The Games Game

Follow Your Passions... To Hell? (December 2004)

Dear Tom,

I've been wanting to get into the game industry since, like, forever. I'm in my junior year in college. The freshman year was a real mindblower, but I survived that and now I'm well on my way to my degree. Been working on a demo and all that... But to get to the point of this communication. I've read all the discussions and news surrounding the "ea_spouse" business, and I dug further into the IGDA's Quality Of Life report. And now I'm having some serious misgivings about where I'm headed.

It looks like I'm heading into some kind of Dante-esque nightmare. The first level of Game Dev Hell surely is tester, followed by lead tester and QA lead, on up through the programming and production ranks. I don't know which level I'm bound to start on, much less which level I'm bound to finish on, but it's surely all some kind of hell or other. Or that's the way it sounds, anyway.

Maybe I should switch to some other career. One that's less interesting but less hellish. What is it they say about "interesting times," maybe that applies to "interesting careers" too. Looking for your thoughts on this.

Dear Naum,

It's okay with me if you decide not to go into games. That just leaves room for some other hapless sucker... I mean, some other bright-eyed game biz aspirant (for some reason unknown to me, the term "wannabe" makes some wannabes get all angry at me).

Okay, that was the cynical pessimist's response. Ready for the [much worse] lighthearted optimist's response?

If you don't want to follow your dreams because you've heard that the silvery Cloud Nine has a dark lining, guess what. It's like that everywhere in life.

"I don't want to fall in love, because I don't want to get hurt." "I don't want to have fun, because sooner or later the fun will stop and then I won't be having fun anymore." "I don't want to eat anything really delicious, because then I'll be spoiled and won't be able to ever eat a boring vegetable."

The video game business does have its down sides, but so does everything else. I think things are going to change in the industry, eventually if not sooner. Before I left Activision, there was a policy in place that encouraged workers to put in eight hours a day, five days a week, and no more. But I was a producer, and if I thought I needed to give it more, then I did. But I digress (as usual).

Changes are bound to come. But in the meantime, if your passion is to make games, then you should follow your passions. Because if you go somewhere less interesting, there's no guarantee that you won't find yourself in some other hell. And it might be even worse than what you're afraid of. The game industry... life... it's the same thing. Just go, and don't listen to those naysayers.