A Career In Gaming [Archive] - Wizards Community

A Career In Gaming [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Paiku
01-16-07, 03:15 PM OH MY GODS! (Pelor, Heironeous, etc)

I'm sick to death of my professional career! I've just snuck out of a room full of my peers, who are ravenously lapping up every detail of a presentation on new protocol standards, because I just don't care. It's an effort for me to concentrate on this stuff for more than 15 seconds at a time!

I quit! I wanna be a gamer, and be paid for it! Look, I can DM, I can write, I can edit, I can design and develop adventures, new spells, creatures, rules and mechanics, I can do cost/benefit analyses, write a business case, manage a project...

There must be a place for me in the gaming industry, somewhere above "hobby shop sales clerk" and "Will DM For Food"!

What do the rest of you do when the real world gets you down?

Answer me that, or else tell me where to send my resumé ;-)
Lunas_Argent
01-16-07, 03:23 PM First of all, proofread everything you have written that you are willing too submit. I read Stephen Kings On Writing, and he spoke a lot about proofreading and streamlining your material.
Then, send your submissions to places like New Funtiers, Discover Games, or Rehtmeyer Design and licensing. There is also the Wizards Design Test (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dd/20050930b)
Paiku
01-16-07, 10:21 PM Thanks Lunas. I know that becoming a successful writer (ie. one who can support himself on his craft) is a long and uncertain road! Although I wish I'd done it when I was starting out, it's not an option now. I can't quit my job, move back to my parents' house (family in tow), and start mailing out manuscripts. I have responsibilities (*middle-aged gamer alert!*). I would need to step into a gaming job at a decent, assured, salary.

I might as well ask for a corner office in Faerun and summers off while I'm at it, eh?

That's why I'm ranting in frustration, rather than submitting any of my adventures to the Design Contest.

Maybe I can get in as a project manager. With the number of hard-cover manuals that Wizards pumps out every year, they must need some pretty tight project discipline. Cross-functional scheduling. Resource managing. Yeah, I can do that. Hey Wizards!

Any other 9-to-5'ers feel trapped in a d20 Modern game with a dull DM?
a_psh
01-16-07, 10:49 PM If you're thinking of writing D&D supplements, sending things to Dungeon or Dragon is a good start. Pursue careers at some of the better d20 third-parties (Green Ronin, ... err, Atlas? stuff like that) as well.

If you have a head for more than just game rules and flavor text -- if you're good at designing the underlying thing that is the game, -- then you can also find gainful yet uncertain employment as... your own boss! Truly the road of independent publishing is frought with both reward and peril. (I would not do an indie d20 production, though. Too much competition in the market and no room to actually innovate.)

Also, crack open your PHB and look at all the kinds of people involved in the project. Editors and developers and whatnot. They need those, too. Sometimes a lot more than designers.

Looking at the career tracks of particularly prolific game designers (like Jonathan Tweet and Monte Cook) may help you get a better idea of how to break into the field, too.
Ace_of_Diamonds
01-16-07, 10:55 PM What do the rest of you do when the real world gets you down?

Sit back in my dark office chair, relax, and clear my mind.
a_psh
01-16-07, 11:07 PM I'm sick to death of my professional career! I've just snuck out of a room full of my peers, who are ravenously lapping up every detail of a presentation on new protocol standards, because I just don't care!Consider this: are you sure all of them are really that interested? Or are they just good at fakng it? You can have many a productive thought if you sit back and feign interest in something. ;)
Regular_K
01-16-07, 11:16 PM When the world gets me down, I dance like nobody is watching! :dancin: :dancin: But all jokes aside, a career in gaming isn't going to be easy to come by. I wanna be a journalist.

But listen to the others about the 3rd party stuff, because they are out there. I'm not sure if there is anything after Hobby Store Clerk until 3rd party worker guy, but good luck with your search.
VrecknidjX
01-17-07, 09:57 AM Write articles for Knowledge Arcana (http://wizo.wizards.com/ka/). We don't pay, but we are official WotC, and, hey, it's a foot in another door.

Drop me a line (vrecknidjx@yahoo.com).

In the meantime, invite some co-workers to a shopping day, come up with an excuse to go into a game store ("Hey, I need to check something out for my nephew.") and see if anything registers. If you can get anyone at work to play minis on break, or do a little RPG on the weekends, at least you'll have something in common with someone at work.

