Another parallel: the animation industry. Life's a lot better after you get into a union shop, according to my friends who stuck it out longer than I did - the studios are constantly pushing to have one person's work duties expand to what several people used to do without paying them anything more, and the unions fight back against that and generally make sure that if you can keep picking up union jobs, you can afford to live in Los Angeles.

Like games, animation is an industry full of eager kids with stars in their eyes.