The Eternal Question

[pinback]

My question for you today, dear readers, is as follows:

On any game-related BBS or discussion forum you'd care to mention, there are inevitably several threads of people trying to figure out how to "get into the business" of computer game development, or into some other facet of the computer game industry (print media, design, marketing, etc.)

The question then is:

Why, for people who enjoy playing computer games, is the compulsion so strong to work at computer games?

This rarely happens in other forms of entertainment. People who enjoy going to great restaurants do not often want to get into the food prep industry. Movie-lovers are rarely desirous of becoming movie-makers. Few bookworms are authors.

What is it that makes a person finish that last Myst III puzzle and say "I wanna make games for a living!"?

[Casual Observer]

This rarely happens in other forms of entertainment. People who enjoy going to great restaurants do not often want to get into the food prep industry. Movie-lovers are rarely desirous of becoming movie-makers. Few bookworms are authors.

I'm not sure that's completely true. I think there are lots of examples of people who are food lovers who dream of one day having their own restaurant. Lots and lots of people would love to be an actor or actress or otherwise "a star". The same is probably true for authors, look at the "harry potter" author who amused herself reading about english myths and magic until late in her years she made millions by basically copying those same tales into some best selling novels. Hell, i've know people who grew up on Dungeons and Dragons books and games who dreamed of working for the company that makes them.

Could the difference be that it's the video game lovers that are spending their time on message boards discussing this? Book lovers are spending their time reading, movie lovers are watching movies, etc.

[Worm]

I sure as a fuck don't want to work on video games. Fans are scumfucking idiots who ruin anything good you might release. If I ever made a game I and possibly only my close friends would be allowed to play it. Fans ruin everything.

[k. roo]

Perhaps it is also influenced by the average age of the computer game target audience. Movie lovers, food enthusiasts, devotees of plastic surgery, all are spread over the whole age spectrum. One might argue that as people mature, more and more "passive" forms of entertainment are pursued. Gamers on the other hand are more likely to be kids who are both, more impressionable than adults, as well as less sedentary and still trying to figure out what to do with their lives ("I wanna be an astronaut").

Add to that that hacking together your first room in TADS is so much more instant gratification than writing your first novel. Also, the observation is probably biased (as CO pointed out), since younger folks tend to use online communication more than older overeating bookworms. And BBS et al. are both, ways of expression and a help desk for would-be programmers.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Why, for people who enjoy playing computer games, is the compulsion so strong to work at computer games?

1. You start to get annoyed at how bad some of the games you play are. Most of them are really, really shitty. You think, "Hay!! I can do better than this!!" Maybe you can, maybe you can't. But you started to like your hobby so much that you began to hate it, so then you want to like it again.

2. Personally, even though I work in a dead genre, the desire to express oneself is there. But 8 hours get taken up by my real job, 8 get used to sleep and -- what -- 8 get used to do what I really want to do? Yet I haven't eaten, commuted, dated or thrown the football around yet. Damnation!! So when your hobby becomes your job you don't feel eight hours are "wasted" every day making money for someone else.

3. I have a desire to create which is wholly unsatisfied at work. So what is there? In six months I could get my drawing chops back, but that pays shit. I'm trying to write a book, but making any money doing that seems to me like hitting the lottery. (Eric, if you're out there, I think you hit the lottery.) Game programming, though, pays well. Sure, the hours are shitty because nerds everywhere failed to unionize, but still, you can pull down a reasonable salary with it.

I dunno. I am very happy chudding together game code and scripts with music on and the lights low. If that could be my job that'd be awesome.

[bruce]

I sure as a fuck don't want to work on video games. Fans are scumfucking idiots who ruin anything good you might release. If I ever made a game I and possibly only my close friends would be allowed to play it. Fans ruin everything.

I have here our first nominee for the J.D. Salinger of computer gaming!

Bruce

[bruce]

Why, for people who enjoy playing computer games, is the compulsion so strong to work at computer games?

1. You start to get annoyed at how bad some of the games you play are. Most of them are really, really shitty. You think, "Hay!! I can do better than this!!" Maybe you can, maybe you can't. But you started to like your hobby so much that you began to hate it, so then you want to like it again.

I think this is why people start writing professionally too.

Bruce