Dave
Thad_Enouf
01-17-07, 11:01 AM Any other 9-to-5'ers feel trapped in a d20 Modern game with a dull DM?

I'm right there with ya. Maybe we should start a support group...or yet another gaming company. :D

All I can do at this time is slug it out at the office and sneak in some RPG reading while there, though when I am ready to start doing some world-building, it will help me feel better about my situation some. Hobbies are good that way.
Paiku
01-17-07, 04:10 PM All I can do at this time is slug it out at the office and sneak in some RPG reading while there...

Hehehh, "guilty". Leading the double-life. Distracted employee by day, gaming fiend by lantern-light. Just imagine the improvement if we could move our obsession into the sunlight, and make a living at it!

*sigh* I don't think there's enough room in the gaming industry for all of us to get paid :P

I'm fortunate in that I have a solid D&D group going. It's only one short evening every two weeks, but it's enough to give my adventure ideas an audience. I'm not complaining about not-enough-gaming (there's never enough), but too-much-day-job-that-I-don't-love.

Thanks for sharing, everyone. I think I'll roll up a resumé now. Hmmm, how about a human Engineer-6/Corporate-Monkey-2/Writer-3. I know what I'm going to take my next level in!
zzakk2to2
01-18-07, 06:09 PM if you have an exciting group ask if you can write down in a book there adventure. just leave out the technicle game stuff and bam you have a book that could potentiualy make money. if it makes money take all the maps you used and all that stuff and sell it as an adventure module for the book and make even more money off it. sure you might not always hit a winner but it would be fun and you just have to write it down.
Alten_Freehands
01-18-07, 09:21 PM if you have an exciting group ask if you can write down in a book there adventure. just leave out the technicle game stuff and bam you have a book that could potentiualy make money. if it makes money take all the maps you used and all that stuff and sell it as an adventure module for the book and make even more money off it. sure you might not always hit a winner but it would be fun and you just have to write it down.

Worked for Record of Lodoss War.
Paiku
01-22-07, 02:27 PM Ya, still not into my day-job, today.

Spent a few hours on the weekend writing an adventure for my gaming group, we might play it in Feb. and I'm trying to get ready. So now it's Monday, and the temptation to open the adventure file and keep writing is a strong one. Will I make the Will save?? At least I don't have my rulebooks here at the office.

Funny how I never procrastinate on D&D stuff...

See, it's those people who spend every waking hour thinking about work stuff, who excel. They're focussed, they have one passion, and it's their work. You know, those guys who leave you a voicemail on a Saturday morning: "hey, I'm reading Telecom Weekly, you gotta hear this...". And then there's guys like me, who spend 8 hours /day begrudgingly bent over the grindstone, and the rest of the time daydreaming (or working on) more pleasurable pursuits.

Question #1: Who's happier?

Question #2: Can I turn any of my "pleasurable pursuits" into a career? And if I did, would I be happier? Or, if I was a game developer, would I daydream about engineering?...
mvincent
01-22-07, 03:01 PM Can I turn any of my "pleasurable pursuits" into a career? And if I did, would I be happier? Or, if I was a game developer, would I daydream about engineering?...You would not daydream about engineering, but game designers/writers almost never make much money (especially compared to engineers). There are a few exceptions (Steve Jackson, etc.), but even those people are doing much more than what a typical hobbiest would enjoy.

Note that I actually did have a career playing games... I was a software tester ("QA engineer") for a computer game company. I was lucky, and it paid far below industry standard (mostly because they could), but it was a foot in the door towards being a software QA engineer for banking software. Now I live comfortably (even if work is boring), and have plenty of free time for gaming.
Boraxe
01-22-07, 03:57 PM First of all, proofread everything you have written that you are willing too submit. I read Stephen Kings On Writing, and he spoke a lot about proofreading and streamlining your material.

Just you wait one clock ticking minute! I refuse to believe for one second that Stephen King ever claimed, with a straight face, that he worked to stremline his material!

To the OP: there ain't no such thing as a free lunch. Just playing D&D does not qualify you for a career in the gaming industry. You need to figure out what aspect of it interested you the most (art, design, writing, etc.) and then work your ass off at that aspect. Once you build up a portfolio of your work you start sending it around. Then prepare to be rejected. A lot.

