|
Shalinor posted:Valve is, by comparison, just a really cool place to work, that I'm pretty sure many of us would have a fair shot at someday. It just takes confidence and competence. It would be awesome, but it's not really the one true dream for me or anything. That's an excellent point. I hope to someday become competent and good enough at the craft enough to do either. Frankly, where ever I end up, I plan on dabbling with self-directed and self-owned work in my spare time, and if the market is so bad that I don't get a day job or I get laid off and can't swing a new gig, I would try to find work for a few months, but after that, I would just start working on something alone or with a small team. The draw of working on something yourself or being the one in charge is huge. The market is too poo poo right now to waste time being unemployed.
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2011 16:33
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 5, 2024 04:17 |
|
|
You know what the annoying thing about Ethiopia is? IT skill level is so high here, rent is so cheap, and labor so incredibly cheap, you could start a significant studio here for literally $50,000 -- except for the fact that there's basically no internet.
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2011 16:56
|
|
|
Diplomaticus posted:You know what the annoying thing about Ethiopia is? IT skill level is so high here, rent is so cheap, and labor so incredibly cheap, you could start a significant studio here for literally $50,000 -- except for the fact that there's basically no internet. Wouldn't it be a good idea then to lay fiber (copper would probably be stolen) and use that opportunity? The hardest part would be to connect to a backbone, wouldn't it?
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2011 17:09
|
|
|
HYMEN.SYS posted:I want to work at a company like Treasure where if you want to design a game you had better want to code for that game as well. Hey Akuma, isn't this basically our place? 
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2011 17:17
|
|
|
I really can't say more without risking it sounding like a policy statement
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2011 17:18
|
|
|
Monster w21 Faces posted:You can forget Crytek. The next cm job they have is mine. I'll take Bungie or Irrational too, like typhus. Or Epic. But yeah, I'd also rather run my own company (into the ground) making HD versions of old Capcom titles or something.
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2011 17:33
|
|
|
Aliginge posted:Hey Akuma, isn't this basically our place? Too bad my code skills are so terrible that this is completely unrealistic. There's a reason I work in Flash and Unity.
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2011 18:05
|
|
|
Shalinor posted:EDIT: And Uwe Boll's entire career was justified the second he made Postal 2, drat it. Awesome movie I was at the midnight premiere of the movie, with a Q&A session with Uwe Boll. They should make a blu-ray version. Dick and fart jokes, in 1080p glory! 
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2011 18:15
|
|
|
This Facebook conference has me thinking... Do companies like Zynga get a heads up from them about upcoming big changes or anything? It seems that making Facebook games exclusively would make me nervous as whether or not my company continues would be entirely dependent upon Mark Zuckerburg and whatever random changes he decides to make. I know that chances are they wont mess too much with game integration in Facebook, but there's still a chance that Facebook might get MySpace'd and everyone migrates to some other thing and all of a sudden your playership drops...
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2011 18:16
|
|
|
mutata posted:This Facebook conference has me thinking... Do companies like Zynga get a heads up from them about upcoming big changes or anything? It seems that making Facebook games exclusively would make me nervous as whether or not my company continues would be entirely dependent upon Mark Zuckerburg and whatever random changes he decides to make. I know that chances are they wont mess too much with game integration in Facebook, but there's still a chance that Facebook might get MySpace'd and everyone migrates to some other thing and all of a sudden your playership drops... This does raise an interesting point - but I would imagine the worst case scenario would be that you'd have to just port your most popular games to some non-Facebook format to recapture your playerbase. Casual games are pretty successful all across the board - Facebook is great for exposure, but it's hardly the only outlet available.
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2011 18:18
|
|
|
GeauxSteve posted:Where are you looking to get hired? I work QA for EA. I've been applying to the game companies in/around LA. I actually worked as a QA tester for EA a long time ago. But there's that 6 month contract thing. So I don't know if I can get rehired there?
