The quickest way to lose your passion for something is to make a career out of it. That's my opinion anyway.
I used to mess around with HTML and CSS from time to time and I used to genuinely enjoy it. The thing is, that was the occasional 3 hour session at most. When it comes down to "You WILL do this between 9am and 5:30pm!" it is a totally different story.
I think that is why I wouldn't go into game design full time. I usually map for a couple of hours at a time and I enjoy it. If I was told to build levels for 9 hours straight, I would rapidly get fed up with the processes involved and the quality of the work would suffer. Job security is another issue of course. If I make a bad website I spend a few hours fixing it up. If you make a bad game, you stop making games.
Another factor about doing design as a hobby is that if you're not sure how to approach a problem or if you simply get tired of working on a project, you can have a break, maybe leave it for a day or 2 and come back to it. At work, I have the option to say "I don't know what to do with this" but all that happens is the site moves down the list 1 place and I am given ANOTHER site to work on. It's draining. In the end of course, you HAVE to come back to the project within a reasonable amount of time or the client gets pissed off.
urgh...
Sorry for the wall of text.
Thats why i am searching for a profession that wont take much time and wont tire me so easy.
Was in the same boat ~2 yrs. ago. The company I worked for basically wanted half-assed shit done quickly, and I just couldn't do it. Ended up being sacked after a year of work, was absolutely burnt out on web dev after that.
While we're on the subject, some of the worst things in this type of work are the small business clients. They treat "this web thing" as if it's some sort of fad they reluctantly need to get on with. Also most of them think you're ripping them off. After all, they got to where they are from nothing, so surely if they had 4 spare hrs, they could hop on MS Word and do a way better job than you!
[/rant]
^ 90% of our clients. I'm glad they fired me.
Ha. That is practically our motto.
It's also so nice when clients pay attention isn't it?
Just got of the phone to a client after explaining the integration phase and their involvement. The usual process: "Good Afternoon, my name is Andy and I'm calling from etc..."
The guy just grunted his way through the conversation not really taking an interest at all and ended the call with. "Ok. Thanks Grady."
...
Might just have to "lose" his file for a day or two.
I have to put up with this shit on teamspeak almost every night.
Louis, Louis. Still whining Louis.
TeamSpeak + BF3 later?
[End of sarcasm]
Working to someone else's specification is the problem. Well, working to an idiot's specification anyway.
Anyone wanna make an indie game?
Also, dont forget that the best solution is always the simples one (As GLaDoS said)
In my line of work, things are a bit different. You generally can't go back to fix things. You take good photos, it's your skill and experience and everything is good. You take bad photos, you blame it on bad lighting and everything is still good.
Actually no, if I fuck up I have to give out a discount or something. But most of the work can't be redone, so I don't have to do extra work.