I have authored/co-authored 12 RPG books to date, and I still work a day job. If you are looking to do it for the money you are looking in the wrong place, my friend.
Ty
01-22-07, 07:41 PM Relax when the real world gets you down? Heh.

I'd love to be able to sit for hours on protocol whatchamahoozers lapping it up.

I find that stepping out the fire door for a cigarette and staring at the bushes helps to relax. (But only if the staff doesn't see me walk by.) Gotta love crisis management on a daily basis.

But, it is better than the alternative of unemployment...
Herobane
01-22-07, 07:44 PM Thanks Lunas. I know that becoming a successful writer (ie. one who can support himself on his craft) is a long and uncertain road! Although I wish I'd done it when I was starting out, it's not an option now. I can't quit my job, move back to my parents' house (family in tow), and start mailing out manuscripts. I have responsibilities (*middle-aged gamer alert!*). I would need to step into a gaming job at a decent, assured, salary.

I might as well ask for a corner office in Faerun and summers off while I'm at it, eh?

That's why I'm ranting in frustration, rather than submitting any of my adventures to the Design Contest.

Maybe I can get in as a project manager. With the number of hard-cover manuals that Wizards pumps out every year, they must need some pretty tight project discipline. Cross-functional scheduling. Resource managing. Yeah, I can do that. Hey Wizards!

Any other 9-to-5'ers feel trapped in a d20 Modern game with a dull DM?

Try your FLGS. They may be hiring.
a_psh
01-22-07, 07:45 PM Try your FLGS. They may be hiring.The chances of them offering good pay, however, are pretty much nil.
IrishRover
01-22-07, 11:04 PM A career is VERY tough, I'd guess--but adding to the gaming world isn't beyond reach, nor is being paid for it.
Dungeon and Dragon are, of coursde, options, but there are others, also.

I hope I'm not crossing any lines with my references to other companies, but Steve Jackson Games' Pyramid magazine covers D20, as well as other games. I got an article published in it, and got enough credit for more game material.

The chance to make money is out there--you need a good idea, and competent writing skills--make it easy to read, useful to as many gamers as practical, and as short as reasonable. (Almost anything you write can be improved by shortening it.)
spades1013
01-22-07, 11:27 PM Well, first of all, work sucks, if it was fun it would be called play. Now, lame joke outta the way, I spent the last 20 years working my way up the same ladder again and again. I fell into the trap that is the restaurant industry. Not that the job itself and the money can't be good, they just usually don't equal the BS. In this time I've gotten a degree in Hotel/Restaurant Management and am a liscenced bartender in two states, and went to Chef school to boot. When the money was good, I didn't mind the work, otherwise...yeah. Finally (two weeks ago), I said Eff-it and sent a resume to a (mostly e-bay) game store not to far away. I got the job and, so far, it's great. Yes, I make less money; no, I'm not involved in any creative aspect of gaming. BUT, I don't dread going to work every day, I get paid to do the kind of stuff I would be doing anyway (looking at D&D stuff). The place I work now is an exhibitor at most east coast conventions, so I get paid to go to them. Maybe I'll press some flesh, get some of my work to a small press publisher, get my name known... CO-WRITE 4E WITH GYGAX!!!...ahem. Or maybe it will be just a job I don't hate. Sorting minis all day and answering e-mail are not the most unpleasant jobs I can think of. However, I am divorced and have no kids, so I am accountable to no one save myself, so YMMV. Sometimes ya just gotta feel like Lester Burnham (minus the teen-girl thing)* Remember:
Today is the first day of the rest of your life, that's true for every day except one...the day you die.
Best of luck on wherever your path takes you
spades1013
01-22-07, 11:32 PM * American Beauty, anyone in their thirties must see it, noncomplience is not an option.
RetiredThief
01-23-07, 01:10 AM Any other 9-to-5'ers feel trapped in a d20 Modern game with a dull DM?

Oh yah. :w00t: Although, to be honest, I'm currently working with some great folks in a great environment, producing a very worthwhile product. It's just that it's not a product I can get really excited about.

I get all excited about gaming, and creating new worlds. If anything I'm TOO into creating new rule sets, as I get into geeky details and forget to make things fun. Kinda OCD about that.

