From genralist to specialist

We are in an economy at the moment where people cannot afford to buy luxury items. The gaming industry was obvious to take a hit through the recession as this is not a necessity that you need within a househould (along with the fact that a lot of unemployment forces people to keep their spenditure to a minimum.) Obviously through the recession this meant that gaming companies needed to make cut backs in employment due to the less money they were taking in. The lack of being able to hold employees full time means that the employees that are there need to be specialist in all areas of game design. A lot of things can be outsourced from freelance game designers which is going to I believe be the main way a game designer will be working in the future. This is the same as a graphic designer or an illustrator. Being freelance means also that you can work for several game companies at a time so it is not a total loss on the now unemployed designer. When the market starts to eventually pick up I hope that more employment opportunities will be available (especially the time that I leave university). Even though rates of pay are cheaper for employees outside of the EU or US countries. I still think that a lot of work produced will have to be evaluated and finilised to meet the standards of a company. So where some jobs may lessen there will still be a need for talented fresh thinking. A lot of jobs can't be outsourced such as the environmental artist or the artistic director. I can imagine that most outsourced work is assets and objects that would be in the game. This could affect junior artists as I can imagine that is the sort of thing that you'd be given when you were first set on into a company. This is one of the main reasons I think that there will always be jobs in the future. To fully create an asset that you know will definitely fit into the game it is best to have all the senior staff e.g. producers / directors around you so you can make sure their vision is the same one that you are creating - in the long run saving time instead of having to change the way it looks.