but I arrive at work with a smile on my face and leave with a smile even on most bad days. It's not that my job isn't stressful or hard, it's just I like what I do. That's worth riding through the hard times. That's success for me. -edit- Also, you're right in saying leaving between and the beginning of projects is the best time. Nobody will fault anyone for that and it doesn't make sense to stay with a project from the beginning if you're working on something you don't believe in or aren't excited about. |
So, in a round-about way... you fit my point well. If you truly hated our work given its conditions, which you admit can be hard but you still love the job, then you'd look for other work.
This is my issue with this entire topic of making a big deal about the current conditions of the gaming industry. Its not for us, the consumers, or governments to muck with. Its for the employees and only the employees.
They have a choice. If they hate it and cry for change...then they can leave. If companies found it hard to gain employees.. guess what, it would change. If some companies (Nintendo) prove that they can actually increase productivity and revenue by changing from a must meet deadline strategy to a deliver when its done one, we'd have better games, happier devs, and a better ecosystem. But, the issue is all these yearly games and trying to cram stuff in.. as a project manager you must realize that you need to set achievable goals with real considerations.
... ok sorry about the off tangent rant.
point is... you make my case. You say its a tough environment but you like it overall and stay. I think that is why its still the way it is. Most people enjoy the game development far more than the times when things are crazy busy. However, it must suck to be in an environment a few poorly received games that you may of had no impact on original design for... causes massive layoffs. But, such is the entertainment industry overall.
