Well, my parents had a similar position as I was a teen. If I had listen to
them I wouldn't have studied and I wouldn't have done any game programming. I
tell you what; I love to have studied, I love every single line of game code I
write, I love putting equations into practice. I simply love the whole damn
thing and I literally never want it to stop. You can put one million dollar
beside me, I won't stop doing it. Best of all, it gets better as you grow
older since your knowledge and experience really come together and it becomes
a pleasure to exercise the art. I can only laugh about the ideas of my
parents. But I'm fine with it. But I had one advantage; I knew, quite at a
young age, what I wanted, about the limits of time, and that what most people
say (including my parents) cannot be really taken for granted most of the
time. I also observed some many people in their behavior and I came to realize
that the driving force for many of them are very primitive (mostly fear) and
basically sociologically colored (good/bad etc.). So I could understand why my
parents came up with these plans later on. But I denied thankfully like a
brick wall. If I had chosen what my parents wanted me to do (a "real job" so
to speak), and given what I do and know now, I would have regret doing so --
without having any ability to turn back time.
Well, it's not about to not listen to ones parents, friends whatsoever, it's
about to understand their motivation / driving force and adjust accordingly
without letting ones ego drive you (<- that's what one needs to learn). I
think it's a good advice to trust yourself even if you (will) go wrong on so
many corners.
Further. Many of these supposed to be "real jobs" are perhaps ones where you
are slave to some bastard, are dump, have no creativity, no good payment for
your work, and may just serve the greedy goal of a company which basically
wants to rape people's money out of their pocket. Well, fuck it! Considering
your parents, you may start to turn things around and start asking them about
the reality of their jobs. Everyone having such a "real job" should simply
shut the fuck up talking about the jobs of others who love theirs, who wants
to be creative, and who take risk in seeking other ways for having a job
fulfilling there dreams.
It's not the reality of game development, it's the "reality" of ones very own
mind when one take note of such actions on a negative side for the possible
case of being wound in ones ego for not being loved (by those in question).
If so, then this is something one should get rid of by just taking note of
their sayings but letting the negative coloring out of the equation (which
is just ones ego telling). If your parents are truly thinking about game
development the way you indicated, let them do so. You won't change their
minds, even not if you make a huge living out of it (would be considered as
luck). Basically, whether family or not, all these people are going to die
with their opinion/conviction and no one will ever hear them again, like
thousands who died before with all their stupid opinions. It's just a blink in
time where people (like the ones of your family) think they know what's good
for you, for others, for the world. But truth is, the world, the universe
doesn't care the slightest. It's irrelevant. The only thing you should really
care about is you damn mudda fukkin time. Don't waste it, don't waste your
time. It will never come back. You can earn huge deals of dollars or not, but
you'll not even get a single second back. You will regret it, you will regret
having wasted your time for people who may than already be gone with all their
"great" opinions.
TL;DR: If it's game development, it's game development!
