[potatolicious]

I grew up in Vancouver, Canada - home of EA's largest office, and knew many people who worked for them.

They deliver code because the number of glory-seekers is basically infinite. They can afford to burn people out and abuse them to no end because there are a hojillion more lined up outside the door, just begging for someone to get burned out and leave so they can get in. I also knew some testers, and heard about the horrific hours that they voluntarily put themselves through on the vague promises by management that exemplary performance in testing could be a path to development. This rarely actually happened, but it happened enough that the testers would basically pummel themselves with work for that off chance.

At this point I'm unconvinced that the majority of CS grads will realize what a shithole the games industry is in terms of sane employment. It seems to take some first-hand experience (I've also known people who interned with EA and then ran away screaming) for people to realize that making games is a completely different beast than playing them.

[gamble]

The games industry is exactly like the TV or movie industry. Entry level jobs really, really suck. But if you can stick around long enough to become established (read: ship a successful title) then you can write your own check. Experienced game developers never lack for good offers. Heck, most of the people I've seen fired for incompetence were able to find new jobs within a few weeks if they'd shipped before.

[_delirium]

There's still a lot of burnout, though, because it's very hard to get into a position with significant creative control, even once you get established. You can get a job, but not the job the aspiring designers want. Among well-regarded developers I can think of off the top of my head, Borut Pfeiffer, Chris Hecker, Damian Isla, and Chaim Gingold have all left the AAA-title part of the industry in the past year or two, either to try their hand at indie development, or start a consulting firm.

[mattm]

Yeah, I remember talking to a friend who wanted to get into game development. I told him that the gaming industry has a bad reputation for making people work long hours for relatively low pay and a lot of stress.

His reply - "I don't care. I'll do whatever it takes."

I'm not into gaming so I don't really understand the drive. It seems to be very similar to the entertainment industry, except that employed game developers will never achieve the fame or riches of a well known actor or producer.

I'm all for being passionate about what you do as long as you know your value and don't let other people take advantage of it.

[_delirium]

> It seems to be very similar to the entertainment industry, except that employed game developers will never achieve the fame or riches of a well known actor or producer.

Not quite as famous and rich, but I think the top-level game designers are famous and rich enough, especially famous among the audience the would-be developers themselves are part of, to provide the motivation. Many people really want to be the next Will Wright, Peter Molyneux, John Carmack, Sid Meier, etc., even if that isn't quite the same level of fame as being the next Arnold Schwarzenegger. The bigger problem is that the odds of becoming the next any of those are really low (and nobody new has managed to claw up into that list in >10 years).