For better or worse, I'm one of those individuals where gaming is more than just a hobby, it's a lifestyle. For a while, my ambitions in chasing a job in the game industry were on the backburner, but I've come to the point where I feel I need to keep chasing that dream if I ever expect to actually live it. So, I spent the better part of my afternoon starting to research. Which companies are hiring. What they are looking for. The qualifications desired and what the job responsibilities are. I also downloaded a great 108 page PDF magazine full of articles and tips. You can find if from THIS SITE. Always happy to share what info I find.
While my Plan A is still to chase writing positions for print or web groups like OXM, Game Informer, or IGN (to give a few examples), or a writing position for a developer or publisher, I'm looking at Plans B and C too.
Plan B is researching other job openings where I might be able to ply skills I've picked up in my current position or through my Sociology coursework. Haven't researched this extensively enough to say much on what I'm looking for.
Plan C, which is the most long-term of the ideas, is to start teaching myself a lot of the skills employers are looking for, and I don't possess. On my next day off, I will be compiling a list of such skills, and evaluating which ones I can realistically go after. As a part of Plan C, I've downloaded XNA and everything I need to run it.
Yes, that means I can theoretically make a game you'd play on your Xbox. Of course, I'm going to have to teach myself literally everything before I could even start on such a project, so don't think you'll be seeing anything from me on the Indie marketplace any time soon. If I can teach myself the skills to make a game through XNA, making a game would be great for my resume. It could be used as an example when applying for a game design position, or, if I could convince Bioware or similar developers to look at it, I think my ability to write excellent dialogue would speak for itself. (If I can say one thing about my writing, I do awesome dialogue. I know I need to improve in other areas, but not there).
So, I'm going to have to reshuffle how I spend my free time, with less time actually playing games and more time doing the research needed to move into the job of my dreams. I've got nothing against my current employer, and will continue striving to do the best I can in my current position, but it's foolish not to keep chasing the job you want above all others, right?
Showing posts with label job hunting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label job hunting. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Meaningful & Most Wanted 1000s
Sometimes I wonder if completing games doesn't seem that impressive any more. I'm not talking about what others think of your completed game total, I mean what you think of your own game total. Is each completed game a small source of pride, or just another brick in the wall? This is likely to vary from person to person, and from game to game. I doubt anyone takes pride in Avatar, but do completions still be like an accomplishment to the people who have many of them?
I have 47 absolute completions; 36 retail, 11 arcade (I consider an absolute completion all achievements, including all DLC. Completed games with missing DLC points are a different category for me). As I continue to work on more challenging games that I know will be highly satisfying to accomplish, I thought I'd take a look back at my 47 completions to see which ones I'm particularly happy about.
Meaningful Completions:
Puzzle Quest - It was a very time-intensive 250, which I worked on over a long time. It was a fun game, and a challenge to get some of the last achievements.
Prey - Sure, it isn't a very hard 1000, but it felt surprisingly good to get. Prey's gravity-defying action was intense and memorable. Not too many shooters can claim to be truly memorable on a console flooded with them.
Oblivion - Bethesda's massive fantasy game was my first regular 1000, and one of the games that turned me on to achievements.
Warriors Orochi 2 - The grinding demon that took me MONTHS to complete, and is proof to myself that I have the willpower to suffer through anything if I want something badly enough. Sure, I could have learned this lesson in a way that would have benefited society or led to more personal growth, but then I wouldn't be an achievement junkie =P
Condenmed 2: Bloodshot - Fantastic game that seems to have an unfairly deserved bad reputation. I earned the majority of the online points w/o boosting. Monolith deserves an award for making the scariest game I've ever played.
Dead Space - Snagging a pre-release copy for review, I was one of the first to get to play Dead Space, and I consider my review of it one of the best I've done to date. This was a fun sci-fi game, and feels good to have on the board.
Dirt - I'm terrible at racing games... this is the only racing game I've 1ked (I think it's the only racing game I've played, even), so it feels good to have it completed. I really enjoyed it, even though I'm bad at racing games.
