Get Rich Playing Games
Get Rich Playing Games
Scott Steinberg
2007
Get Rich Playing Games has got to be one of the most useful and entertaining “how to” books I have read recently. I can usually gauge the usefulness of a book by how much yellow highlighter I go through, how many post-it notes stick out from among the pages, and by how many research leads I garner. Scott Steinberg has penned another winner, and in my opinion the value of the information he shares in Get Rich Gaming far exceeds the cost of the book – which is very reasonably priced, by the way.
Get Rich Playing Games covers almost every aspect of the game industry, from pre-startup stage to getting the product on the shelf and beyond. Scott Steinberg doesn’t only focus on the game developers and designers, though. Throughout the book he discusses the important roles other people in the industry play, from the number crunchers and audio designers to the journalists who write the reviews. What I consider important about the inclusion of these different vocations within the videogame industry is that almost anyone who has the passion to work within the industry can probably find a career position for which they are perfectly suited. Not everyone has the knowledge, talent or passion to be an engineer or an artist, and Get Rich Playing Games shows that you don’t have to be able to paint the next fantasy art masterpiece to work in gaming.
As with Scott’s other books, he has enlisted the opinions and experiences of those who have been involved in the gaming industry for a very long time and know of which they speak. Throughout Get Rich Gaming, and especially in the Expert Insight section, readers are given the chance to tap into the collective intelligence of the videogame industry without leaving home. Scott Steinberg talks with the CEO’s of the biggest companies, such as Bruce Hack of Vivendi, and he talks with those who came up through the gaming ranks such as Dennis Fong and Jonathan Wendel. You can read about both the good and the bad experiences of industry gurus such as Will Wright, Richard Garriott, Morgan Webb, Tommy Tallarico, and Jane Jensen to name but a few.
Get Rich Playing Games is an honest look at the methods which worked, and those which didn’t. It shows that with the drive for success, a roadmap is an excellent plan, and so is having a sense of humour, but what I think is the most important lesson in this book is – if you don’t take a chance and leap, you don’t know how far you will go. Scott shares an honest – and humourous – view of his own leap of faith into the gaming industry, and he tells it like it was – sink or learn how to swim. Unlike many of you reading this review, it took me decades to find my passion – or perhaps the passion was there all the time, I just hadn’t opened the right door. I highly recommend that those of you currently toying with the idea of working in the videogame industry take the time to read Get Rich Playing Games, you will garner new insight and you will definitely learn how to focus your talents and interests into finding a place among those who have achieved success in this great industry.
Review Written By: Tami Quiring
