|
This is to anyone who wants to get into and stay in the game industry. [It was inspired by commenters on this site. It is not my usual interaction and game philosophy talk. Apologies.]
Stop being a jerk!
The comments around this site have been pretty frustrating lately. Comments around the web are always frustrating, you might say. But this is a developer-focused site with people you might be working with at some point. I see your comments. Other important people see your comments.
Now let's talk about courtesy.
Courtesy is really important if you want to smoothly move from one job to another. The game industry is constantly in flux and, unless you work entirely on solo projects, you must rely on people to say, "I would love to work with you again!" They need to say that for one of two main reasons. Either you are incredible at your job and merely working with you will get that person to their goal, or you are a good co-worker and people want to work with you because you will make their workday better.
Do not underestimate the power of how you treat others. EVEN if you are incredible, people will definitely remember how you treated them more than your skills. Everyone wants into the game industry, believe me when I say there is someone else as good as you. AND that person is nice too!
When I first started reading Gamasutra I was just beginning high school. I was not really aware of the little subtleties of going from job to job. Back then I was just trying to make chess pieces battle with giant glowing swords. (Yay for making 3d chess pieces with the Lathe tool!) If you are one of the countless aspiring game-anything-people like I was, if you want to work for any legitimate organization, you either have to be John Carmack (hint: you're not), or you need to be recommended to get any decent job.
I cannot tell you how important it is that you treat people with respect. Even people you disagree with. Even people you don't like. That's the whole point of being nice. Don't kick someone when she is down! It is how you treat all of your coworkers that matter. Because maybe you are the problem! Because if you want to work at a company with more than five people, you want all the people in your little art or engineering pit to respect you, you want your boss to respect you.
Now that's not to say you have to be positive about everything. I should make that clear, because that seems to be what really trips up people. You can be critical, but you need to be critical of the work, not the person. One of the most valuable lessons I learned in college was critiquing art. The best art was created through a process of failure and iteration, and it was only because of helpful comments that it became great art.
And there was lots of criticism. My friends and I would eagerly gather around and say what we loved and what didn't work about our projects. We did not attack each other, we analyzed the work we had created. What you write, what you draw, what you program, can always be revised, be aware of that. A helpful and open attitude takes your work to the next level. I love critique, I live for it. But I do not like hostility.
Why did I write a whole blog post on being courteous? Because I know that you, just like me, are reliant on the courtesy of others. We are a big dysfunctional family of game developers. And if you are a jerk, there is a decent enough chance I will find out and do my best to not work with you. So you should probably clean up your act. Because I'm sorry, but I would rather work with nice, rockstar developers.
[note: if you are nice, keep it up! and mebbe i can find out 'n we can werk together on a sweet game. k? cuz that'd be coolio.]
Randy is currently spending lots of time making art for Tiger Style Games, another unnamed game company, and Foolish Games.
Follow him on Twitter.
|
I also have a question. I want to branch out from design and get more into writing. I haven't written anything worth mentioning. Does anyone know what would be a good route for me to take? Let me know.
It takes just a few really bad apples though so maybe this site might need a reporting feature on user comments. Food for thought.
The courtesy concept reminds me of my high school days in my drivers education class. Along with films such as "Blood on the Highway" and "Red Asphalt", I will always remember the catch phrases, "Aim High in Steering", and "Courtesy is Contagious! Catch it..." You article rings true that courtesy in the workplace goes a loooooooooong way, so I recommend "Catching It!" as well.
@Sylvester
I have been thinking about a new transition in the game industry myself, and ironically enough I'm considering the writing area as well. Coming from a design perspective, I assume that you are referring to creative writing vs. tech writing...
Being located in Northern California, I've noticed that is has been difficult to find an education program that specifically focuses on writing in games. However, the University of California Extension Program appears to offer certificate and/or associate degree programs in the writing field. Not sure where you are located, but if it's Northern California, you might want to look into the programs that they offer for post BA/BS students.
Cheers!
On a side note, a 'report to moderator' button would be a great remedy for those few bad apples. Even if the comments are few and far between, its good to spot them quickly.
The issue with the internet and "treat others the way you would like to be treated" is anonymity. People feel more secure to be a jerk in anonymous setting. Ok here on Gamasutra everyone is using real names, but you could still fake that. There still is a certain isolation between the name and the person. It also does not add that many do not consider the fact that people future employers may read this or be a active Gamasutra member.
Unique avatars (not necessary the real face) help to make people stand out. I like this since I recognize people and their posts by their avatars. Often I skip many comments when I see an avatar of someone I think gives great insight into discussions. (Yes, I mean you Adam Bishop, Bart Stewart, Joshua McDonald and others...)
