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This is making the rounds today, I'm sure. From the comments, it looks like Cliffy B promoted it on Twitter or something, so some of you have probably seen it already. I got it on FB from a friend who's in the industry right now for a decent-size studio, and even the part of the gaming industry I'm in, it rings pretty true.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGar7KC6Wiw

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN? Or perhaps buying a really good looking shirt?

I also found this earlier today from my various social networks. It's exactly the kind of picture that was painted to me when I was in HS and went to a game industry panel at the University of Maryland when I was in the area. Sid Meier and Bruce Shelley basically exclaimed over and over how lucky they had/have been and how difficult the path is for 99.9% of people working in games. Basically, it's not all fun and games. Har har.

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this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
END SPOILER

Yeah, it's negative, but most of it's true.

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Praise Be To Helix!

Only ever saw this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9fc-crEFDwp

But I'm assuming there's a mini-memes worth of these things crackling through youtube 'n such by jaded [Insert occupation here].

Not that he's wrong. I can model and animate computer characters, but I only worked for one year on children's videogames (reader rabbit style puzzle games) before being laid off and I haven't been able to crack into that shell since.



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Arts

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Twarts

Quote (Narratorway @ 16th March 2011 07:04)

But I'm assuming there's a mini-memes worth of these things crackling through youtube 'n such by jaded [Insert occupation here].

That's sort of what I took out of it as well. Like a lot of things on the internet, and YouTube in particular, it's got to be taken as a joke more than anything. The series seems to be more or less about a straight guy knocking down the aspirations of idealistic people who either don't know or don't accept the reality. As for the profession or subject of the videos, it's really not a great assessment. I know very little about the games industry but the talk about 80 hour weeks, missing family, getting bored of the job, I just thought, yeah, sure, that sucks, but the same problems apply in every other profession as well. If you want to succeed in any job you've got to put in a huge time commitment. And thus, as it stands, the straight guy is the one who's ironically idealistic about the world, implying that such a great amount of work and getting screwed by bosses is somehow unique to the games industry, and that the other guy should go to a different career.

I take it as an exaggerated joke at the expense of idealistic people. But even this has it's problems. The straight guy turns into one of those horrendous people that know the price of everything and the value of nothing. Maybe this is intentional. Maybe the point is for anyone who's interested in the industry or profession should settle themselves in between the two characters. I don't think this is right, however, because the straight guy, who seems to think he's some kind of authority on life, work and leisure, always comes across as the correct one that we should aspire to think like.

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Scepticism, that dry rot of the intellect, had not left one entire idea in his mind.

Me on the Starcraft.

Quote (Narratorway @ 16th March 2011 01:04)

But I'm assuming there's a mini-memes worth of these things crackling through youtube 'n such by jaded [Insert occupation here].

I'd never seen any videos like this before, except the "I want an iPhone!" one , which I think is hilarious even though I adore my iPhone and have no plans to switch ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL7yD-0pqZg - lots of NSFW language).

I think the one you linked, NP, is a bit more over-the-top in both the commentary of both the naive author-to-be and the bitter respondent, but I think the underlying truth still comes through both even with the hyperbole at play. I don't know all that many aspiring writers, but Lord knows that in my time in gaming communities and in knowing people in the industry that I've seen a lot of people sound not too very far off from poor old boxy-robot up there.

With regard to sweets' post, you're right - a lot of what is said by the straight man holds true for a lot of professions. Heck, I can speak from personal experience - the more web development I do for my job, which these days is a lot, the less enthusiastic I am about working on CoN in my downtime, a direct parallel to one of the points made by fancy-robot.

However, I think there's a reason that it's all said here, and that reason is that among the professions I'm most familiar with through experience or the experience of people I know well, people who want into the video game industry are more naive about it in general than the rest. Not only that, the schools that offer degrees in game design (well, the ones that advertise on TV in the States, at least, which means the less qualified ones) try to drive home the exact points that boxy-robot is saying. They all advertise gamer guys who then learn that they can become all-star developers in just a few short years. Of course they're not going to advertise the downsides, but the message they push is that it's an easy road from playing games in your mom's basement to putting them on the shelf yourself.

The crazy thing about it is that I think that as the industry becomes more and more open (because who would have imagined things like PAX or GDC being so huge ten years ago, or the star status of people like Notch and Pixel?), the realistic expectations of people wanting to be game development stars have diminished. It's easier to feel like we're no different than they are because the industry has become more open to direct communication between studios and fans, but the actual hurdles to being successful in the industry have gotten higher due to increased visibility, desire, and complexity of the job. This, to me, flies in the face of what so many people still seem to think - that just liking games is enough to get a foot in the door.

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN? Or perhaps buying a really good looking shirt?

Their description of game testing is pretty much exactly my day-to-day experience. It really is that mundane and you really do absolutely do grow to loathe what you're doing. Never really had any bad experiences with the dev. crew on finding bugs, but I think that's more luck on my end than the industry standard.

All that said, I'm with sweetdude in taking the straight man as an exaggeration. A lot of what is said does technically hold true, but, for instance, while they may not actually end up using your creative input, most of the teams on the games I've tested for are willing to discuss at length any ideas for mechanics or design with anyone willing to contribute. It's the writing team that is much more likely to shut you down. As long as it isn't futuristic zombie ninjas in space.

These comments hold true to any creative industry, however, and most industries in general that are in high-demand lately. It's a reality that many people will have to face sooner or later and while it can be extremely intimidating, it still isn't reason to try.

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Okay, but there was a goat!