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Alright, industry types and journos...

L

Lost Fragment

Obsessed with 4chan
...how has being "in the industry" affected your recreational gaming? Does working 40 hours a week in the industry make you not want to play video games in your spare time?

I ask because like 3/4 of the world, I've considered trying to hop aboard somewhere. Currently going to college for English/Journalism (though, I've never thought too seriously about trying to get into gaming journalism), and I have some decent connections from the two years I spent at RPGamer (yeah, yeah), so I figure I might have a shot somewhere if I was motivated to work hard enough at it. But the thing that's always made me reluctant is the possibility that it would ruin gaming for me, and that it wouldn't be the dream job that everyone imagines it being (well, nothing is, but to what extent is it different?).

Parenthesis
 
Most of the time,after a hard week the last thing I want to do is play games. A lot of my co-workers rarely play games at all.

However, I make a point of buying and playing games to stay aware of the competition, on top of that I still enjoy playing games, I just rarely have time to finish them any more. I usually play the first couple of levels then I'm done.

One thing working in the industry has done for me is make me less critical of other games. I tend to look for the good points about a game and try to learn from that, even if the rest sucks. I also give companies a lot more credit with certain types of game, as I understand the difficulties in developing various genres and the timeframe/scheduling problems we all face.

I do miss the old days of just playing games as a hobby.
 
What's a pimp?

Anyway, the point is, if you love games, you will continue to love them. Less time to play is a reality of any job.
 
I'm become very critical of in game animation, especially for next gen.

I can't bare seeing awful over-acted non-sense mime poo Motion Capture

I can't bare seeing junior level entry shoddy animation and have their superiors approve their crap and letting it in the game.

in Next Gen, animators should be pushing their limits since they have alot less restraints and more freedom with bigger better rigs
 
Before I left for grad school, I didn't play games on my free time. I had one day off a week and had too much to do during that day. I would play on my GBA when I would fly places. When I return, I'm sure it will go back to that.

I am very critical of level design and harsh on all shooters .
 
personally, i dont get to play what i want to play

and what i want to play right now is FFXII and Guitar Hero 2.

but i can't. =p


but it does give you a chance to be more diverse in the kinds of games you play (from a "journalist" standpoint)

i get to play games like:

Eureka Seven Vol 1 The New Wave
Kim Possible: What's the Switch
WTF
random PC games all the time
Lumines II
Every Extend Extra
Gunpey

it ranges from bad to good, and most of the time in the middle...and then there are the games that *i* buy that i want to play, but end up just going on the shelf to play later.
 
I haven't been to an E3 in years, but when I did go it seemed like every "industry type" I met was a casual gamer at best. After spending 40-50 hours a week on games, very few were really interested in consuming their weekends with more games.

As for press and journalists, I really have no idea how they do it. They spend their entire work week slogging through games for reviews and previews, yet when their downtime comes they still push forward in the games they're interested in. Freaking crazy. Many years ago I wanted to be a games writer, but the demands of it just seem too intense.
 
It's amazing how many developers (artists, programmers, upper management and so on) are playing WoW and nothing else, and that has been the case since it was released.

Sadly I know of many people in the industry who don't even own a console.
 
I think my gaming habits have not changed during the time I was in the industry, but you get very critical of the games. You begin to think how it would have been a better product if it was X and Y, etc. Now I am away from the industry, I don’t need to look at it that way and I certainly enjoy games mostly for entertainment, and I tend to criticize less now.
 
I write for a living, but just about handhelds. So the Wii60 is my "recreational" gaming. Never play DS/PSP/Mobile besides for a work assignment. It's not that I don't enjoy them (I do, very much so). It's just that I get my fill.
 
I considered going to a game design school. But then I thought about the fact that I think 98% of games are garbage and not worth playing. And then I thought there was a 98% chance I'd be stuck working for a company making those games. You think "game design is glorious!" until you find yourself underpaid, working for EA on the next Catwoman and dreaming of maybe one day making it to the big time and making a game that gets better than 70% on gamerankings. Finally, in some small way, you would have arrived! And then you would be downsized.
 
