By Charlie Spritzer

Alex St. John, founder of game company WildTangent.Inc, ignited a firestorm of controversy recently when he posted an article on venturebeat.com defending exorbitant crunch time and decrying “wage-slave” attitudes at large game development companies.  St. John notes in his guest blog post:

“I can’t begin to imagine how sheltered the lives of modern technology employees must be to think that any amount of hours they spend pushing a mouse around for a paycheck is really demanding strenuous work.”

 

Alex St. John’s unsparing words may be stinging to some, but carries at its core a sobering truth: There exist far more miserable occupations that no self-respecting game company employee would ever throw away their desk job for.

St. John sums this up nicely:

 

“  …you would they think that they are trapped in some disenfranchised third-world country forced to dig for blood diamonds to feed their families.”

The main issue with this statement is how it fails to describe the true misery of blood diamond workers. St. John’s point would have hit closer to home by mentioning that these workers get payed less than a dollar a day for prolonged and intense physical labor. In comparison, unpaid overtime spent pushing around a mouse in an air conditioned office should be considered a luxury, no matter how long you have to endure that luxury.

Where would you rather work?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To further St. John’s point, here are several other highly undesirable and dangerous jobs:

1. A Circus Roustabout:

“…I can’t help noticing a clear and distinct difference between the people who really make it huge in gaming and the people who just have long résumes. It’s the attitude.” – St John.

If you don’t have attitude when becoming a Circus Roustabout, you will acquire it quickly. Working for a traveling circus may sound like good fun, but it’s physically back breaking and dangerous. You’re constantly in a state of uncertain flux, moving from small town to smaller town, transporting heavy unwieldy equipment, and keeping large unpredictable animals in check. Virtually zero health coverage and unhinged wayward carnies would soon have you crawling back to the safe confines of your cubicle.

While long hours in the office may force you to neglect your family, consider yourself happy to have a home at all.

2. A Land Mine Remover:

“Not a single person I have ever known who went on to greatness in the gaming industry has ever exhibited a shred of wage-slavishness.” -St. John

The very possibility for greatness is not inherent to all jobs. Your biggest worries working at a game company would amount to mild displeasure for a land mine removal specialist. The job only pays on average around $44,000 a year while daily threatening life and limb.

Carpal Tunnel doesn’t sound so bad now, does it? You’re far safer sticking with Minesweeper.

 

3. Mount Everest Sherpa:

“There’s nothing that can compensate people “fairly” for the sacrifices that great art requires.” – Alex St. John – VentureBeat Article

Surely not all sacrifices are equal, but few are as salient and unrewarded as the Sherpa’s of Mount Everest.

I’m sorry, but a faulty office air conditioning system is no match for the sub-zero temperatures, spontaneous avalanches, and oxygen scarcity dealt with by Sherpa’s clinging to the side of the world’s tallest mountain.

Alex St. John would agree that crunch time induced exhaustion is trivial compared to the physical exhaustion experienced at 28,000 feet, where each step could be your last. Every frozen body littering that mountain serves as an eternal reminder that game company employment would have been the smarter choice.

4. Deep Sea Fisherman:

“Somehow, these people have managed to adopt a wage-slave attitude toward one of the most remarkable and privileged careers in the world.” -St. John

Co-workers can get on your nerves, but imagine having to spend weeks confined with them on an old fishing boat in the middle of the wild blue sea. When you’re not controlling heavy and dangerous machinery, try not going stir-crazy as you bide your time between catches, hoping this haul will be the one to send you over the hump of financial precariousness.

Are those dark clouds on the horizon? Your game company may eventually sink, but at least it won’t be into the cold dark fathoms beneath the waves. Let Alex St. John steer you to dry land.

And the list of relatively worse occupations goes on: Lumberjack, Mystery Shopper, Rwandan Street Sweeper, etc. – but I feel the point is made and Alex St. John has been fairly vindicated.

It takes some courage to put your neck out there and delineate to the masses what real work entails. After all, as St. John mentions, you all share the same passion in the end:

“Making games is not a job, pushing a mouse is not a hardship, it’s the most amazing opportunity you can possibly get paid to pursue…”

Indeed, St. John, indeed.

 

Charlie Spritzer is a tech blogger by night and game journalist by day. Known for his controversial opinions on a vast array of topics, he’s been dubbed by many with the label “Au Contraire”. He loves his coffee cold and his twitter conversations heated. He doesn’t care about blog awards, though he wouldn’t mind getting one eventually.