As I was washing dishes tonight (chores — oboy!), the classic track “Introduction – Manor” from the renown album “An Introduction to AD&D” came on, and as I listened to the adult actor attempting to be a 14-year old boy, the following line caught my fancy: “..you quickly tire of the safe life here in town. Just over the next hill must be danger, wealth, and fame.”
This brought to mind a discussion I had with Mark a little while ago about some of the difficulities I’ve had dating:
“A lot of the girls that I had an interest in, I would lose that, because it seems that they are more concerned with my job status and income,” I explained. Keep in mind that this discussion was happening during my unemployment phase, so I was rather sensitive to a potential date’s money-grubbing tendencies. “And it bothers me to think that this girl, who otherwise seems really cool, would then dump a guy should he lose his job or something.”
“But,” Mark countered, “remember that what a lot of girls are looking for is the stability of a guy with a steady, secure job. Someone who is settled into their career and will be there for years.”
“well, then,” I muttered, “I’m pretty much screwed.”
See, working as a Game Designer is not something that anyone could consider to be a “safe” profession. Not even counting to risk of being in small start-ups (like my last and now current job), even larger studios can be merge and shed jobs, and beyond that, often people, upon completing a long project, will move on to something else. Pretty much straight freelance/contract work, and there’s no guarantee of continued work via that model.
Now, personally, I’m fine with the uncertainty of being a Game Designer. But now I do have to think that maybe in the world of D&D, I would most likely be an adventurer, roaming from gig to gig, never entirely sure where my next meal is coming from, and accept that a path such as mine is fraught with peril and the knowledge that I walk it alone.
The dangers of cramps in my WASD hand are my sole burden to bear.
To be fair, I wonder if the “Steady Employment” trope has less to do with money and more to do with personality. Someone who has kept a job for a period of time is probably at least marginally sane.
Well, perhaps I explained myself wrong as that isn’t exactly what I meant. I think the important word here is “stability”. I didn’t mean (if I did) to emphasize that stability meant staying at one job for a long period of time or be settled into a single job. If that were true then anyone who’s self employed or entrepreneur would be considered “unstable”. I meat to emphasize “stable” in the sense that you can’t expect to go 6 months in-between jobs and expect to date a girl looking for marriage material to put up with that. I’m sure there’s someone out there like that but I wouldn’t consider it the norm.
John — true; I’ve claimed to be normal, after all.
Mr. 188 — Heh; if she’s going to cut and run when things get tough, then it’s for the best. Personally, I’d rather spend my time with someone who doesn’t tie her interest in me directly to my resume.
*sigh* You still misunderstand me. We’ll just move on from here.
On a different topic, I’ve been trying to research the Steampunk genre of music. Trying to figure out what kind of melodic themes or characteristics of the music define that genre. So far most of what I found has more to do with what the musicians wear rather than the music they play
But I do suppose the music contains a wider source of instruments with a mash of both modern and traditional era instruments. Bioshock 2 is like a complete film score which is pretty cool.
Sure, that works too. However, consider:
I think you’re a stable person in a chaotic career. Given how lousy the economy is right now, most careers are a bit chaotic, but “game designer” is intrinsically chaotic in a way that “software tester in the financial industry” is not.
A person who keeps changing his job frequently is either a stable person in a chaotic career, or a chaotic person in a stable career. It’s not “does he make money,” it’s “does he have the ability to make money?”
And that can be hard to tell.