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FreakyZoid posted:Yeah, that was interesting. All the rumours I heard were that they were taking funding intended for other places, and funnelling it towards the games course because that was the place's USP and shining star. That, and Hobnobs. Apparently the Principal loved Hobnobs.
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Jun 1, 2011 18:29
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Alterian posted:Isn't the game competition being posted today? EDIT: or over lunch, or if I get reaaaalllly bored, etc. Just, don't expect it super soon. Shalinor fucked around with this message at 19:07 on Jun 1, 2011 |
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Jun 1, 2011 18:54
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Started a new job today, this chap sits at the desk next to mine: FreakyZoid posted:All the rumours I heard were that they were taking funding intended for other places, and funnelling it towards the games course because that was the place's USP and shining star. I've heard those rumours and some other ones that are much, much worse. Probably just rumours and hearsay though...
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Jun 1, 2011 19:25
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GetWellGamers posted:I did this last time, but I'm going to complain again about your "I want to start in QA" rant. You should make the distinction that Publisher QA is an unloving hellhole whereas Developer QA has ample room for advancement if you do your work. As someone who currently works in a Senior Developer QA position and previously worked Publisher QA, I agree with this sentiment. I'll write up a post on how the two differ once I finish this smoke test 
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Jun 1, 2011 19:27
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Smegbot posted:Started a new job today, this chap sits at the desk next to mine: Could be worse.  Why yes, that was a vulture hovering around our soon-to-be-closed studio.
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Jun 1, 2011 20:08
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Our R&D development lead (also a former pro MTG'r who still games successfully time to time) posted a solid blog about common things that trip-up interviewees. http://www.wowtcg.com/blogs/2011/06/01/rd-blog-acing-interview
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Jun 1, 2011 22:57
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GetWellGamers posted:I did this last time, but I'm going to complain again about your "I want to start in QA" rant. You should make the distinction that Publisher QA is an unloving hellhole whereas Developer QA has ample room for advancement if you do your work. Write me something up and I'll put it in! Blocko posted:As someone who currently works in a Senior Developer QA position and previously worked Publisher QA, I agree with this sentiment. I'll write up a post on how the two differ once I finish this smoke test You too! Except make GWG do it instead and use the time to make Space Marine awesome! Monster w21 Faces posted:Not to be pedantic but I'm no longer a community officer. I'm the head of community management/designer. Will fix.
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Jun 1, 2011 23:07
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Aw man that seagull is just begging for a caption. Let's try one: Apologies for not being very game-job related (or funny for that matter)
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Jun 1, 2011 23:22
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Hmm, I wasn't aware that you couldn't get a business development job in the video game industry right out of college. I am graduating in two weeks and was just starting to look for marketing jobs in the industry, with the intent of learning how to develop games in my free time. Would you goons recommend I try to get a marketing job somewhere else then? The tech industry maybe? I live in Silicon Valley.
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Jun 1, 2011 23:34
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Cool people will enter this, or volunteer as judges, or maybe throw up a prize If I forgot something, say so in the thread. Think I covered everything, but who knows. Shalinor fucked around with this message at 00:18 on Jun 2, 2011 |
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Jun 2, 2011 00:13
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Shalinor you are the only one who ever replies to me... :P But I'm so down to do this! Maybe it will help distract me from the depressing fact that I won't be marketing games straight out of college...
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Jun 2, 2011 01:17
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What are you looking to do? Marketing / BD are usually not even in the same department at larger studios. BD is usually with sales and marketing is marketing.
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Jun 2, 2011 01:24
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Right, BD and Marketing are separate. It sounds like you don't have the experience for BD, so let's talk about marketing. First, decide whether you want to do marketing at a studio or at a publisher. On the studio you'll likely be working on one or two games, under the brand manager. At the publisher, you'll be responsible for a wider swathe of games but won't get as deeply involved in any single one. Each publisher does marketing different; for example, Activision's marketing departments are similar to a studio's in that they focus on game verticals (e.g. "the CoD marketing team"), while Square Enix Inc's are responsible for SQEX Japan, Taito, and Eidos games. Either way, at a publisher, you'd be part of a reporting line that moves something along the lines of: the VP of marketing, the marketing director, the senior product manager, product manager, and finally, you. As you might expect, you'd be doing a lot of the copy/paste work and dirty work for, example, a campaign with Gamestop. You would not be involved in game design or game making at a publisher. At a studio, the brand manager does tend to have some influence on game style, but a cog within his department wouldn't get to work on the games itself. Still, if you have other skills like programming and artwork it doesn't hurt to be a known quantity within a studio- but I think there are better people to answer that question in this thread. Studio marketing is a bit more fun since you get to develop marketing plans in tandem with the game's development. A lot of the marketing artwork and design will also come out of the studio. Carfax Report fucked around with this message at 08:07 on Jun 2, 2011 |
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Jun 2, 2011 01:46
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The key to BD is to become good friends with the bartenders and restaurant managers at the W.