But I dream of making a living writing novels, games, and gaming. (Amongst many other things.)

I just need to remember that it wasn't long ago that I was dreaming of working, period. Income is good.
Paiku
01-24-07, 09:08 AM I guess it's not surprising how hard it is to make a good living in gaming, considering how many people want to do it! Law of supply and demand. On the bright side, that also means there are lots of very talented people producing product for us gamers!

Boraxe, I have only an inkling of how much work it is to get where you are now, but enough to say: all props man, thanks and keep up the good fight!

Aside from the chance to make money, trying to get stuff published is one of the best ways to hone your craft, eh? Never is criticism more honest than when coming from someone who might buy your stuff!

So I'm not the only inveterate gamer stuck in an engineer's/teacher's/etc.'s life. Thanks all for chiming in.

Plan, 2007-2036:
Day: learn to love my real career (the one that pays)
Eve: Game, create, write, rinse, repeat.

Plan, 2037-2072:
Game, create, write, publish!, repeat. :-)

PS: American Beauty - great flick.
TurbineJim
01-25-07, 12:14 PM I have some experience in this... :D

Getting a job in the gaming field is just like any other job you might want to get. Take a look at what your professional skills are and then apply them to what you want to do. For some, that might mean spending a few years back in school to polish up that resume.

Roger Moore (former editor of Dragon) once wrote that getting into the RPG industry was as hard as becoming an astronaut. That was back in the 80's, before the advent of d20 and the plethora of gaming companies that it created, but it illustrates the point of how many good game designer jobs exist in the publishing RPG side of things. I don't think that's as true today as it once was, but it's not that far off either.

There are plenty of gaming companies out there that do need professionals of every caliber. Marketing, sales, web services...even game designers, writers, and editors.

Whatever you want to do, be remarkable. Establish a list of professional qualifications. Writers write, as the old mantra goes. Be seen and make some waves.
Soulkeeper
01-25-07, 12:20 PM Paiku, I feel for you.

10 years in the computer realm, support, server admin, web design, project management, programming and database...

and I've give my left to be in another career. I rarely even want to see my computer any more.

Sadly, I was schooled in Education, Comp and Lit 7-12 and graduated just when we had the worst teacher layoffs in history.

What I'd give to be a teacher now. Good luck to you.
Bulabase
01-25-07, 02:43 PM Soulkeeper: unless you did something really bad, working in the teaching field should not be hard for you. Just be willing to move.

OP: Getting into the industry is very hard. Getting a full time job that pays the bills in a responsible, adult fashion is nigh impossible. Best of luck. Use the game for what it was intended: The very escape which you reference.
Soulkeeper
01-25-07, 02:49 PM Soulkeeper: unless you did something really bad, working in the teaching field should not be hard for you. Just be willing to move.

;) Not hard at all. I obviously came across the wrong way. I'm actually good at what I do, its not that. I just no longer enjoy it like I use to. For me, working with computers all day gives me little reason to want to go home and get on the computer, for anything.
angryman
01-25-07, 09:07 PM My job was really bad, so I quit. :)
Paiku
01-26-07, 06:54 PM I'm sure y'all saw this:
Wizards of the Coast's Digital Initiative

...Wizards is in the process of expanding our digital gaming presence. Magic Online has been quite successful for us, and many of you have probably heard about Uncivilized: The Goblin Game, which goes into internal alpha testing next month. We have a number of other ideas about cool things we could do on the web or other digital platforms. Over the next few months, we’re going to be posting quite a number of job openings so we can bring these ideas to life. Our hope is that we can find web developers, web designers, producers, project managers, programmers, and game support personnel who also happen to be gamers. We’re going to need some managers too.
...
Full article here: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/news/20070126a

If you guys don't all get off my case, I'm gonna apply! Don't think I won't do it!!

Hehehh. :cool:

Thanks TurbineJim for chiming in, it's great to hear from someone on the inside on this issue.

Work has been more tolerable this week. Three of the players in my gaming group are in my department. And a good friend of mine just proposed that we get serious about polishing some of our original adventures, short fiction and new game designs, for publication. Working on these things after the kids are in bed, it's gonna take a long time :rolleyes:. But I gotta do something waiting for those every-other-Thursday-night D&D games to come around!

