quote:Original post by Daishi
Why? For the sense of completion. Knowing, that the game in the box in front of you on the shelf was made by you. You have made something that is played and seen by thousands of people. It may not be the most fun sometimes, there is acutal work involved ;-), but the payoff is probably the best thing ever.
And just for the sake of programming something that requires more skill than knowing how to word process and copy/paste some controls on a window ;-)
Try writing a flight simulator. That way, you know that the complex machinery that train both commercial and military pilots is driven by your software, indirectly making you responsible for the general safety of air travel.
Try writing air traffic control software. Your application will handle millions of flights through tight airspace per week and aid an ATC in ensuring no mid-air collisions.
Try writing medical applications that save lives. Try writing industrial process control applications. Try writing systems software (there''s tons of opportunities in Open Source/Free Software, and you might even get paid for it). Completion? Nah. The truth is that games are cool and sexy and game developers are revered by the fans of their creations. In terms of actual relevance games still rank very low on the software hierarchy list (in the future, when there''ll be more emphasis on entertainment, they''ll rise - but the producers and artists will still get most of the glory as games will become increasingly artistic and less technical).
Most people want to be games programmers because that was their first exposure to programming, and they could create cool-looking toys. "Wow! What if I could do this for a living?"
I''m not attempting to dissuade anyone, just broaden the discourse. The opportunites are by far outweighed by the seekers - don''t set yourself up for a life of regret if you don''t make the cut.