[Counter Attack] So You Wanna Work in the Games Industry

For those of us who don't know, there was a video that was uploaded on November 8th, 2010 by the Youtube User "WilliamGibbon." For starry-eyed students, it is a spear through the heart. In the comments of the video, students and aspiring game designers alike have expressed hatred toward the video for its extremely pessimistic/realist view of the game industry. For professional employees working at a large company, its a shining reminder of why they may or may not hate their job. To summarize what the video is saying: "If you're into art, creativity and expressing yourself through making interactive experiences, then don't join the games industry because it is a business that caters to what gamers want and only what gamers want in order to make money and survive." Now that we have a bit of background information on what this video is, Lets attack it!

1st Counter:

Cardboard Robot: "I heard you get free soda and snacks..."

Yellow Robot: "That's because that's what you eat for dinner! Employers don't want you to go home."

If you're like me and you follow legendary designer Hideo Kojima (@Kojima_Hideo) and legendary composer Hirokazu Tanaka ( @tanac2e ). You'll notice that most of their life consists of some pretty tasty food. I wouldn't mind sinking my teeth into some of the things they've showed over twitter. But, considering they're very well known, we'll exclude them from the pool of who we're talking about-the student. What you eat is entirely dependent on what you choose to eat. I don't just follow legendary designers, I also follow indie designers as well as "average joe" employees in the game industry. I also have a friend who play tests games. Not once have I seen a twitter or Facebook post from any of them complaining about what they do.

Free sodas and snacks are a good thing, it can somewhat boost company morale to know that the higher ups actually care about those who are doing the grunt work. Making said sodas and snacks your diet on the other hand, is completely dependent on what you choose to eat. If you're hungry for tacos, make tacos. If you can't afford taco ingredients, go to Taco Bell.

Further more, On the the second part of the Yellow Robot's response, Employers are the same as employees. They're all there to do two core things- make and sell video games. Its a team based industry, that has you working with employees above and below you. If you're in a dysfunctional state with your team constantly, you may have to stay later that usual to get things done because of wasted time.

In short: Be a team player and don't make sodas and chips your diet. If you don't like your job: 

LEAVE!

2nd Counter:

Yellow Robot: "..Do you know how to do modeling and animation?"

Cardboard Robot: "No..."

Yellow Robot: "Do you know how to program a computer?"

Cardboard Robot: "No..."

What part of student don't people like the yellow robot understand? Students can only do one thing at that point in time: learn. Instead of belittling students and aspiring game designers by looking for what they lack in knowledge, how about trying to enhance the their knowledge by telling them where they can learn? For instance, Even though I know Java, Python, Visual Basic, Ruby, RGSS, and C#, It doesn't mean that occasionally I'll forget things or forget entire languages and have to relearn them again. In any event, why not point students toward a place where they can attain the knowledge needed to program computers, like codingbat.com. Codingbat (formerly Javabat) is a site that offers story like problems that you answer using code. 

For example:

"We have a parrot, the parrot is a loud talker, We're in trouble if the parrot is talking before hour 7 and after hour 20 [before 7am or after 10pm]. Return true if we are in trouble."

Then you'd be presented with the problem in code form:

public boolean parrotTrouble (boolean talking, int hour) {

}

The point I'm getting at is, if a student demonstrates lack of knowledge in an area, why not help them by pointing them to a school or a site, or something you know of that can help them.

3rd Counter:

Yellow Robot: "Tell me a little about your game idea..."

Cardboard Robot: "Its set in the year 2324. Humans have discovered an ancient artifact on the planet Xylon. When scientists activate the artifact, it releases a field that turns everyone in the colony into a monster. Only a genetically enhanced--"

Yellow Robot: "Alright stop! First of all, that's not an idea, that's just a story. Second of all, that's the most the most unoriginal story I've ever heard..."

A while ago I had a friend called me with a "game design" idea of his. Like me he was pretty hooked on becoming a game designer. Our entire friendship was built solely on our determination to succeed in our chosen career path.  His Idea was generally similar to Metroid. His love for science fiction stories is what inspired the somewhat unique idea. I told him not to consider game design, but to consider game writing. I didn't just leave it at that, I told him about how game writers are key to a games story, that they are in fact the sole proprietors of what a game's story is, how if flows, and so on. He expressed an immediate interest in the field of the games industry saying that it matched what he wanted to do exactly. I then proceeded to give him every resource in my memory that had to do with game writing. I told him that most game writers don't have some specialized degree, and that most of them enter with a Bachelors degree with a literature major from a state university. He now has some contacts in the industry, hes planning on going to a state university for a creative writing major and he is still excited about joining the games industry.

Now, There is a large difference between what I did, and what the yellow robot did. For one thing, I didn't insult his story. Sure it seemed cliche, but who knows, People will buy what is familiar to them, to this effect that's why people will buy Modern Warfare 3, and Battlefield 3 even though the two game's similarities are extremely close.  

Sheathing the Blade: 

Its almost the end of 2011. Sure this video is one year old, and slightly relevant to what the game industry can be like for most employees, but its just idiotic to lump every student in the industry in the exact same category as the cardboard box robot. There are students who are actually trying to achieve their goals. The problem is that we can't tell which is which.  To an effect, I've had this happen to myself. For people asking other professionals, this video may come up once or twice(or if you're me 11+ times). It is really unprofessional to just link someone to a video of a stock robot explain why they shouldn't achieve their dream when they ask you questions about what its like in the game industry.


The best way to interpret this video is to simply ignore it. It is one thing to explain that the games industry, though a good creative outlet, is in fact a business that needs to make money to survive. It is another thing to explain the aforementioned through a pessimistic, lazily animated video using stock animations.

The video for some is a pretty depressing reminder of why they may want to quit their jobs. My final word on the subject is this:

Games Industry = Games Industry

The games industry is the games industry. Its just like every other media based industry out there, It requires work to get things done, creativity to keep the content fresh and good social skills in order to complete team oriented assignments and projects. It's unprofessional to lump students and aspiring game developers who really want to work in the game industry and are willing to do what ever it takes, into the same group as the students who really don't know what their talking about or are in way over their head.

Therefore this video is irrelevant to those who really want to get into the games industry.