<story><title>Video Games Are Destroying the People Who Make Them</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/25/opinion/work-culture-video-games-crunch.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>eksemplar</author><text>I never understood why people went into the gaming industry unless it was in a position where they did decision making and got credit.&lt;p&gt;Growing up in the 80&amp;#x2F;90is I remember thinking a place like Bioware or Black Isle&amp;#x2F;Troika would&amp;#x27;ve been cool places to work, but as I reached adulthood and understood what went into working those places, the dream quickly faded.&lt;p&gt;Imagine having to work long hours at shit pay, to design&amp;#x2F;build some loot crate system. Especially when your skill set is in high-demand and you could&amp;#x27;ve gone into something like healthcare IT, where you could be improving people&amp;#x27;s lives, at 37-45 hours a week at four times the pay.&lt;p&gt;I really don&amp;#x27;t mean to be rude, I just can&amp;#x27;t fathom the motivation you would have to work some anonymous job in the video gaming industry.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>sidlls</author><text>HN cracks me up sometimes. Compare the derision and skepticism hurled at would-be video game developers to the praise people working countless hours on pointless &amp;quot;portfolio side projects&amp;quot; on github or whatever get, just for a minor boost in the grueling interview process or because they&amp;#x27;re so passionate about it or whatever.&lt;p&gt;At least these people (who are certainly being exploited, often in ways that violate labor laws) are getting some real work experience  while they&amp;#x27;re at it.</text></comment>
<story><title>Video Games Are Destroying the People Who Make Them</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/25/opinion/work-culture-video-games-crunch.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>eksemplar</author><text>I never understood why people went into the gaming industry unless it was in a position where they did decision making and got credit.&lt;p&gt;Growing up in the 80&amp;#x2F;90is I remember thinking a place like Bioware or Black Isle&amp;#x2F;Troika would&amp;#x27;ve been cool places to work, but as I reached adulthood and understood what went into working those places, the dream quickly faded.&lt;p&gt;Imagine having to work long hours at shit pay, to design&amp;#x2F;build some loot crate system. Especially when your skill set is in high-demand and you could&amp;#x27;ve gone into something like healthcare IT, where you could be improving people&amp;#x27;s lives, at 37-45 hours a week at four times the pay.&lt;p&gt;I really don&amp;#x27;t mean to be rude, I just can&amp;#x27;t fathom the motivation you would have to work some anonymous job in the video gaming industry.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>taneq</author><text>You go into the industry because you want to make games. You leave when you get sick of games companies taking advantage of your &amp;quot;passion for games&amp;quot; to offer you an exploitative deal.</text></comment>