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Jun 2, 2011 03:17
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Acethomas posted:The key to BD is to become good friends with the bartenders and restaurant managers at the W. This, so hard.
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Jun 2, 2011 04:26
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Carfax Report posted:let's talk about marketing. Thank you very much for the reply, that is really encouraging to hear! I have actually been wondering about this for a while now. I am an economics major who wants to be a game developer, but I don't have any of the skills right now, so I am more interested in marketing than BD anyway, because of the (potential) collaboration with the game developers. I am thinking that a good plan would be for me to get some experience on the marketing side (preferably studio, since it seems like one is closer to the actual game production in a studio environment), while slowly building up my game development skills on the side, so that I will have contacts and experience within the industry by the time I decide to transition over to game development. Does that sound like a good/feasible long-term plan?
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Jun 2, 2011 06:24
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Not that I'm really interested in BD, but what is "the W?"
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Jun 2, 2011 06:32
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Vino posted:Not that I'm really interested in BD, but what is "the W?" A chain of hotels. The W near Moscone center is where a lot of networking happens during GDC.
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Jun 2, 2011 06:35
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Acethomas posted:The key to BD is to become good friends with the bartenders and restaurant managers at the W. This made me laugh out loud, because it's just so true. Though I'm wondering what the end goal is of becoming friends with said people. Just getting the nice/quiet spots to talk, or what?
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Jun 2, 2011 06:47
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Ooooh I remember that place now. My hotel is usually cheap and a good walk away.GetWellGamers posted:This made me laugh out loud, because it's just so true. Though I'm wondering what the end goal is of becoming friends with said people. Just getting the nice/quiet spots to talk, or what? Man if I knew this I would be waaaaaay better at networking.
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Jun 2, 2011 07:14
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The hotels around GDC are crazy busy; knowing the guys there will help you. One GDC I went from hotel to hotel trying to find an empty conference room to use for a meeting. BD is about networking, and networking involves drinks. The amount of industry gossip you hear just wandering around hotel bars with your ears open during GDC is amazing. It's not coincidental that most of the BD guys tend to be MBAs or JDs, both of whom are known for their love of liquor. dylguy90 posted:Thank you very much for the reply, that is really encouraging to hear! I have actually been wondering about this for a while now. It sounds reasonable to me. Some of the guys here involved in development would be able to tell you better whether they've seen marketers transition into dev. In addition to programming/art there are positions like project manager, that's an area where it's easier for a non-industry person to enter. I have a friend who graduated from my MBA program and worked in finance beforehand. She was into game dev so she got a marketing job at one publisher and then, networking at GDC, landed a project manager position at a major studio. Incidentally, if you were serious about marketing as a career path, I would recommend a tech job in silicon valley transitioning to a marketing MBA, which would give you the toolset necessary to land a management position within marketing at a pub/dev. Carfax Report fucked around with this message at 08:09 on Jun 2, 2011 |
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Jun 2, 2011 08:06
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GetWellGamers posted:This made me laugh out loud, because it's just so true. Though I'm wondering what the end goal is of becoming friends with said people. Just getting the nice/quiet spots to talk, or what? Getting a spot or table held open for you if you aren't staying there or renting a suite for meetings. Also having drinks as soon as you get to said spot is key, can't develop your business if you're sober. Palming some cash will work in a pinch of you're in a bind, but that'll get expensive fast. Walking into the W when it's got people coming out the doors and bringing people right into something set aside on the second floor makes a pretty nice impression. Edit: Do we have an E3 meet thread yet? I'll be there Tuesday and Thursday for sure, probably just for fun as I'm not on contract with anyone at the moment. Acethomas fucked around with this message at 08:11 on Jun 2, 2011 |
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Jun 2, 2011 08:07
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BizarroAzrael posted:Just set up a new blog for my projects, I just made my first post about using Hammer and making a Portal 2 map. Would like to know if it's too wordy, if I shouldn't be talking about aborted ideas, anything really. I'm a bit concerned about what I should and shouldn't assume a reader knows about the mechanics of Portal. I'll pick out a theme and hussy it all up in a week or so. All work aside, I love your banner. What is it? 
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Jun 2, 2011 09:13
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Category Fun! posted:This is a long shot, but do you know anything about what's happening at Abertay? I applied for GDPM there and I still haven't received a response to my application. Apparently there's still trouble with the Principal and Vice Principal being suspended, and all kinds of senate hearings and lawsuits flying around. I even heard a rumour at one point that they were going to shut down their games courses or merge them with Dundee College. Have you heard anything about that? The hell? This is the first I've heard of this but then again I don't own a TV or read the paper.
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Jun 2, 2011 09:28
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concerned mom posted:All work aside, I love your banner. What is it? The generic Wordpress one I haven't replaced yet. :|
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Jun 2, 2011 10:42
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BizarroAzrael posted:The generic Wordpress one I haven't replaced yet. :| Haha that's hilarious. Really nice work on there, and great banner!
