There are some of us out here in non-game developing, sociological, and psychology oriented academia attempting to isolate and understand current methods of story telling used in virtual worlds as well as developing methods of more engaging and real story telling. Many people in the industry have a tendency to turn their noses up and non-quantifying research (meaning research that does not produce favoring numbers in involvement). True, there are only a handful of us but we are passionate about or work and we want to help.
The real trick is we need all or the development studios out there to let us in your door with out having to “server time” for 10 to 20 years and “earn our due” so you all will listen to us. Some of us are not exactly young and do not have the time to go through that process. The younger people who really know what they are talking about are not going for the entry level jobs because they feel the development industry does not want to listen to them so they become more deeply involved in the academy because that is the only job sector that will pay them for what they do and respect their work.
If you all want to really break out of the “more explosions” method of development you need to reconfigure your hiring practices and let us in at a place where we can immediately help. I can answer some of the currently unanswerable questions (questions that are largely unanswerable because you do not know that they need to be asked) about story telling, you only need to give me and others like me the chance. Begin making a place for academics who are trained to analyze rather than those who are trained to sit at a terminal and you will see what we can do for you.
For decades now we have faced the offhanded gesture from academia embodied in the statement “they are JUST games”. Like wise we have received the cold shoulder from the industry embodied in the phrase “they are JUST academics”... at least the academy is starting to listen but for that conversation to continue the development community MUST begin to listen also. The university system is mired in capitalistic functionality, “the University as a business”. It is like any other business that is enslaved in supply-and-demand. Demand for individuals like myself will valorize our work which can only then server to improve your product...
Reader Comments (1)
Posted: Feb 19th 2008 11:18AM Ayenn said
The real trick is we need all or the development studios out there to let us in your door with out having to “server time” for 10 to 20 years and “earn our due” so you all will listen to us. Some of us are not exactly young and do not have the time to go through that process. The younger people who really know what they are talking about are not going for the entry level jobs because they feel the development industry does not want to listen to them so they become more deeply involved in the academy because that is the only job sector that will pay them for what they do and respect their work.
If you all want to really break out of the “more explosions” method of development you need to reconfigure your hiring practices and let us in at a place where we can immediately help. I can answer some of the currently unanswerable questions (questions that are largely unanswerable because you do not know that they need to be asked) about story telling, you only need to give me and others like me the chance. Begin making a place for academics who are trained to analyze rather than those who are trained to sit at a terminal and you will see what we can do for you.
For decades now we have faced the offhanded gesture from academia embodied in the statement “they are JUST games”. Like wise we have received the cold shoulder from the industry embodied in the phrase “they are JUST academics”... at least the academy is starting to listen but for that conversation to continue the development community MUST begin to listen also. The university system is mired in capitalistic functionality, “the University as a business”. It is like any other business that is enslaved in supply-and-demand. Demand for individuals like myself will valorize our work which can only then server to improve your product...