[Psychotik]

So I've been working in the games industry for the past 7.5 years, most of that time on AAA games, and I have to say a lot depends on where you work and the position.

Development side is definitely much worse than publishing, and contracted workers get screwed over the most. I used to work as a contracted QA tester for a third party company and it was literal hell. Basically minimum wage with no job security. Management is also incredibly disconnected from all the workers there and treats everyone like children. That's what you get at an entry level games job. I think I stopped caring at that job after about 3 years, which lasted another 3 years until I found another job.

Now I work for publishing QA and the difference is night and day. I get so much support and they treat us right. I can't speak for all the development studios, but the people around me generally seem happy to be there. It is a stressful job but the support definitely makes the difference. I'm not saying the industry as a whole treats everyone great, if anything most of it isn't great, but I'm just saying it's not all a wasteland of bad morale and corrupt management in the west. You just hear about all the bad stuff.