Originally Posted by wtf4096

First of all, games programming is an obsession or disease, if you ask me.

During production of each game there are "crunch time" periods where the team must finish a specific set of features by a set date. During crunch time, it`s normal to require 6 days per week and 12-16 hrs a day. Sometimes it lasts just 4 weeks, but more common are 3-6 months-long crunch periods.
Of course, it doesn`t happen just once per year, but at least 2-3 times. That`s the reason why some people, who`ve had their share of these stressfull periods, just plain quit, even though they don`t have any other job found yet. They simply can`t go on.

It`s possible, if you`re 25 and stupid. If you live in your parent`s basement. But if you`ve got a wife and kids, kids might not notice they have a father, since you leave early morning while they sleep and come back late evening when they already sleep. Seeing a father 4 days out of 31 (on Sundays) doesn`t really create an emotional tie, at all.

Considering, that these days the games are written by teams of 100-200 people, what are the chances that some junior coder gets a chance to code something big and relevant ? Neagtive. There are lots of non-junior coders lurking by and awaiting for the first senior coder to drop dead and fight for a chance to replace him (only to follow his footsteps few months/years later).

If that sounds like an ideal life to you, by all means, go on and pursue your dream.
But you have been warned...

Oh, and I forgot the added "bonus" of low wages. Realistically, even if they doubled the salary of the average senior games coder, I wouldn`t go there. Compared to the cushy 9-5 job that I have as a lead programmer, I`d start thinking about it, if they tripled the salary. But, to go there work for just a double the salary of a senior games coder, I`d have to be mad. And those, who do it for just the single salary ? Oh, poor guys ... See ? I told ya - it`s a disease and it should be cured...

But since there are always 100:1 CV`s for each advertised position for a games coder, no wonder there is no problem in replacing the dead/fallen-off guys.