With all of the bad things that are happening in the world, I often ask myself if I’m being selfish working towards a career in the game industry. I know that this is where my passion is and I love doing what I do, but there’s always that… feeling.
Like I’m hiding from the world’s problems in my search for personal joy.
Oh, I don’t know. Does anyone else struggle with this?
So, by working on games you’re not outside beating people up, robbing stores, jacking cars, dealing drugs, etc. How’s that perspective? 
–Eric
We are not raping anyone (unless you talk to radical feminists), or killing anyone, or robbing anyone (except people of there time), we are making peoples lives slightly less miserable. Unless you make a bad game!
God only knows I would love to be out stealing cars if I didn’t have all these damn bugs to fix
I think it is a reasonable idea to concentrate on pursuing happiness for yourself and people that are important for you. Because there are too many world problems, and you’ll never be able to solve them all. And by being happy about what you do, you might end up making the world slightly better in the end.
Uh oh. I’m sensing a potential thread from a certain someone about these topics and artificial intelligence. 
Yeah you’re just making simulated versions instead 
I get the feeling, going into games when your knowledge can be applied in making the world a better place through apps that can help the world or things like Internet.org. I guess you can see it as games being able to make the world a better place as well, a place where people can escape life into a virtual world.
You can do more than one thing, generally.
Well maybe this is too deep for video games, which are essentially toys, but I want to believe Undertale made the world a very tiny bit better.
Solving the world’s big problems isn’t all its cracked up to be. I work in an industry firmly focused on providing enough food to feed the worlds population. And most of the time the work is pretty routine, with occasional high points of excitement. Just because I am helping to solve world hunger doesn’t make the day to day grind any more fulfilling.
And lets face it, those of us fighting world hunger on a day to day basis need a chance to kick back and relax. We need entertainment to exist. And that means we need someone to make it. Would you really like to live in a world with no entertainment? A world where everyone was focused on fulfilling basic human needs, and nothing else?
Games are art. Art is what distinguishes us from mere animals. The artist making a new work of art is just as important to humanity as any other endeavour.
Seriously taking this to heart. I had no idea you helped people offline too!
Feeling bad about working in Games
I remember when I was stuck in a video game cabinet, building wooden barrels for Donkey Kong to throw at Mario.
It was hot and cramped in there. I got too many splinters to count. Do you have any idea how many barrels get used in a day?
Sure its kind of satisfying knowing your work is literally taking the life of a stupid plumber who cant mind his own business. Shouldn’t he be fixing a toilet or something?
I did get paid in gold coins but they were only good in the arcade.
My name is Tzan … and I worked in games. 
I think it’s a good question, OP. If you agree that video games can be artistic and authorial, though, then you can work towards making the world a better place using the games you make / work on. You can explore critical ideas through the mechanics of a game, its narrative, and its aesthetic. The game industry doesn’t really pivot on these sorts of games currently, but there is a place for them, and, maybe as game audiences widen, it can with your help become a mainstream platform for provocative thought.
It’s all in the phrasing. I could also say “I work for a multinational corporation producing toxic chemicals to profit foreign investors.” And it would also be accurate. But that would kind of ruin my point.
I like this sentiment a lot. I do want to make meaningful experiences as a game designer.
Why don’t you go and work for a charity a few hours every week?
Frankly I find this kind of discussion meaningless. I don’t want my experience with games to have anything to do with fixing world problems any more than I want what me and my girlfriend do to have anything to do with fixing world problems. It occupies a totally different function.
If you want to fix world problems, go and fix them. There’s nothing wrong with being concerned about it and acting on that, but life isn’t all about fixing problems, and that’s perfectly ok too.
I believe we are born with certain level of constrain, earth is a pretty big place, and human population is also pretty big and diverse. Too big to focus for oneself for solving problems. Also I saw some type of problems meant to be stayed ever n ever, its just not in my hand.
Apart from game deving, I occasionally join local movements via social media. Its not much but there is really nothing more I can do about it.
Sometimes ignorance is bliss. The day I open up the newspaper, I got so deeply sad that it actively affects my development. Everything in some places is so disturbing… Sometime when you precisely know the root cause of a set the problems and you have nothing but to witness, this will eat you up from the inside. Can’t see it, can’t do anything about it, can’t be even silent about it. I pray that none of you would have to face these situations.
I really think it’s worth pointing out that video games are valuable in there own right. Providing something with no other meaning then a few hours of mindless enjoyment is a good thing. Entertainment increases the quality of the world by just existing.
There is no need to place some hidden educational value or social commentary in your game for it to have intrinsic value.
I’m being a little defensive here, but I’ve never doubted the value that games have in and of themselves. Otherwise, I dobut I would have kept at game design & development for as long as I have
I do understand where everyone is coming from. I just wanted to see if anyone else has thought about this before.
Thanks for all of the responses so far! Really, I just hoped to have a cool discussion about the topic, so please don’t attack my perspective because it doesn’t reflect your own 