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##### Vol. 2, Issue 5
December 10, 1999

Down the Pipe

Want to Play Games for a Living?

by Russell "RadPipe" Lauzon

f you haven’t read this week’s feature and the interview with my bud, Paul Steed, then dang boy, get your ass over there and read it. Damn cool interview, if I do say so myself. And some serious kickass cover art by Kenneth Scott to go along with it. I love those guys. On a related note, I bumped into a good female gaming friend in IRC and she had this to say:

> <Anonymous female friend> My husband almost got mad at me last night.
> <Anonymous female friend> I kept trying to climb on him and he goes, “you are not going to read a Paul Steed interview and then come looking for action!”

Ain’t that a classic? She also said that she read the interview and hyperventilated through the whole thing.

Ok enough about that. This edition of DTP goes out to all the part-time gamers out there.

Hate your job? School getting you down? Wish you could play games for a living? Yeah, me too.

When I say, “play games for a living,” what I’m really talking about is working in the industry. It doesn’t matter if you work at a game company, write articles for magazines, or you’re really really good at playing games and can actually make money from winning tournaments. Face it; you play games for a living. And it’s great work if you can get it.

I’m on this tirade because the contract is coming up on my current day job and I’ll soon be looking for other employment. No, I’m not talking about loonygames here, because unfortunately it’s just a part-time thing, but my other, real work. I’m a validation specialist at a pharmaceutical company, and that’s what pays the bills. And it has to be the most boring job in the world. For some reason I turned my back on 10 years of computer experience to get this job, and I guess I’m going back now. Validation work stinks.

So what do you do for a living? If you’re like me then work is a necessary evil to fuel your personal life. You make money to pay for your habits, and as life goes on, you seem to have less and less time for your habits. My personal life is divided between home, wife, kids, and 5 minutes between 10:55pm and 11:00pm to play the latest PC game before I hit the bed exhausted. But to play games for a living! Wouldn’t that be sweet?

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Credits: Illustration © 1999 Dan Zalkus. Down the Pipe is © 1999 Russell Lauzon. All other content is © 1999 loonyboi productions. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited. So don't do it. Please? Pretty please? Okay, fine...be that way. But don't ask me for your allowance, young man.