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2011 18:21
|
|
|
My suggestion for those that have a dream studio to work at, and have a decent amount of experience, is to go for it. Too many talented people fall victim to the Dunning-Kruger effect, and think they're not talented enough to do it. The worst that can happen is that you don't get the job, but that's a learning experience.
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2011 18:33
|
|
|
The Oid posted:My suggestion for those that have a dream studio to work at, and have a decent amount of experience, is to go for it. Too many talented people fall victim to the Dunning-Kruger effect, and think they're not talented enough to do it. Holy poo poo, there's an actual name for that?
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2011 18:34
|
|
|
HYMEN.SYS posted:Holy poo poo, there's an actual name for that? It's also the name for the opposite: The people who aren't any good but have convinced themselves that they are incredible.
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2011 18:40
|
|
|
"Dunning-Kruger effect" is the hottest goon phrase right now, just after "objectively bad" I can't stop seeing it all the time now!
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2011 18:41
|
|
|
Fishbus posted:"Dunning-Kruger effect" is the hottest goon phrase right now, just after "objectively bad" I can't stop seeing it all the time now! I'll take it over the swaths of "literally" and "stop using literally wrong" posts from a while back. Is there a way to get over telling yourself you're not good enough or is it just a "just do it, you fat gently caress" sort of thing?
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2011 18:49
|
|
|
mutata posted:It's also the name for the opposite: The people who aren't any good but have convinced themselves that they are incredible. 
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2011 19:10
|
|
|
M4rk posted:I'm calling this the Mark-Wilhelm effect, because Dunning-Kruger is too hard to say. Sure, but then you sound like you want to defile the Kaiser's corpse with a Sharpie. Speaking of Dunning-Kruger, as someone who's teaching himself programming in his spare time, I've been so worried about falling prey to it that I have no idea how much I should know before I can start claiming on my resume that I know a given programming language. Is there some sort of rule of thumb, or is the answer as simple as "Code something useful first"? Male Man fucked around with this message at 20:00 on Sep 22, 2011 |
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2011 19:57
|
|
|
Lurking Haro posted:Wouldn't it be a good idea then to lay fiber (copper would probably be stolen) and use that opportunity? If Ethiopia is anything like my brother described his time with the Peace Corps in Kenya, then you will never have any idea when you'll have electricity or for how long.
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2011 20:04
|
|
|
ZombieApostate posted:If Ethiopia is anything like my brother described his time with the Peace Corps in Kenya, then you will never have any idea when you'll have electricity or for how long. Is there something I didn't get about Diplomaticus' post, or how is the IT skill level as high as he claims without electricity. Maybe your brother was talking about smaller villages?
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2011 20:15
|
|
|
Still trying to break into community work.. I've fired off CVs to every place that even is hinting at hiring community guys. I know it's a long process though and I'm not getting discouraged. It's just a very hard field to break into without any demonstrable experience... Keepin' my head up though! 
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2011 20:48
|
|
|
Lurking Haro posted:Is there something I didn't get about Diplomaticus' post, or how is the IT skill level as high as he claims without electricity. My brother definitely spent most of his time in a small village, but he said even Nairobi had electricity problems, although we never had a problem while we were there visiting. Could have just been from the rioting? In any case, it doesn't sound like the most stable area of the world to try to start a technology based company.
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2011 20:53
|
|
|
Male Man posted:Sure, but then you sound like you want to defile the Kaiser's corpse with a Sharpie. I found a trick for this and it got me through highschool. I've lost everything I'd learned since then, but it was handy for the time being. Basically, whenever I coded anything at all, I would go over it with a fine tooth comb after documenting the hell out of it and ask myself "how can I make this more efficient?" I'd always make sure I had a project that compiled and ran properly first, of course. There had to be a shippable product there. And basically I'd do that until I felt there was no way to make it any more efficient. Which is why I'm the best loving WinOOT programmer you'll ever meet.
