Your forums won't let me register, so I'll have to answer here.Project Wish website wrote: One of my own personal goals for the project was to create a project that people could go right into game companies from. We have had one former member work on a commercial MMO, and another was recently offered a job at a game studio. This offer did not work out, and in fact, was so terrible that I have to wonder about the state of the industry. With so many dev houses closing down recently, there must be a surplus of developers. This could be a factor in why the company, who makes AAA titles, made him an offer that was less than half of his current salary, and 40% under the industry average for starting people in that position. This individual happens to be the most talented individual on the project, and if he gets an offer that low, what are the chances that someone else is going to do better? They are probably not very good. The fact of the matter is that Project Wish would need to be recognized by game development companies as something more than just a “mod.” In order for that to happen, we would have to actually release something amazing. I know we are fully capable of that, but the time it will take is more than most are willing to wait, myself included.
You expressed confusion as to why someone who worked on your project was offered a salary in the industry at a much lower rate than the standard.
The reason is experience. I know you thought a lot of your project, but to a hiring manager and lead, what is it other than either a code sample or entry in a portfolio? I realize that CoS is the same thing, and I have the same intent -- to provide a place for someone who wants to get into games a place to get some experience in how a commercial game is put together. Like you said (in not so many words), until something is released (and to be honest, it doesn't have to be "something amazing", just something, that proves you can complete a project that you start), the project "doesn't exist".
I've been a lead for over a year now, which means I've had to interview a lot of people. Granted, there are plenty of people with a lot of "industry experience" who aren't worth a damn, but it's still a HUGE risk to take on someone who has never worked in an actual production studio before. As a lead, I have to consider how much hand-holding that person is going to need *from me* (or at the least, from other senior engineers) until they are at a level of productivity and reliability that the other engineers are at. That is why, even with "side-project", "community" or "mod" experience on your resume, unless you have worked on a completed title that has actually shipped, you really don't know what it takes to make a commercial game on a schedule.
The company that gave your contributor that offer you found so insulting, *was* giving that person an opportunity, whether or not you like its terms. When I started out in the industry, I had a fair bit of time in CoS under my belt, plus about 15 years of general commercial software engineering experience. I still got an offer that was roughly $15K under the average (part of it was relocation), but I perfectly understood why that was. I took the offer because I wanted to do games, and now 3 years later, I am making roughly twice what I started at with that company.
Anyone who starts out in the industry is going to go the same route. You don't start at the top salary, you don't even start at the average or median -- those are averages or medians -- they factor in all of those people who *have* worked in the biz long enough to make that money. When you start in the industry, regardless of what you think of yourself, *you are a newb* and will be compensated accordingly. So if one decides to change careers and wants to get into games, you have to accept the fact that *you will take a pay cut* to start with, but if you indeed are worth a damn and perform well, your pay scale will rise rather rapidly. We don't really care what you "were" making in your former industry -- it's irrelevant to what you would be paid in a game studio, and like I said, you would have to make the decision whether the opportunity was worth the cost.
As an example, I think rather highly of the potential of a few of the members of this community (and those individuals can expect PMs when we start hiring again), but each of them would still start out less than the average, and like any new hire, with the standard 90-day probation period.
There's nothing wrong with the industry. Studios start and fail all the time, and layoffs and hirings happen all the time. When a lot of layoffs happen at once, those studios in the position to hire can afford to be more selective and yes, the job market will tighten.