As someone who does a great deal of writing for games, I will tell you that the best path for a writer is through design. The vast majority of the of the writing in the industry is done by designers, and while there are some studios who have dedicated writers, they are few and far between. And while some designers are dedicated to systems or gameplay, fiction and dialog writing is a big part of the role of most designers.
Of course, how to get into design, well... there are already a lot of great articles on that.
A single person can't make a movie either, and yet directors still pull in top dollar and a fair amount of fame and respect. The problem is that we are ingrained to the cog mentality and we refuse to take credit for our individual contributions. Good designers/developers/artists make good games.
We allow ourselves to believe that anyone in our position will produce the same product when the exact opposite is true. Because game development is a creative effort, the individual contributions are unique to the person who creates them. If I were to leave my current project and another designer took my place, it would be a different game than the one that would be created with my input.
We have no system of self-promotion in the game industry and until that changes, individual talent and individual contributions will continue to go unrecognized. However, this change must start in how we view ourselves./rant.off
I can't comment on how it affects subscribers, and really neighther can you. Unless you can provide data that directly links (or even correlates) the introduction of advertisements into a game with a drop in subscribers, I find it very difficult to accept that any but a very small portion are bothered by it. The percentage of players in an MMO who post online (and mostly complain) represent a very small portion of the community of any individual game and the online buzz is -never- representative of the overall opinions of the people who are actually playing the game.
I can say that the ads have been in since day one and that the expansion of them is hardly news. Constantine and Batman Begins were both advertised through MxO, and the ads then didn't present much of a problem that I knew of.
There is a breakdown by region at the end of the survey. The thing about national salary surveys is that the data is always tainted with regards to location, but in my experience, the salaries rise and fall dependent on the location. I job that pays 60K in LA, will probablly pay 40K in Austin. Point was that there was data to support the figure in the article that everyone was jumping on.
As far as me, while I do lead a charmed life, I think my experience is more the norm. There are crunchtimes, but they aren't as bad as ea_spouse reported across the entire industry when you exclude the EA Redwood and LA studios. When is does happen for an extended period of time, it's 99% of the time as a result of the mismanagement of time and schedules. Management is notoriously bad across the industry because most leads and producers are promoted from other positions and have no training or experience in managing people.
The upside of it being such a clear cause is that you can usually spot it in the interview process. I was very choosy about where I went to (after my first job, which I took for the experience and the ability to choose my second). I turned down a few offers before I found the studio that I felt fit me the best.
So many people are eager and willing to work for anyone who will let them create a game that they often sell themselves short. Because entry into this industry is so fiecely competative, newcomers think that they will never get another shot at what they are doing. Like any job, creative or not, the fit needs to be right.
That's the nice thing about the Gamasutra surveys, they take into account salaries from all over the country and are a national average. Having lived in a few different places, cost of living really does make a difference.
As far as what I work, I am not a good example. I have a habit of joining projects late in development. However, my worst weeks have never been more than 60 hours. Right now, we're in a crunch and I'm doing about 50ish, which just doesn't seem that bad to me. Although it is an anecdotal point, most non-game development people I know work as much as I do.
I see alot of people writing off the data in the article based on their own anecdotal evidence or their dislike of IGN. If anyone would take the time to research other sources of data on game industry salaries, you would see that the figures quoted in the article are reasonably correct. As of the 2003 Gamasutra salary survery(registration required), a programmer with less than 2 years experience made an average of $59,400. The average design salary with a similar level of experience as $41,652. An artist out of school could expect around $40,573.
If I remember correctly, the 2004 survey hovered around the same figures, with the average design salary falling a bit.
And while we're at it, most people seem to take their opinions on the hours we work from ea_spouse, rather than surveys and data. Only 35% of those surveyed by the IDGA reported working a crunch time, and a mere 13% work over 80 hours a week during crunch time.
So while yes, there is room for improvement in the hours that we put in, there are factors invovled which are purely anecdotal and immeasurable. The primary one for me being the I love what I do, and I often look forward to coming to work, which is something that I've never experienced in any other industry I've worked in.