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2011 20:55
|
|
|
mutata posted:It seems that making Facebook games exclusively would make me nervous as whether or not my company continues would be entirely dependent upon Mark Zuckerburg and whatever random changes he decides to make. And DAU/MAU figures are down 25% across the board since the end of last year as well.
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2011 20:59
|
|
|
HYMEN.SYS posted:I'll take it over the swaths of "literally" and "stop using literally wrong" posts from a while back. Is there a way to get over telling yourself you're not good enough or is it just a "just do it, you fat gently caress" sort of thing? Come to the realization that failure is a necessary and vital ingredient to success.
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2011 21:12
|
|
|
mutata posted:Come to the realization that failure is a necessary and vital ingredient to success. ...Well shiiiiiit. That actually makes perfect sense.
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2011 21:20
|
|
|
mutata posted:Come to the realization that failure is a necessary and vital ingredient to success. This is probably the best way I've ever seen this phrased. I've tried to teach folks this before, and explain that you have to work out the bad (before you start doing good), but I like this a lot.
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2011 21:23
|
|
|
It's something I've been thinking about and talking with my professors/boss about a lot lately. I have a side project based around it in my brain that I may start up at some point soon. I wish I could get it completely through my thick skull, though. 
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2011 21:39
|
|
|
Aliginge posted:Hey Akuma, isn't this basically our place?
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2011 21:45
|
|
|
Sigma-X posted:This is probably the best way I've ever seen this phrased. I've tried to teach folks this before, and explain that you have to work out the bad (before you start doing good), but I like this a lot. I've tried to explain this to other Level designers before; they get stuck in a mindset where they need to release something completely awesome for their first version/test whatever and then get stuck on trying to design a corner because it just needs to feel juuuuuuuust right. make a drat corner, a simple one even, then allow the iterative testing process to take care of the rest (if you're not asleep)
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2011 22:31
|
|
|
HYMEN.SYS posted:I found a trick for this and it got me through highschool. I've lost everything I'd learned since then, but it was handy for the time being. Basically, whenever I coded anything at all, I would go over it with a fine tooth comb after documenting the hell out of it and ask myself "how can I make this more efficient?" I'd always make sure I had a project that compiled and ran properly first, of course. There had to be a shippable product there. And holy poo poo I've owned MarkWilhelm.com for a long time now. Can't believe I put it in the comment header of my programs back then.  
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2011 22:35
|
|
|
mutata posted:Come to the realization that failure is a necessary and vital ingredient to success.
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2011 22:40
|
|
|
Bash Ironfist posted:I've been applying to the game companies in/around LA. I actually worked as a QA tester for EA a long time ago. But there's that 6 month contract thing. So I don't know if I can get rehired there? Los Angeles or Louisiana? EA's QA facility here has 12 month long contracts. After the contract ends, you have to wait 3 months before you can come back.
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2011 22:41
|
|
|
M4rk posted:In America, the above quote is widely embraced in the startup tech sector. In other parts of the world, though, this sentiment isn't shared. Why is that? Isn't it obvious that it's true? How many failures did Mark Zuckerberg have before his success? Bill Gates? Larry and Sergie? Many of the 'big names' went big with their first and to some degree only company. (Yes you can come up with dozens of counter-points but it's not universally true.)
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2011 22:51
|
|
|
Hughlander posted:How many failures did Mark Zuckerberg have before his success? Bill Gates? Larry and Sergie? Bill Gates' first startup involved making a traffic tracking system that completely failed to work and he had to go crying to his mother to help him.
