Video Games Are Destroying the People Who Make Them

Megalith

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While many jobs are demanding, the conditions in the gaming industry are uniquely unforgiving. Most developers in the United States do not receive extra compensation for extra hours. Their income pales in comparison to what’s offered in other fields with reputations for brutal hours, like banking and law. The average American game developer earned $83,060 in 2013, according to a Gamasutra survey, or less than half the pay of a first-year associate at a New York law firm.

Crunch makes the industry roll — but it’s taking a serious toll on its workers. In late 2011, as he was finishing up production on the role-playing game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, programmer Jean Simonet started feeling severe stomach pains. At first, doctors were perplexed. But on his third emergency room visit, he revealed that he’d been regularly staying at the office late and coming in on weekends to fix bugs and add features that he thought would take Skyrim from good to great, no matter how much sleep he lost along the way.
 
Not surprised, I remember reading a blog story from someone that worked for EA Games if I recall.... Sounded like pure torture.
 
Many jobs in the U.S. do not receive extra compensation for extra hours. Look at Doctors and Nurses.

Also I think its unfair to say they should earn equivalent to a Lawyer. I usually dont give lawyers their due (who likes a lawyer?) but lets be honest they go through A LOT more schooling than a video game programmer...
 
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Many jobs in the U.S. do not receive extra compensation for extra hours. Look at Doctors and Nurses.

Also I think its unfair to say they should earn equivalent to a Lawyer. I usually dont give lawyers their due (who likes a lawyer?) but lets be honest they go through A LOT more schooling than a video game programmer...

Schooling never stops as a programmer.
 
Their income pales in comparison to what’s offered in other fields with reputations for brutal hours, like banking and law. The average American game developer earned $83,060 in 2013, according to a Gamasutra survey, or less than half the pay of a first-year associate at a New York law firm.
uhhhh... interesting comparison.
 
But you don't need a law degree to make a video game...

My thought exactly! Very few self-taught lawyers working out there but many, many self-taught programmers. I know, I am one. :) Why would the author compare lawyers and programmers? You may as well compare programmers and baristas.
 
A generation of gamers grew up wanting to make games. Small number of jobs, HUGE number of candidates. It's no surprise the pay and conditions suck.
Yep, that's why I got out of that business a long time ago. Was fun when I was young and didn't have a family. Working regular 12 - 14 hour days and pulling all-nighters was doable then. But I make a lot more money now, working a lot fewer hours. Still, there are times I miss it...
 
A generation of gamers grew up wanting to make games. Small number of jobs, HUGE number of candidates. It's no surprise the pay and conditions suck.
83k is shit pay? There construction workers that are lucky to make 40k working long hours while doing physically demanding manual labor during blazing hot summer or dead of cold winter's. Not saying programmers have it easy but they normally in climate controlled buildings. Some even get to work from home.
 
83k is shit pay? There construction workers that are lucky to make 40k working long hours while doing physically demanding manual labor during blazing hot summer or dead of cold winter's. Not saying programmers have it easy but they normally in climate controlled buildings. Some even get to work from home.

$83k/yr isn't shit by normal standards. It is shit if you're working >80 hour weeks though, especially in what's considered a white-collar, specialized and educated field.

Most construction workers at least get overtime for those extra hours.
 
83k is shit pay? There construction workers that are lucky to make 40k working long hours while doing physically demanding manual labor during blazing hot summer or dead of cold winter's. Not saying programmers have it easy but they normally in climate controlled buildings. Some even get to work from home.

Whether it's fair or not, for programmers 83k is out-of-college pay for non-coastal areas (east/west coast). In those ares expect 100k starting pay (due to cost of living).

After a few years, pay can increase rapidly. $115k for eight years of experience + bonus for example.

Software engineer is a manufacturing position and the pay's where it should be for other manufacturing fields.

I'd never consider game development unless it was a smaller studio or i did it myself - making mods in my free time is more up my alley. I avoid positions that expect overtime; don't get me wrong though, overtime periods in software development are inevitable especially during a release... well unless your team is truly agile which i'm still looking for :p
 
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$83k/yr isn't shit by normal standards. It is shit if you're working >80 hour weeks though, especially in what's considered a white-collar, specialized and educated field.

Most construction workers at least get overtime for those extra hours.
Even at 80 hours a week, that still puts your salary ahead of the median individual income of most Americans, which is closer to 30k. I can believe the hours required make it hell, but it's still above average pay. I'm kind of surprised it's as high as it is. Maybe because they're using average pay and not median. Notch making billions factors into the former more than the latter.
 