The problem with the article is that the author is assuming that the beta tests are something that they are not intended to be. The idea that the testing and late stage development of a multiplayer product is analogous to that a single player game shows a gross misunderstanding of the difference in the development process of multiplayer games.
MMO beta tests are not for fielding player responses, taking suggestions from the public, or even for bug reporting. The development team and internal QA does all of this far better than the public ever will. While it is nice when players do these things, there is simply too much input to be considered. Most bugs that are reported are false, and most suggestions are, well, unfeasible. To put it politely.
Now, what beta tests -are- useful for is information gathering and the exposure of balance issues and observing bugs that simply cannot be identified in a closed testing environment. MMOs are games that are designed to run unsupervised with thousands of players, and the only way to ensure proper functionality and proper balance is to open up the doors to people who will behave in a way that is consistent with the paying public. Behavior from a smaller group can be extrapolated to the larger buying public and it is this observation of the overall system that is the most useful information to developers. It is not, as the article suggests, that developers are relying on testers to do the job of internal QA.
There is also immeasurable value in data mining information on character choices, the economy of the game, what aspects of the game that people are choosing, which they are ignoring, where they go the most often, where they gather, what they're fighting, how they are playing the game in ways that are unexpected (and unsupported) by the design.
There are far too many factors in a game that is the scope of an MMO to deal with exclusively in internal testing. The data that is gathered when people simply play the game is extremely valuable and cannot be simulated or reproduced in any other way.
CoV is not an expansion. It is a stand alone game with an equal amount of content that can be played without owning CoH. It is more like a sequel than an expansion.
I am quite familiar with what the term "framerate" means when applied to gaming. I am also familiar with the fact that final builds are not shown at trade shows. I am additionally very well aquainted with how televisions work.
And finally, I was trying to be sarcasticlly funny. Relax. You'll live longer.
How many people do they think own Windows Media Center PCs anyway
I'm willing to bet that the know a lot more about how many units have been sold than you do.
Again, you're stealing from ME. That's pretty goddamn immoral from where I'm sitting. I do not work for Microsoft. I have no direct connection to Microsoft. Justifying the theft of what I create is saying that the theft of ANY PC software is justifiable because of the platform on which it is developed, which is just a line of pure bullshit. You're not hurting Microsoft, you're hurting software developers. When they aren't making money developing for Windows, then they're not going to try another platform. They're going to go out of business.
The platform must come first. You're shooting cancer victims and saying that it's a cure.
And what competitors are you talking about? Maybe game developers should develop for OSX and Linux, so we can go out of business. We develop to the platforms that people use and stealing what we make doesn't change the fact that 95% of computer users use Windows and that the Xbox represents a major market share in the US.
Or are you under the impression that one tiny little startup will enter the global console market and take it by storm? Not going to happen. Sony and Nintendo both have their own fat wads of cash to develop their consoles because, and I know this may come as a shock to you, developing a game platform, marketing that platform, and keeping that platform viable through several years of consumer use is stupendously expensive. And on top of that, Nintendo releases products that it knows to be buggy, hurting the consumer. Sony activly stifles quality games in order to retain their Market share, hurting the consumer. And these are your champions? No one is innocent, my friend and the sooner you realise that, the better off you'll be.
And in the game console market, you have exactly what you want. They ARE one option among many. And they've remained a player in that market because their product is the best one out there right now. It's the easiest to develop for, the most powerful, and the most versatile. There's a reason it's been steadily gaining ground over the last three years and it isn't because of Microsoft's hold on the PC market.
Additionally, you're justifying your behavior based on what -might- happen if Microsoft drives Sony and Nintendo away. (Something, incidentally, that isn't going to happen). It's absolutely absurd. It's pure rationalization and again I point out that you are HURTING the people that you're trying to help.
Well then, I'm glad I had that wrong. I do maintain that in the case of pirating software, in particular software designed for the consumer market, the issue of theft is pretty clear cut. You have the experience and the people who created the experience were not compensated for providing it to you.
