Career Essay in MCOM111

Raphael B. Nemenzo

                                                    Being a Game Designer

As a college student, I have a dream of becoming a designer; you may wonder what type of designer I would like to be and I choose to become a video game designer. Since I was a child, I love playing video games and it became a passion in my life. I am more determined to work if I really love the job I am with like being a game designer which fits one of my passions in life which is playing video games.

Video Game Designers don’t create games. They create detailed design documents. A design document contain descriptions of all aspects of an electronic game - mission, plot, rules, flow charts, sound, artwork, and special features. The design document is the blueprint used by graphic artists, sound designers, and programmers to create the software that results in the video game. Video game designer is not an entry-level job. You have to know how video game design and development works, and experience as a programmer, artist, or producer help. Most video game designers have bachelor’s degrees in English, art, computer science, or related areas. Skills in collaboration and negotiation help you make sure the final product is created true to your original vision.

There are many different things that have to do with video game design including art, music, computer programming and playing games of course. When people think about video games they think about how hard it is or how cool that level was, but there is a whole lot more that goes along with games. Art and music are two very big things that are included with video game design but are not thought of that much because people think they are not important. They are wrong art and music can be the most important part of the game to some people who take their games seriously. Art and music can be very important in game design but they don’t even compare to the coding itself. Coding is where the design part of the game takes shape, it is where it happens. Although music, art, and coding are very important you need a good combination of all three to make a great game.

            If you go out and ask people what music has to do with video games they probably wouldn’t have a clue, but if you keep asking you might find a real gamer and he would tell you that it sets the mood for the whole game. Without the right music games would be nothing but button pressing, reading, and ice to put on your fingers to cool them down after a good game of button mashing. Music is what people can hum when they resting or in the shower, it is what hooks people to the game and makes them want to play it over and over again. Music is what connects the player to game. Now there are two types of music that are put into the game. The first type of music is called “real music”. “Real music” is music or tunes that are played by bands, singers, or other musicians and inserted into the game. Real music is a very hard thing to place into the game because you have to choose just the right time to start playing it. You would want to put a slow songs played with violins, pianos, and other musical instruments at a slow part of the game where there might be a cinematic or a plot turn. You can put a slow quite song that might turn really loud and fast paced when something is getting revealed or shown, but you have to be sure to play “real” music at just the right time or it can ruin what you are trying to set up for a intense moment in the game. The second type of music is called “digital”. Digital music is music that is made with a “music looper” or other programs that you can mix different sounds together and make one big musical track. Digital music is the most common in games nowadays because “real” music costs too much and is too tricky to place. Music is the nicotine of the games; it’s what makes the player come back for more and more.

           

There are many things about video game creation and design that people don’t know of. The vast amount of jobs, how well they can get paid, how relaxing it can be at some times, and other advantages they get for creating a game that turns into a hit. Music and art is the unseen hero’s of video game design, and are not usually seen as anything important. There are a lot of different things out there for someone who wants to get into video game design and all they have to do is work hard and know how to play their cards before they can become a very rich person. Video game design is a complicated field of work that demands perfection and a creative mind.

There are many other jobs that have to with video game creation. There is the marketing team that decides how they are going to advertise the game and all the other things that have to do with advertisements. If you are a smooth talker they might put you on the sales team. They take care of where it is going to be sold, how many copies are going where, and the release date of the game. They also help with the advertising of the game. Game testers are what every little kid wants to be and there is actually a high demand for them in certain parts of the world. If you are good at English, like writing essays, this would be a great job for you. But being a Tester requires a massive knowledge about video games and the observations regarding them. Tester is one of the most common jobs about video games as they can be seen in the Playstation Network series called “The Tester”.

Being a video game designer is fun and doesn’t require a lot of physical aspects to work on but uses the mental aspects instead. As far as what a video game designer has to offer, I am still looking forward to the salary I can get with it, and based on my research you can earn by the average of $60,000 a year which really fits my whole needs. I hope that someday, I can be a game designer to help my family in earning and to be a successful person in my life.

                                                WORKS CITED

Biagi, Shirley. Media/impact: An Introduction to Mass Media, 2009 Update. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2009. Print.

Schell, Jesse. The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses. Amsterdam: Elsevier/Morgan Kaufmann, 2008. Print.

Heller, Steven, and David Womack. Becoming a Digital Designer: A Guide to Careers in Web, Video, Broadcast, Game, + Animation Design. Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons, 2008. Print.

