Is the game industry a youth rice industry?
Recently, on the overseas forum Reddit, there was an article titled "Is there ageism in the game industry?" The post was topped by the "r/gamedev" section. The reason for the netizen's post was in a video of a game development industry leader, who said that "if you don't enter the game industry at the age of 25, it's already too late."
Prior to this, regarding the widely circulated "35-year-old" elimination threshold in China, I believe many people have heard about it. But in an industry, especially a comprehensive industry such as games, the author has never thought about the age threshold for entry.
After all, as a media practitioner, you will see too many big guys of all ages shine in this industry every day. In the face of excellent works, age is usually not worth mentioning. But after a simple search, the author found that the invisible threshold of 25 years old seems to have existed for many years.
In the case of well-known Japanese gamers, the father of Final Fantasy, Hironobu Sakaguchi, joined Square at the age of 21, Hideo Kojima joined the MSX department of konami Kobe branch at the age of 23, and "old thief" Hidetaka Miyazaki was already "29 years old when he decided to enter the game industry from the oracle company at that time" in 2003.
In the traditional stereotype, especially in Internet-related industries, foreign companies seem to be linked to "pension". A few years ago, in the most intense period of anti-996, in addition to the widely circulated 996.ICU on GitHub, some people established a list of 955.WLB (work–life balance work-life balance) companies, except for Douban, Zhihu and other companies, the rest are basically foreign companies.
Nowadays, the game company does not talk about the pension, 25 years old is already too old?
Incomplete list
As long as my desires are low enough, life will not overwhelm me
Among all the comments, the more likes came from netizens' affirmation of the existence of this age discrimination, as well as comments that tried to "rationalize" age discrimination.
"Tech startups tend to be very biased toward young people who have just graduated from college, and working 60-80 hours a week (an average of 12-18 hours a day for five days) is normal, and it's not as bad as people usually think because frankly they (young people) need to prove their worth", "This is not true, but it is not unique to the gaming industry".
But at the same time, the same netizen "Emotional-Dust-1367" also said that he had seen game companies hire graduates for slightly higher than the minimum wage, and then let them work 60-80 hours a week. So in the final analysis, it is actually because "young people are cheap and wear-resistant".
"Where ageism comes into play is that if there are two equal candidates, HR is usually willing to hire younger people rather than older ones, mainly because they are usually less demanding in terms of pay and career advancement."
But even if the contrast between this salary and working hours seems unpleasant, some netizens have broken the opportunity that this set of models can run, "If the age discrimination is true, why is it so difficult to find a job after college even if you have internship experience before."
Like middle-aged people who are bent over by family and life, life is not easy for young people, and in many places where housing prices rise faster than wages, deposit rates "can't keep up" with the rate of inflation, reducing the desire to live has become the fastest and most direct way to improve the quality of life.
In the comments, other netizens said that when the annual income of less than 50,000 US dollars is basically equal to poverty, the netizen Estropolim said that he lives in a city with relatively high costs, but the annual income of 20,000 US dollars has been very good. And "doing well" refers to "four roommates" and "$22" a day in living expenses after rent.
While not ruling out geography and the fact that he's a little money-saving genius, $22 and 4 roommates, for an adult's life, are clearly hard to link to what Estropolim calls "extravagant and bustling living." However, compared with unemployment, five social insurance and one fund and stable income are obviously more important than "living like an individual".
Dude, just because you can live in poverty doesn't mean most people can.
Compared with young people who have just entered society and need to work, people who choose to enter the game industry in middle age are "different in that people over the age of 25 are less likely to let companies squeeze them unscrupulously."
Game companies like young people, but that's not the same as the game industry embracing only young people
However, although many netizens' comments have affirmed this, "age discrimination" exists more or less in game companies, but this does not mean that the entry threshold of the game industry is under 25 years old.
"If you have 3 kids in your family, it's harder to work in an entry-level position, but it's absolutely ridiculous to say that it's too late after 25 years."
In a series of comments, many netizens shared their personal experience of entering the game industry in middle age. "I was in my forties before I got into the industry. Several of the people on the same project as me were in their fifties, and one of them was even in his sixties. So it's not too late. ”
"In my last studio, we had an intern from a game development school who was in his forties. He was hired at the end of his internship. ”
Some netizens even said that companies like Docker Punch ("The Ghost of Tsushima") will also favor some "old people" so much that they have little respect for "many young people."
As a studio owner or HR put it in the comments section, there are companies that do have age discrimination, but there are a significant number of companies that "don't care about your age, gender, or anything else." Only care whether you can do the work I hired you to do at the salary I paid you."
So we can also see a game practitioner from Northern Europe, surrounded by a group of novice programmers in their thirties who were once carpenters; former HR in their forties who thought working in a game company was cool and entered game development; and people who switched from making MVs to game designers.
"I haven't heard anyone point fingers at someone else's past. On the contrary, people tend to appreciate other ideas and perspectives that come with different backgrounds. ”
Of course, even the most attractive point of view must be supported by successful examples to be convincing, and the game industry can be said to be a lot of examples, in addition to the aforementioned Miyazaki Hidetaka, large companies such as Ubisoft, the average age of employees is actually 33 years old; and personal examples, the most typical is the former Sony Online Entertainment President Kelly Flock, who died earlier this year.
Kelly Flock continued to drive forklifts in EA's warehouse until the age of 32, but then during his time at Sony, he led the birth of classic hit games such as God of War and Twisted Metal: Black, which can be said to be a generation of legends.
20 is still too early
Of course, the success of no amount of precedent will change the reality that there are indeed differences between middle-aged and elderly people and young people in various aspects of life stage, life situation and so on. Even "middle-aged" companies like Ubisoft are often regulars in news such as overtime culture.
For the game industry with the project as the unit and the high-intensity cyclical working environment as the norm, some netizens bluntly said, "Generally only young and enthusiastic people are willing to be abused at the bottom of the game industry", "The younger they are, the more likely they are not to sleep." ”
And, "If you're older than your superior, it might be hard for him to order you to do something stupid with the resources you have." As a result, supervisors are more inclined to hire people younger than they are to maintain this illusion of superiority. And this doesn't even require a brain, it may just be a decision made by the subconscious. ”
"You may not receive an interview call, your resume will not even be seen, and any department head will conduct their own screening."
Some foreign companies may be the most compliant with labor laws in China, but in their own territory, well-behaved companies may show their chaotic and evil side.
After all, the game company is still a profit-oriented organization, whether it is for the sake of young people's physical strength and surplus value, or people subconsciously seek a new beginning in such a young industry in order to ensure their superiority, and the dilemma faced by middle-aged people is definitely there.
You're still a kid!
"As in any industry, there will be ageism. It's hard for people to fight their inner prejudices... But the 20s certainly didn't reach that flashpoint. It's even a long way from reaching that point", and "in most cases, 25s are quite young, not much different from most 21-22 year olds." ”