I'm curious though, what makes you think that Sony is any better? The PS2 is a difficult to develop for platform that is overwhlemed with medicore titles. The hardware itself is inferior, and Sony is not famed for their support of user created content. So why is Microsoft the big bad, but Sony gets off the hook?
Shame on me? If your apartment is broken into and your things stolen, is it your fault for having nice things for people to steal?
I could perhaps see your point if the Xbox were a bad product. I could even see your point if the avenues of protest that you choose were not illegal and harmful. Hey, hack the Xbox. Write a media player. Make a DVR out of the thing, bully for you. Write all the software you want. However, I fail to see where stealing other people's product fits in with this bullshit justification of simple theft. You are not a crusader, or a liberator, or a revolutionary. You are a thief. You steal from me and you steal from my colleagues. You enjoy the creative effort, time, and resources that we have supplied without compensating us. This is the very definition of thievery. Any reason or justification you can come up with falls secondary to that plain and simple fact.
And because of your thievery, the industry suffers. The fans suffer. The end user suffers. Because people like you limit the viability of investment, fewer chances are taken. You cause they very situation that you claim to be fighting.
Punished? Are you really that deluded? The simple truth is that you don't like paying for things. That's all. I could at least respect a pirate who came out and said that, but the idea that you are somehow helping people by stealing is patently absurd.
Yes. It's hurting me, Not Bill Gates. His fortune isn't going anywhere but my job might. Piracy hurts game developers. Period. The end. Thank you, drive through.
Slashdot Mirror
As someone who does a great deal of writing for games, I will tell you that the best path for a writer is through design. The vast majority of the of the writing in the industry is done by designers, and while there are some studios who have dedicated writers, they are few and far between. And while some designers are dedicated to systems or gameplay, fiction and dialog writing is a big part of the role of most designers.
Of course, how to get into design, well... there are already a lot of great articles on that.
A single person can't make a movie either, and yet directors still pull in top dollar and a fair amount of fame and respect. The problem is that we are ingrained to the cog mentality and we refuse to take credit for our individual contributions. Good designers/developers/artists make good games.
/rant.off
We allow ourselves to believe that anyone in our position will produce the same product when the exact opposite is true. Because game development is a creative effort, the individual contributions are unique to the person who creates them. If I were to leave my current project and another designer took my place, it would be a different game than the one that would be created with my input.
We have no system of self-promotion in the game industry and until that changes, individual talent and individual contributions will continue to go unrecognized. However, this change must start in how we view ourselves.
We need more rockstars in the game industry. Remind me to show up for work tomorrow reeking of liquor and groupies.
The proper tag to indicate sarcasm is to follow your statement with a percent sign.
Example: God, everyone knows about the sarcasm tag.%
*beats head on desk*
I suppose that in your world, there are no development costs associated with porting them to a new platform.
I can't comment on how it affects subscribers, and really neighther can you. Unless you can provide data that directly links (or even correlates) the introduction of advertisements into a game with a drop in subscribers, I find it very difficult to accept that any but a very small portion are bothered by it. The percentage of players in an MMO who post online (and mostly complain) represent a very small portion of the community of any individual game and the online buzz is -never- representative of the overall opinions of the people who are actually playing the game.
I can say that the ads have been in since day one and that the expansion of them is hardly news. Constantine and Batman Begins were both advertised through MxO, and the ads then didn't present much of a problem that I knew of.
Oh no! You mean people make these games for profit?! BASTARDS!
How dare they!
