Saturday, July 17, 2010

The Hidden Cost of What We Do

Earlier today I posted about how I've turned our two-room apartment into a warehouse. I've basically trashed our living space in pursuit of my dream. My wife has been so supportive but as this has become a thing rather than a plan it's obvious that it's distressing her. This is the woman who, when I moved in, replaced all my furniture (bookshelves, CD shelves, computer desk) at her own expense because my stuff clashed with the decorations.

And now I've done this.

This makes my mind wander over to that large pile of boxes that contains other publishers' stuff that I'm carrying for Ropecon. What has been sacrificed to produce that material?

I'm sure there are exceptions, but these aren't teenagers producing this material. These aren't people with my advantages, having government programs to help start a business and wives that allow them the luxury of not getting a real job while they give the whole game publishing thing a go.

These are people with wives and children, careers, real responsibilities, who sacrifice time and effort and money away from important things to create this material of high quality and professional production values for us. And they don't expect a living out of it, and in many cases not even a serious second income. They do it out of love.

To my wife, and to my fellow publishers and their families, I recognize the sacrifices you make in the name of games. Thank you.

6 comments:

  1. Very touching and O So True. I hope your vacation in August give you and your wife a nice little break away from "the thing." Wives appreciate their quality time even more than they appreciate being told they're appreciated!
    : )

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  2. Don't worry, the new game will be a roaring success, and you'll be able to afford to rent some office/warehouse space!

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  3. It hasn't been easy, that's for sure! It's only going to get harder.

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  4. I do remember mentioning overflowed living rooms as one of the hazards of old school game production techniques a few months ago. I'll do my best to take at least one of those boxes off your hands. If you sell enough you can say the magic word "Storage Locker" unfortunately stateside the these run about $50 a month so they can eat into to profits very fast. The other technique is to pedal them to distributors so they can store them in their warehouses.

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  5. This is one of your best posts, incidentally.

    When the sanctimony is lifted, the love of the game and the passion of a person is revealed and it is quite becoming!

    As for government assistance, well, hopefully you won't need it soon! I appreciate your honesty there.

    I got a wife,a real job,a kid, one on da way, and I also balance other hobbies like watching Yankee games - I know I like sports, imagine that.

    Very insightful.

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