Yeah, I haven’t seen that commercial specifically, but the Westwood College ads for their Game Development program do bug me. I don’t know much about their curriculum, but just by the way they are marketing the program. “The video game industry is making making more money that the movie industry! It’s fun and exciting! You can be hip like us!” kind of garbage doesn’t impress me at all.
I actually checked out their web site and here’s what they said about the program.
This program helps prepare a student for an entry-level position in the game Software Development industry including the following roles: Game and Interactive Software Tester, Game Maintenance Administrator, Game Documentation Writer, Game Requirements Analyst, and Game Support Specialist.
I looked at the program objectives and it seems that they actually do try to teach you how game development works. But those kinds of ads are misleading, and they are marketing to people that a production manager wouldn’t want anyway. Some people just have no clue what they are getting into. Beta-testers? They don’t just play games. They play the game, assemble different systems to try the game out on every possible system configuration they can, and play the game to try and break it. And when it comes to telling the dev team why the game sucks, they have to tell EXACTLY why. “The controls are not smooth because of this and here’s one way you can fix it. This puzzle isn’t obvious enough, and you’d do better to put that clue here.” And so on. Beta-testers should know as much about how games work, how the design process works, and what makes a good game, as much as the dev team does.
Game development isn’t just fun in games. It’s hard as hell. It’s also very difficult depending on the company that you are with. You have to have more than just “I want to make video games” driving you through the production cycle.
I’ll tell you something though. I’ve allways wanted to make video games. I’ve been coming up with design docs since I was 16. Have I tried to work in the industry? Yup. I would have done music for One Must Fall: Battlegrounds if it wasn’t for the fact that I would have had to leave half-way through the project. So, I know it’s something that I know I could get into.
However, I’ve realized something recently after applying for a temp position here in town for another game dev company. If I get into the industry, I don’t want to make someone else’s game. So, I’m actually glad that those other two opportunities didn’t go through, becuase I wouldn’t have been happy making someone else’s game (plus I’m sure there would have been some kind of Intelectual Property agreement I would have had to sign, and that would have been bad).
I want my games to be different than current industry trends. I want to go against the grain. I’m sick of all those video games that have Generic Soldier Guy and Generic Heroine with T&A as her wardrobe provider. I want games with a well-written story. I want more comedies. I want to make MY types of games and no one elses.
That is what is driving me into the industry. It’s not because I want to sit back and play video games all day for a living. I want to get in there, work my butt off, and change the industry. Fortunatly for me I have a good fall-back plan. I’m studying graphic design, becuase aside from working in the game industry or making my own animated cartoon, THAT’S what I want to do for a living. Besides, I want to do the art design for video games anyway so my education will apply directly.
Besides, I don’t know how any of my potential employers would think about someone having a Bachelors in Game Design.
And on a slightly off-topic note. I hate G4 now. I hate what they did to Tech TV. All the shows I liked were either ruined or canceled. And I tried to watch a few episodes of X Play, which used to be my favorite show on Tech TV is now really stupid, even though they still have one of the same hosts. So, if a video game channel can ruin a video game show, then something is wrong.
those comercials are horrible indeed.