And I hope some of you guys are going to apply for those Wizards jobs!

Time for me to take 20...

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Paiku 01-16-07, 03:15 PM	OH MY GODS! (Pelor, Heironeous, etc) I'm sick to death of my professional career! I've just snuck out of a room full of my peers, who are ravenously lapping up every detail of a presentation on new protocol standards, because I just don't care. It's an effort for me to concentrate on this stuff for more than 15 seconds at a time! I quit! I wanna be a gamer, and be paid for it! Look, I can DM, I can write, I can edit, I can design and develop adventures, new spells, creatures, rules and mechanics, I can do cost/benefit analyses, write a business case, manage a project... There must be a place for me in the gaming industry, somewhere above "hobby shop sales clerk" and "Will DM For Food"! What do the rest of you do when the real world gets you down? Answer me that, or else tell me where to send my resumé ;-)
Lunas_Argent 01-16-07, 03:23 PM	First of all, proofread everything you have written that you are willing too submit. I read Stephen Kings On Writing, and he spoke a lot about proofreading and streamlining your material. Then, send your submissions to places like New Funtiers, Discover Games, or Rehtmeyer Design and licensing. There is also the Wizards Design Test (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dd/20050930b)
Paiku 01-16-07, 10:21 PM	Thanks Lunas. I know that becoming a successful writer (ie. one who can support himself on his craft) is a long and uncertain road! Although I wish I'd done it when I was starting out, it's not an option now. I can't quit my job, move back to my parents' house (family in tow), and start mailing out manuscripts. I have responsibilities (middle-aged gamer alert!). I would need to step into a gaming job at a decent, assured, salary. I might as well ask for a corner office in Faerun and summers off while I'm at it, eh? That's why I'm ranting in frustration, rather than submitting any of my adventures to the Design Contest. Maybe I can get in as a project manager. With the number of hard-cover manuals that Wizards pumps out every year, they must need some pretty tight project discipline. Cross-functional scheduling. Resource managing. Yeah, I can do that. Hey Wizards! Any other 9-to-5'ers feel trapped in a d20 Modern game with a dull DM?
a_psh 01-16-07, 10:49 PM	If you're thinking of writing D&D supplements, sending things to Dungeon or Dragon is a good start. Pursue careers at some of the better d20 third-parties (Green Ronin, ... err, Atlas? stuff like that) as well. If you have a head for more than just game rules and flavor text -- if you're good at designing the underlying thing that is the game, -- then you can also find gainful yet uncertain employment as... your own boss! Truly the road of independent publishing is frought with both reward and peril. (I would not do an indie d20 production, though. Too much competition in the market and no room to actually innovate.) Also, crack open your PHB and look at all the kinds of people involved in the project. Editors and developers and whatnot. They need those, too. Sometimes a lot more than designers. Looking at the career tracks of particularly prolific game designers (like Jonathan Tweet and Monte Cook) may help you get a better idea of how to break into the field, too.
Ace_of_Diamonds 01-16-07, 10:55 PM	What do the rest of you do when the real world gets you down? Sit back in my dark office chair, relax, and clear my mind.
a_psh 01-16-07, 11:07 PM	I'm sick to death of my professional career! I've just snuck out of a room full of my peers, who are ravenously lapping up every detail of a presentation on new protocol standards, because I just don't care!Consider this: are you sure all of them are really that interested? Or are they just good at fakng it? You can have many a productive thought if you sit back and feign interest in something. ;)
Regular_K 01-16-07, 11:16 PM	When the world gets me down, I dance like nobody is watching! :dancin: :dancin: But all jokes aside, a career in gaming isn't going to be easy to come by. I wanna be a journalist. But listen to the others about the 3rd party stuff, because they are out there. I'm not sure if there is anything after Hobby Store Clerk until 3rd party worker guy, but good luck with your search.
VrecknidjX 01-17-07, 09:57 AM	Write articles for Knowledge Arcana (http://wizo.wizards.com/ka/). We don't pay, but we are official WotC, and, hey, it's a foot in another door. Drop me a line (vrecknidjx@yahoo.com). In the meantime, invite some co-workers to a shopping day, come up with an excuse to go into a game store ("Hey, I need to check something out for my nephew.") and see if anything registers. If you can get anyone at work to play minis on break, or do a little RPG on the weekends, at least you'll have something in common with someone at work. Dave
