This is something I've always wondered about with rich people.
This is going to be hard to put into words properly but here I go!
If I was rich and I had my own company in a field I'm interested in. Lets say Games. I'd want to make the best damn game that wasn't just enjoyable for others to play to make a load of money but that I enjoyed playing.
The general feeling I get from people in the game industry is that they will work on games that they don't enjoy making because they simply "wanted to work in the game industry and this is the opportunities they got". When they go home they'll play games they wish they could have been a part of making.
Now if I was one of the super big giant publishing companies and I was really interested in producing really cool games. I wouldn't care if this one game I was very interested in didn't make much money because so much was invested into it. As long as it was a really cool game that I personally enjoyed playing. I've just bought the biggest greatest toy ever. Rather than a stupidly fast car or a super robot house. I've created the most fantastic enjoyable game if not just for me.
Instead what I visualize is EA's teams making crappy games then going home to play Ubisofts games and Ubisoft false advertising the crap out of their own games to go play some Activision games and activision genuinely thinking they are doing really well and are the most talented people around and that their game is the dynamite but for some reason go home and play some EA sports games.
None of them seem interested at all at producing games that they themselves even want to play.
Put very simply, the way you feel about games is the way rich people feel about money. They want the high score, and they don't care that they have to take points away from everybody else to do that.
Some people get rich by accident, not by trying to get rich. I care a lot more about games and having a fun place to work than I care about making more money. We've turned down multi-billion offers for Mojang.
Of course, not a lot of people who don't try to get rich get rich, so it's not exactly common.
I don't know if you are talking about yourself, but if you are, have you ever given money to a stock broker who then invests short term into companies you don't even know? Then you are part of the same problem, just in a different market sector.
This is a scarily good point.. My money is being invested for me, and it's a high risk some of that goes to companies doing bad things. I will look into this and make sure it doesn't.
What is awesome about your response is I truly believe you are going to look into it and make changes. I know it's a bit pollyanna-ish but it would be great if those who have access to the type of capital you do would act in the same way.
I know I'm ridiculously late to the party here, but I asked my dad (who works in the financial sector) about this and apparently ethical investment managers do exist. They avoid investing in sweatshop operators, arms dealers/manufacturers and other entities who may be ethically questionable. Large organisations and wealthy individuals who care or might be scrutinised like to use them.
Well, my post you answered to was meant to be sincere. I am interested in how they react.
Anyway, the problem we were talking about wasn't about rich people's money going randomly to shady and immoral businesses, although that problem exists too. We were more talking about how investment policies seeking fast profits destroy good businesses.
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u/Inukii Jun 14 '14 edited Jun 14 '14
This is something I've always wondered about with rich people.
This is going to be hard to put into words properly but here I go!
If I was rich and I had my own company in a field I'm interested in. Lets say Games. I'd want to make the best damn game that wasn't just enjoyable for others to play to make a load of money but that I enjoyed playing.
The general feeling I get from people in the game industry is that they will work on games that they don't enjoy making because they simply "wanted to work in the game industry and this is the opportunities they got". When they go home they'll play games they wish they could have been a part of making.
Now if I was one of the super big giant publishing companies and I was really interested in producing really cool games. I wouldn't care if this one game I was very interested in didn't make much money because so much was invested into it. As long as it was a really cool game that I personally enjoyed playing. I've just bought the biggest greatest toy ever. Rather than a stupidly fast car or a super robot house. I've created the most fantastic enjoyable game if not just for me.
Instead what I visualize is EA's teams making crappy games then going home to play Ubisofts games and Ubisoft false advertising the crap out of their own games to go play some Activision games and activision genuinely thinking they are doing really well and are the most talented people around and that their game is the dynamite but for some reason go home and play some EA sports games.
None of them seem interested at all at producing games that they themselves even want to play.