So, lot to unpackage here.
I've been friends with Tom since we were kids. We met back in the first grade and were damn near inseparable until high school. Our lives followed relatively similar trajectories. We went to close-ish colleges, majored in something similar. Went off to grad school around the time for the same. Back then, we were always very much on the same wavelength. We had similar interests (games, tv, etc) and got along super well.
I guess the problem came about when my friend, who since childhood had dreams of becoming a game developer, published his first game on PC. He had worked on it for years, and I had admittedly not seen anything of it until release. Kept it very secretive. Well, upon release, it became apparent how bad the game was. Screenshots and items from the game became memes and it was widely mocked for a variety of reasons. To Tom's credit, he handled it mostly well - keeping his cool but taking criticism to heart. Though, he also was clearly defensive about a lot of it.
Since then - he has not relented in his game development and has released many more games - and to be frank, they have all been atrocious. To the point where YouTubers and game reviewers have featured his games as an example of terrible game making. He believes though, that his games are excellent and he's a great developer.
Over that time, he's pushed away anyone who's been critical of him, even those that have approached it in a caring manner. I've tried to be supportive, but he's truly gone off the deep end. He believes in conspiracies of game reviewers and trolls against him, and has became thoroughly unpleasant to be around. All he talks about is his game development. He quit his job a few years ago to focus on games full time, despite it not getting anywhere close to a living wage. He lives with his parents and believes that he's only a few steps away from being self supporting.
We've been friends for a long time and I've tried to help him get his life on track (offering suggestions and advice to go back to school etc) but he's been totally resistant. I want to help and support him, but truly, he's barely the same person I once knew. I've been gentle with my suggestions, knowing he pushes away people who criticize him harshly, but I'm at a real loss here. Do I walk away? What's left to do?
tl;dr My friend has lost touch with reality and has become a thoroughly unpleasant person due to his game development failures.
[link] [comments]
from Relationships https://ift.tt/2Lj3jiN
No comments:
Post a Comment