Blood, Sweat, and Pixels

The research proves what gamers already know: within the limits of our own endurance, we would rather work hard than be entertained.

The next big movie franchise/theme park/toy line will likely come from games. Players are spending thousands of hours interacting with game characters. Many developers are moving away from a publisher-led financing model to a VC model that enables them to maintain ownership over their IP.

But sometimes the mystery escapes even practitioners: many of the selfless contributors Eghbal quotes have trouble making ends meet, and either do freelance consulting on the very code they created, set up Patreons like other struggling artists, or hold down day jobs often not even related to their projects.