On health care and creativity.

Here’s a fact:

Fans of video games aren’t getting the best, most creative work from our industry because the American health care system sucks.

Over the holidays, I spoke with a lot of friends and former co-workers just to say howdy and catch up. It was mostly a casual affair – reminiscing about past projects, poking around for gossip, trolling for swag, etc.

But one conversation really stuck with me.

I was speaking to a fairly close friend who I worked with for a few years a while back. He’d moved on and has been working for a Large and Well Known Studio developing A Highly Anticipated Game ever since. He’s immensely talented and creative and has – on a number of occasions – made it clear that he’s got some great, challenging ideas that would (in my humble opinion) make great games. And he hates what he is doing currently.

The explanation was no surprise – he’s working on another big team on another big game where creativity is suffocated by fifteen layers of management and every bold suggestion gets chewed up and ruined by bureaucracy and fearful marketing. There are other factors as well – hating the area he’s living in, being far from family and old friends, etc. but the main issue is that he’s doing loveless work on a product he has no passion for.

Obviously, I ask: Why don’t you quit? Go somewhere else? Find a small team that’s hungry and willing to take risks? He’s got the talent and experience and the types of ideas that would make for some REALLY interesting, truly different and unique games. Why stay somewhere you hate working on something you don’t give a damn about?

The answer was simple – he and his wife are expecting their first child in about 6 months. While he hates what he’s doing and where he works, Large and Well Known Studio offers him and his family fairly good health insurance. Quite understandably, he doesn’t want to risk losing that coverage with a baby on the way. So, instead of striking out and making something new and really interesting, he’s really got no choice other than staying where he is, doing what he’s doing and hanging onto that insurance.

I really had no good response to this. His concerns are 100%, totally valid.

Going from REEEEEALLY nice company-provided insurance to insurance I pay for on my own was traumatic, disappointing and expensive as hell. Luckily, my wife and I are both healthy and have had no serious prior medical issues that would have made it hard (or impossible) to find coverage. But if she HAD been pregnant while we were looking – or worse yet, if she’d had some serious problem in the past – I don’t like to even imagine how awful and terrifying that process would have become.

In the US, health care is one of those core needs that can either provide a great sense of security or a terrible sense of fear. The VAST majority of Americans rely on their employer to provide it for them. The result of this is that the VAST majority of Americans rely on their employer for their health and the health of their families. And THAT relationship kills creativity because it forces many people (ESPECIALLY in a weak economy) to be beholden to their employer regardless of the quality of work they’re doing.

When I left my old studio, I knew I wanted to do something radically different and challenging and – yes – risky. I was proud of the work we’d done and loved the people I worked with (and for). I know there are plenty of horror stories that go around about working for one of the Big Publishers (or for a studio consumed by them), but that never jived with my experiences. I was given opportunities that I am extremely grateful for and I was taken care of me the entire time I worked for them. Even leaving the studio, the experience was about as positive as I can ever imagine such a thing being.

Nevertheless, at this point in my career, I knew that I REALLY wanted to work for a small, independent studio. Luckily for me, my wife and I are healthy enough that I had the option of trying something bold and new. As a result, I enjoy work now more than I have in YEARS because I’m doing things my way, on my terms, with a small, dedicated team of people who are equally passionate and excited. I have high hopes that we’re creating something that will be fresh and entertaining to players.

But if my wife HAD been pregnant or one of us HAD suffered from some terrible illness previously, what then? I would – almost certainly – only have felt comfortable taking another position within Another Large and Well Known Studio. I would have climbed back into another huge team working on another huge project. In short, I would have been forced to curtail my creativity for the sake of my family’s health.

Talk about a shitty choice. And not just for me. As I said in that opening statement – FANS aren’t getting our best work because many, many people in our industry are afraid of risking their health for the sake of doing something new.

If you’re afraid that leaving or upsetting your current employer may – quite literally – cost you the health of your family, what sort of artistic or creative endeavor could possibly convince you to do so? What video game idea – no matter how excellent or exciting or new – would be worth risking the health of your spouse or your children?

To be clear, I am not SOLELY blaming our godawful healthcare system for the creative woes of the video game industry, but I CAN say with total confidence that things would improve significantly if people weren’t worried about something as basic as medical coverage. You’d see a huge explosion in independent development. You’d see bad games fail to launch because the people working on them would simply walk away. You’d see good games succeed because they’d attract those same developers.

And this isn’t just applicable to video games. How much innovation in EVERY field is lost because the people who have the ideas can’t risk the health of their families in order to pursue them? Opponents of universal health care often cite the (entirely theoretical) negative impact it would have on small businesses while also arguing that small business is what “drives” our economy. Leaving aside the rather dubious nature of both claims, how many people AREN’T starting small businesses because they don’t want to give up existing company-provided group health coverage?

Every person with a child on the way or with an existing child with special needs or a spouse who is suffering from (or who has recovered from) cancer or any of a THOUSAND medical concerns has to give up on the dream of self-employment. How many businesses has that sad state of affairs cost us? How many jobs are never created? How many great ideas and industries fail to develop? How many problems fail to be solved? How much art is sacrificed?

Now imagine a different scenario – one where, no matter what, you know your family’s medical needs will be looked after. What happens to my friend in THAT world? I can tell you this much – he wouldn’t be living in Los Angeles, working on a game he has absolutely no passion for.

If you don’t have to worry about your most basic, human needs, you are free to be infinitely more bold and creative and to take risks and to innovate. Great industry, great work, great science, great art – those are the fruits of that kind of confidence. And if that ever happens, we’ll all be better off.

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