Tag Archives: game industry

Discombobulated

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I’m posting because I can. And because I’m avoiding schoolwork. I wrote some more of the God story today, I’m up to about 4 pages, and like it so far. I’d hardly call it anything special, but that doesn’t make it bad. I’m not sure where I’m going to take it, but I like writing the character, so that’s alright. He does a lot of internal narration, which is a style I’ve always enjoyed, and hopefully doesn’t get in the way too much. It’s hard figuring out how much is “too much” when it comes to exposition: just because I find the setup of the situation worth explaining, it doesn’t mean the mythical “reader” is going to feel the same way. Locke, the main character, is currently flirting with a librarian and setting up a date for the weekend, which I’m not sure if he’s going to keep or not. I’m thinking he will, at the moment, but I may be wrong. Mickey wants me to work in the Goddess Advil somewhere, and I’ve got an idea on how I’m going to do that, which should be fun.

In other news, Jack Thompson is a sleazeball. I’m also not sure how I feel about CBS pitting a lawyer against two gamer geeks (Tim Buckley and Scott Ramsoomair). The whole crackdown on games is just plain disgusting. The complete disregard for the first amendment deeply disturbs me, and the legislators who are trying to restrict those rights should be ashamed of themselves.

On a personal note and the cause of this post’s title, I’ve been on Prozac for a few weeks now, and have noticed a positive difference in my mood (fewer swings in mood and less severe when they happen). I still feel extremely disconnected and disorganized, however, and still feel like I have a long road ahead of me. It doesn’t help that they’ve been wreaking havoc with my stomach… unless I eat something with the pills (and something coating/soothing at that), I have an upset stomach/queasy feeling for the rest of the day. I’m due to go back to the doctor for the follow up in another week or so, so I’ll be sure to bring that up with him then. If not, having to eat some yogurt in the morning really isn’t the end of the world, y’know?

Zombie Nabil

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I apologize for not posting recently. It has been a mixture of avoidance, laziness, and being swamped with other things. I have a pile of email I need to respond to about UberCon that I’ve been putting off for too long (I hate people-wrangling with a passion… for some reason, Kevin doesn’t seem to realize just how crazymaking and draining it is for me), plus personal emails, and all of my various projects are currently in a bit of a holding pattern.

That said, I’ve been working doing the game testing gig for most of the week (Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and then Monday and Tuesday of next week), which is where most of my time has been going. Why is it taking so much more time and energy from me than it used to? Thanks for asking, Reader. Put simply, our new house is technically a 45 minute drive, if you were to, say, put it into MapQuest. In reality, I am competing with the rest of the region’s populace to get to the Redmond area (yes, there really ARE that many Microsofties). This turns the commute into an hour and a half long crawl. Even then, I’m taking the alternate route (I-5 to I-90, instead of I-5 to I-405), as the “shorter” route is even MORE swamped with traffic. My return drive also works out to be anywhere between an hour and a half and two hours, depending on weather conditions and whether there are any events going on… anywhere. So basically, I get up at 5:30 AM each morning so I can be on the road by 6, so I can be in Redmond by 7:30… and then get out of work at 4:30, and can expect to be home sometime between 6 and 7PM.
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Coal Mines and Anniversaries

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First off, I’d like to wish my lovely bride a very happy anniversary. As she has already commented in her LiveJournal, we’re going out for dinner tonight, and then on Saturday we’re going to the Utah Phillips concert. A year of marriage has passed, and I’m still glad I did it. Sure, we have our rough spots and arguments, but not nearly as bad as some people, and we work through them pretty quickly. All in all, it’s a good way to be.

Second: Work! It seems that God has a very strange sense of humor… it seems like whenever I’ve about given up and decided that we’re going to have to move to DC, he throws us a crumb (not even a bone). Just enough to keep the hope of staying out here alive. On life support, but alive. So, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I’m now employed as an XBox game tester for the company that does the testing for Microsoft. It pays $9.25, and is extremely sporadic. Went two or three weeks calling (as it is an “on call” position) with no luck, and then finally I was supposed to work this whole week (full 5 day shift).

That fell through, the size of the shift shrank, so the new guys (like me) were cut. Enter a call from the Apple Store down the street, who have my resume and would like to interview me for a position (what position is not yet clear). I’m hoping it’s a Mac Genius position, as I think that would make me most happy of the potential roles. The interview is tomorrow.

Also enter a new job posting over at OmniGroup, for a Support Ninja position for their web browser, OmniWeb. I SO fit the qualifications, and needless to say I sent off my resume that very evening. I haven’t heard back yet, but that’s fine. I hope I do get a call back, though.

So while all that is happening… I get a call from VMC (the game testing gig), saying “So, are you available Wednesday and Thursday and possibly Friday?” Since I’d scheduled my Apple interview for after work would be getting out back when I thought I’d be working this week, my schedule was, in fact, free.
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I gots me a job

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Well, the constant job searching for many months finally paid off. I had my orientation today — mostly just signing LOTS AND LOTS OF PAPERWORK. Said paperwork also included not one but TWO NDAs, so unfortunately I won’t be able to talk about my work all that much other than generically.

The job is that of game testing for the XBox. The pay is $9.25 an hour, and I am only “on call”, so some weeks will be a lighter work week than others, but the bright side of this is I can choose how proactive I want to be. It also means when things come up (like the time spent away in Chicago this June for a wedding), I’m simply not available for work that week.

They also offer benefits, training (and I don’t mean “job training” — I mean they offer classes in various tech related topics), and other nice things… they’re even willing to help you polish your resume so you can land more permanent work. The drawback is that it means being AT WORK at 7am, at least at first. Work starts at 8am, but until you’ve done it a bit and know the routine, they want you there by 7. I’ve never been much of a morning person, but really this just means getting up… two hours earlier than I do now (and, in fact, earlier than I had to get up for school, which used to start at 7:50am).

Going back to the scheduling thing, talking to the lady giving my orientation, it sounds like generally it’s 2-3 days a week, and that a 5 day work week doesn’t happen all THAT often. While we could certainly use the 40 hour work week (and the potential for overtime that doing a full week allows) in terms of money, I’m actually kind of relieved about this, since it means that I’ll be able to continue to dig into this semester.

All in all, I’m pretty excited about it. I’m aiming to start work on Tuesday (Saturday is Mickey’s birthday, and she has a half day tomorrow at work, plus Sunday is Mother’s Day, and Monday I have an appointment).
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New Post! What?

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Okay, a little background: I’ve had an account with GamaSutra (THE major website for game development professionals) for about… hmm, three years now. Each week, they send out a newsletter that basically lists any game related announcements from news sources, any new articles on the site, information about the Game Developer’s Conference, projects for contractors, and… new job listings. Very handy little email, really, and I’m always glad to read through it when I get it.

So, I was reading through this week’s email, and noticed a new job posting for a game designer at a place called Cranky Pants Games. I looked at the job qualifications (which almost invariably say in large, unfriendly letters “INDUSTRY-RELATED DEGREE REQUIRED, 4+ YEARS REQUIRED”), and — lo and behold! — I actually fit the qualifications, with flying colors no less.

I sent off my resume about 5 minutes ago (took me some time to write the cover letter, as I don’t do the “form letter” thing), and I’m really, really nervous, hoping to God that I get it. So that’s what this little post is about: please pray for me if you believe in prayer, or just send me well wishes if you don’t, and hopefully this’ll work out. Considering how stressful and downright depressing the job hunt has been so far, I could really use all the help I can get.

Wish me luck!