Part of the problem may also be due to the nature of the industry and the specific lists of skills dictated by companies. In fact, the replies by Sylvester and Jason bring up this point albeit somewhat indirectly. I am talking about the fact that communications and "soft skills" are not the focus in this type of industry. Instead, companies like to list tons of technical skills, whether for programming, design tools, or art.
As Jason pointed out, creative writing is needed in gaming. After all, how often have we complained that the story in a game needs serious help? However, education programs continue to focus writing on the outdated print publisher model, even though many publisher are at least beginning to go digital. But game writing offers a chance to create stories that are much more multifaceted and multipath. The Japanese have been doing this for decades, of course, but that may be because of their vibrant doujin market and the frequency of side story spinoffs, plus their tendency to multimedia market almost anything and everything. In the English market, it seems that writing (as far as education is concerned) is still stuck in concrete. So is learning, for that matter, but that's a topic that is often discussed (to no avail) on the Chronicle of Higher Education and elsewhere.
Sometimes it is really difficult to bite your tongue. I myself have been guilty of nerd rage, but like any good wannabe Jedi I try to control my emotions. :) In the end it's worth the effort to be nice.
My sister loves to joke that 25 is the new 18, but I'd almost venture to say that 18 is the new 12. The level of behavior I saw there, in a place that was supposed to prepare people for a job in the entertainment/vfx and game industry would make most middle-schoolers, at least when I went, blush with embarrassment at how petty and immature it all was.
Name calling and bigoted comments were a very common, and picking on / hating people for petty reasons (tastes in games & movie, liked or didn't like anime, wore red one day... so on and so forth) was also incredibly common. I'm not going to get into a screed here, but I definitely agree that there is a lot of lack of courtesy even on the scholastic/apprenticeship level. I heard a lot of comments about how people's ideas were not epic enough -- oh, a police shootout in a liquor store? Not epic enough. So, what? Everything has to be at the level of Michael Bay or Ronald Emmerlich anymore for it to be 'interesting?' This was the level I dealt with. Or critiques that served more as personal attack / praise than any real criticism on the individuals work.
Note, I also admit I slipped and provided 'rudeness', but there was often a reason for it -- not because I thing I was funny being rude, I was usually exhausted, at my limits, and plain frustrated. Normally, those who bore the brunt of my rudeness deserved it 9 times out of 10. It was never petty or infantile. Frequently it was for grounded reasons, such as they were asking for my critique for the tenth time and they had listened to none of my feedback, or they were blathering on about something that had very little background in like they were an expert, or plain old interrupting conversations with unsolicited opinion when I had already made it clear: "Sorry, I don't want to deal with you right now." This is the sort of behavior that leads me to turn off the courtesy filter. However, one colleague noted I can be "very cold" and "detached" (callous possibly) in a professional environment, so that is something I admit I have to work on. Though, like many things, YMMV. What may be stone cold to one person may be perfect professionalism to another. I am not afraid to tell someone that their work or behavior displeases me and for those who are lacking in maturity or never been told "No" in their lives would find it far more offensive than someone who might be more grounded.
There are very few people that if I was presented their resumé or asked: "Hey, you went to school with this guy, how was he?" That I would say, "Don't hire. S/he's extremely disrespectful / close minded / bigoted / not a team player." But they are there, and I would state my reasons both verbally and in writing. I'm sure the feeling is reciprocal, because there are just going to be people you don't get on with, but I think what many people, especially young people, need to learn is that not everyone is going to coo and fawn over everything you do and call it genius. There are going to be people, like myself, who will give you an honest opinion, perhaps even more blisteringly. I'm no better than anyone else and I don't mince words and I may give people a hard time, but I never do it out of malice or attempt to put down.
I felt particularly compelled to write this blog because I feel as if, in the entertainment industry, there is a certain respect for mavericks because many of them create the great games and movies and music we encounter. And so it seems to me that people try to adopt that maverick attitude without understanding it. Some of those people are very blunt and I gained this impression that half the people I idolized stopped for no one. But they were not mean, they were just focused on their work more than the people around them.
I wanted to write this (partly to commenters who might not be in the industry but want to be and also) for students still in the learning phases. Perhaps it should go to the gamecareerguide site...
This was just really to encourage the notion that those few outliers who we hear or read about or work with that are good and rude, the good ones are rude because they are so focused on work that they ignore social norms. They aren't malicious. And that's really what was at the core of this post. Don't be a jerk to get away with it or to attack someone. Fear. Anger. Leads to the dark side. Separate that from your criticism. : )
(Though I guess calling people jerks was showing anger... We all have to continually learn this, even the guy trying to teach the lesson.)