Mailbag #4
As promised, here is that follow up Mailbag Episode.
And wouldn't you know it, our good friend Erin Siegel is back
to help us out with some more awesome drawings,
while Allison catches a breather.
We still got a lot left to squeeze in, so let's get right to it.
Are you ever gonna do that episode you mentioned about Voice Acting,
putting Role play back in RPGs or Genres or any of those other ones?
We will ... probably get to all the episodes we´ve
put in the "Future Topic" category at some point.
Because James spends most of his Time runnig a consulting company
and holding a full professorship.
Extra Credits episodes tend to get written as they overlap
with problems, he is thinking about in his work life.
But like I said all these things will probably come up sooner or later.
I don't actually need help with the research project itself,
but my topic is similiar to what you guys covered in an episode once.
Where do you guys find your research sources ?
Hmm... that's tough.
We don't acutally keep a list of footnotes for the episodes,
and some of the Information can't really be shared anyway, because
James gathered it from industry people he works with.
Other than that though, all the information we use is publicly avaiable on
the Internet or through the US library system.
We try very hard to keep things that are speculative in a speculative voice,
like the possibilities of tangential learning, for example.
We also try to always call out when we are making a logical leap in an episode,
and suggest other valid possibilities.
But we're gonna miss this one sometimes, so
fact check us and dig deeper wherever you can.
That's actually something I'd love to see come out of this show.
I got so many cool game ideas.
Is there any way i could pitch them to a Studio?
Well here is the thing.
Everybody has got Ideas
In fact, people in game studios usually have a lot more ideas,
they want to work on, than they'll ever be able to ptoduce.
Unfortunatly this means, nobody is really gonna be
interested in your game ideas.
However, prototypes are a different matter.
If you could put together a prototype,
that really shows off what you're trying to deliver.
That is something that publishers will potentially look at.
There are thousands of ways to make connections
and get people to notice your prototype.
But conventions are usually a good place to start.
Next question.
Is there any place i could apply my Psychology or Economics
or whatever degree in the game industry?
Most designers and producers i know, came from disparate backgrounds.
James, for example, took his undergrad in classics.
But if you are looking for an industry job
more directly relevant to your field.
That may be a pretty tough sell.
Only giant companies like Microsoft
devote ressources to dedicated psychologists.
And only companies, who build their entire game
around some non-game related discipline,
like Economics in EVE online,
hire those fields specifically.
It could happen, but it is a long shot.
How do you get into game localization?
There is a small number of companies
that handle a lot of the localization work for the game industry.
Just google "game localization" and you'll find most of them.
See if they have any openings, or even just
send them a resume with your skills.
Just be prepared.
You'll have to have a strong grasp of the langugage,
you are translating from, and an impaccable command
of the grammar and idioms of the language your are translating into
Are there any game design books you would recommend?
First and foremost James recommends Jesse Schell's "Book of Lenses"
After that he also suggests
"Rules of Play"
"Designing Virtual Worlds"
and another book called
"On Game Design"
If you are already a professional Designer and have those already.
you might also check out "Game Feel"
It's got a interesting and different take on the art of game desgin.
But other Books like "The Design of Everyday Things"
"Understanding Comics"
and "Flow"
Are also an essential part of the game designer's library.
Don't strictly limit yourself to books, specifically about game design,
to learn how to be a better game designer.
Is there a reason you haven't done a "Video Games & Violence" episode?
We've toyed with this one a lot.
The problem is that there is just not enough
good data regarding the real effect
for us to say anything definitive.
You've heard us complain a few times
about the fact, that most of the studies done in this regard
are funded by groups with highly biased political agendas regarding games.
And that goes for both sides of the debate.
From within the industry as well as from without.
We touched on it a little
in the "non-combat gaming" episode.
But we could do an episode
on why violence is such a common theme in videogames,
from a design perspective.
If that sounds interesting to any of you.
just email, tweet or facebook us and say so.
We'll add it to the stack.
Next.
What do you think about EA's Origin service thus far?
Well the E.U.L.A. bugged James enough
to not buy Battlefield 3 on the PC.
And I can think of plenty of things we don´t like about Origin.
But lots of other people have already made those complaints
and we seem to do a lot of EA bashing on this show.
So instead I'm gonna list off some of the things we do like about it.
Most importantly it's a sign that EA realises that
physical product sales won´t carry them through the next decade.
Which is a positive change.
EA is a big player in this industry
And it would do a lot of damage if they were to collapse.
If you look at all their studio acquisitions over the last decade.
And how quickly they shut down many of the companies they have acquired.
You'll see that they have been groping for some answer
as to why they simply are no longer profitable the way they used to be.
Origin may be the first step towards a real answer to that question.
And a sincere acknowledgment that the market is changing.
Besides, even thoguh Steam has been a fantastic digital platform.
A little competiton can only mean good things for digital distribution.
But all of that said.
They need to fix their dumbass E.U.L.A.
Do you see a way for Latin America or Africa
or other, seemingly absent markets, to become more relevant in the realm of games?
Latin America certainly will.
And soon.
James does a lot of work there.
In fact if you google the words
"video games brazil"
or "cnn argentina video games".
His work will probably be the first thing that comes up.
Latin America might even be a future topic down the road.
We'll see.
As far as other regions go.
We have less experience there
India is probably gonna be viable within the next decade.
Turkey already has a pretty good MMO market going,
but these things really go on a case by case basis
We'd like to use the Big-Mac-Index,
look it up it's a thing,
as an off the cuff indicator of wether or not
a country will be a reasonable market for video gams in the next decade.
If it takes the average person in a country
more than an hour of work
to afford a Big Mac.
Then there's probably a lot of other things that need to be done
before they are really ready to be a thriving video game scene.
Is there a way we could get the show close-captioned or translated?
We're all pretty slammed beneath our current workload
But we would love to see the show be accessible to more people
I'm not a 100% sure what would need doing
through blip or PA TV
But if anybody out there is willing to volunteer.
We'd be happy to look into a closed caption edition.
As far as translation goes
It's something we're working on,
but could use some help with.
We'd like to put the show up on major gaming sites in other countries
So more people can find it,
but our progress has been pretty slow.
If any of you happen to work for that kind of major site
or simply want to tell us
who's the best source for gaming infromation in your country.
Please email us.
That would be amazing.
And that is all we got time for.
I'll plan on scheduling these Mailbag Episodes a little more often from now on
and we're gonna try to organize occasionall live stream Q&As
so we can answer more of you guys questions.
But for now thanks again for all the questions.
Thank you Erin for helping us out once again.
We'll see you next week