Mass Effect - I had to do nearly 5 plays to get everything. Mass Effect was spectacular, but it got old after repeated plays. Dedication paid off for the 1050. Here's to hoping that DLC Bioware keeps teasing about actually sees the light of day.
47 completions... and only 8 really stand out to me as games that feel like accomplishments. This shows me that I need to get to tacking up more games I can be proud of.
Most Wanted Completions
What do I really want to get completions in? Here's a list. Note that I may not have played every game shown here yet.
1. EDF 2017 - Fun game, and very challenging 1k
2. Fallout 3 - I'm in no hurry since there is more DLC coming, I just want to make sure I get it eventually.
3. Blue Dragon - A very hard RPG 1000, and I want to keep proving my RPG skills. I have some, honest!
4. Lost Odyssey - Because this game deserves to be played to 1100.
5. Infinite Undiscovery
6. Star Ocean
7. Tales of Vesperia
8. Last Remnant - seeing a theme here? I hunger for RPG completions! Hopefully I can add a few before Final Fantasy XIII comes out.
9. Sacred 2 - This game is videogame crack so I'm sure it'll happen with time.
Upcoming most wanted:
10. Aliens vs. Predator - I know, this game won't be out for a while, but I'm going to be all over this game when it arrives.
11: Batman: Arkham Asaylum - I've loved Batman since I was a kid. I can't wait to play this game!
12. Bioshock 2: Please no MP achievements...
13. Final Fantasy XIII - It'll be brutal to 1k, I'm sure, but you know I want to do it.
On a side note, besides FFXIII, are there any upcoming JRPGs? I'm afraid if I really get into this RPG mode, I'll exhaust every option and have nothing to look forward to. I'm not worried about Western RPGs, since Mass Effect and Alpha Protocol are on the horizon, at the least. Anyone know?
In other news: I'm going in tomorrow to interview for a Customer Relations position. No, that's not a job in the game industry. No, I probably won't be writing. But in this economy, I'd be foolish to turn down a job with good benefits, and a salary that would allow me to move out and be independent. I can work at this job to sock away cash for a transition elsewhere. Who knows? Perhaps I'll love it, and do what I can to start climbing the corporate ladder. We'll see how that goes. I'm hoping for the best, and that's what I'll be up to tomorrow.
I have 47 absolute completions; 36 retail, 11 arcade (I consider an absolute completion all achievements, including all DLC. Completed games with missing DLC points are a different category for me). As I continue to work on more challenging games that I know will be highly satisfying to accomplish, I thought I'd take a look back at my 47 completions to see which ones I'm particularly happy about.
Meaningful Completions:
Puzzle Quest - It was a very time-intensive 250, which I worked on over a long time. It was a fun game, and a challenge to get some of the last achievements.
Prey - Sure, it isn't a very hard 1000, but it felt surprisingly good to get. Prey's gravity-defying action was intense and memorable. Not too many shooters can claim to be truly memorable on a console flooded with them.
Oblivion - Bethesda's massive fantasy game was my first regular 1000, and one of the games that turned me on to achievements.
Warriors Orochi 2 - The grinding demon that took me MONTHS to complete, and is proof to myself that I have the willpower to suffer through anything if I want something badly enough. Sure, I could have learned this lesson in a way that would have benefited society or led to more personal growth, but then I wouldn't be an achievement junkie =P
Condenmed 2: Bloodshot - Fantastic game that seems to have an unfairly deserved bad reputation. I earned the majority of the online points w/o boosting. Monolith deserves an award for making the scariest game I've ever played.
Dead Space - Snagging a pre-release copy for review, I was one of the first to get to play Dead Space, and I consider my review of it one of the best I've done to date. This was a fun sci-fi game, and feels good to have on the board.
Dirt - I'm terrible at racing games... this is the only racing game I've 1ked (I think it's the only racing game I've played, even), so it feels good to have it completed. I really enjoyed it, even though I'm bad at racing games.
