Arguments erupt in every facet of life, so it’s neither new nor surprising that it’s in the gaming industry. You’d imagine maybe, for an instant, because everyone is making games, or connected to the making of games, that it would be joyous and wonderful.
Unfortunately, it’s not quite like that.
At first I was taken aback how much bitching was in this industry. I’m not talking about big studios, so I’m not talking about the Quality of Life arguments, or multi-million dollar games, and billion dollar studios.
I referring to the “indie” crowd. This word is so horribly thrown about and defined in such a broad scope that it’s actually useful to define anything anymore. Is it one guy in his bedroom, or a team of ten people working on a 1 million dollar project? Currently, both are considered “indie”.
And it’s from this group of people I’m so amazed at the complaining, but more than that, the clear division of artists and industrialists. You have people who are working alone, or in very small teams (2-3), and those who are working in larger teams (10+) who fall in to both categories.
I’m going to need some clarification here before I go any further so people understand what I’m trying to get at.
Artists. People who put the game before the economics of the situation.
Industrialists. People who put the economics before the game.
Both people are trying to pay the bills, put food on the table. Both people find this a concern. I do not believe that only group of people find these basic necessities among the reasons they work and the issues they think about.
I find that industrialists are the ones who point it out more, are sooner to bring it up, and usually find profit, loss, investment, etc the bigger talking points, instead of game mechanics, balancing, story-telling, etc, or tech (graphics, rendering, performance).
I look at these industrialists and think the “game” part of industry isn’t what interests you. You could be doing anything. Word-processing software, accounting software, publishing how-to ebooks, etc. The genre wouldn’t matter, as long as it was industry and there was a profit to be made.
This isn’t wrong, this is simply people who are more interested in the industry side of things. Their forum posts and blog posts are mostly about numbers, sales figures and revenue streams. They are more interested in how to sell something, instead of what their selling.
Then you have the other side. An artist is concerned about his sales, his time invested, etc, but doesn’t find it the primary element of his work to write about, or seek answers too. The objective is to create, not to profit. That’s essential, and industrialists will scoff at it. I know because when you talk to then about projects like Wikipedia or Craigslist, they refuse to believe it’s “for free” and it’s stupid unless they’re charging for the service.
They see profit as more important than the service. Money is important. No one is saying it’s not. But they don’t see Craiglist or Wikipedia for the beauty of the system, but for the potential profit should someone implement a revenue model into it.
Industrialists are industrialists. They’re are industry game-makers, and their are art game-makers. They see game-making as a source of income rather than an outlet of expression.
So, I think I’ve made the distinction between these two groups. I’m tired of running in to the people who see this activity (game development) merely as a marketing project, instead of something more artistic. What I want to holdfast to as I wade through my time in the gaming industry is this distinction, is to stick to the more artistic side of things instead of the industrial side.
I never want to be approached and have the opening proposal for the project involve “a great way to make money!” I don’t care if it works, because something that is more ‘artistic’ is completely capable of paying the bills.
[...] Are You Here?[/b] I had a short rant earlier about industrialists vs. artists. I really hope anyone reading this is a game developer because they love making people happy, not [...]