Tuesday, January 03, 2017

So you are saying there is a chance...

I don't know why I'm writing about this. Probably because after it happens Mr S. will tell me a bunch of stuff I'm not allowed to write about and kill the whole story. Right now I'm more excited about it than CES. You see... MR S. used to work in video game development. And every few years one of the groups he worked with tries to get together and "get the band back together".

The last time was about two years ago, and I was like - there is no way you are getting the band back together.  The economy still wasn't looking great, and the game segment is a really hard industry. It takes about two years to develop a game and then maybe people won't like it. And game development is a real grind. Fun - but a grind nevertheless. Electronic Arts gave him an ulcer. There are huge deadline pressures. And kiss all your spare time goodbye.

Anyway - after CES he's getting together for dinner with some of the guys he worked with from one of the game companies. It will be really interesting because this group was taken out in the recession. Everyone was spread to the four corners of the world like dandelion seeds. Some people went to Southern California, some went North. It will be interesting to see what they did when they had to get real jobs to survive. Video game jobs are real jobs(obviously), but you could just as easily wind up on unemployment is all I"m say'in.

I guess they are all back in the Valley now. Because that is where the jobs have always been.

It's kinda funny because we were looking at games over Christmas and I was funked out beyond belief. I'm like - this is the sad state of the video game industry!? I felt like it was just dieing off. But after talking about the guys I'd forgotten that the game industry just really hasn't recovered from the recession. And I think VR is amazing - but I still feel the same was as I did with 3D glasses or google glass. People just don't like to wear glasses. Even if you make it like a helmet. And so far I've been right!

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