Thad_Enouf 01-17-07, 11:01 AM	Any other 9-to-5'ers feel trapped in a d20 Modern game with a dull DM? I'm right there with ya. Maybe we should start a support group...or yet another gaming company. :D All I can do at this time is slug it out at the office and sneak in some RPG reading while there, though when I am ready to start doing some world-building, it will help me feel better about my situation some. Hobbies are good that way.
Paiku 01-17-07, 04:10 PM	All I can do at this time is slug it out at the office and sneak in some RPG reading while there... Hehehh, "guilty". Leading the double-life. Distracted employee by day, gaming fiend by lantern-light. Just imagine the improvement if we could move our obsession into the sunlight, and make a living at it! sigh I don't think there's enough room in the gaming industry for all of us to get paid :P I'm fortunate in that I have a solid D&D group going. It's only one short evening every two weeks, but it's enough to give my adventure ideas an audience. I'm not complaining about not-enough-gaming (there's never enough), but too-much-day-job-that-I-don't-love. Thanks for sharing, everyone. I think I'll roll up a resumé now. Hmmm, how about a human Engineer-6/Corporate-Monkey-2/Writer-3. I know what I'm going to take my next level in!
zzakk2to2 01-18-07, 06:09 PM	if you have an exciting group ask if you can write down in a book there adventure. just leave out the technicle game stuff and bam you have a book that could potentiualy make money. if it makes money take all the maps you used and all that stuff and sell it as an adventure module for the book and make even more money off it. sure you might not always hit a winner but it would be fun and you just have to write it down.
Alten_Freehands 01-18-07, 09:21 PM	if you have an exciting group ask if you can write down in a book there adventure. just leave out the technicle game stuff and bam you have a book that could potentiualy make money. if it makes money take all the maps you used and all that stuff and sell it as an adventure module for the book and make even more money off it. sure you might not always hit a winner but it would be fun and you just have to write it down. Worked for Record of Lodoss War.
Paiku 01-22-07, 02:27 PM	Ya, still not into my day-job, today. Spent a few hours on the weekend writing an adventure for my gaming group, we might play it in Feb. and I'm trying to get ready. So now it's Monday, and the temptation to open the adventure file and keep writing is a strong one. Will I make the Will save?? At least I don't have my rulebooks here at the office. Funny how I never procrastinate on D&D stuff... See, it's those people who spend every waking hour thinking about work stuff, who excel. They're focussed, they have one passion, and it's their work. You know, those guys who leave you a voicemail on a Saturday morning: "hey, I'm reading Telecom Weekly, you gotta hear this...". And then there's guys like me, who spend 8 hours /day begrudgingly bent over the grindstone, and the rest of the time daydreaming (or working on) more pleasurable pursuits. Question #1: Who's happier? Question #2: Can I turn any of my "pleasurable pursuits" into a career? And if I did, would I be happier? Or, if I was a game developer, would I daydream about engineering?...
mvincent 01-22-07, 03:01 PM	Can I turn any of my "pleasurable pursuits" into a career? And if I did, would I be happier? Or, if I was a game developer, would I daydream about engineering?...You would not daydream about engineering, but game designers/writers almost never make much money (especially compared to engineers). There are a few exceptions (Steve Jackson, etc.), but even those people are doing much more than what a typical hobbiest would enjoy. Note that I actually did have a career playing games... I was a software tester ("QA engineer") for a computer game company. I was lucky, and it paid far below industry standard (mostly because they could), but it was a foot in the door towards being a software QA engineer for banking software. Now I live comfortably (even if work is boring), and have plenty of free time for gaming.
Boraxe 01-22-07, 03:57 PM	First of all, proofread everything you have written that you are willing too submit. I read Stephen Kings On Writing, and he spoke a lot about proofreading and streamlining your material. Just you wait one clock ticking minute! I refuse to believe for one second that Stephen King ever claimed, with a straight face, that he worked to stremline his material! To the OP: there ain't no such thing as a free lunch. Just playing D&D does not qualify you for a career in the gaming industry. You need to figure out what aspect of it interested you the most (art, design, writing, etc.) and then work your ass off at that aspect. Once you build up a portfolio of your work you start sending it around. Then prepare to be rejected. A lot. I have authored/co-authored 12 RPG books to date, and I still work a day job. If you are looking to do it for the money you are looking in the wrong place, my friend.
