... it's stories like these that I've heard over the past couple of years, when I was nearing graduation and thinking of what industry to go into, that made me abandon my lifelong dream of developing games. If you search the net, there's many more horror stories, not only about long hours. From what I understand, basically it's just not FUN 99% of the time.
I'm glad I've decided not to pursue my dream. I now work as a programmer in a financial industry, I love what I do, and I couldn't be happier.
Some games need a story, some don't. Doom III is definitely in the latter category - who needs the story when you can gleefully waste time killing thousands of demons with the chainsaw?
When I want to play a game with a great story, I turn to Planescape: Torment, or The Dig, or Day of the Tentacle, etc...
By the way, last year I attended a meeting with Carmack at Stony Brook University, and he said pretty much the above: Doom doesn't need no stinking story. He also said PC games are usually much more story-based than consoles, which (usually) are all about action, and he's still surprised that he's doing PC, and not console, game development.
But you do bring up one very interesting point. Can Doom 3 (or Halflife 2, for that matter) engine serve as a base for some story-based game? Morrowind on Doom 3 engine, anybody?
What I'm wondering is... does Alexei Pajitnov (the inventor of Tetris, for both of you who didn't know that) still work for Microsoft games division? It's kind of sad how he didn't make anything of notice since then...
I'm really looking forward to Weta doing more amazing special effects work in future projects.. without them, LOTR movies would be, of course, still good, but probably wouldn't have the amazing success among the mainstream, non-geek audience.
Actually, I'm drooling right now thinking what could they do with "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" - depending on how much their stuff would be used in the movie.
My friend told me this story: he put a password on his computer at home and periodically changed it. He had only two passwords, really: "guessit" and "secret". His kids asked him all the time, what is his password, to which he truthfully replied, "It's secret" or "Guess it!". Needless to say, they never did.
Sorry if my post gave the impression that it was a whining plea for popularity. I came to pretty much the same conclusions as you did, and was able to get the respect of my peers.. unfortunately, the problem here is that respect was gained for all the wrong reasons.
If you gain respect for playing sports, having the I-don't-give-a-fuck-what-you-think attitude, and being a good drinker, it's not the same as gaining respect and social status for your academic achievements.
Now, nothing changed. I get respect and social status for earning a lot of money for someone my age, and NOT because I was able to get there by being smart, working hard and becoming good at what I do. IMO, that's a big problem.
When I came here at the age of 16, one of the biggest cultural shocks for me was that among people my own age, intellect and doing good at school was not encouraged.. even mocked.
Those who are born here in the US probably don't even think about it, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks that it's incredibly stupid that when someone does well on a test, his reward is getting called a geek by the basketball players, who are on top of the social ladder.
And this stuff doesn't stop at college, when retards who can throw a football get automatic A's in their classes, and get a diploma and a million dollar contract handed to them (maybe I'm exaggerating there, but you get the point).
And with that kind of social values, what the fuck else can you expect from American education system? The opportunity to learn is there - our university system is one of, if not THE best in the world - but...
I can't speak for any other country, but in Russia kids wanted to become scientists and astronauts [up until the 90's, but that's another story]. Here unfortunately, kids just don't want to become scientists, or engineers, or anyone of that sort. They want to become Brett Favre, 50 Cent, and Donald Trump (not that there's anything wrong with wanting to become a billionaire).
So my point is, until we will WANT to excel at science, we won't - it's as simple as that.
Maybe that was Google's way of saying "Don't do it, because we don't like it... Yeah, we know technically, you can do whatever the fuck you want with it... but guess what: we can also do whatever the fuck we want with Beta accounts and can just WIPE THEM OUT. Yeah, that's right. Don't forget who's in charge here, bitches."
... yet more proof that making games for the PC just does not bring as much profit anymore... Of course, Interplay made some bad choices along the way, but they also created some of the best games in history, so I'm very sad to see them go.
Maybe a solution is to release games on X-Box or other console, and then on the PC? BioWare has done this with KOTOR, and they just might be onto something here...
Isn't Civ an RTS? Master of Orion? Warcraft I, even Starcraft as somekind of strategy. They're not just click. Sure in starcraft, its a simple game where you find oppenent and destroy him. But if you are above average gamer, and your adversary is about your skill, it can be pretty challenging, and it involves more than just some clicks.
No, Civ is turn-based and so is Master of Orion (1&2, haven't played the 3rd one).
You're right that RTS games involve more than just some clicks, my point was that big measure of 'skill' is based on how fast can you click, and if you don't have the reflexes of a 16 year old, you're not going to win, and a lot of the time, intelligence isn't applied at all, as the games degenerate into click-fests.
Surely you must be joking. Click-click-clickety-click, must-build-up-as-fast-as-possible gameplay is not my idea of an intelligent game. If you want an intelligent strategy game, how about Heroes of Might and Magic or Civilization?
I doubt many employers want a mediocre jack-of-all-trades kind of guy. You're better off selecting one or two specific areas and focusing on getting experience within it.
That's a gamble that could pay off big time or lead to huge problems. If your specialty is C++, good for you! But if it's Cobol, no matter how well you know it, you probably wish you'd be a 'generalist'...
I ask the usual character questions -- do you like Star Trek? Could Superman beat up Darth Vader? Do you think it's ok to put mustard on a Roast Beef sandwich? And so on. (kidding of course).
You may be kidding, but I got asked what's my favorite website on the interview.
This may seem to good to be true, but I swear this really happened:
I answered Slashdot. And I got the job:) [not ONLY because of answering Slashdot, you insensitive clods]
Slashdot Mirror
Studying, or working in a lab for your degree is NOT the same as working a real job, no matter how much it may seem like it to you at the moment.
