Have you seen the game developer meltdowns over the “Game developers make too much” article? During the Xbone DRM issue, we saw game developers strike a moral argument that gamers were ‘shafting them’ by buying used games and that game developers needed to make more money. I noted how absurd it was for people like Cliffy B, who owns a sports car and apparently doesn’t have to get a job as he can tweet all day for a living, to tell gamers that their legal activities are bad because he thinks he needs more money.
Remember, we are in a depression economic environment. Cliffy B was the equivalent of a guy in a top hat in a Rolls Royce telling the people in soup lines that he needs more money.
The game developer responses are wickedly delicious. For example, one developer says, “Why is he not angry about the designer of that sports car? He made so much money than we’ll ever make.”
Because the sports car designer isn’t trying to ban used sales of that sports car, is he?
From the article:
It has become commonplace to see publishers try to nickel-and-dime gamers through downloadable content that should have been included on the disc, micro-transactions, forcing us to pay extra for online passes just to access multiplayer, and even trying to abolish the entire used game market in the next generation because it is “hurting the industry.”
The knee jerk reactions of game developers going into hysterics over this article tells me they miss the point of the article that is pointing out the change in industry to consumer relationship. Game developers have been telling us how cheap gamers are and how they always need more money. They are inflicting shame and guilt on those who use the used game market where there is nothing legally wrong with it or morally wrong with it.
This article is the second phase of the Xbone backlash. Gamers are going to demand to know how much game developers are making, why they need so much money for a game budget, and are now curious about the inner operations of how ‘the sausage is made’. The DRM move was a hostile attack on gamers. It has poisoned the water.
If you compare game developers today compared to the game developers of the 80s, the ones today are more like spoiled brats in comparison. Consider the Atari developers who were rightly furious of their low pay and no acknowledgement in credits that they stormed out and formed Activision. Consider the early developers who kept wondering if they could make games for a living. When I think of game developers who got the shaft, I think of the two guys who made Star Control 2 who worked on the game six months without pay in order for the game to be done. It’s people like that who need more money.
Normally, no one would care what wages were in the Game Industry if the relationship between gamers and the Industry remained the same. However, the Game Industry is rapidly changing that relationship with microtransactions, DLC, and most recently the Xbone DRM move. The Xbone DRM move seems to have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. All these relationship changes is making every gamer ask, “What is going on in this industry that is causing this crappy behavior?” The article offers a hypothesis: the wages of game developers are too high. It is certainly an interesting idea that is worth exploring especially in a depression economy.
“Game developers put their blood, sweat, and tears into a game.”
I saw one game developer write this, and I laughed. Game developers don’t bleed. They work in safe, secure office environments. When has a game developer EVER bled? It is for that nicely air conditioned office environment that ensures game developers will never sweat.
As for tears, I admit that game developers do own them. I recently learned that Aonuma ‘burts into tears’ all the time. But these tears are emotion based, womanish tears. They aren’t tears that, say, comes from a welding accident, i.e. manly tears.
“Non-entertainment programmers get paid much more! If anything, game developers get paid too little!”
They act like being a game developer is some sort of sacrifice. A non-entertainment programmer is not working on ‘cool stuff’ like slaying dragons but very boring corporate work. This is the price for not being the typical corporate drone. The real comparison should be to other entertainment jobs, not programming jobs. How much do authors make? Nothing. Musicians? Not much. Game developers are actually on the higher end of the entertainment pay scale.
And not all programmers get paid much. Today, most programmers are replaced by indentured servants from India on a visa who will work extremely cheap.
PLC programmers on offshore oil rigs don’t get paid that much. Yet, they are in very hazardous conditions with real sweat, real blood, and mannish tears. They are at a risk of pirates and terrorists. I’ve known some who got killed. Those who work in a nice, safe, air conditioned office don’t realize just how lucky they are.
“Where does he get his numbers?”
He says they were what was published from Game Developer magazine. From what I can discern, the author of the piece doesn’t say anything factually wrong. He cites the salary from Game Developer magazine, cites Cliffy B’s moralizing (which I’ve reacted to myself), and offers nothing but facts.
What is not liked is the context he is putting forth: that game developers might be overpaid.
“How dare he question why our budgets are so high? Public demand is why the budgets are so high.”
Bullshit. If we went by public demand, the Game Industry would be going a Wii type route this generation with keeping budget costs down. Low game budgets didn’t hurt the Wii. Or if you want to believe that smartphones and tablets are taking over gaming, look at the small budgets on those games.