Edery, David, David Edery, and Ethan Mollick. Changing the Game: How Video Games Are Transforming the Future of Business. Upper Saddle River, N.J: FT Press, 2009. Print.

Prensky, Marc. "don't Bother Me Mom, I'm Learning!": How Computer and Video Games Are Preparing Your Kids for Twenty-First Century Success and How You Can Help!St. Paul, Minn: Paragon House, 2006. Print.

http://www.adigitaldreamer.com/articles/becomeavideogamedesigner.htm - Ryan Scufford 12/05/06

http://www.allartschools.com/art-careers/game-design/video-game-designer-interview - John Mckenny  06/08/07

http://www.gamedesignersalarydata.com/ - 04/05/08

Reflection #12 (SOCIAL NETWORK)

Yesterday was an awesome and unique class meeting.. We watched the movie "Social Network" which deals about the story behind the invention of facebook. Mark Zuckerberg was the main character in the story he is also the youngest billionaire in the world. Mark and eduardo (co-founder of fb and his former bestfriend) have an argument regarding the share with the company wherein eduardo didnt receive the share he deserves. Doc treated us in the movie (big thanks to him) and we did a small review of the movie afterwards. Before leaving the class we go to Z-Burger and eat some stuff.

Reflection 12/07/10

Todays class is gaming time and scott showed us how to play DJ hero it was fun. Doc remind us on our missing exams and essays. Finals is due next week and I hope i get an A with this class. hahaha

FINAL EXAM IN MCOM111

Final Exam - The Magnificent Seven

Preview and Instructions

Based on Biagi (2009), our online Facebook posts, our skits, the presentations, your blogs, and your own insights, we will take the final journey on assessments. This examination will require you to critically think, make evaluations, provide information and make critical insights on the communications field. Specifically, we will have questions on film, television, radio, music, and Internet. You may notice that some questions are merged because of the nature of the subjects. Finally, you will be evaluating yourself and your growth in the class, the skills you have learned or developed, the knowledge and insights that you have obtained, how you like working in collaborative groups and as a collaborative class, your opinions of how the class was taught and was it effective or ineffective, and your thoughts on edutainment & convergence teaching methods for your other classes.

Question 1 - Radio

Based on what we have read, discussed, demonstrated and learned, do you think that the deregulatory nature of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 has created an oligarchy that controls the radio industry and who gets air time as well as the role of the DJ? Please explain why this may be good for radio and why it may be bad for radio as an industry.

What about the consumer, has deregulation been good for the consumer or have radio station owners (big media companies) become like banks: too big to fail? What should radio stations do to compete with or collaborate with convergence technologies like Facebook, MySpace, iPods, smartphones, and online radio sites like Pandora?

Answer: I think that radio era is really over right now due to the spreading of different music networks and downloadable musics around the net.

Question 2 - Music

Let's face it the music industry is in trouble, but it also has a unique opportunity to prosper if it changes it approach. In light of this, can you cite some of the major problems facing the music industry because of convergence technology like the iPod, smart phones and the Internet. Can you explain why the music industry has so much power over what is played on the radio?

Explain how the music industry and the street game are similar.
Was it a smart business strategy for the music industry to sue its customers? Explain why it was smart or why it was not smart.

Did this approach alienate consumers from the industry? Explain why. Which model or models would you use for the industry: the free model, the hybrid model or the pay model and explain why it would help the industry. What about the customer how will he or she benefit from the model that you choose.

Finally, has the music industry ignored talented acts for short term profits on personality driven performers with lesser talent as many of you have indicated, does the Internet provide a legitimate outlet for independent acts, and if you are an independent act would you go with a major label or would you promote your music online and keep control of your music and image?

Answer: Of course, the music industry right now is more powerful than the radio because music nowadays can be downloaded through the internet and the spread of iPods and other music player really killed the radio industry. I don’t think it’s a smart business to sue music customers because customers are always right.

Question 3 - Film and Television

In your opinion why does television have a better opportunity to succeed better than films in the age of iPods, HULU, YouTube, smart phones, and network TV sites?

If you are the film industry what would you do to prevent from becoming exactly like the music industry based on these options: would you embed ads in your films in the form of icons, would you create links in films so that gamers can play multiple story lines, would allow chatting during the movie, would you make them downloadable with ads, would you allow instant purchasing of things you see during the movie or would you do a combination of all of the above?

Finally, if you are an independent filmmaker explain how you would use online sites, handheld technologies like cell phoes, and social networking sites like to market and distribute your film. Feel free to list names of sites here and how you would use them to market and distribute your films.

