I Miss Being In The Game Industry

[dudelovenext]

There's nothing "wrong" with my job. It's a good job. A great job. And as much as Nintendo sucked in a lot of ways, I've been missing it lately.

The great thing about my position at Nintendo was that I got to do lots of neat little things, like looking up inappropriate Miis, or working E3. I tended to get lots of cool schwag and be in the "pulse" of the gaming industry, at least from the customer service side.

I guess I've just been reading a bit too much Kotaku and seeing how much fun the game industry can be.

Honestly...I've been flip-flopping on what I really want to do with my future. I'd like to go into game development, but then I start to get concerned about "dire" scenarios where the world doesn't need game developers or the competition is so fierce that it's not worthwhile. But, my time to really make this kind of decision is dwindling. I'm 28. I have a good job but not a very good career path. And while I realize that I'm doing pretty good, I still have enough ambition to know that I need to do better. But, again, that comes down to my lack of motivation and energy...

Well, it's something that I just need to do some deep thinking about.

Comments

[fearless-son.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I think that such a "dire" scenario is a crock. After all this time, the world still needs musicians, the world still needs artists, the world still needs writers, the world still needs movie-makers. I do not see game developers going away anytime soon. And yes, competition will always be fierce, but that is true of most respected professions. More people may want to get into the industry, but the industry itself is aways growing, projects are getting bigger, more opportunities are presenting themselves. And look at your age this way, much of that "fierce competition" are a bunch of young twenty-somethings barely out of college with no tangible experience to sell themselves with and often mythical delusions about the rigors of the real world. You, on the other hand, have over seven years of experience at a major game console developer, plus at least half a year (and counting) of experience at the world's most successful software corporation. You think that kind of experience does not carry weight?

Unless you quit your job, you are currently halted at your present position for another year due to company policy, true. But once that time is up, you are free to move somewhere else within the company. And you have seen how much internal recruitment Microsoft does. If you are serious about getting back into the games industry, then the time you must spend at your current position is a perfect opportunity to plan for your next move. I have already suggested to you about doing a project manager position, but if you feel that is too big a step for now, then consider something more intermediate. Take for example an office administrator position. Such a person is the one who is expected to manage the inventory of office supplies, coordinate office moves and plan people's spacing, and make sure that those who need hardware get it. See if a position for that becomes available at Microsoft Games Studios, probably on the Millennium campus. With your present experience acting as a liaison between customers and various departments and teams about Microsoft, you are well qualified to do that on a closer level, and such a position would bring you back into the games industry. Sure, you might not be developing them yet, but you would be working with the people who do, and it brings you one step closer to being a bigger part of the process.