Work-Based Learning: December 2012

Types of questions:

Robin Foale 3/12/2012

For this task we were asked to complete the following three tasks to do with questions that may or may not be used in interviews.

Task 1:

Leading questions are questions which almost force the answerer to respond in a certain way. By asking in a question in a certain way you can lead the person to respond according to what they think the questionaire wants them to say rather than give an honest answer. Therefore these questions can be frowned upon as they can lead to dishonest or misleading answers.
For examples please refer to the second task.

Task 2:

Below are three leading questions that I will be identifying as leading questions.

·         “Why do you think the Xbox 360 is better than the Nintendo Wii?” – This question implies that the person asking the question wants you to agree that the Xbox 360 is better to the Nintendo Wii, thus prompting them to agree with this even if they don't.

·         “Are you making any friends?” - This question not only implies that the person may not have had any friends before, but it may also prompt them to think who they would class as a friend.

·         “How would you respond to people saying that your favourite band is rubbish?” – This is a strong question as this is something personal and therefore the response may show how they deal with criticism and whether they are able to accept different opinions.

Task3:

Below are ten reworded questions from the twenty original examples adapted to the games' industry.

·         What's your philosophy on gaming and how does it differ from the opinions of others?

·         What three characteristics do you look for in a video game character...and why?

·         How did your two favourite video games or video game companies help you most when coming up with new ideas?

·         Why do you play online as often or as little as you do?

·         If you had to be a character in a video game, who would it be and why?

·         In your opinion how could the games' industry be improved?

·         Explain the two things you like most about this games' company?

·         Why do you keep returning to your favourite video game?

·         Which game's franchise have you respected most and why?

·         Tell me about another games' console you'd prefer to the one you have.

Overall:
Once we had finished the above we then took part in mock interviews using the above ten reworded questions we had come up with. The mock interviews themselves went really well as not only were the two people I worked with good at role playing, but they also took it seriously. They also came up with some good questions themselves.
Therefore the session as a whole was a lot of fun as it gave us the serious experience of sitting in an interview which was useful. It also gave us the chance to use our drama skills to make the experience interesting and realistic.

Referencing:

http://www.mediacollege.com/journalism/interviews/leading-questions.html

Looking back over the careers I have been interested in I decided to focus on the role of a lead game designer for now. Once I have become confident with understanding one existing gaming career then I will look at the others.

Clearly, I understand that I would not be able to step into this role imeditally and would have to be part of a company working my way towards this dream job.

What does a lead game designer do?

Taken from the site 'BREAKING IN' I found their description for the role of Lead Designer as seen below:

'A Lead Designer may or may not be the person who "invented" the game's idea, but it's almost certain you'll be specifying its primary interactions. As Lead Designer, you will perform most of the tasks mentioned for Game Designer, and you'll also lead the other members of the design team to achieve the product goals. Along with producer, you'll have decision-making power regarding the design, especially in cases where your choices don't result in any changes to scope or schedule. You will participate in, and may be ultimately responsible for, the selection of the other designers on the team. Often the Lead Designer holds or shares the responsibility of representing the game to the media.' http://archives.igda.org/breakingin/path_design.htm

I then further looked online at a real job application on the website 'gamesindustry INTERNATIONAL' for a lead game designer and discovered the following job in London that paid between £30,000 to £50,000 per year:

Responsibilities:
- Maintaining and tuning both single and multiplayer balancing.
- Be Time conscious with the desire to keep to deadlines.
- Being the direct point of contact to Artists and Programmers and being able to liaise between both departments (ideally some form of technical background or scripting would help here) - Must have shipped at least 3 very successful titles as a lead or senior GD position.
- Draw realistic assets and natural geological features and know the difference between what works and what doesn’t with the end user in mind - Conveying ideas and clear formalisation of complex concepts.
- Designing the start process of the game itself, down to the planning and designing of game settings - Excellent organizational skills.

Requirements:
- Desire to make quality AAA games on console platform.
- Degree in a Games field or related qualification (Computer Science, Programming etc) - Above 5 years as GD including experiences as lead GD or main GD for core gameplay on mobile platforms.
- Good A Levels or equivalent - Proficient in all aspects of game design such as gameplay, balancing, and reward system, etc.
- 4 Years + as a ‘Games Designer’ for PS3, Xbox360 or PC - Prototyping ideas via one of those standard tools like Photoshop, Flash, Sketch-up, 3D Studio Max, Unity, Blitz, etc.
- Experience in 3D modelling tools and scripting languages - Good knowledge of classic console video games, their flagship titles and their audience an asset.

Examples of good and bad CV's:

Looking online I decided to research examples of both good and bad Curriculum Vitae so as to get a better understanding of how to present mine and what to include. I ended up discovering a website called 'Kent' which contained two examples that would help me out under the title of 'Examples of Good and Bad CVs'.

Below, in my own words are points to remember:

Bad examples:

Presentation is poor and/or takes up too much space. For example, the spaces between paragraphs are too big, thus making you use more pages than you should do.
Even including something as basic as your email address is essential as that is one of the methods they will most likely contact you with. Therefore having a silly or offensive email name is also not a very good idea and doesn't look professional.
As simple as it sounds don't forget to include anything relevant to the job you are applying for, no matter how small it may seem, many people miss out this oppounity.

Good examples:

Needs to be short and punchy.
Interests are divided into different groups and any that demonstrate key skills should be listed first.
Instead of writing Curriculum Vitae at the top of the page it should be your name in large bold letters. Personally, why not both?
Use bullet points to list skills as anything else may confuse the reader e.g. a negative symbol / a '-' may make them think its a negative of yours instead of a positive by mistake.
Save as much space as possible, but make sure that it is clear at the same time.