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Jun 2, 2011 13:08
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Monster w21 Faces posted:The hell? This is the first I've heard of this but then again I don't own a TV or read the paper. Oh! Well, here's some stuff on it: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-12333996 http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/education/suspension-of-abertay-principal-sparks-staff-row-1.1103333 The rumours I'd heard were that he'd put money intended for other things into the games development courses, but according to the Herald he was refusing to step down after he turned 65. Either way I'm still worried it's taking them so long to get to my application.
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Jun 2, 2011 13:39
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I say put all the money in games courses. It's not like there aren't a bunch of other unis in the surrounding area.
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Jun 2, 2011 13:47
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Monster w21 Faces posted:I say put all the money in games courses. It's not like there aren't a bunch of other unis in the surrounding area. Hear hear! I may be slightly biased of course.
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Jun 2, 2011 13:49
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dylguy90 posted:Thank you very much for the reply, that is really encouraging to hear! I have actually been wondering about this for a while now. You do not need to try and get a job in games marketing for your first job. What you need is to get a job that will give you experience with preparing your company's branding and presence for trade shows. Having experience running booths at a trade show or other kind of exhibition, especially if you can get experience with the preparation leading up to that, is going to be invaluable to you as you transition into games. Secondarily to that, you want a company that has multiple products and will let you either be the project/account manager (if they term that as a marketing position rather than executive/production) or work closely with that person, if not. Having experience as an account manager is also very helpful when you will want to transition into games. Get as much CRM experience as you can. My point is that for a marketing job, your industry is not really that important -- having a knowledge of games or a specific IP is not important. That stuff can be taught to you relatively quickly. But you need practical, hands-on experience with the aspects of the job that are fungible between industries. -e- much of this applies to BD too, except substitute "trade shows" for experience with direct sales and product research (though having trade show experience is nice, it is not nearly as important as it is for a marketing rep).
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Jun 2, 2011 20:58
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While at work today a buddy of mine mentioned Gamescom was coming up in August. Now I've never been before and it sounded quite interesting (camping woo!), but what I'm wondering if it is just a trade show to play demos and look at the latest stuff, or is it the kinda place where you could network and pass around a few business cards. Can anyone enlighten me?
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Jun 3, 2011 00:03
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You know you're in games when your new boss tells you during orientation that you need to install Steam on your work computer because the team plays L4D2 and TF2 from time to time.
https://instagram.com/mutatedjellyfish/
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Jun 3, 2011 03:50
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mutata posted:You know you're in games when your new boss tells you during orientation that you need to install Steam on your work computer because the team plays L4D2 and TF2 from time to time. L4D2 would be nice, but we could never get enough folks interested for proper VS play. Alas  Might have to try reviving that soon...
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Jun 3, 2011 04:26
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That's the one really jarring thing about moving from a food service job to one in the games industry, that you're shifting from an environment of "DO WORK CONSTANTLY ALL THE TIME OR YOU'RE hosed", to one of "eh, just give good results and you can chill most of the time". It'll be even more jarring to see content played at E3 that I've already been doing over and over again.
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Jun 3, 2011 06:03
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I don't know what gives you that idea. Game developers are worked just as hard as anybody else if not harder.
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Jun 3, 2011 07:15
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miscellaneous14 posted:That's the one really jarring thing about moving from a food service job to one in the games industry, that you're shifting from an environment of "DO WORK CONSTANTLY ALL THE TIME OR YOU'RE hosed", to one of "eh, just give good results and you can chill most of the time". I'm pretty sure you got those mixed up.
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Jun 3, 2011 07:23
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Maybe all of you are right and workload and number of job responsibilities differ from employer to employer, project to project, and position to position in the game industry just like they do in every single other field
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Jun 3, 2011 07:27
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No I refuse to believe that other people aren't also working 80 to 90 hours a week for months on end for zero overtime pay because if they aren't then what did I just throw away my health and 
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Jun 3, 2011 07:49
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EDIT: ^ right there with you dude (well with the unpaid overtime and long hours, not 80-90 long though, fuuuuuck!)miscellaneous14 posted:That's the one really jarring thing about moving from a food service job to one in the games industry, that you're shifting from an environment of "DO WORK CONSTANTLY ALL THE TIME OR YOU'RE hosed", to one of "eh, just give good results and you can chill most of the time". There is a difference between having a laid back, chilled work environment to having a lazy, unproductive work environment. Yes I sit there with youtube on all day, yes we often all turn our chairs round and have a laugh or a joke, but we get poo poo done, daily. If you turn up to a scrum or a meeting with nothing to show progress wise people will notice and you wont stay working there for long. If you don't hit deadlines on features they might get cut and you might get cut with them if it is obvious you haven't put in the work. Clonkers fucked around with this message at 07:59 on Jun 3, 2011 |
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Jun 3, 2011 07:57
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Chasiubao posted:No I refuse to believe that other people aren't also working 80 to 90 hours a week for months on end for zero overtime pay because if they aren't then what did I just throw away my health and Full disclosure: This is not actually something that happened to me as I'm not in that part of the industry any more 
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Jun 3, 2011 08:04
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