Amen. I did some web design work for a while and the number of people who told me it would be "good exposure" to work for nothing was unreal. "Experience" was the other one they sometimes cited. Trying to con students into working for nothing is a dick move.

I agree with this, we need great stories not only great looks!

for me: gameplay>story>graphic>sounds (even if I love good effects\music)
usually: graphic>sounds>gameplay>story

That's interesting that your experience is the reverse of what many folks would expect. Conventional wisdom (which is nearly always wrong) states that artists would the ones who would always get paid, because that's a skill where one can clearly see different levels of expertise, and visuals are so often a vital part of game. Whereas writers are almost an afterthought, because most developers go "I CAN WORDS MAKE!". So the presumption is that anyone can bang out a couple lines of game dialogue, but only the select few can properly render an H. R. Giger Tyrannosaurus, thus the artist should be the one you pay for first.

Glad to hear your friend is able to make a living at it, and even moreso that they take an ethical stand with regards to fellow artists. That is highly commendable.

I wouldn't say its a living as he's not full time with it (still needs a day job), but he certainly gets more income than I (international costs of living / wages etc dont help on that).

That's really sad, now I want to buy you . Or [url=http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007A3ECWM]this, or this.

http://www.baconfreak.com/

Very true, Sinister. I buy a few games from an indie developer, who is a one-man development team, and he hires writers, aside from graphic artists, as he knows that he can't write well, and acknowledges that short-coming.

The budget excuse thus doesn't really float. Also, if the developer wants to make back the loss, he/she is certainly free to price their games accordingly upon release. Like in my example above, his games don't come cheap due to all the hiring he does.

I guess it depends, on the pro quid quo of the situation.

Sure, but "We are only able to ship to the USA and Canada".

can't be real bacon then!
I AM OFFENDED BY WEBSITES WITH LIES IN THEIR ADRESS!
in which case the dev should offer a % of the ownership to the cretive force involved. really, in any project, thats how it should be done - the artists (broad category there) and writers for instance - both of them contribute to the final product in a manner in which the initial developer could not, therefore they should be able to take a slice of the final pie - without them, the dev would likely be up shit creek with a waffle for a paddle.
this kind of thing (thinking about it a little more) really stems from the US "Work for hire" ideology behind contracts - a direct result of a dispute i have right now with a client from the US (i dont do work for hire - never have, never will and its very much discouraged in the UK - to the point of parlimentary debate on its legality). but it seems rife where people do pay for creatives to work on a project - the meployer expects it, even when without those people, the project would be null.
sure, i do expect that from the bigger players where choices are made by people with no fotting in the real world outside of sales figures and "buzz" for example, but an indie dev doing that (as I said after further thought since my last post) is not only unpleasant, but insulting and more degrading.

gagh!

*rant

Dear Developer Asking for Our Money via Kickstarter,

Hire someone to teach you how to wisely use the money you've raised, money we gave you based on the promise of you giving us something awesome in return.

Love,

The Supporters

Well, it sure sounded like that from the first post, which is what got on my nerves.

Anyway, have you taken your own advice and hired a writer? Well, you might think so, but in practice you're paying for the devs to pay their bills and telling them that they have a good game and should continue the same way.

Amen. TES lore wouldn't be half of what is without MK. But whatever, even if they can't entice MK back, at least try to live up to his stuff. I hope they listen to all the feedback about Skyrim, and blow us away with next installment.

At least Skyrim was a modest improvement. Maybe in like 6 more games they'll be back to Morrowind quality lore and writing.

I think you're jumping the gun. I wish they'd hire somebody to do something about all those bugs that they're famous for.