Ty 01-22-07, 07:41 PM	Relax when the real world gets you down? Heh. I'd love to be able to sit for hours on protocol whatchamahoozers lapping it up. I find that stepping out the fire door for a cigarette and staring at the bushes helps to relax. (But only if the staff doesn't see me walk by.) Gotta love crisis management on a daily basis. But, it is better than the alternative of unemployment...
Herobane 01-22-07, 07:44 PM	Thanks Lunas. I know that becoming a successful writer (ie. one who can support himself on his craft) is a long and uncertain road! Although I wish I'd done it when I was starting out, it's not an option now. I can't quit my job, move back to my parents' house (family in tow), and start mailing out manuscripts. I have responsibilities (middle-aged gamer alert!). I would need to step into a gaming job at a decent, assured, salary. I might as well ask for a corner office in Faerun and summers off while I'm at it, eh? That's why I'm ranting in frustration, rather than submitting any of my adventures to the Design Contest. Maybe I can get in as a project manager. With the number of hard-cover manuals that Wizards pumps out every year, they must need some pretty tight project discipline. Cross-functional scheduling. Resource managing. Yeah, I can do that. Hey Wizards! Any other 9-to-5'ers feel trapped in a d20 Modern game with a dull DM? Try your FLGS. They may be hiring.
a_psh 01-22-07, 07:45 PM	Try your FLGS. They may be hiring.The chances of them offering good pay, however, are pretty much nil.
IrishRover 01-22-07, 11:04 PM	A career is VERY tough, I'd guess--but adding to the gaming world isn't beyond reach, nor is being paid for it. Dungeon and Dragon are, of coursde, options, but there are others, also. I hope I'm not crossing any lines with my references to other companies, but Steve Jackson Games' Pyramid magazine covers D20, as well as other games. I got an article published in it, and got enough credit for more game material. The chance to make money is out there--you need a good idea, and competent writing skills--make it easy to read, useful to as many gamers as practical, and as short as reasonable. (Almost anything you write can be improved by shortening it.)
spades1013 01-22-07, 11:27 PM	Well, first of all, work sucks, if it was fun it would be called play. Now, lame joke outta the way, I spent the last 20 years working my way up the same ladder again and again. I fell into the trap that is the restaurant industry. Not that the job itself and the money can't be good, they just usually don't equal the BS. In this time I've gotten a degree in Hotel/Restaurant Management and am a liscenced bartender in two states, and went to Chef school to boot. When the money was good, I didn't mind the work, otherwise...yeah. Finally (two weeks ago), I said Eff-it and sent a resume to a (mostly e-bay) game store not to far away. I got the job and, so far, it's great. Yes, I make less money; no, I'm not involved in any creative aspect of gaming. BUT, I don't dread going to work every day, I get paid to do the kind of stuff I would be doing anyway (looking at D&D stuff). The place I work now is an exhibitor at most east coast conventions, so I get paid to go to them. Maybe I'll press some flesh, get some of my work to a small press publisher, get my name known... CO-WRITE 4E WITH GYGAX!!!...ahem. Or maybe it will be just a job I don't hate. Sorting minis all day and answering e-mail are not the most unpleasant jobs I can think of. However, I am divorced and have no kids, so I am accountable to no one save myself, so YMMV. Sometimes ya just gotta feel like Lester Burnham (minus the teen-girl thing)* Remember: Today is the first day of the rest of your life, that's true for every day except one...the day you die. Best of luck on wherever your path takes you
spades1013 01-22-07, 11:32 PM	* American Beauty, anyone in their thirties must see it, noncomplience is not an option.
RetiredThief 01-23-07, 01:10 AM	Any other 9-to-5'ers feel trapped in a d20 Modern game with a dull DM? Oh yah. :w00t: Although, to be honest, I'm currently working with some great folks in a great environment, producing a very worthwhile product. It's just that it's not a product I can get really excited about. I get all excited about gaming, and creating new worlds. If anything I'm TOO into creating new rule sets, as I get into geeky details and forget to make things fun. Kinda OCD about that. But I dream of making a living writing novels, games, and gaming. (Amongst many other things.) I just need to remember that it wasn't long ago that I was dreaming of working, period. Income is good.
