to make yourself a more attractive prospect for any future employers. The most notable place to do this is at one of the several industry events held throughout the year. It’s also not a secret that these events are financially inaccessible, and until fixed, directly prevent low income and marginalised developers from enjoying their benefits.
In braggadocious attempts to bolster the seriousness of the industry, major networking events are held in cities with outrageous costs of living. Travel costs are as extortionate as ever, hotel prices eye-watering, and that’s before you even get to the ticket prices of the events themselves. If you’re not lucky enough to have a role where your company foots the bill, your options are either to scrimp and save where possible, or just not go. These are rarely raised as problems by the more vocal, privileged parts of the industry. When you’ve managed to get to the point where you either earn so much the costs are nothing, or your company pays for you, why would you have any perspective on just how expensive these things are?
The claim that privilege is behind career achievement may cause a few heads to shake, and it would be unfair to claim that everyone who’s done great things in the industry comes from a well off background - indeed, there are many notable cases of marginalised game developers who have struggled from the ground up, fighting against systems built against them to make massive waves in this predominantly white male industry. But these people are sadly the exception and not the norm, and more people deserve to be empowered to strive in their careers not only for their benefit, but for the benefit of the industry we all devote ourselves to being a part of.
COST OF GAMING CRISIS Six-year-old Dan sitting at home, hiding under the covers to get just five more minutes in Hyrule, never would have thought that he’d get to be making games today. Sitting here writing this, it’s difficult to not be pensive about the journey I’ve taken. To ignore the privilege I have as a white cis male that has alleviated some of the struggle would be wrong, but acknowledging that a large part of landing where I have was also through luck feels important too. We’re in the midst of a cost of living crisis, one
that’s causing those with less money to be even more economically challenged than ever before. Kids like the younger me (and maybe like the younger you), are gradually being priced out of affording tomorrow’s pivotal games through a combination of rising access costs, and an increasingly dire financial environment for their loved ones. People that could grow into wonderful, talented, diverse game developers may never get that spark of inspiration, as the retail face of our industry scales up its costs without passing those rewards back to the average game developer. We’ve failed the low income, working class voice on the consumer side - something has to be done to stop us from failing those people on our development side, too. If the industry can afford to pad itself in expensive prestige, glamour and pomp, but when the time comes to fairly compensate the people driving that opportunity, the elites turn their back and say “not now, we can’t afford it”? That paints a dim picture of how well the industry and its owners see us as a means to an end, and it’s only a matter of time before people band together to demand their worth is rewarded. If not, then maybe our industry is doomed after all.
June 2023 MCV/DEVELOP | 17
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