What has ACTUALLY decimated my industry is the overvaluation and inflation of everything in the economy
The real answer, like every creative industry over the past 200+ years, is oversaturation.
Artists starve because of oversaturation. There is too much art and not enough buyers.
Musicians starve because of oversaturation. And music is now easier than ever to create. Supply is everywhere, and demand pales in comparison. I have hundreds of CC BY-SA 4.0 artists in a file that I can choose for use in my videos, because the supply is everywhere.
Video games are incredibly oversaturated. Throw a stick at Steam, and it’ll land on a thousand games. There’s plenty of random low-effort slop out there, but there’s also a lot of passionate indie creators trying to make their mark, and failing, because the marketing is not there.
Millions of people shouting in the wind, trying to make their voices heard, and somehow become more noticed than the rest of the noise. It’s a near-impossible task, and it’s about 98% luck. Yet the 2% of people who actually “make it” practice survivorship bias on a daily basis, preaching that hard work and good ideas will allow you to be just like them.
It’s all bullshit, of course. We don’t live in a meritocracy.
Nah, good art breaks through with enough perserverance, time, improvement in your work and a little bit of luck (which you need less of the more of the first three you have). People just underestimate what “good art” is defined as. The bar is now just where it always should have been, which is JUST above somebody copying your work without any underlying understanding as to why it works or the cultural gestalt involved. Not a very high bar to clear, tbh, but I could understand why some entry-level folks feel frustrated. If that’s you, keep your head down, push through and improve, you’ll get there.
The real answer, like every creative industry over the past 200+ years, is oversaturation.
Artists starve because of oversaturation. There is too much art and not enough buyers.
Musicians starve because of oversaturation. And music is now easier than ever to create. Supply is everywhere, and demand pales in comparison. I have hundreds of CC BY-SA 4.0 artists in a file that I can choose for use in my videos, because the supply is everywhere.
Video games are incredibly oversaturated. Throw a stick at Steam, and it’ll land on a thousand games. There’s plenty of random low-effort slop out there, but there’s also a lot of passionate indie creators trying to make their mark, and failing, because the marketing is not there.
Millions of people shouting in the wind, trying to make their voices heard, and somehow become more noticed than the rest of the noise. It’s a near-impossible task, and it’s about 98% luck. Yet the 2% of people who actually “make it” practice survivorship bias on a daily basis, preaching that hard work and good ideas will allow you to be just like them.
It’s all bullshit, of course. We don’t live in a meritocracy.
Nah, good art breaks through with enough perserverance, time, improvement in your work and a little bit of luck (which you need less of the more of the first three you have). People just underestimate what “good art” is defined as. The bar is now just where it always should have been, which is JUST above somebody copying your work without any underlying understanding as to why it works or the cultural gestalt involved. Not a very high bar to clear, tbh, but I could understand why some entry-level folks feel frustrated. If that’s you, keep your head down, push through and improve, you’ll get there.