Hell, look at the most popular game on the Xbox 360: Minecraft. The game was made by one person, and its graphics are generations out of date.
There is NO public demand for these insane budgets. Game developers interested in denouncing the article are spewing this which shows who is full of shit.
“Job certainty is non-existent.”
And how is this different from any other job? Seriously.
“You work 80 hours a week!”
That is less than many outdoor and industrial jobs. I’d consider myself lucky to work 80 hours a week. It is not uncommon for me to know people who work 150 hours a week.
This is like the kid complaining that washing clothes is “hard” while the kid next door is doing chores of sun blistering roof repair without complaint. Game developers don’t think themselves spoiled because they only look at the context of computer jobs instead of the entire universe of jobs.
“It’s back breaking work.”
No, it’s not. You sit in a chair all day.
This article shows just how out of touch game developers are with people with real jobs. In the arcade era, games were made for the working class. Today, there is no interaction between game developers and the working class. And I believe this is also causing the games to suffer.
Did you know the composer of the music to Wing Commander was a bartender and a cop? Back then, the working class and game developers were often the same people. Today, too many game developers are Silicon Valley trash. They look down on working class people.
“The wage is only because costs are so high in the Bay area.”
There is no fucking reason for game development to be in that area. You can do game development ANYWHERE. Due to Poland’s low prices, they can make Witcher 2 have an 8 million dollar budget. Hollywood regularly films movies out of the country for cheaper prices. The precious ‘Bay area’ is one of the most expensive areas to live in the United States.
One of the most popular places for game development is in Austin, Texas near where I live. The prices there are very inexpensive. They could make games there. Hell, you could make games in a wheat field in Nebraska. If anything, it shows that game development should be performed out of the ‘expensive areas’ so costs can come down. The company of id which made games like Quake was made completely nowhere.
The real reason is that these game developers are artsy farts who have their heads so far up their asses that they consider any other place to be an ‘entertainment wasteland’. What this means is that they won’t be surrounded by other artsy fartsy people. This means they won’t have ‘super cool’ restaurants.
Consider Austin and outside-the-city-limits of Austin. Austin is full of crazy restaurants and ‘artists’. But Austin is surrounded by farmland. Farmers abound and farmers don’t like ‘artsy restaurants’. They like barbecue.
There is all this open land. With a small group of people, you don’t need to live in a city to do ‘game development’. The only reason why it isn’t being done is because the smug game developers consider themselves ARTISTS and ARTISTS need to live in the ‘cool’ areas.
Everyone forgets that game development came before the rise of PCs and the Internet. People in the Game Industry have the false entitlement expectation that their industry should mirror the general computer industry of Silicon Valley (of companies like Apple, Microsoft, and Google) or should mirror Hollywood. Originally, the Game Industry mirrors the carnival.
The upcoming Game Industry ‘crumbling’ will likely pull wages back in line to their true value.
“Game developers are fucked with…”
Have they SEEN the massive decrease of the labor force since 2008? These guys are still living in a pre-Depression mindset. Long past are the days where a game developer will gain sympathy for long hours or getting canned at the last moment. Not only is that widespread in all professions today, at least there still is a game industry. There are so many industries and career paths that were completely destroyed.
There will be no sympathy for the game developer’s pain this time around. Everyone is in pain. What people see, on the outside, is that game developers have an office environment where many people will be unable to have that due to the times.
Generation 8 will be a ‘correction’ not just to the Game Industry but to the spoiled attitudes within the Game Industry. At the end of this generation, I think a game developer will consider himself lucky he has a job even if it is an 80 hour work week job.
The people in the Game Industry are not associating themselves with the rest of general society. They seem blind to the economic destruction going around. Since most game projects take years to complete, there is going to be a lag before the economic pain catches up to the game developer jobs. They’re going to be in for a rude shock.
Take a look at the labor participation rate in the United States.
And to those who think this is due to Baby Boomers retiring, it isn’t.
Young people can’t get jobs in part because old people are returning to the workforce. And the reason why old people are returning to the workforce is because they cannot retire.
Everything is falling apart.
I think the question of whether or not game developers are overpaid is a passe question. The real question is whether or not developed nations can continue to support a luxury industry like the Game Industry in its current form. Remember that traditional video games are still very niche in society unlike other entertainment forms. If an entertainment form is to go, video games will be the first on the economic guillotine.