Mass Effect - I had to do nearly 5 plays to get everything. Mass Effect was spectacular, but it got old after repeated plays. Dedication paid off for the 1050. Here's to hoping that DLC Bioware keeps teasing about actually sees the light of day.
47 completions... and only 8 really stand out to me as games that feel like accomplishments. This shows me that I need to get to tacking up more games I can be proud of.
Most Wanted Completions
What do I really want to get completions in? Here's a list. Note that I may not have played every game shown here yet.
1. EDF 2017 - Fun game, and very challenging 1k
2. Fallout 3 - I'm in no hurry since there is more DLC coming, I just want to make sure I get it eventually.
3. Blue Dragon - A very hard RPG 1000, and I want to keep proving my RPG skills. I have some, honest!
4. Lost Odyssey - Because this game deserves to be played to 1100.
5. Infinite Undiscovery
6. Star Ocean
7. Tales of Vesperia
8. Last Remnant - seeing a theme here? I hunger for RPG completions! Hopefully I can add a few before Final Fantasy XIII comes out.
9. Sacred 2 - This game is videogame crack so I'm sure it'll happen with time.
Upcoming most wanted:
10. Aliens vs. Predator - I know, this game won't be out for a while, but I'm going to be all over this game when it arrives.
11: Batman: Arkham Asaylum - I've loved Batman since I was a kid. I can't wait to play this game!
12. Bioshock 2: Please no MP achievements...
13. Final Fantasy XIII - It'll be brutal to 1k, I'm sure, but you know I want to do it.
On a side note, besides FFXIII, are there any upcoming JRPGs? I'm afraid if I really get into this RPG mode, I'll exhaust every option and have nothing to look forward to. I'm not worried about Western RPGs, since Mass Effect and Alpha Protocol are on the horizon, at the least. Anyone know?
In other news: I'm going in tomorrow to interview for a Customer Relations position. No, that's not a job in the game industry. No, I probably won't be writing. But in this economy, I'd be foolish to turn down a job with good benefits, and a salary that would allow me to move out and be independent. I can work at this job to sock away cash for a transition elsewhere. Who knows? Perhaps I'll love it, and do what I can to start climbing the corporate ladder. We'll see how that goes. I'm hoping for the best, and that's what I'll be up to tomorrow.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
RPG Mania in Full Swing
I seem to be a gamer with polar attitudes, shifting from completely not wanting to play something for a while, to tearing into it like a starving canine on a T-bone steak. The new obsession is RPGs. I've always loved the genre, but the time consuming nature of the genre, and the fact that most of them rely of save points spread out too far apart for casual play, has made the genre ill-equipped for play on the chaotic schedule of a college student. Therefore, I've virtually avoided JRPGs for most of the last year. Now that I've graduated and have a little too much time on my hands while I job search, my schedule is open and flexible enough to allow me to dig into RPGs more easily.
I've been trying to advance my 2nd play of Eternal Sonata, but that first Dolce fight is seriously hard, and level grinding hasn't helped much. I'm taking some time away from it, then I'll check a guide, and do some more level grinding if necessary. I really hate being bottlenecked by one brutal boss. I've been stuck on this boss off and on for months now...
I've been spending most of my play time playing Infinite Undiscovery, which is better than I had expected it to be. I like the battle system, though I'm not as good at this type of system as I am the traditional turn systems used by Mystwalker. I'm taking the majority of the weekend off from job hunting duties and spending it making all the progress I can here. I missed one achievement for rescuing prisoners because I didn't realize there was a time limit for it, but since I need 3 plays for the full 1k anyway, it should be easy enough to get when I play on Hard.
Although he probably doesn't read this, I want to extend a public thanks to jukkakahn for his spreadsheet checklist for the "Compulsive" achievement (available in the x360a forums). It's absolutely brilliant, super helpful, and clearly took a lot of time and effort to make. It really makes hunting this achievement so much easier, so thanks! I'll be sending him a more direct thanks later.
