Disqus - Latest Comments for Eastbeast314

Re: How Much Work Does It Take To Become A Great Game Developer?

Eastbeast314 — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 19:27:56 -0000

Reading Outliers definitely validated a lot of parentally questionable computer time in high school for me.

The more potent point for me, however, was that the big difference in outcomes between two equally capable people can be simple perseverance. The examples of the Asian math students gave me hope that the months I spent trying to figure out a hard crash bug instead of making any progress at all on my games were actually well spent _and_ part of being coming a competent developer. It seems plenty obvious now, but when things seem painfully unclear it can certainly be refreshing to remember the value of stubbornly hitting a problem over and over again.

Re: What Are You Doing RIGHT NOW To Move Your Gaming Career Forward?

Eastbeast314 — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 18:30:20 -0000

Haha - a timely pep-talk for me, since my first day at Wideload is tomorrow ;)
However, I definitely see these stereotypes playing out all the time and it's awful. I'll link people to this post from now on.

It seems that your example people just have a general problem of waiting for things to happen to them instead of doing it themselves. I wonder how much of that is learned and if it's the sort of thing that can be fixed by reading blogs like this.

In any case, great to see the continuing output here. Always an interesting read.

Re: Working For Big Publishers

Eastbeast314 — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 23:21:02 -0000

Always an interesting read!

Taking this article to the logical next step, what will the future bring to your conclusion? If a huge company can make tons of money off of developers and then fire them anyway, what's holding back those developers from making their own games? Do the publishers then just buy those cash-strapped young companies and do the same thing over again?

The next issue is whether this will continue until the industry stops growing so quickly. If there aren't wide-eyed fools to replace the wizened elders, will companies then stop firing so casually?

Then again, perhaps the bigger issue is why wide-eyed fools can outperform experienced vets just by working longer hours. Is that just for, say, artists? I would imagine that designers and programmers would be much harder to recycle every few years. Maybe that really is the case, though, and the quality of the majority of games reflects it.

Hmm, lots to ponder, I suppose. Maybe grad school will make these shark-infested waters look a little more like the beach. Definitely going to have to test the waters a couple more times first. ;)

Re: Warren Spector’s Favorite Games In GGE Widget

Eastbeast314 — Thu, 29 May 2008 18:12:03 -0000

Mmm, can't wait for more content now that we can comment ;)