"How (NOT) to Hire an Artist"
Spreading this from Jesskat on DA. Pass it on.
Pretty sickening. Though, really, I've read this guy's comments...and he just seems pretty stupid to me. How can you NOT read your article and realize how conceited it sounds, AND consider yourself "professional"? Bad insight...there's NO insight. Fucktard.
ANYWAY:
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An individual who makes Flash games for profit recently wrote a blog entry explaining his business strategy: instead of hiring professional artists and paying them what they're worth, go to sites like DeviantArt to find amateurs and hobbyists who will get the job done much cheaper. According to this person's opinion, the artists shouldn't get paid anything in advance, and not at all unless the end result "matches or exceeds expectations". Since the concept of "exceeding expectations" is such a vague one, this could easily mean never having to pay the artist at all, on the basis that the job they did just wasn't exactly on the mark. (This of course wouldn't prevent the commissioner from using the finished art anyway.)
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"How to Hire an Artist"
"This relates back to what I talked about earlier. If an artist knows how much their artwork will increase the value of the game they will then feel they deserve that amount of money. This is not how a market economy works, you hire whoever is able to do the best job for the lowest amount of money, anything else is a loss of money on your end."
[Read the bullshit here]
Some of what this article talks about is (unfortunately) true. Artists on sites like DeviantArt do tend to take on work for less money than they're worth. Many of us are not professionals, hence it's generally understood we can't expect to be paid the same as professional artists. Some of us are desperate for any amount of money thrown our way, even if it's far less than should be expected for the amount of work required. Especially in the case of Flash games, the person behind the game will likely keep on getting paid as more and more people subscribe to play their games. Yet the artist who designed the look of the game only gets paid once. It is easy to get swindled in this way, to settle for the low payment offered for a one-time deal while the game programmer gets to keep making on making money off those designs for a long time to come.
This is unfortunately how things work in the real world. People are desperate and sell themselves for less than they're worth. Especially in case of hobbyists or young people who don't feel their work is up to snuff. Sometimes it's merely a lack of self-esteem, and people in professional circles are happy to take advantage of this. They may see the qualities inherent in the artist's work even if the artist themselves doesn't, and they will happily go along with the artist's tentative price offer. It's probably much lower than they were expecting to pay for that kind of quality in the first place.
It happens. That doesn't mean it's right. Just because it happens doesn't mean it should.
That's what makes me angry about this. This person is gloating about their ability to scam artists, and encouraging others to follow their example.
His nick on sites like Newgrounds, Kongregate and Armor Games is xdragonx10. Spread the word about this article. Go tell him (politely) what is wrong about his business policy. Avoid his games if at all possible. Show him that what he's doing is coming back to bite him in the ass and not earning him one more cent.
Pretty sickening. Though, really, I've read this guy's comments...and he just seems pretty stupid to me. How can you NOT read your article and realize how conceited it sounds, AND consider yourself "professional"? Bad insight...there's NO insight. Fucktard.
ANYWAY:
----------------------
An individual who makes Flash games for profit recently wrote a blog entry explaining his business strategy: instead of hiring professional artists and paying them what they're worth, go to sites like DeviantArt to find amateurs and hobbyists who will get the job done much cheaper. According to this person's opinion, the artists shouldn't get paid anything in advance, and not at all unless the end result "matches or exceeds expectations". Since the concept of "exceeding expectations" is such a vague one, this could easily mean never having to pay the artist at all, on the basis that the job they did just wasn't exactly on the mark. (This of course wouldn't prevent the commissioner from using the finished art anyway.)
---
"How to Hire an Artist"
"This relates back to what I talked about earlier. If an artist knows how much their artwork will increase the value of the game they will then feel they deserve that amount of money. This is not how a market economy works, you hire whoever is able to do the best job for the lowest amount of money, anything else is a loss of money on your end."
[Read the bullshit here]
Some of what this article talks about is (unfortunately) true. Artists on sites like DeviantArt do tend to take on work for less money than they're worth. Many of us are not professionals, hence it's generally understood we can't expect to be paid the same as professional artists. Some of us are desperate for any amount of money thrown our way, even if it's far less than should be expected for the amount of work required. Especially in the case of Flash games, the person behind the game will likely keep on getting paid as more and more people subscribe to play their games. Yet the artist who designed the look of the game only gets paid once. It is easy to get swindled in this way, to settle for the low payment offered for a one-time deal while the game programmer gets to keep making on making money off those designs for a long time to come.
This is unfortunately how things work in the real world. People are desperate and sell themselves for less than they're worth. Especially in case of hobbyists or young people who don't feel their work is up to snuff. Sometimes it's merely a lack of self-esteem, and people in professional circles are happy to take advantage of this. They may see the qualities inherent in the artist's work even if the artist themselves doesn't, and they will happily go along with the artist's tentative price offer. It's probably much lower than they were expecting to pay for that kind of quality in the first place.
It happens. That doesn't mean it's right. Just because it happens doesn't mean it should.
That's what makes me angry about this. This person is gloating about their ability to scam artists, and encouraging others to follow their example.
His nick on sites like Newgrounds, Kongregate and Armor Games is xdragonx10. Spread the word about this article. Go tell him (politely) what is wrong about his business policy. Avoid his games if at all possible. Show him that what he's doing is coming back to bite him in the ass and not earning him one more cent.