Though I probably won't get it until the middle of next week, I'm almost foaming at the mouth to play Sacred 2. I've heard it has some issues, but this style of dungeon-diving RPG is virtually missing on the 360 (except for the arcade game Arkadian Warriors), and I'm jonesing for a fix on this type of game. Even if it turns out to be mediocre, I'm looking forward to it. Sabre has it, so I might be able to play some with him, and possibly coerce my brother into getting it too.
So, those three RPGs have my immediate focus. Once I'm finished with one of those, I'l like to restart Lost Odyssey. I know I've missed things that would cost me a total of 100 points, so rather than finishing the story and playing through a second time, I'd rather just start over, since I've forgotten a lot of the game's story, anyway.
On the job-hunting front, I've applied for a news editor position at a small local newspaper in Wisconsin. I've followed the rabbit holes to find out who owns IGN (Fox) and Gamespot (CBS) and bookmerked the pages on where to apply for those sites. Neither is currently hiring, but on I'm planning on putting my resume up there anyway. I'll also be sending a prospecting letter and resume to Ziff Davis (owners of 1up, EGM) at the end of the weekend, and I'm looking into headhunters to help this whole job searching along. I'll also be applying to a few government jobs next week. As you can see, I've been busy, and hopefully some of these avenues will develop into something good. I'm also waiting back from Webb to see if he knows anything that could be helpful in my search. At the very least I can say I'm getting a little more comfortable with the job-hunting process each day, though it's terribly boring. I can't wait to have a job and a regular routine LOL =P
I've been trying to advance my 2nd play of Eternal Sonata, but that first Dolce fight is seriously hard, and level grinding hasn't helped much. I'm taking some time away from it, then I'll check a guide, and do some more level grinding if necessary. I really hate being bottlenecked by one brutal boss. I've been stuck on this boss off and on for months now...
I've been spending most of my play time playing Infinite Undiscovery, which is better than I had expected it to be. I like the battle system, though I'm not as good at this type of system as I am the traditional turn systems used by Mystwalker. I'm taking the majority of the weekend off from job hunting duties and spending it making all the progress I can here. I missed one achievement for rescuing prisoners because I didn't realize there was a time limit for it, but since I need 3 plays for the full 1k anyway, it should be easy enough to get when I play on Hard.
Although he probably doesn't read this, I want to extend a public thanks to jukkakahn for his spreadsheet checklist for the "Compulsive" achievement (available in the x360a forums). It's absolutely brilliant, super helpful, and clearly took a lot of time and effort to make. It really makes hunting this achievement so much easier, so thanks! I'll be sending him a more direct thanks later.
Though I probably won't get it until the middle of next week, I'm almost foaming at the mouth to play Sacred 2. I've heard it has some issues, but this style of dungeon-diving RPG is virtually missing on the 360 (except for the arcade game Arkadian Warriors), and I'm jonesing for a fix on this type of game. Even if it turns out to be mediocre, I'm looking forward to it. Sabre has it, so I might be able to play some with him, and possibly coerce my brother into getting it too.
So, those three RPGs have my immediate focus. Once I'm finished with one of those, I'l like to restart Lost Odyssey. I know I've missed things that would cost me a total of 100 points, so rather than finishing the story and playing through a second time, I'd rather just start over, since I've forgotten a lot of the game's story, anyway.
On the job-hunting front, I've applied for a news editor position at a small local newspaper in Wisconsin. I've followed the rabbit holes to find out who owns IGN (Fox) and Gamespot (CBS) and bookmerked the pages on where to apply for those sites. Neither is currently hiring, but on I'm planning on putting my resume up there anyway. I'll also be sending a prospecting letter and resume to Ziff Davis (owners of 1up, EGM) at the end of the weekend, and I'm looking into headhunters to help this whole job searching along. I'll also be applying to a few government jobs next week. As you can see, I've been busy, and hopefully some of these avenues will develop into something good. I'm also waiting back from Webb to see if he knows anything that could be helpful in my search. At the very least I can say I'm getting a little more comfortable with the job-hunting process each day, though it's terribly boring. I can't wait to have a job and a regular routine LOL =P
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)