You Aren't Cut Out for this Job

I have always thought that many people have this skewed image on how the gaming industry works. That somehow the games manage to make themselves and the designers are always having fun. This book so far has been devoting all its energy to that. Especially the idea that “The one thing you can count on in the game industry is that you can't count on anything in the gaming industry.” (Hodgson).

And while I do think that it is important to weed out those who can’t understand that  the gaming industry is just like any other industry in terms of stress or workload...  I didn’t read this book to be able to understand that which was already understood. So far there have been short descriptions of the roles involved in making the final products followed up by a long snippet describing how this job is harder than you think. So far the writers have essentially been writing this phrase over and over: “Think you could do this job as a possible career? Yeah right... odds are you aren’t smart enough and lack work ethic”

And again, I know where they come from. They probably hear the phrase “you play games for a living, awesome!” way too much. And reflecting on this I am seriously questioning why their title is what it is. Don't they realize that the title Pay to Play is just going to attract those who they are trying to drive away for the first 40 pages. Wouldn't it just be more efficeint to have a title something akin to: The Harships of the Gaming Industry and save us all some time.

But what they don’t realize, at least what I assume is true is that those who are reading this book probably realize this as most of them want to seriously find out how the industry works. Because if you are willing to put the time in to read this much about the process of game creation aren't going to be the ones to put things lightly.

But maybe I am being a bit too harsh on this book up to this point. After all I am still only a fraction fo the way through.And while this is pretty annoying I do think that they will soon switch over from weeding out those with false hopes of an easy career and begin to focus on what a job in the industry actually entails. This is why I still have a good feeling about this book and as of now I just have to get through the initial period of “There’s a good chance you aren’t cut out for this industry.” So for now I will just have to wait it out until it gets good, using the occasional humorous jab at gamer stereotypes as fuel to keep reading.