I spend much less time playing games recreationally as a journalist. It's almost entirely a time issue for me.

However, we're not a review source, so that surely factors in.
 
I play more games now than ever before.

To quote the cover of EGM (Nov. 2001): TOO MANY GAMES!

Stinkles is right. If you love it, you'll only love it more.

Also, don't forget to love your wife.
 
During crunch time, I barely get to play anything. Slower times, I'm always playing something. We play Kart DS at work about 10 times a day, lol.

Play a good 2 or 3 hours of Gears of War multi a night since release. God damn it's good, buggy in spots, but still good :)

Half way thru FFXII too.
 
Nozi said:
It's amazing how many developers (artists, programmers, upper management and so on) are playing WoW and nothing else, and that has been the case since it was released.

Sadly I know of many people in the industry who don't even own a console.
Click to expand...

Yeah, sorry about that lol :lol
 
i spent 2005 freelancing. got really burned out after a year of endless 6/10. my own fault for favoring RPGs, i suppose.

took me about six months to recover. now i'm playing mostly recreationally because i am high enough on the food chain that i don't have to play BS games. and those i do review, i want to play (e.g. final fantasy XII.)

but you won't get to that point for a long time, really. i started freelancing in 1999, and i didn't really get burned out on shit games till 2005. takes awhile!
 
I play a lot of games still, but not as many as I did in college.

That said, though, I feel like in my three development jobs I've consistently been one of a surprisingly small number of people that actively play them and try out new things. I've always been the guy that brings in the new game and shows it to people, or buys the weird games, etc. The other "gamer" types usually just play WoW or some FPS, and get stuck in a rut. Sadly, a lot of these people are also designers and let this very limited gaming experience be their sole guide.

Some people play them more casually after work with each other, but that sort of play is usually limited to Battlefield or Counterstrike or whatever. I definitely don't feel like I see enough people, especially programmers, playing console games, looking at their interfaces, etc. and that's what would really make my job as a designer easier.
 
Almost everyone I work with still plays games in their spare time. Guitar Hero was big around the office.

I play all the big name games; Gears, Okami, Oblivion etc, just to keep up with what is going on. I will play an hour or so of other games just to see what design wise they did right and what they did wrong. I find myself being very critical of other games and I lose patience fast. I assume that is from growing old as well as working in the industry.

During crunch when I am thinking about our game for 12-14 hours a day I like to come home and read just to deoccupy myself. I also find that doing things unrelated to the industry such as going to museums, people watching, shows, the beach helps me work through problems in my head more than playing other games.
 
Stinkles said:
Check out what I am playing on Live right now.
Click to expand...
Last seen 1 hour ago playing Pimps At Sea (Alpha)
Click to expand...

pimps_alpha.gif


arrrrrrrrr
 
I really try to play games as much as I can still. I still buy them at the rate I did when I had a lot more time so I've got a backlog that grows all the time but I've been of good form most of this year for going back and completing games. At my company, there's people ranging from big console gamers, to exclusive WoW gamers and to people who dropped gaming after the Amiga. I fall into the former at the minute - a bit easier to get going with after work or when I get a moment.

Me and my brother are both in development (different companies) and we completed Gears on co-op over Live earlier in the week.
 
I'm in development, and I often criticise certain co-workers for not playing enough games, but generally I think everyone plays quite a bit.

As for me, I think I play just as many games as ever. When I started it was sometimes a little offputting to play games after working on them all day, but now I am used to it and play all the time. It's nice to play games that co-workers are playing too, so we can discuss them and such, like the lead artist asking me for tips on Phoenix Wright.
 
Like most people have said, my playtime definately varies depending on schedule. That said, I actually buy way more games now than before I was in the industry (of course the tax writeoff doesn't hurt :D ). I'd say getting married has had more of a negative effect on my gametime than work. :lol
 
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