[gameprogrammer] Re: PC game Outsourcing
- From: Alexander Whaley <awhaley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: gameprogrammer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 07:48:18 +0200
By the way, I have a small OpenGL question:
Is there an easy way to set a colour to be transparent when loading a
bitmap. I mean, if I have a set of pictures and say that magenta
indicates a transparent colour, can I set it as a default somewhere or
must I convert each "magenta pixel" as I load the bitmap into memory to
become a transparent pixel. Something in the lines of:
"set_transparent_color(RGB)"??
regarding the main thread...
Looks like we have a bit of a chicken-and-egg issue here... Yep, would
be nie if all good jobs were inthe US and UK, etc but, that would mean
that other countries would not be able to buy the products, not only
because they are relatively (here used in terms of exchange rates and
salaries) expensive, but also because as long as all the jobs are in a
relative minority, the majority of the world will not be able to afford
them (ie no job, no money, no sales, more people get retrenched, no job,
no money, etc).
Apart from that, rather than using a limited set of arguments to make a
point, perhaps, the correct thing to do would be to vote for the US
candidate who wishes to slash the subsidies (or related perks) to
American companies who outsource their workforce to other countries.
That makes sense doesn't it? Can't play both sides of the fence.
(apologies if my understanding of the politics is a bit off, I haven't
seen any US news in 3 weeks as we had our own election to cover).
Seriously, this was bound to happen, just look at
Bollywood/Hollywood.... The one is best known in the West, the other on
has more viewers (according to the local news). So, what does a good
movie producer need nowadays? A lot of special effects, done by
computers, so we need to have programers, local is always better, so we
now will have a big computer industry in India.... Nice, now they can
make games too because they know how.
Byb the way, is Nintendo an American company? I thought that it came out
of the East? (could be a mistake on my part). But if so, does it mean
that it cannot hire companies based in the East to make their games? And
if so, should those companies be limited to only those games?
Another way to look at it is: some companies are based in a US state (eg
Nevada) because their company-taxes are better. BUT, the actual plant is
in another state (eg Texas) because the workforce is slightly cheaper
and/or the land-taxes are better. Is it right? Or should each state now
complain about outsourcing?
Ok that is a bit tongue-in-cheek, but for a country that boasts of
freedom, democracy and capitalism, now you don't want CEOs to make money
or to have the right to choose where to send the work?
Besides all of this, I am happy to report that South Africa has at least
2 game companies (that I know of). They are running several magazine
based tutorials on how to make games (platform based). One of the 2
studios has even released a game called: "The tainted". It seemed to do
OK here. But that could have been the pricing.... But now what happens
if they want to sell in Europe or the US? Can they approach a bigger
company to sell their software, ie Atari? Or is that bad?
By the way, from an environmental analytical chemist the statement of
"relatively low pollution" is fascinating. It all depends on how you
look at the data.
>Look at the big picture. The US is expensive in part because we have a good
>quality of living. Relatively low pollution, everyone is rich compared to
>other countries - high energy use, expensive well-made products, relatively
>low population density, good worker's rights and protections. Therefore,
>the prevailing wage matches the cost and quality of living. Poor
>environmental protection results in a diminished quality of living and hence
>products can be made in that country cheaper.
>
>I remember back when the news reported how Nike was using to use child slave
>labor to make their shoes. The human suffering cost is $0, while the money
>saved by such practices is substantial. Hence, that country gets the
>"contract" to make the shoes at the exclusion of US workers.
>
>As I said, in a world market that doesn't assign a cost to exploitation the
>country that exploits the most gets the contracts.
>
>
>
>
>
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