Even at 80 hours a week, that still puts your salary ahead of the median individual income of most Americans, which is closer to 30k. I can believe the hours required make it hell, but it's still above average pay. I'm kind of surprised it's as high as it is. Maybe because they're using average pay and not median. Notch making billions factors into the former more than the latter.

The post from travisty above this clears it up perfectly.

It's not that $83k is crap, it's that people with similar education in similar software-development fields work far less hours and make far more money in the same geographic areas. Basically you give up a LOT of pay and free time to write code for Bethesda.
 
*BREAKING NEWS!!!!!* Working extremely long hours, sitting at a desk with little sleep is bad for your health.... Wow who would've thought. Glad they spent the money on the study to let us know this completely new, unheard of information.




83k is shit pay? There construction workers that are lucky to make 40k working long hours while doing physically demanding manual labor during blazing hot summer or dead of cold winter's. Not saying programmers have it easy but they normally in climate controlled buildings. Some even get to work from home.

Location location location... 83k is shit pay in most of the tech areas where most of the development companies are located. That would barely cover the cost of rent in the bay area. Early 30's and I'm making 50% more than that in the LA area.
 
83k is shit pay? There construction workers that are lucky to make 40k working long hours while doing physically demanding manual labor during blazing hot summer or dead of cold winter's. Not saying programmers have it easy but they normally in climate controlled buildings. Some even get to work from home.


In Kansas where I live, $83k is upper class.

Now I realize most of these people live where theit costs a lot more to live...
 
*BREAKING NEWS!!!!!* Working extremely long hours, sitting at a desk with little sleep is bad for your health.... Wow who would've thought. Glad they spent the money on the study to let us know this completely new, unheard of information.

Location location location... 83k is shit pay in most of the tech areas where most of the development companies are located. That would barely cover the cost of rent in the bay area. Early 30's and I'm making 50% more than that in the LA area.

It also has to do with supply and demand. The labor supply is willing to work for that amount in that area despite that its hard to pay rent there. If the companies couldnt fill the position they would either abandon their work (and probably close), relocate to another area, or pay better.

IMO any company not willing to pay you more when they are located in a more expensive area is one not worth working for. If I get paid 100k/yr to work in Kansas for a job and it costs 50% more to live in LA I expect a similar job in LA to pay me 150k or they wont get my skills. But because supply is appearing to exceed demand in these areas companies get away with paying less than the market rate.
 
That clickbait title though... it's not the actual video games, it's poor business practices/ethics.
And the same could be said about almost any profit oriented industry where time is money. The film industry is the same, the actors get millions, but the actual artists who make the movie happen are used to death, if possible they have worse crunch periods than the gaming industry.
 
And the same could be said about almost any profit oriented industry where time is money. The film industry is the same, the actors get millions, but the actual artists who make the movie happen are used to death, if possible they have worse crunch periods than the gaming industry.

I was going to say "and doctors, except their not profit oriented" but then I realised...they are profit oriented...
 
Gawd if I had a job that paid 83,000 a year...even if the hours were shit (my working conditions are already horrendous thanks to a slave driver of a boss/ceo where you can never do anything right even when doing it right), for $83,000 I'd grab the lube and sell my soul. I only make roughly less than half that, and have to work in very hot, dirty, dusty, humid, poorly ventilated, and physically demanding job all while dodging random forklifts and trucks.
 
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Because of modern labor laws, most Industries no longer need unions, which have more or less become a political arm of the Democratic Party.

Having said that, aside from Sports unions for major Athletics, I can think of no other industry which badly needs Union representation as it was envisioned as the video game industry.

If unions were smart they would vacate the dwindling numbers of construction and their usual pool of potential union members, and go straight to Silicon Valley and try to unionize game developers and those who work for major Tech firms.

Sadly, you will never see this because the same liberals who champion unions are also the same ones who want H1B Visas so they can get cheap labor from overseas. In other words, ignore an industry that badly needs unions because it works at cross-purposes with the mega donors who support the party that claims to support those unions.
 
Because of modern labor laws, most Industries no longer need unions, which have more or less become a political arm of the Democratic Party.

Having said that, aside from Sports unions for major Athletics, I can think of no other industry which badly needs Union representation as it was envisioned as the video game industry.

If unions were smart they would vacate the dwindling numbers of construction and their usual pool of potential union members, and go straight to Silicon Valley and try to unionize game developers and those who work for major Tech firms.

Sadly, you will never see this because the same liberals who champion unions are also the same ones who want H1B Visas so they can get cheap labor from overseas. In other words, ignore an industry that badly needs unions because it works at cross-purposes with the mega donors who support the party that claims to support those unions.


