Symptom of a Downer

In part this is about the difference between "learn and run" and "learn and stay." I think one of my informants said it best, "just don't become a critic." It's easy to take pot-shots from the sidelines, I think it's harder to effect real change in a space like this, where there is significant momentum, as well as some major dollars. All of that makes it difficult to steer things. Erin has definitely planted herself firmly in the "learn and stay" camp, and I think the industry will be that much better because of her vigilance and effort.

The Escapist - Why We Haven't Lapsed

There was a gloom at this year's GDC that hadn't shown its face in years. Rather than being a rallying cry for growth and change, the "Game Developers' Rant" had too much genuine bitterness, too much fear, to spark drive or any real discussion. I heard veteran developers mutter that the industry really was on its way out.
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The game industry is alive and well, and it ain't going anywhere. Neither, for that matter, are many of the developers. Some of the best and brightest people I have ever met work - present tense - in the game industry. The golden lure that yanked me away from graduate school and into games had nothing to do with the "glamour" or any idiotic pipe dream about fame and fortune - it had to do with the people.

But we are bleeding talent at a horrendous rate. This is the real bogeyman for the actual development of games, and it is a big problem that brilliant, creative students are taking one look at industry working conditions and making a bee line for Microsoft. One of the caps on all of the recent doomsaying was another blog that hit the shared internet mind: Danc's "Joyful Life of a Lapsed Game Developer." Man, talk about a downer.
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Make no mistake, I'll be the last one to excuse the industry for its sins, but I'm also not going to stand for all-out mutiny founded on flimsy reasoning. If the industry is hurting, it's up to us to heal it, not shrug and start writing bank software for better pay. Sure, I'd love to be making the big bucks, and it's a choice I could have made. Some years back, I was offered the chance to apprentice under a stockbroker at a major investment firm. I turned it down, and as my uncle said, you can make money or you can be happy. And if you're in it for the money, what the hell are you doing attempting something creative, anyway?