How to solve every creative problem in the games industry.
First a link. This here is a surprise.
http://kotaku.com/5017065/tecmo-employees-sue-tecmo-tecmo-seems-fucked
Not because it happens, why no, I may have no direct personal experience with the yellow peril games industry but from what contact I have had and what I've seen in terms of code produced. It seems that the solution to any problem consists of simply throwing man hours at it until the poor salary men develop a sexual relationship with whomever is sitting at the next desk since it is the only human contact they now have.
I had simply assume that the work culture consisted of having ones arse wrapped in a lovely pink ribbon and at no point would you turn round and bite back.
So yes, that suit is a big surprise and I will guarantee that it represents only the tip of the iceberg in terms of screwing over employees. As I understand it, the increasing man hours needed to complete the epic games that are expected nowadays is pretty much killing them. The "design it better" rather than "work longer" approach, generally taken in the west, is something they now look at with increased jealousy.
But now for a simple revelation, which is of course related to the above.
Here is how you solve every problem in the games industry.
Wait for it.
You pay the creative people when they work on a title that makes money.
Yes, it is that simple.
I really don't know anyone in the last decade or so that's actually even received say a small bonus for finishing a game. It usually consists of large amounts of unpaid overtime followed by hopefully not getting fired. I do know plenty of people who have been screwed over one way or another. By plenty, I mean everyone.
You go back a bit further in time and occasionally the publisher would accidentally pay out a large sum, but nowadays they don't seem to make that mistake anymore. Around the mid to the end of the 90s for instance, there seemed to be a lot of money being thrown around, mostly stupidly, but it was at least out there.
The reason it is important to pay the talent well is that simply, the talent wants to make games. If after 8 years working on GTA8 they end up getting a lump sum after it succeeds, or residuals even. They are now in the position to feel more comfortable doing something that might not work out, you know, take a creative risk, work even harder for even less money but on a project they actually believe in. That sort of thing.
This of course doesn't happen.
To sum this idea up.
If you give an artist a million dollars they will spend it on making art.
If you give a musician a million dollars they will spend it on making music.
If you give a game developer a million dollars they will spend it on making games.
If you give a marketing droid a million dollars they will buy a yacht.
Assuming one of them is going to get the money, which one is better and which one do you think actually happens?
That is all.
PS: There is of course the chance that the idiots may donate it to scientology but I suspect the odds of that are the same no matter who gets the money.