Sports unions for major athletics? Dont we pay those entitled pricks enough already?
 
Many jobs in the U.S. do not receive extra compensation for extra hours. Look at Doctors and Nurses.

Also I think its unfair to say they should earn equivalent to a Lawyer. I usually dont give lawyers their due (who likes a lawyer?) but lets be honest they go through A LOT more schooling than a video game programmer...


I love how they picked a First year associate that managed to work at a law firm in NEW YORK CITY of all places. COME ON OF COURSE they will make 83k there.. you CAN'T get an aparment and live on 83k in NYC without 3 roommates.

How about living and working in the areas outside of the city itself.. or even somewhere like say Oklahoma. How much does an associate at a law firm make there? Becasue development houses are scattered all over, you can't just cherry pick sensational numbers and have an article that makes any damn sense.
 
Many jobs in the U.S. do not receive extra compensation for extra hours. Look at Doctors and Nurses.

Also I think its unfair to say they should earn equivalent to a Lawyer. I usually dont give lawyers their due (who likes a lawyer?) but lets be honest they go through A LOT more schooling than a video game programmer...


I'm a nurse and I make overtime??

What nurses don't?
 
My thought exactly! Very few self-taught lawyers working out there but many, many self-taught programmers. I know, I am one. :) Why would the author compare lawyers and programmers? You may as well compare programmers and baristas.

Yeah it would make a lot more sense to compare them to you know....other programmers. Or at least something tech related. I'm not saying game programming is a great job (from most accounts it's NOT) but you aren't going to find very many jobs that compare favorably to being a lawyer in New York, at least in terms of pay.
 
Entry level NY lawyer v Programmers from across a wide swath of land.

Fuck outta here with that.
 
Tell these whiners not to ever consider become a soldier in the US Army.

Brutal hours, poor pay, uniquely unforgiving .......... my ass.
 
How many articles have we seen covering this topic? I don't think it is limited to just "game developers", but covers anyone who works in IT. Especially if you are in a company where IT is considered an expense that has to be reduced and you have the nasty word "outsourcing" hanging over your head. Thus, you are doing the work of three people and working the combined hours of two.
 
Many jobs in the U.S. do not receive extra compensation for extra hours. Look at Doctors and Nurses.

Also I think its unfair to say they should earn equivalent to a Lawyer. I usually dont give lawyers their due (who likes a lawyer?) but lets be honest they go through A LOT more schooling than a video game programmer...
My friends wife was a nurse back in the day and she worked a lot of overtime and got paid for it. She was getting about 2.5 times her normal weekly pay each week.
 
While many jobs are demanding, the conditions in the gaming industry are uniquely unforgiving.

I could think of a few that would be even more unforgiving. Like making 40 grand a year marching around in a desert with people shooting at you or wanting to cut your head off.
 
I hate to say it but you MUST make demands to your employer during contract/salary negotiations for required downtime etc. If you don't ask, they for sure won't offer those things. And especially you artists out there. STOP WORKING FOR PEANUTS. It's perfectly ok to tell a potential employer that their offer is low. It's a negotiation, so negotiate. This is the only way to tell these employers that the situation is untenable.
 
It's wage theft, plain and simple - Many companies honestly believe it to be a legitimate tactic to reduce overheads.

Load the worker up with more work than any average human being can possibly handle, worker literally has to work in their own time to get the job done, company getting twice the productivity out of the worker while paying an average wage.

It's a big problem in current western civilizations and it has to stop. However, with the global right wing movement as late due to propaganda (media) empires, that's unlikely.
 
I hate to say it but you MUST make demands to your employer during contract/salary negotiations for required downtime etc. If you don't ask, they for sure won't offer those things. And especially you artists out there. STOP WORKING FOR PEANUTS. It's perfectly ok to tell a potential employer that their offer is low. It's a negotiation, so negotiate. This is the only way to tell these employers that the situation is untenable.
That's old fashioned advice, still works in a few places I suppose. Nowadays, that's called "We'll just hire someone else who takes what we give them."
 
Another part of the problem is: most people have shit ability estimating how long it'll take to complete a task, often taking 2-4x the amount of time, and many are "yes" men happy to give their boss the warm and fuzzies for some short term gratification, so all that builds up and creates tons of impossible deadlines, then they eventually get fired or whatever... how can you blame a project manager to build realistic timelines under this condition? Sure they can just assume tasks will take twice as long as predicted, but then they get fired for someone who gives their boss warmer/fuzzier numbers...
 
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