“In braggadocious attempts to bolster the seriousness of the industry, major networking events are held in cities with outrageous costs of living. If you’re not lucky enough to have a role where your company foots the bill, your options are either to scrimp and save or just not go.”
rent, or would it be easier to work a 40 hour week, minimum wage retail job to pay bills where you can add a line of code or two when you’re not exhausted from trying to survive? I remember leaving college in 2015, wanting to land my first role in the games industry - there’s so many games being made and studios out there, that there must be lots of readily available junior positions right? Sadly, almost a decade on, the answer is still no.
BRIGHT LIGHTS Right now in the UK, there is a significant drought of fairly paid, entry level roles in the industry. The ones that do exist, either sit at minimum wage or close by, and offer little flexibility to their applicants. Companies will mandate either full-time in-office work or hybrid, claiming they don’t have the resources to allow certain professions to work from home if they need to. Enforced in-office work is a direct attack on the wellbeing of low income and marginalised people. Working class people who hope to find their footing in the industry are given little opportunity to remain in their communities and undertake their work, despite the Covid-19 pandemic proving that games can be and ARE developed from anywhere in the world. For many, they’ll need to uproot their lives, their sense of safety, and begin to adjust to a largely middle class, privileged set of peers. Companies will give every excuse they can to justify forcing all of their employees to return to office, never once considering to let it be the employees choice. They knowingly set up their offices in major cities where extortionate rent prices and congested, inaccessible travel options will immediately price out anyone they’re subsequently not prepared to pay the necessary wage to support this environment.
16 | MCV/DEVELOP June 2023
The truth is, while many roles truthfully DO need on-site work due to physical requirements, many do not. If smaller studios can allow people to work from wherever they want, why can’t the top dogs? Is it resource and security issues, or is it ego inflation for the old guard that needs to be able to look out over an office of underpaid workers to feel successful, and can’t adapt to the changing face of the workplace? If the latter, maybe the games industry just isn’t for them anymore. It’s no surprise then, that the people who can accept
these roles, are usually those who are privileged enough to have never needed to worry about whether today’s letter in the post was another unpayable bill, or an eviction notice. Sometimes, people will still be in that position and have no choice - working in an industry you love is still a better alternative than working elsewhere, even if it doesn’t love you back. Either companies don’t know this, or they do, yet continue to provide abhorrent remuneration and work conditions despite the massive bonuses and salaries their top staff enjoy. In either case, they’re directly responsible for limiting the growth of our industry, harming the wellbeing of our colleagues, and restricting low income and marginalised talent from adding their worth to the art. It’s easy for excessively compensated CEOs or bonus-laden execs to take to LinkedIn about their ‘passion’ for DEI - but until they put their money where their mouth is, their ‘passion’ is just lip service.
CAREER PROGRESSION Once someone manages to join the industry, it’s only right to think they might be interested in career progression. It’s no secret that a large part of this is directly tied to networking, and a level of self-marketing
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