Recessions are good for gamers ... in the long run

It sucks having been laid off twice in the last year. I'm wanting to buy up cheap expansions for Runebound right now, but just can't justify it.

Being in Seattle I'm seeing a lot of effects on local game industries. Because people have a lot less discretionary money, or are just too scared to spend their discretionary money it is impacting the game economy. But it is very far from impacting companies equally!

Some game companies are still growing and expanding at this time, some are laying off and shrinking massively and really scaling back in a major way. What do I see as a general trend behind who is doing what? Companies which pump out a lot of low quality games and charge standard prices for them are taking a major beating. Companies that always try to produce high quality games, and don't charge excessively for them are doing really well and even adding positions. Look into the reports of a dozen game companies and you'll see it right now. Quality and not trying to price gouge are huge marks of success right now. For Gamer's this means the low quality game companies are going out of business and will have less money to peddle garbage onto the market but the quality game houses putting out good titles are going to see a lot of growth which hopefully means even more good games in the future as they hire and produce more.

Here is my caveat though. During this recession everyone is trying to scalp bottom dollar on their employees because so many people are desperate for any wage. This doesn't mean you get a good employee, one who is dedicated or will work hard for you. Someone who is making half what he used to for the same job is going to resent his new employer for taking advantage of his situation. It is just human nature and why should employers be surprised at the high turnover of disgruntled new employees or their lack of performance equalling those who are paid twice as much or more?

Furthermore lets take a look at your typical game company pay scales. Game Developer magazine had some recent articles and looking through job postings will agree... QA people get paid the least in the game industry even though they probably have the most impact on a successful or non-successful game company right now. I know way too many game developers who work for companies who aren't worth their paychecks. They have lots of game experience... usually made up of lots of failed titles and it is far far less about performance as much as knowing the right people to get a developer position. The successful QA software engineer will probably still make a quarter as much in many cases as the uneducated game developer/designer without a high profit title to his name. But since fewer and fewer companies have profits they can just flush down the drain, maybe you should start to think about putting your money on the people who are going to really guarantee if you're successful or another high bankrolled flop?

In other news if you're an employer in the Seattle area, let me assure you that I'm worth much more than minimum wage.

Lawbound

Runebound 2nd edition is a lot of fun. Taking legal action against your landlord because they're evicting you for having a kid is not.

Our apartment manager decided suddenly that our newborn is a violation of occupancy limits and gave us an eviction notice (which points to a non-existent clause in our lease). I'm certain it has nothing to do with the fact that our downstairs neighbor has been complaining if she ever hears a kid. We're talking noon - 6pm range, our kids go to bed at 8pm and by complaining I mean she grabs objects and thumps on her ceiling loudly and writes frequent letters to the management. Now you're probably imagining those apartments from hell that we've all lived in with paper thin walls, we generally have to be paying attention to hear the teenager up above us jumping up and down. So while I imagine our 2.5 year old and almost 4 year old are audible, how bad is it? Bad enough evidently that they asked us to change apartments and when I told them we'd do it if they compensated moving expenses they change their mind and decided we'd have to move out or be evicted when my pregnant wife had our son. Should I add that the manager avoids talking to me and comes and harassed my wife about all this as soon as I'd leave for my last job? Now that I got laid off he never stops by any more. I just had explained in detail to me today that there wasn't a more clear-cut case of family discrimination and harassment unless they had publicly advertised it.

But the good news? I have a follow-up interview tomorrow with a local game company for a Game tester position I'm excited about.

Runebound 2nd edition is a game from Fantasy Flight that I had heard raved about by some fans of Arkham Horror. Being another fan of Arkham Horror I was intrigued by this fantasy board game and I'm glad I was.

It is your classic fantasy trope on a board game. I'd call it Dungeons & Dragons in flavor but without bad and intermittent roleplaying or super heavy crunch. In fact this game is easier to start than Arkham Horror and can be played cooperatively or competitively by choice. You choose your hero, give him 3 coin tokens and start off finding and fighting monsters to unlock what threatens the land and defeat it. Along the way you can spend coin on items and allies to help your adventures. You can trade with fellow players if you meet up with them... or fight them. Another big seller for me is that there are lots of little card expansions for the game that cost $6 - $11. Add new monsters, new items, or expand character abilities for a relatively small amount. It is for 1 to 6 players and if it sounds interesting then it is probably worth giving a try.