Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by koirapoika 1936 days ago
I have a similar experience. Technical challenges are one thing and they can be interesting, but ethics is more important to me.

It was painful to observe that people from countries with difficult economies can spend so much money to hunt for pixels. This is their choice, of course, but at the same time it's a proactive work to keep them hooked.

After I realized what I was getting myself into, I completed the existing tasks and left the company. It's not for me.

Edit: formatting
1 comments
paganel 1936 days ago
I have a close friend that worked for such a company targeting the people you mention, they paid him really, really well (more than the big request he had made when they had made the offer, he had hoped they'd say no) but said company also left my friend really, really burned out after just one year (he's no longer with them).

I left myself wondering what would I have done in his place. It's really hard to reject a huge financial offer, even though you're well aware of the societal damage your work is doing. Sincere kudos to you for acknowledging it and getting out of the industry.

link
DaveSapien 1936 days ago
I'm a games designer/developer and I work freelance for other studios. I say NO way more often than I say yes, precisely because of that particular problem. Money is nice and all that, but I've seen first hand the damage that these predatory practices can do to people. AND the attitudes of the people working at these game studios ands its frankly disgusting.
link
PicassoCTs 1936 days ago
Games industry could learn alot from Weapons design and manufacture, and the Nazis. Moral reprehensible tasks can be split up into lots and lots of smaller tasks, until the responsibility is diluted enough. This is very amateurish process design- its not that hard to make a murderous golema who nobody feels responsible for.
link
ZephyrBlu 1936 days ago
Given the absurd salaries that exist in the software industry, what does "really, really well" mean here?

Like FAANG level money [0], more?

[0] https://www.levels.fyi/

link
paganel 1936 days ago
> Given the absurd salaries that exist in the software industry, what does "really, really well" mean here?

I'm from Eastern Europe, so it was "really, really well" compared to local IT salaries (which are not low, mind you, at least compared to European standards). Said friend ended up working for a local FAANG entity after that experience, for lower salary.

link