There is a breakdown by region at the end of the survey. The thing about national salary surveys is that the data is always tainted with regards to location, but in my experience, the salaries rise and fall dependent on the location. I job that pays 60K in LA, will probablly pay 40K in Austin. Point was that there was data to support the figure in the article that everyone was jumping on. As far as me, while I do lead a charmed life, I think my experience is more the norm. There are crunchtimes, but they aren't as bad as ea_spouse reported across the entire industry when you exclude the EA Redwood and LA studios. When is does happen for an extended period of time, it's 99% of the time as a result of the mismanagement of time and schedules. Management is notoriously bad across the industry because most leads and producers are promoted from other positions and have no training or experience in managing people. The upside of it being such a clear cause is that you can usually spot it in the interview process. I was very choosy about where I went to (after my first job, which I took for the experience and the ability to choose my second). I turned down a few offers before I found the studio that I felt fit me the best. So many people are eager and willing to work for anyone who will let them create a game that they often sell themselves short. Because entry into this industry is so fiecely competative, newcomers think that they will never get another shot at what they are doing. Like any job, creative or not, the fit needs to be right.
That's the nice thing about the Gamasutra surveys, they take into account salaries from all over the country and are a national average. Having lived in a few different places, cost of living really does make a difference. As far as what I work, I am not a good example. I have a habit of joining projects late in development. However, my worst weeks have never been more than 60 hours. Right now, we're in a crunch and I'm doing about 50ish, which just doesn't seem that bad to me. Although it is an anecdotal point, most non-game development people I know work as much as I do.
I see alot of people writing off the data in the article based on their own anecdotal evidence or their dislike of IGN. If anyone would take the time to research other sources of data on game industry salaries, you would see that the figures quoted in the article are reasonably correct. As of the 2003 Gamasutra salary survery(registration required), a programmer with less than 2 years experience made an average of $59,400. The average design salary with a similar level of experience as $41,652. An artist out of school could expect around $40,573.
If I remember correctly, the 2004 survey hovered around the same figures, with the average design salary falling a bit.
And while we're at it, most people seem to take their opinions on the hours we work from ea_spouse, rather than surveys and data. Only 35% of those surveyed by the IDGA reported working a crunch time, and a mere 13% work over 80 hours a week during crunch time.
So while yes, there is room for improvement in the hours that we put in, there are factors invovled which are purely anecdotal and immeasurable. The primary one for me being the I love what I do, and I often look forward to coming to work, which is something that I've never experienced in any other industry I've worked in.
---EJC
The problem with the article is that the author is assuming that the beta tests are something that they are not intended to be. The idea that the testing and late stage development of a multiplayer product is analogous to that a single player game shows a gross misunderstanding of the difference in the development process of multiplayer games.
MMO beta tests are not for fielding player responses, taking suggestions from the public, or even for bug reporting. The development team and internal QA does all of this far better than the public ever will. While it is nice when players do these things, there is simply too much input to be considered. Most bugs that are reported are false, and most suggestions are, well, unfeasible. To put it politely.
Now, what beta tests -are- useful for is information gathering and the exposure of balance issues and observing bugs that simply cannot be identified in a closed testing environment. MMOs are games that are designed to run unsupervised with thousands of players, and the only way to ensure proper functionality and proper balance is to open up the doors to people who will behave in a way that is consistent with the paying public. Behavior from a smaller group can be extrapolated to the larger buying public and it is this observation of the overall system that is the most useful information to developers. It is not, as the article suggests, that developers are relying on testers to do the job of internal QA.
There is also immeasurable value in data mining information on character choices, the economy of the game, what aspects of the game that people are choosing, which they are ignoring, where they go the most often, where they gather, what they're fighting, how they are playing the game in ways that are unexpected (and unsupported) by the design.
There are far too many factors in a game that is the scope of an MMO to deal with exclusively in internal testing. The data that is gathered when people simply play the game is extremely valuable and cannot be simulated or reproduced in any other way.
---
EJC
CoV is not an expansion. It is a stand alone game with an equal amount of content that can be played without owning CoH. It is more like a sequel than an expansion.
I am quite familiar with what the term "framerate" means when applied to gaming. I am also familiar with the fact that final builds are not shown at trade shows. I am additionally very well aquainted with how televisions work.
And finally, I was trying to be sarcasticlly funny. Relax. You'll live longer.
KTHXBYE
Do you have a magic TV that gets more than 30 frames per second?
