GOING COMMERCIAL?

author=calunio
Wow, really? Am I the only one who makes games just as a hobby and would not go commercial under any circumstances?

Yeah, probably.

I mean, I make games because I love making games. But because I do it for free, I have to spend 45 hours a week doing crap I hate. All other things being equal, I would love to get paid for stuff I'm already doing, but I realize that's not a realistic situation. I realize that if I joined a real game design company as a full-time position, I would not be making the games I want to make. BUT: I would still have just as much spare time to make my own indie games as I do now.

So would I enjoy making games professionally as much as I enjoy making games independently? Hell no. Would I enjoy making games professionally more than I enjoy doing tech support? Hell yes.

author=Large
If they ask me to adapt Twilight... or something like that.

Actually, I would be all over this if it could be a true adaptation. Could you imagine turning Bella into a total villain protagonist? And that shit could get GORY, man, especially if you left it open ended. <3

...really I'd just want to totally fix everything I think is wrong with that book because there is so much wrong with that book but this is a conversation for another time. IB

AND TO BE ON TOPIC: If I could make a living at it and still enjoy it? Maybe. Depends on if I could stand making my therapy my meal ticket.
It's why I decided not to go into theatre professionally, so... yeah. Depends!

(Calunio) : "Wow, really? Am I the only one who makes games just as a hobby and would not go commercial under any circumstances?"
Maybe the difference is that you have a job (as opposed to some) and are really, really enjoying it. It is, in fact, a very particular one.

author=Jude
I don't think the world needs more video games, but it does need more scientists and engineers. If you are competent enough, I recommend pursuing a career where you can do something productive and meaningful. Many of the people who invest themselves into game design have a lot of traits which are useful for science and engineering, but choose the childish option anyway. This is unfortunate, but I suppose this is a product of western comforts where people dream of becoming celebrities and a culture that values self-gratification over advancement of its civilization.

Unfortunately, people are not purely logical computers, and indeed do require "playtime" and other enjoyable forms of mental stimulation to reach their maximum potential. It's a physical and mental need just like anything else, and game makers are just now joining the ranks of their predecessors in film, writing and any other form of media.

Someday scientists will cure some form of cancer, and everyone who suffers from that cancer will have a greatly improved quality of life. Video game developers simply provide a greater quality of life, in a different form.

Believe what you want, but the world would not be a better place if there was no entertainment.

author=Jude
I don't think the world needs more video games, but it does need more scientists and engineers. If you are competent enough, I recommend pursuing a career where you can do something productive and meaningful. Many of the people who invest themselves into game design have a lot of traits which are useful for science and engineering, but choose the childish option anyway. This is unfortunate, but I suppose this is a product of western comforts where people dream of becoming celebrities and a culture that values self-gratification over advancement of its civilization.

I could never be a doctor or a policeman, for example. Or even a medical researcher. If I had a job where if I fail people are either dead or miserable and if I succeed they're alive and slightly less miserable, I'd feel horrible about myself all the time. Like every dead person was my fault, like every person who got saved but was injured was someone's life I ruined by not doing everything perfectly. With a job in the entertainment industry, if I succeed then people become happier, and if I fail then the worst possible scenario is that they are bored. I would rather my failures cause boredom than death.

Of course since I work at a computer repair shop this is all theoretical bullcocky. Video game companies don't have openings for people like me. So at this point I am not really helping anyone, I'm not making anyone happy, I'm just making enough money to survive with the hope that I can enjoy the parts of life I don't spend at work.

Is there an indie cancer research scene?

author=LockeZ
Is there an indie cancer research scene?

Anything can be indie, but your rate of success varies by industry!

wow, slash, you said what I wanted to say way better than I ever could do it. :)

Thanks :D believe me, I've thought about this a lot - I was studying chemical engineering before I got into game design. It came down to me doing what I love and probably making a lot less money, or having financial security and potentially hating 8 hours a day for the next 40 years and possibly researching something beneficial to society like alternative fuel.

I chose selfishness and poverty! Woo!

author=calunio
Wow, really? Am I the only one who makes games just as a hobby and would not go commercial under any circumstances?

Under no circumstances? If you were paid a ton of money, you still wouldn't? Even grant you circumstances like... it's your own production, you can make whatever you want, however you want it.

Do you have a job that's more entertaining or fulfilling than making games? That would be the main reason you wouldn't want to make games for a living, I guess. I know if a career in pro sports were available to me, I'd jump all over it.

If your question is would you sacrifice your small time free games dev status for a few bucks per game? Then no, I wouldn't.

I like being able to do whatever I want as a dev. If making games for a living means that I don't get to do whatever I want, then no, I wouldn't to. One of my childhood friends works for EA out in San Francisco. I wouldn't want his job.

Similarly, I would want to play in the nba or mlb or whatever, but I wouldn't want to be a D-Leaguer and have to go overseas for small pay just to be a pro athlete.

But given great circumstances, I would want to make games for a living, hell yeah.

author=slashphoenix
Unfortunately, people are not purely logical computers, and indeed do require "playtime" and other enjoyable forms of mental stimulation to reach their maximum potential. It's a physical and mental need just like anything else, and game makers are just now joining the ranks of their predecessors in film, writing and any other form of media.

Someday scientists will cure some form of cancer, and everyone who suffers from that cancer will have a greatly improved quality of life. Video game developers simply provide a greater quality of life, in a different form.

Believe what you want, but the world would not be a better place if there was no entertainment.

I never said there wasn't a need for entertainment. What I said is that we don't need more of it. Walk into any shopping center and you'll see plenty of evidence that we have enough entertainment. Movies, video games, television, sports, etc, etc, etc. It has become the defining feature of our culture. Over 50% of Ph.D. applicants in the US are immigrants these days. I can't recall if it was 10 or 20 years from now (but I will find the information if requested), but we're projected to have 250 million high skill jobs and based on current education trends we'll only be able to fill 50 million of them with Americans. Simply put: Not enough of us are going to school for the right things. Fortunately for aspiring video game programmers, many of those skills overlap with what we'll need.

I didn't know that videogame making was an american thing.

I don't think the world needs more video games, but it does need more scientists and engineers. If you are competent enough, I recommend pursuing a career where you can do something productive and meaningful. Many of the people who invest themselves into game design have a lot of traits which are useful for science and engineering, but choose the childish option anyway. This is unfortunate, but I suppose this is a product of western comforts where people dream of becoming celebrities and a culture that values self-gratification over advancement of its civilization

This is extraordinarily true, actually.

To me, every American who chooses a career in video game development is an American who could've been a chemist, mechanical engineer, or computer scientist or whatever.

This isn't. I could imagine (really!) being a professional game designer. I can't imagine contributing anything useful to any of those other fields (and I also don't see how being a "computer scientist" is innately more beneficial to society, because you know what else we have fucking enough of? software. so I think I'd lump "computer designer" in there with artist and game designer as opposed to lumping it in with the engineers, chemists, and doctors) because I am just not competent enough. Not everyone approaches the discipline of "game design" from the same skillset/hemisphere of the brain. If I become a professional game designer, America (maybe) loses a writer, worst case scenario. It definitely isn't losing a cancer researcher or the guy who's going to develop an alternative power source. I've known that since I started really, really struggling to pass math classes in the seventh grade.

I don't think there's anything wrong or childish about wanting a job that involves creating something to make other people happy.

This is also very true...or else it is a rationalization I've clung to tightly my entire adolescence + adult life. To minimize my cognitive dissonance, I'm going to go with the former.