Remember when movies and cinemas was the next big thing? Me neither, most of us weren’t even born yet. But back in the day when people didn’t have much entertainment other than books and theater people said this when cinemas arrived. ”The future of entertainment” some called it, and today we can say there were pretty right. Movies and cinemas stayed the number one in the entertainment business until very recent. ”Did TV beat movies? I don’t believe it,” you might be thinking, but no, TV didn’t. The future of entertainment did. Video games.

Video games are the most consumed and highest grossing form of entertainment and media today. It has been for the last years. For some this might seem absurd but look at it this way. Why pay 20 dollars for a two hour movie when you can pay 50 dollars for a thirty five hour long game with a story just as good, only more compelling and immersive since you’re playing it. That is the reason video games will become the future of entertainment. Thinking about that, working with games doesn’t seem like a bad choice. Branching into a career in games is literally sealing your future. Getting into the movies business is very hard now, because it’s so massive and hard to get noticed. But in the video game world you can get in before the rocket takes off. Getting a job is fairly easy because companies and developers are looking for employees. You can even start your own development team and try your luck, even though its stressful and riskier it can pay off.

The way working environment has developed the last years some jobs are not as well paid and ”safe” as they were earlier. A few years ago a 9-5 job with a set wager was very common, these days it seems to be shifting more and more towards wagers depending on performance rather than the time you put in. Sure a lot of workplaces still has the set wagers and work hours but its changing and its very common to see a mix of the two. For example that sixty percent of the wager is set to the amount of hours you work, but the other 40 percent are depending on how well you preform and deliver. This ensures that the employees do their best, because their wager is depending on it. Some companies even take it so far that they only pay based on results and performance.
There are of course both positives and negatives to these changes. The most obvious positive is that it’s pretty fair. If for example Joe works his ass off then hours a day and Bill works the same amount of hours but slacks a bit, they both get the same wager. Even though Joe might deserve it more than Bill, but with the upcoming wager system Joe gets his deserved reward and Bill might even be more motivated to work. Giving the employees motivation in form of rewards based on results. The obvious downside to this is that the workplace becomes more competitive. This can result in co-workers seeing each other as competition instead of an allied, giving the workspace a more toxic environment.

What does any of this have to do with video games you might ask? Well, a lot of the way wagers and payment work in the video games industry is already being done this way. The smaller developers and so called ”indie”-companies pay only based on results, because they have to. If a game sells well they get more income and higher wagers, but if a game sells bad they get less. So you have to give it your all since it’s the way you keep putting food on your table. The bigger companies have a more common way of paying wagers, but around twenty to forty percent of the wager is based on performance and results. Fat bonuses are also paid out if the games become hits. So the video game business is already paying the way future payment seem to be going, and it’s also a very flexible system since the companies income is already determined by the success of the games.

Even though I’m praising the games industry into the skies, it has its downsides and disadvantages. Usually you have to start out in a smaller company before advancing to a bigger one. This can be both good and bad seeing as if your game strikes gold in a smaller company you can earn a lot of both money and reputation. Minecraft is a good example, a game made by three people that ended up selling 200 million copies making them millionaires. But if your games keep selling bad the company might go bankrupt and you are forced to find a new job. When you’ve earned enough reputation in a smaller developing studio you can easily get a job in a bigger safer company. The other major downside is no deals. In a smaller company there is most likely no insurance or pension deals. Meaning you will have to save up on your own. This is something that a ”normal” workplace has, to attract employees and keep people from leaving. As a small company it’s hard to make these kinds of deals when you are so dependent on the sale of a product to gain a flow of income.

The bigger companies usually have these deals to attract employees and keep them there. A family man with three children and a wife would love to have the insurance expenses already paid by the company, it will also help on keeping the man there to not loose the deal. We see the same way of ”luring” employees into your company with deals like this in other jobs as well. One of the best examples is lawyers and firms. The really wealthy firms often give their employees a car when they join. Some of the nicest might even throw in a house for good measure. A method becoming more popular today is that the company might do an agreement to pay off some of your student loans if you stay for a certain amount of years. Seeing as a video game education is not that expensive this is not very common.

Us, the new generation likes to be in control and making our own choices. This fits in perfectly with video games industry. If you work for a smaller company or a big one, both usually split up their employees into smaller teams. Teams can consist of anything from five to twenty members. Within a team you can have a bigger influence and choices that will show in the final product. If you want taller grass in the world of Grasslandia you go to one of the graphics designers and ask for that. If it works out and the bosses approve the final game will most likely have taller grass. The video games industry is very flexible and relaxed in this regard because there is no fixed answer. Suddenly one of your employees might discover a new effect of feature that no one has thought of. It might work, it may not, but giving it a go doesn’t hurt because most people are so fresh to the business. In movies there’s almost no genre that hasn’t been made, but in video games there’s so much more potential for creative ideas and thinking it would be stupid not to give the employees more freedom.

Video games are a choice of the future. The reason I say this is because movies will not become as innovative as video games. A movie is a story happening on a screen that you watch, at least most of the time. There is no interaction or anything else than sound and video that can improve or enhance that experience. So going forward the only innovation movies and TV will get is better sound and prettier pictures.

Video games have much more to expand into. For example The Occulus Rift, a pair of goggles that is being developed right now. When you take them on, it puts a screen in front and to the side of you and immerses you into the video game world. When you turn your head, your head turns inside the game. If you fall off a cliff, it will feel like you are falling off a cliff. Adding an almost new dimension into entertainment. Inventions like these are the reason video games will stay active and more relevant compared to movies and TV. Maybe in the future a system can make all the walls in your living room into a video game world that moves when you walk in place. Imagine the possibilities and opportunities because video games are so fresh and new.
Mobile gaming is also becoming an important factor. It’s becoming very popular to ”game on the go”, picking up your smart phone and play a game of Angry Birds or Candy Crush while you wait for the train. This is also a department of gaming that could expand a lot in the future.
If you like taking a bit of a risk, for a reward that can define how people are entertained in 50 years, choosing video games as a job is truly something for you. If you get onto the rocket that is the video games industry before it takes off, like movies did back in the 70’s, it will take you too the moon. An industry that’s growing faster than any media or entertainment form today. Banking in a ticket for an industry that might become one of the largest in the world in twenty years time. Video games are truly a job for the future.