... it's stories like these that I've heard over the past couple of years, when I was nearing graduation and thinking of what industry to go into, that made me abandon my lifelong dream of developing games. If you search the net, there's many more horror stories, not only about long hours. From what I understand, basically it's just not FUN 99% of the time.
I'm glad I've decided not to pursue my dream. I now work as a programmer in a financial industry, I love what I do, and I couldn't be happier.
Why do you doubt it? Half-life 2 sure can do it, and I don't think iD would want to stay too far behind ..
Some games need a story, some don't. Doom III is definitely in the latter category - who needs the story when you can gleefully waste time killing thousands of demons with the chainsaw?
When I want to play a game with a great story, I turn to Planescape: Torment, or The Dig, or Day of the Tentacle, etc...
By the way, last year I attended a meeting with Carmack at Stony Brook University, and he said pretty much the above: Doom doesn't need no stinking story. He also said PC games are usually much more story-based than consoles, which (usually) are all about action, and he's still surprised that he's doing PC, and not console, game development.
But you do bring up one very interesting point. Can Doom 3 (or Halflife 2, for that matter) engine serve as a base for some story-based game? Morrowind on Doom 3 engine, anybody?
What I'm wondering is... does Alexei Pajitnov (the inventor of Tetris, for both of you who didn't know that) still work for Microsoft games division? It's kind of sad how he didn't make anything of notice since then ...
I'm really looking forward to Weta doing more amazing special effects work in future projects.. without them, LOTR movies would be, of course, still good, but probably wouldn't have the amazing success among the mainstream, non-geek audience.
Actually, I'm drooling right now thinking what could they do with "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" - depending on how much their stuff would be used in the movie.
My friend told me this story: he put a password on his computer at home and periodically changed it. He had only two passwords, really: "guessit" and "secret". His kids asked him all the time, what is his password, to which he truthfully replied, "It's secret" or "Guess it!". Needless to say, they never did.
Sorry if my post gave the impression that it was a whining plea for popularity. I came to pretty much the same conclusions as you did, and was able to get the respect of my peers.. unfortunately, the problem here is that respect was gained for all the wrong reasons.
If you gain respect for playing sports, having the I-don't-give-a-fuck-what-you-think attitude, and being a good drinker, it's not the same as gaining respect and social status for your academic achievements.
Now, nothing changed. I get respect and social status for earning a lot of money for someone my age, and NOT because I was able to get there by being smart, working hard and becoming good at what I do. IMO, that's a big problem.
When I came here at the age of 16, one of the biggest cultural shocks for me was that among people my own age, intellect and doing good at school was not encouraged.. even mocked.
...
Those who are born here in the US probably don't even think about it, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks that it's incredibly stupid that when someone does well on a test, his reward is getting called a geek by the basketball players, who are on top of the social ladder.
And this stuff doesn't stop at college, when retards who can throw a football get automatic A's in their classes, and get a diploma and a million dollar contract handed to them (maybe I'm exaggerating there, but you get the point).
And with that kind of social values, what the fuck else can you expect from American education system? The opportunity to learn is there - our university system is one of, if not THE best in the world - but
I can't speak for any other country, but in Russia kids wanted to become scientists and astronauts [up until the 90's, but that's another story]. Here unfortunately, kids just don't want to become scientists, or engineers, or anyone of that sort. They want to become Brett Favre, 50 Cent, and Donald Trump (not that there's anything wrong with wanting to become a billionaire).
So my point is, until we will WANT to excel at science, we won't - it's as simple as that.
Maybe that was Google's way of saying "Don't do it, because we don't like it... Yeah, we know technically, you can do whatever the fuck you want with it... but guess what: we can also do whatever the fuck we want with Beta accounts and can just WIPE THEM OUT. Yeah, that's right. Don't forget who's in charge here, bitches."
Apparently the last buyer didn't pay, so the auction is still going now.
You see, we don't waste every waking moment of our lives thinking about getting laid.
We don't? Speak for yourself, man, not for every other geek!
... yet more proof that making games for the PC just does not bring as much profit anymore... Of course, Interplay made some bad choices along the way, but they also created some of the best games in history, so I'm very sad to see them go.
...
Maybe a solution is to release games on X-Box or other console, and then on the PC? BioWare has done this with KOTOR, and they just might be onto something here
Isn't Civ an RTS? Master of Orion? Warcraft I, even Starcraft as somekind of strategy. They're not just click. Sure in starcraft, its a simple game where you find oppenent and destroy him. But if you are above average gamer, and your adversary is about your skill, it can be pretty challenging, and it involves more than just some clicks.
No, Civ is turn-based and so is Master of Orion (1&2, haven't played the 3rd one).
You're right that RTS games involve more than just some clicks, my point was that big measure of 'skill' is based on how fast can you click, and if you don't have the reflexes of a 16 year old, you're not going to win, and a lot of the time, intelligence isn't applied at all, as the games degenerate into click-fests.
Surely you must be joking. Click-click-clickety-click, must-build-up-as-fast-as-possible gameplay is not my idea of an intelligent game. If you want an intelligent strategy game, how about Heroes of Might and Magic or Civilization?
I doubt many employers want a mediocre jack-of-all-trades kind of guy. You're better off selecting one or two specific areas and focusing on getting experience within it.
...
That's a gamble that could pay off big time or lead to huge problems. If your specialty is C++, good for you! But if it's Cobol, no matter how well you know it, you probably wish you'd be a 'generalist'
I ask the usual character questions -- do you like Star Trek? Could Superman beat up Darth Vader? Do you think it's ok to put mustard on a Roast Beef sandwich? And so on. (kidding of course).
:)
You may be kidding, but I got asked what's my favorite website on the interview.
This may seem to good to be true, but I swear this really happened:
I answered Slashdot. And I got the job
[not ONLY because of answering Slashdot, you insensitive clods]