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This is something that's absolutely been on my mind lately, as someone who grew up staunchly working class. https://twitter.com/SamMGreer/status/1313051813625688064
If your parents ever helped you with rent, gave you a car, taught you how to drive, gave you food or paid for insurance or groceries, paid for college or gave you other advantages like that, you probably aren't from a working class family.
My folks did community theater so we were culturally rich. But at home we ate rice and cheap casseroles. My folks declared bankruptcy. We qualified for free school lunch. When my dad was able to land a manufacturing job that gave us good insurance through the union that was huge.
My mom would take us "gleaning" which I think looking back was sort of a church based food bank run out of someone's garage. We qualified for free lunches but my mother's pride wouldn't let us take advantage of that (she was always against "welfare".)
I didn't fly on a plane til I was 19 and an old boyfriend's parents paid for it. I didn't go to an amusement park til I was 23. Vacations weren't much of a thing. We shopped at goodwill. Once my dad got the union job we would sometimes shop at the mall. And that was fancy.
Anyway. I always thought we were really lucky. Even when the union went on strike we didn't go hungry or worse be homeless. Some of my dear friends from my k-12 days were homeless as kids and still struggle with homelessness. I was (and still am) someone who feels lucky.
Getting into game development was my dream though. So I got my first job as a game tester at nintendo of america when I was 18. At the time it paid 10 dollars an hour & you just had to pass a drug test, have a high school diploma and pass the "exam" they had at the time.
This was in the mid 2000s. They took us candidates into a room and had us watch an old VHS of nintendo 64 bugs. We had to "write up" the bugs and the reproduction steps with a pencil and paper.
Anyway, I did QA work for wii games, went to college while working, and I graduated with an animation degree. In the process I took out five figure student loans, payments at about 700/month. You know how my parents declared bankruptcy? Well my interest rates were 10%.
In order to meet those payments I mostly lived with roommates and kept my bills as low as I could. I had no car & would walk to the grocery store a few times a week for groceries - taking home what I could carry. When you don't have a car you have to plan your life to be walkable
I pretty much had no safety net. No car to sleep in if the next contract gig didn't come through. Sometimes I'd eat once per day. To this day free snacks are my kriptonite because psychology I don't have to pay for it so I should eat that food right?
I pretty much worked my behind off and kind of wrecked myself physically in the process. There's always a fear of failing and being homeless or hungry in the back of my mind.
I learned to drive at 25. My parents didn't teach me because they couldn't afford it (and the one car we had wasn't technically legal to drive anyway because the speedometer was busted).
I went to drivers ed as a 20 something with a bunch of teens. Paid for private driving lessons out of pocket with a teacher I found on Craigslist. But I got my license & I bought my first car for $5,000 with a loan. I picked a car I could sleep in if I had to.
Anyway, when I look around me in AAA development there are absolutely a few people like me around. And some folks who had it even harder than I did. People who have absolutely been homeless. To those folks I salute you.
I also see folks who were baffled that I couldn't drive as a 24-25 year old. Who don't understand why I love free snacks. Who don't understand why I'm still paying my student loans (I've been laid off twice, moved cross country 3 times & until recently
supported my blind partner - he just got an amazing job that he loves though and that's great). Paying off your student loans is easier if your parents have good credit when they co-sign, so you're not paying 10% interest. I've refinanced my loans twice to get the rate to 4.5%.
I see plenty of folks who grew up more wealthy - and they are unable to see how much easier they've had it. There are so many advantages to having a car - you don't plan crunch around the bus schedule. Grocery shopping can happen once a week because you don't have to walk w/bags.
Last year two of my friends were sleeping out of their cars in los angeles. I had them stay with me because I was a lucky person with an apartment I rented.
Anyway. Game development is full of folks who don't really realize how much easier life has been for them - people who went to private schools, got help from their folks to pay for school or cars or other stuff.
& if you are one of those people, just be aware of it and help other folks who may not be as lucky as you are. Mentor someone outside of your social class. Give your time to someone who could benefit from it. Maybe drive them to the grocery store.
