More on Breaking In

Preparing for your career in games

Vaporware

Wire's Vaporware Awards

Warner Bros. To Start a Game Unit

This ought to be interesting... On one hand, I only know of one games studio that has managed to make good on studio licenses -- Akklaim. Almost every other studio has botched it, although EA is doing very well with the Lord of the Rings license.

Breaking In, Part II

The How To Break Into The Game Industry Mini-Conference, Resume Workshop in San Francisco is happening in a few weeks.

I generally don't like these things, because, having already been in the industry for a while, I don't think they benefit the attendees a whole lot. I think you get a lot more out of just talking to guys already in the industry, who can do a lot more for you than some speakers... but if you need inspiration, or want to network, then I think this can be valuable.

Games, Demographics and Socializations

This weekend, I thought about playing Everquest again. Then I started looking at the websites to try and figure out what's changed, and then I thought back about what really made EQ playing, and I came to the conclusion that it wasn't the endless level grind, but rather the social environment of the game.

I think one of the things about EQ is that the players at the top end are all hardcore players -- they are linked by a passion for achievement in the game, so people read the websites, they read the message forums, they create a sense of belonging and understanding of something larger. They create acronyms for everything in the game AA, XP, etc...

I think in particular, the PC age group of 20-40 are looking for that socialization aspect in a game -- the 20 and 30 somethings are either looking for something to belong to or interested in making new friends, and I think that's partially why EQ is such a hit. It's almost like always having people to hang out with.

Socialization and connections work on a different level in games also -- even the single player ones... It usually starts off with "Have you played 'X'? It's great and you should try it. " Which then turns into "I've got the game, but I'm stuck, what do I do?", and this creates a different kind of social order, in which one is a teacher, and one is a learner.

Which brings me back to EQ, in that it requires both the virtual social interactions and the personal social interaction, because no one I've ever known was able to learn EQ without showing them what to do. No one enters EQ without a friend introducing them to the game. Even at Blizzard, we had guys who were in the Beta who were showing us how to play EQ, because otherwise it was an impossible game to learn.

But now that everyone copies the EQ mold of doing MMORPG, future MMORPGs are a lot easier to learn... which diminished the need for the learner/teacher relationship somewhat for future MMORPGs, which creates a sort of weird dynamic in new MMORPGs -- where some have had experience playing them, and some have not. But I think that people find their MMORPGs, just like they find their cliques in society, and then it takes a lot of change them over. It's sort of like moving neighborhoods -- once you get settled, you don't want to move.

Crazy EBay Madness

Items currently for sale

Everytime I clean my apartment, I find more and more Blizzard stuff. Tucked away in a forgotten box, or sitting in a bag on a closet... I guess that after working for a while there, just like how games get in your blood, Blizzard gets in your stuff...

Interview on Blizzplanet

Blizzplanet had an interview with me the other day, regarding the auction and about life at Blizzard and Castaway.

Interview

Since someone asked, my main motivation for selling this stuff is to get these items out of my apartment and into the hands of fans who will appreciate them.

More on EBay

Link to my EBay Auction of Blizzard Stuff

I posted more items on EBay, after discovering a box in my closet containing a bunch of promo posters. These are nice posters and I hope they find a good home. I put some other video/computer game related stuff up there as well. There's a lot of Blizzard stuff though. Lots. It seems that everytime I turn around, I find even more stuff. There's 50 items posted so far, and I'm adding to that daily.

I've been contacted by a lot of people so far, all with kind words. Thank you for your comments and words of encouragement.

Breaking Into The Games Industry

One of the things I hear most when I tell people what I do for a living is "I want to do games. How do I get into the business? I don't have any experience."

How do you get experience when every developer in the world seems to want experience? Seems like a chicken and the egg kind of thing, doesn't it? It is, and it isn't. There are a few opportunities out there for finding jobs that don't require experience. But what if you live out in an area where there aren't a lot of game developers? Simple. You create your own experience on your own.

I've known people to get into this industry based solely on their ability to demonstrate their skills -- whether it's in programming, art or music, if you have the skills and want to do games, developers want you.

I have a friend who, while he was in college, decided that he wanted to teach a class in game production. His class used one of the computer labs, and he turned that class into a home-brewed game studio. His students learnt the concepts of working in tandem with others (a very important skill for all developers to learn) as well as how to meet deadlines, and go through the whole process of creating and testing a product. Many of his students got jobs in the industry afterwards, while some decided that games really wasn't their calling. Upon graduation, he got a job at one of the bigger studios as an associate producer.

Programmers can write their own games -- Java and Flash games right now are great for showing off the ability to create simple but fun games. If you can get the reviewer of the application to not stop playing the game and to pass it around to the others in the office, you've got a better chance of getting an interview than someone whose demo of Tic-Tac-Toe was less than impressive. Show off your skills and expertise but remember that this is just a demo. It doesn't have to be a full-production, big budgety thing... most programmers only ever work on one or two aspects of the game. If you can create a great physics simulation, show that off.

Artists need to show that they can understand the concepts of what a character or background needs -- modeling, texturing and animation are all good skills to know. You should also understand the difference between animating for a short as opposed to animating for a game (hint: cycles). Learn 3D. Very few companies hire traditional 2D artists nowadays since nearly everything is 3D. With free tools such as Maya Learning Edition, there's no excuse not to. Planes and cars are fine to model and texture, but are too simplistic to animate.

Game Designers. This is the one I hear about the most. This is probably because the person I'm talking too can't program or produce art, and thinks he has an great idea for a game. Ideas are cheap in this business. Everyone has them, but not everyone has the means to make their ideas into a game. Any idea can be made into a cool game. It's all in the execution. Show off your skills, and design a game. All the game has to be is playable -- whether it's on the computer or in the form of a board game, no one knows how well it's designed until it's actually played.

So, in a nutshell, that's how you get in without experience. Show you can do the work, and you'll be amazed how far that can get you.

MMORPG for Hardcore Players

MMORPGs - What Players Really Want

The article above is definitely written by a rabid UO player.

I, on the other hand, was once a fairly devoted Evercrack addict. My opinions differ from his, in that I do not perceive UO as being a great game. UO was definitely innovative, and needs to be credited for being the first truly mainstream MMORPG, however, it had problems. Massive problems. Every MMORPG has massive problems. The MMORPG market is still very very young -- and almost all the MMORPGs out there follow the EQ or UO model for doing things.

EQ was by far, not a perfect game, but it did some things right. They managed to keep the game interesting enough that I wanted to keep playing after the initial free month, and it really was a social enough game that you did develop real friendships online. I had never seen that done before in any game.

Another thing they did right was prevent PK'ing of players who didn't want to participate in that type of game. Yes, it was unrealistic, but I think that fantasy role-playing games are not about realism, but rather the illusion of playing in a fantasy world.

E-Bay

I'm planning to auction off my rather large lot of Blizzard stuff on E-Bay. My UserID is ex-blizzardguy.

I imagine I'll send Flux and Elly a quick little e-mail, since some fans of Diablo II might be interested in the items. I'll send 'em a link to this as well ;)

All my stuff from Blizzard pretty much takes up a bedroom in my place, so living in my place was pretty cramped for a while.

I've moved since then, but I still have all these goodies from Blizzard still taking up space. I still haven't decided if I'm going to sell my D2 Development Team T-shirt and Sweatshirt. Seems kind of wrong. But everything else will go, I'm sure.