Paiku 01-24-07, 09:08 AM	I guess it's not surprising how hard it is to make a good living in gaming, considering how many people want to do it! Law of supply and demand. On the bright side, that also means there are lots of very talented people producing product for us gamers! Boraxe, I have only an inkling of how much work it is to get where you are now, but enough to say: all props man, thanks and keep up the good fight! Aside from the chance to make money, trying to get stuff published is one of the best ways to hone your craft, eh? Never is criticism more honest than when coming from someone who might buy your stuff! So I'm not the only inveterate gamer stuck in an engineer's/teacher's/etc.'s life. Thanks all for chiming in. Plan, 2007-2036: Day: learn to love my real career (the one that pays) Eve: Game, create, write, rinse, repeat. Plan, 2037-2072: Game, create, write, publish!, repeat. :-) PS: American Beauty - great flick.
TurbineJim 01-25-07, 12:14 PM	I have some experience in this... :D Getting a job in the gaming field is just like any other job you might want to get. Take a look at what your professional skills are and then apply them to what you want to do. For some, that might mean spending a few years back in school to polish up that resume. Roger Moore (former editor of Dragon) once wrote that getting into the RPG industry was as hard as becoming an astronaut. That was back in the 80's, before the advent of d20 and the plethora of gaming companies that it created, but it illustrates the point of how many good game designer jobs exist in the publishing RPG side of things. I don't think that's as true today as it once was, but it's not that far off either. There are plenty of gaming companies out there that do need professionals of every caliber. Marketing, sales, web services...even game designers, writers, and editors. Whatever you want to do, be remarkable. Establish a list of professional qualifications. Writers write, as the old mantra goes. Be seen and make some waves.
Soulkeeper 01-25-07, 12:20 PM	Paiku, I feel for you. 10 years in the computer realm, support, server admin, web design, project management, programming and database... and I've give my left to be in another career. I rarely even want to see my computer any more. Sadly, I was schooled in Education, Comp and Lit 7-12 and graduated just when we had the worst teacher layoffs in history. What I'd give to be a teacher now. Good luck to you.
Bulabase 01-25-07, 02:43 PM	Soulkeeper: unless you did something really bad, working in the teaching field should not be hard for you. Just be willing to move. OP: Getting into the industry is very hard. Getting a full time job that pays the bills in a responsible, adult fashion is nigh impossible. Best of luck. Use the game for what it was intended: The very escape which you reference.
Soulkeeper 01-25-07, 02:49 PM	Soulkeeper: unless you did something really bad, working in the teaching field should not be hard for you. Just be willing to move. ;) Not hard at all. I obviously came across the wrong way. I'm actually good at what I do, its not that. I just no longer enjoy it like I use to. For me, working with computers all day gives me little reason to want to go home and get on the computer, for anything.
angryman 01-25-07, 09:07 PM	My job was really bad, so I quit. :)
Paiku 01-26-07, 06:54 PM	I'm sure y'all saw this: Wizards of the Coast's Digital Initiative ...Wizards is in the process of expanding our digital gaming presence. Magic Online has been quite successful for us, and many of you have probably heard about Uncivilized: The Goblin Game, which goes into internal alpha testing next month. We have a number of other ideas about cool things we could do on the web or other digital platforms. Over the next few months, we’re going to be posting quite a number of job openings so we can bring these ideas to life. Our hope is that we can find web developers, web designers, producers, project managers, programmers, and game support personnel who also happen to be gamers. We’re going to need some managers too. ... Full article here: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/news/20070126a If you guys don't all get off my case, I'm gonna apply! Don't think I won't do it!! Hehehh. :cool: Thanks TurbineJim for chiming in, it's great to hear from someone on the inside on this issue. Work has been more tolerable this week. Three of the players in my gaming group are in my department. And a good friend of mine just proposed that we get serious about polishing some of our original adventures, short fiction and new game designs, for publication. Working on these things after the kids are in bed, it's gonna take a long time :rolleyes:. But I gotta do something waiting for those every-other-Thursday-night D&D games to come around! And I hope some of you guys are going to apply for those Wizards jobs! Time for me to take 20...