Answer: “Televisions never expires” I believe that the television era will never last and right now, the televisions are evolving through the help of technology like the HDTVS, and now there’s a 3DTV. SO how can you say that the television industry would be beaten by other movie networks if the television is still popular and it evolves as time goes by. I think I would put some more ads on my film because basically, an advertisement is the key to success of an industry and it is the most important strategy that an industry need to do. If I am an independent filmmaker, I would use social network sites like Twitter and Facebook to advertise my film because those networking sites are used by almost every person in the world.

Question 4 - Internet

Based on Ashton Kushter's recently becoming the first person to have over 1 million people following him on Twitter, and the fact that he beat CNN which was advertising for people to follow CNN and using their personalities on Twitter, do you think that the Internet may be the most dominant medium or is on its way to becoming the most dominant?

How has the Internet changed music, radio, television, and film? In your opinion has the Internet been a good thing or a bad thing for radio, music, television and film industries? Explain.

In your opinion has the Internet enabled independent creators of music, film, and television a legitimate outlet or was the old system better with the industries in charge?

How would you use the Internet and convergence technology like iPods to teach a college course?

In the last three questions, you are the judge just like the skits. Here are your cases for you decide.

Answer: I can agree to that one, Internet is really the most dominant medium especially nowadays and everyone is using it period. I think I would not use the internet to teach college course If am the professor because some students may not be comfortable with that style of teaching but I know, majority of the class would like it like I do.

Question 5 - Class & Group Evaluation

Explain how you believe that your group has grown in terms of working together based on how this course was taught?

Explain how you believe that the class as a whole has grown in terms of working together based on how this course was taught?

When did you notice that the class had grown together?

In your opinion what do you think of the edutainment methods we used such as the skits and the convergence methods such as Facebook, the Vox blog, and Twitter to teach as opposed to traditional papers, traditional exams, quizzes, and presentations?

Give your opinon of the class taking over as the producer, director and running large portions of the class using these methods, did this make you more willing to pay attention to class, look forward to attending class and more willing to participate in class? Did you feel empowered in this role?

Answer: Our group really evolved in terms of cooperation especially with the help of our group leader ziggy, and my other group members. If there is a situation where I need their help, they are always there to help and support me. Since the start of the Finals week I noticed the cooperation and teamwork of every group. Haha I wished I could use facebook in my other class though but honestly I really like the implementation of facebook to use in class discussions credits to Doc! I think those methods give me reasons to go attend class because it is unique and overall, that was fun.

Question 6- Self Evalutation

What did you learn in this class about communications? Provide me at least two or three examples. How did you grow in terms of confidence in this class?
What did you enjoy most about this course? Knowing what you know now, do you think that you will be able to apply what you know in other classes to help you study. Are you glad that you took this class, and why?

Answer: All I learn is how to communicate with your groups, and how to communicate in class using the Facebook. My confidence really evolved somehow because of lots of reflections we’ve been doing and I’m gonna miss those reflections in my future class. I enjoy GAMING TIME obviously because I’m a gamer. I think the only thing I learned that I can apply to my other class is the cooperation of one’s group which is really present in this class.

Question 7 - Professor Evaluation of Doc Chris


What did you think about how this class was run by Dr. Chris?

Did you like using the edutainment and convergence methods that he used in class? Why or why not?

What did you learn in this class that you did not know because of the way this course was taught?

Did you like the interactive nature of the class and did it keep you paying attention?

Do you think that you could teach this class to high school students or incoming freshman based on the methods and online tools that we used? Why or why not.

Would you take another course with Dr. Chris? Why or why not?

Would you recommend this course or another course taught by Dr. Chris? Why or why not?

What would you like for Dr. Chris to have taught more on or was what he did sufficient for your needs?

Finally, would you give this course a passing grade?

Answer: Doc chris, I’m speechless. He is crazy but overall I love him as a professor, he is passionate, and even though you think he is just doing it for fun, think twice, cause If you try to understand what he is trying to say you’ll learn something and you can treasure it for the rest of your life. I think I can teach this class to high school students because they are more in favor to this kind of stuff rather than the normal discussions that they really hate. I think it is sufficient for my needs as everything I love was taught by him. OVERALL, I WOULD GIVE THIS AN A if I can give a higher grade, I can give an A+ or maybe an S?! IT WAS ALL FUN STYLE OF LEARNING AND FULL OF EXCITEMENT. Looking forward to a class same like this one in my future classes here in CCBC.