Gaming Jobs

As a multi-billion dollar industry that continues to grow, there is definitely plenty of money to be made by working in the gaming industry as noted in this "Gaming Green" article on IGN. Gaming programmers and producers can make six figures a year and drive fancy cars. It appears that working in the gaming industry is an ideal job for all gamers. It is fun. The money is good. What more could you ask for?

However, working in the gaming industry is not as lucrative as it appears. Just like any other profession, it takes hard work, dedication, commitment, and crazy long hours for anyone to be successful. IGN's "The Dark Side of development" reports, "It's quite common for developers, whether a programmer, artist, producer or designer, to even put in weeks that are in the 120 to 140 hour range."

Let's just say that an average person in the gaming industry makes $50,000. That sounds like a good salary, right? However, if you do a quick calculation, it is not as good as it sounds. Let's just say that the average work week in the gaming industry is 60 hours given that some weeks will be up to 140 hours and others much less. You will only be making around $17 an hour. Now, is it worth working 60 hours a week making less than $20 an hour? For me, I really must enjoy my job to work that much week after week. If you are working that much most of the time, do you really have any time left to play games and spend time with family and friends? Most gamers do not realize that making games is very different than playing games. Making games is not as easy as it plays. IGN ends the article by saying, "Just do it with the knowledge that it's not going to be easy and that you'll have to devote a lot of your life into it to be successful." This statement is so true for anything and everything in life!