Informative and fascinating Tom. I hadn't previously seen the gaming development sector as a source of such drama. As you know I have little familiarity with the specialism, but it does seem new options may be opening up in AI support for open source.
If you ever fancy delving into some internet drama then the game-dev world is a rich source 😂
2023 has been something of a stand-out year for it but it's always been a rollercoaster. The industry itself is one that generates enormous profits for big incumbents, but is notoriously poorly organised, so even putting to one side the hubris and avarice of massive corporations, devastating layoffs and anti-worker practices are incredibly common.
Lots of developers and creators (artists, musicians, designers etc) get into the industry because they're driven by a passion to create something memorable and entertain - but it's both extremely difficult to break into, and a laughably insecure career choice for many.
I would expect the recent writer's strikes in the US to bubble over into the game industry at some point. Epic (creators of the Unreal engine) just announced massive layoffs - which seems to have been something of a breaking point for many of those affected!
Tom do you think there might be a contrast in attitudes, in that writers' guilds for the most part see AI as an alarming threat, whereas gamedevs may see it as an enabler for both productivity and depth of complexity?
I think that's probably a part of it yes: writing for TV / film / streaming is a much more constrained environment than gamedev, so the impact of any industry-wide shift is probably felt much more deeply and much more quickly for TV writers. TV / Film studios beginning to use AI has had a much more drastic impact than a game studio exploring the use of AI, but I suspect things will begin to shift fairly quickly as AI progresses.
There's also the reality that it's very common in game development for individuals to wear many hats. If you're not at a massive studio with hundreds of employees, it's often the case that any given individual on a team is actually filling in several different roles, so 'using AI' for part of their work is probably seen as less of a threat, and more of a liberating tool. I think that will probably change, though - as the use of AI increases it's only natural that people will start to notice that their own input could begin to take a back-seat in favour of quicker turnaround from AI tools.
Certainly at the bigger studios where it's common for people to be employed for the duration of a single game (which may be several years, but still not exactly job security!), I think the impact of AI will begin to feel more like a threat for those people, whereas smaller / indie studios will see it as more of a 'useful assistant' for some time to come. I would expect AI tools to be welcomed much more freely by small teams than larger teams.
Informative and fascinating Tom. I hadn't previously seen the gaming development sector as a source of such drama. As you know I have little familiarity with the specialism, but it does seem new options may be opening up in AI support for open source.
Thank you, Paul :)
If you ever fancy delving into some internet drama then the game-dev world is a rich source 😂
2023 has been something of a stand-out year for it but it's always been a rollercoaster. The industry itself is one that generates enormous profits for big incumbents, but is notoriously poorly organised, so even putting to one side the hubris and avarice of massive corporations, devastating layoffs and anti-worker practices are incredibly common.
Lots of developers and creators (artists, musicians, designers etc) get into the industry because they're driven by a passion to create something memorable and entertain - but it's both extremely difficult to break into, and a laughably insecure career choice for many.
I would expect the recent writer's strikes in the US to bubble over into the game industry at some point. Epic (creators of the Unreal engine) just announced massive layoffs - which seems to have been something of a breaking point for many of those affected!
Tom do you think there might be a contrast in attitudes, in that writers' guilds for the most part see AI as an alarming threat, whereas gamedevs may see it as an enabler for both productivity and depth of complexity?
I think that's probably a part of it yes: writing for TV / film / streaming is a much more constrained environment than gamedev, so the impact of any industry-wide shift is probably felt much more deeply and much more quickly for TV writers. TV / Film studios beginning to use AI has had a much more drastic impact than a game studio exploring the use of AI, but I suspect things will begin to shift fairly quickly as AI progresses.
There's also the reality that it's very common in game development for individuals to wear many hats. If you're not at a massive studio with hundreds of employees, it's often the case that any given individual on a team is actually filling in several different roles, so 'using AI' for part of their work is probably seen as less of a threat, and more of a liberating tool. I think that will probably change, though - as the use of AI increases it's only natural that people will start to notice that their own input could begin to take a back-seat in favour of quicker turnaround from AI tools.
Certainly at the bigger studios where it's common for people to be employed for the duration of a single game (which may be several years, but still not exactly job security!), I think the impact of AI will begin to feel more like a threat for those people, whereas smaller / indie studios will see it as more of a 'useful assistant' for some time to come. I would expect AI tools to be welcomed much more freely by small teams than larger teams.