(Part 2)
I see a kind of game devs that have a particular preoccupation with monetization. When I say monetization, I generally mean the kind that doesn’t just about selling your stuff on Steam.
Monetization brings a game dev into another framework. When a game dev has an issue with a component in their game that affects their income, it is not an issue they can simply forget. They have chosen a path and decided what their bottom line is. There is, on one side, the hobby of tinkering with games’ nuts and bolts, and on the other, the figuring out how you can be monetarily be rewarded from your efforts. Each balances according to their own tastes.
This points back to the first part of what I was saying. It seems to — partly anyway — explain why there is a such a big fuss when software doesn’t turn out the way you want. For professionals, there’s no time to screw around with incomprehensible decisions, and frustrations grow out of a need to produce results, and that is being undermined by some third party. It’s your job, your paycheck, your reputation at stake. It’s serious business, as all real businesses are. When you make your hobby into a business, it becomes a business, and it won’t feel like a hobby any more.
Game development — with its big studio and indie counterparts — is a whole different world. They have their own denizens, atmosphere, and grading system. It’s far from a desirable world, and heck, it’s not even particularly better than my boring one.
If there is a solace, a quiet place, a haven, where as a kid you dreamed about fascinating worlds, it’s not here, nor there, but temporally offset.
CITIZEN 2401 