House of the Dead 2 sold a lot of lightguns for the Dreamcast
Yes, but how many keyboards did Typing of the Dead sell?
How many people do they think own Windows Media Center PCs anyway I'm willing to bet that the know a lot more about how many units have been sold than you do.
Again, you're stealing from ME. That's pretty goddamn immoral from where I'm sitting. I do not work for Microsoft. I have no direct connection to Microsoft. Justifying the theft of what I create is saying that the theft of ANY PC software is justifiable because of the platform on which it is developed, which is just a line of pure bullshit. You're not hurting Microsoft, you're hurting software developers. When they aren't making money developing for Windows, then they're not going to try another platform. They're going to go out of business.
The platform must come first. You're shooting cancer victims and saying that it's a cure.
And what competitors are you talking about? Maybe game developers should develop for OSX and Linux, so we can go out of business. We develop to the platforms that people use and stealing what we make doesn't change the fact that 95% of computer users use Windows and that the Xbox represents a major market share in the US.
Or are you under the impression that one tiny little startup will enter the global console market and take it by storm? Not going to happen. Sony and Nintendo both have their own fat wads of cash to develop their consoles because, and I know this may come as a shock to you, developing a game platform, marketing that platform, and keeping that platform viable through several years of consumer use is stupendously expensive. And on top of that, Nintendo releases products that it knows to be buggy, hurting the consumer. Sony activly stifles quality games in order to retain their Market share, hurting the consumer. And these are your champions? No one is innocent, my friend and the sooner you realise that, the better off you'll be.
And in the game console market, you have exactly what you want. They ARE one option among many. And they've remained a player in that market because their product is the best one out there right now. It's the easiest to develop for, the most powerful, and the most versatile. There's a reason it's been steadily gaining ground over the last three years and it isn't because of Microsoft's hold on the PC market.
Additionally, you're justifying your behavior based on what -might- happen if Microsoft drives Sony and Nintendo away. (Something, incidentally, that isn't going to happen). It's absolutely absurd. It's pure rationalization and again I point out that you are HURTING the people that you're trying to help.
Well then, I'm glad I had that wrong. I do maintain that in the case of pirating software, in particular software designed for the consumer market, the issue of theft is pretty clear cut. You have the experience and the people who created the experience were not compensated for providing it to you.
I'm curious though, what makes you think that Sony is any better? The PS2 is a difficult to develop for platform that is overwhlemed with medicore titles. The hardware itself is inferior, and Sony is not famed for their support of user created content. So why is Microsoft the big bad, but Sony gets off the hook?
Shame on me? If your apartment is broken into and your things stolen, is it your fault for having nice things for people to steal?
I could perhaps see your point if the Xbox were a bad product. I could even see your point if the avenues of protest that you choose were not illegal and harmful. Hey, hack the Xbox. Write a media player. Make a DVR out of the thing, bully for you. Write all the software you want. However, I fail to see where stealing other people's product fits in with this bullshit justification of simple theft. You are not a crusader, or a liberator, or a revolutionary. You are a thief. You steal from me and you steal from my colleagues. You enjoy the creative effort, time, and resources that we have supplied without compensating us. This is the very definition of thievery. Any reason or justification you can come up with falls secondary to that plain and simple fact.
And because of your thievery, the industry suffers. The fans suffer. The end user suffers. Because people like you limit the viability of investment, fewer chances are taken. You cause they very situation that you claim to be fighting.
Punished? Are you really that deluded? The simple truth is that you don't like paying for things. That's all. I could at least respect a pirate who came out and said that, but the idea that you are somehow helping people by stealing is patently absurd.
You have no concept of what the word evil means, do you?
Yes. It's hurting me, Not Bill Gates. His fortune isn't going anywhere but my job might. Piracy hurts game developers. Period. The end. Thank you, drive through.
Because piracy is what the cool kids do! If I can't see who it's hurting, then no one must be getting hurt!
*rolls eyes*
Very few game developers ever see a bonus anyway. And when they do, it never matches anything close to the overtime they would have made.