Editorial

Something is Lost

November 15, 1999

I an honored to work now at a famous video game company. I won't say which, because I don't want people to e-mail me questions like: "Which games are you working on? Which games are you making for this system? Why are you making this game for system A instead of for system B?" :-)

For the most part, working on video games is great. I am surrounded by video games all day long. My co-workers enjoy and play video games on their spare time. I get to read many video game publications and call it "research." I have friends who work in other video game companies, so we talk about our jobs. We make fun of the fact that it takes more than a year to make a video game. I can say that a certain game is not "deep enough," or that its game mechanics are like the ones of another game, and I know they understand what I am talking about. And so on.

However, I also feel that I lost "something" in the process. Since I am surrounded by video games all day at work, I feel that I am playing less than in the past. When I come home at night, many times the last thing I want to do is to play. So now I primarily play on the weekends. If I don't have any errands to do. If I don't want to get out of my house. If I am not working overtime.

It seems like I now have to make more of a conscious effort to play video games, since I already get my "fix" at work. Plus I am seeing video games more like a business, and less like entertainment. I go to meetings at work where they talk about the advertising campaign for a certain game, about whether Sega, Sony, or Nintendo will or won't approve our games, and how hard we have to work in order for the game to be released on schedule.

Not that I am complaining. I love my job. Even though it seems like I am less of a gamer now than before I entered this industry, I feel blessed that I can contribute more directly to its success than before, when I only bought their merchandise. I actually like getting up in the morning to go to work. As a matter of fact, on more than a few occasions I stopped playing before it was too late, so I could get enough sleep and be more productive at work the next day. :-)

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