Gaming And Your Career: Making Money

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Continuing with my weekly obsession in trying to understand what the heck is going on with gaming, I continue with  . . . more of the same.  After all there’s a chance gaming is part of your career plans, and even if it isn’t, it might whether you like it or not.

Up this week, how the hell will anyone make money in video game?

The video game industry always involved gambles, and as some pretty big stinkers and unexpected hits can tell you, some gambles can get pretty odd.  Some series seem to be able to do no wrong, unexpected hits come, guaranteed ideas fail.  Some of this seems to be despite the actual quality of the games themselves.

Of course that’s the way it is, but in the disrupted world of gaming, I’m trying to get a handle on just how people and companies are going to handle the gamble – and make money.  Here’s my theories – with a caveat.

I am trying to piece things together here from a lot of data, information, trends, experience, and gut checks.  I may be totally wrong here, so call me out and explain why, because I really want to get a handle on this.

So on to what I’ve seen. Let’s start with the big names . . .

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Weekly Update 2/3/2013

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I realized that with all my projects, you’d like to hear how they’re going.  Of course I’ve got my update page here, but it’s a bit more technical.

First up, Quest For Employment, is going nicely – and it seems that it’s release is selling my other books.  Which I can’t complain about.  I still need to convert it to iBook, but just haven’t had the time.  Also, would you want to see it in print?  Let me know!

My work to convert my last two Focused Fandom books into print is moving ahead normally.  I think I’ve got the formatting good so I’ll be running test copies soon.  This is a tetchy part as at times I’ve had to run 3 print copies to get books right, so we could be seeing a month or two just due to delivery times.

There’s also a few more things brewing, so stay tuned!

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

 

Can You Bring Business Along?

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Last week Rocky Agrawai of Venture Beat noted the simple painful fact that big box retailers have more online competition and need to upgrade.  He then documents his own painful big box experiences which you really don’t see in online retail (often because they’re screwups caused by being there).

Big Box retail needs an upgrade, he concludes.  I concur myself; most of my experience with Big Box these days is Frys, who has wisely chosen their own focus (crazy selections and sheer enthusiasm in bulk).

In fact, Rocky then went on to discuss how department stores need help too.  I imagine if he is going to fully explore businesses who are behind the times, he’s going to be very busy – and I encourage him, he’s got great insights.

We probably wouldn’t be complaining about this two decades ago as the stores wouldn’t have comparable experience.  We also probably wouldn’t be complaining as much as it’s a different economic and cultural time.  But in a day of cut-it-to-the-bone, short-term thinking, Big Box stores and many others often feel rather miserable.

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