RE: [Algorithms] Game Developer Salary

[Scott, J. <JS...@ra...>]

As we seem to be going even more OT....

Waitress: Nice accent, are you from Australia?
Me: Nope, England.
Waitress: Almost the same, I mean you used to own Australia didn't you?

Waitress: Are you from England?
Me: Yes.
Waitress: I have a friend in New England... etc.

Ordering at Taco Hell is a challenge and a half.

Back on topic - the big PC game developers are all in the States. I got sick
of learning a new platform every project. The standard of living is much
higher here, I have no regrets about moving. My biggest fears were the
violence (media hype; I'd like to take a few Yanks into a few English towns
at kicking out time), and the fizzy pop called 'beer' over here (there's
Guinness and Newcastle everywhere).

Salaries are always compensation for your job; it is a balance between how
much you enojoy working where you do and how much money they pay. I
personally would rather be paid a reasonable amount and love the games I
work on with the people at the company, than being paid extra to work on
sports sims with a bunch of people I don't like.

Cheers
John

-----Original Message-----
From: Jonathan Wight [mailto:jw...@bi...]

on 9/11/00 8:46 AM, Stephen J Baker at sj...@li... wrote:

> Honestly, I could tell one of these stories for every six months I've
> lived here in Sunny Texas.

My favourite is when I when I buy something via mail order over the phone
and _always_ (without fail) get the salesman/woman (usually the latter) who
"has always wanted to visit England" or "has a friend who just got back from
England". There must be something about my accent that makes people want to
discuss their vacation plans  over the phone with me.

> Well, you can negotiate more holiday (I did) - and I'm earning
> probably 2x what I could in UK for similar cost of living.

Same here, although I'm not in the games industry so can't comment on the
salary ratios there. I'd say cost of living here in Austin, TX is a lot less
than back home as well.
 
>> Sounds very much like slave trade to me.
> 
> In some respects, it is.  You certainly don't have *freedom* for
> the period while you are waiting for the INS department to process
> your GreenCard paperwork

Luckily for me my wife is American and I'm not working under some kind of
indentured servitude. Friends of mine who have worked under other visas have
really rough times. In fact one person I know worked for free for a period
(this was a person with a Masters in CompSci and some industry experience)
just to get sponsorship.

    Jon.