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2011 22:58
|
|
|
HYMEN.SYS posted:Bill Gates' first startup involved making a traffic tracking system that completely failed to work and he had to go crying to his mother to help him. And let's not forget FaceSmash, Zuckerburg's precursor to Facebook that got him in huge trouble and put on academic probation at Harvard. I think the problem is we never hear about the failures because failure is considered bad. It's glossed over in biographies and E True Hollywood Stories with black and white moody footage and depressing music as "the lowest point" of these people's entire lives instead of the learning experiences that gave them what they needed to learn, go forward, and succeed. We are trained in society to fear failure and avoid it at all costs and this cripples people. Then when someone is successful, we analyze and break down to nth degrees their success out of context of their previous dozens of failures. mutata fucked around with this message at 23:17 on Sep 22, 2011 |
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2011 23:06
|
|
|
GeauxSteve posted:Los Angeles or Louisiana? EA's QA facility here has 12 month long contracts. After the contract ends, you have to wait 3 months before you can come back. Oh, Los Angeles. Sorry. Growing up here, LA always=Los Angeles in my mind.
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2011 23:12
|
|
|
HYMEN.SYS posted:Bill Gates' first startup involved making a traffic tracking system that completely failed to work and he had to go crying to his mother to help him. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traf-O-Data doesn't seem like much of a failure. Particularly for someone still in high school at the time.
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2011 23:57
|
|
|
Hughlander posted:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traf-O-Data doesn't seem like much of a failure. Particularly for someone still in high school at the time. Look at Romero. Yes, he did well with Lolapps, and Loot Drop looks to be doing well, and he had ID, but there was a relatively large string of successful but not as noteworthy businesses between the two. Anyone remember Monkeystone games? Those less noteworthy businesses, we're trained to think of as partial failures (because they didn't explode and make anyone super rich), and mostly ignore in favor of the big successes. We respond even more negatively to true failures where the business dies out / goes into debt / etc. That's the issue. Not every business will generate notable profit, and you shouldn't just give up because of that. EDIT: My first business was an IT service company in HS. I formed it with a friend, and we had 1 customer, and we ultimately just took them down to Best Buy and bought them a machine. We realized the couple was ridiculously old and couldn't handle a machine that didn't come with a 24/7 phone number. That's absolutely a failure, but hey, no reason to give up. Shalinor fucked around with this message at 00:36 on Sep 23, 2011 |
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2011 00:25
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 5, 2024 04:17 |
|
|
Hughlander posted:Many of the 'big names' went big with their first and to some degree only company. (Yes you can come up with dozens of counter-points but it's not universally true.) The exceptions to the rule are companies such as Naughty Dog, which Jason Rubin and Andy Gavin cofounded when they were 16, and Electronic Arts, which Trip Hawkins founded after a great deal of planning and forethought. Even Trip's stint at Apple was part of his plan to start EA. These are unfair examples though. Jason and Andy were incredibly lucky, and Trip is a business genius. quote:Ramsay: After Ski Stud was published, what did you do next? Did you incorporate as Naughty Dog and put together a business plan? Also: HBR: The Failure Issue Why You Need To Fail Fail often, fail well A.G. Lafley: I Think of My Failures as a Gift Kanter: Cultivate a Culture of Confidence ...and so on. For years and years, I've read articles in HBR about how we should learn to fail because failure is a skill. If you're thinking about starting a business, or you're entering a business leadership position, you need to check your ego at the door. (I said check. Don't leave it there!) You're going to fail. There's no way around it. What matters is not that you fail but how you recover. I learned this as a kid while riding a longboard with a buddy. I fell, hurt myself, and exhibited pain. My buddy looked back and said, "Get up! When the best skaters fall, they just get right back up and keep going." That connected with me because I was in the school orchestra at the time. I played the saxophone. The conductor had instructed us to play through our mistakes. So, I stood up, stepped back onto the board, and continued riding. When you fail, don't focus on your loss. Focus on playing through your mistakes. Shalinor posted:Look at Romero. Yes, he did well with Lolapps, and Loot Drop looks to be doing well, and he had ID, but there was a relatively large string of successful but not as noteworthy businesses between the two. Adraeus fucked around with this message at 00:45 on Sep 23, 2011 |
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2011 00:29
|
|
