Marek

He had no involvement in Theme Hospital, was a producer (not a designer) on Syndicate, and a producer on Magic Carpet (no idea who designed it).

So that's what British people mean when they ask you if you want milk in your tea.

I know what you mean, but it's not what I meant. I was going for a grand universal statement there, not something anecdotal. However, I did get something else wrong. What I can say with complete confidence is that women, generally speaking (as in: not specific to games), like challenge and complexity. (I am comfortable making large generalizations about that.) However, it's manifested mainly in social situations, and making the connection to games might not be so straightforward. And that's where the evidence does become anecdotal, and might indeed be part of that vocal minority.

The whole issue of "how can we design games for girls???" pisses me off a bit. Maybe because the game industry is approaching it as if it's some kind of engineering challenge. "If we put enough brilliant minds on this, and we tweak the gameplay variables long enough, we might just find the secret answer! It's gonna be a tough nut to crack but we'll get there one day!" First of all, female research/focus groups seem of little use, given the huge scope of a target audience that is based merely on gender. Suppose for the sake of argument that someone were to interview me about making a guy game. Clearly the questions would already be biased towards discussing masculine activities. What's the conclusion of such research supposed to be? "Guys like competitive games with lots of combat"? Or, "Guys like beer and titties?". It's too broad. Women themselves are divided on what makes games more interesting to them. Good for them, because they're not the Borg. Some tell me (yeah, I broach the topic sometimes) more games should have strong female protagonists, "like Lara Croft". Someone else, who even wrote a PhD thesis on this topic, tells me there should be more beautiful men in them (ya rly). Others tell me to stop bothering them with questions because they're too busy playing a game, which often happens to be the same kind of game that I really like. So, who knows. I don't claim to know What Women Want In Games. But I do feel that a lot of common assumptions are utterly wrong. The biggest mistake is to think that girls don't like hard or competitive games. As a guy I can say with complete confidence that this is categorically not true. Here's why the idea is being perpetuated though: a lot of girls simply don't play video games (mainly because of cultural factors), hence they are noobs, hence they will want something easy. That's why "easier to play and less intimidating" shows up in this "research". But in reality, girls love complexity and competition. They love it! I don't know a single woman, gamer/geek or otherwise, who doesn't like challenge, or competition, or oneupmanship. I must admit I'm thinking mostly of social situations here (since I only know a limited number of girl gamers) but I'm going out on a limb here and say that this sense of competition translates to many types of games. I know even from my own experiences that it's hard to design games for a target demographic you are not part of. But given the right skills and mindset, men should be perfectly capable of making games that appeal to women, or women and men. Of course, it still wouldn't hurt to have more female lead designers. By which I mean there really really ought to be more. We used to have people like Roberta Williams, Christy Marx or Jane Jensen. I think it's unlikely Gabriel Knight would have been written the way it was by a man -- not impossible, but unlikely. Right now we have... let's see... Jade Raymond, who doesn't actually count because she's a producer. I can't think of anyone else in a lead position, even though there's a fair amount of women in the industry in general. Oh man. This topic reminds me, I actually tried Sprung a few weeks ago. It's a dating simulator that's clearly meant to appeal to women as much as men. You have to engage in conversations with characters of the opposite sex and try to get them to "fall in love with you". I gave up after 15 minutes when it became clear that whoever wrote it couldn't flirt his way out of a barn, and most likely has never looked a woman straight in the eyes. It's a depressing example of "worst case scenario". I think there's a deeper issue here, and that's how to design games in such a way that specific groups of people will like it. It's always a topic worth looking at because, yes, there's a lot of potential money in getting people who don't play games to play them. It's partially an issue of tricking non-gamers into trying games by changing superficial things (presentation, story, marketing), and partially an issue of changing the inner mechanics of games to appeal to their tastes. With "games for girls (who aren't already gamers)", I think it's mostly about the former, and much less about the latter. Anyway, 'my 2 cents' etc. etc.

Episode 5 of Studio 60 is a bit better. I was genuinely interested in two of the characters for the first time. But Episode 3 and 4 were really crappy and I'm probably going to stop watching the show. What annoys me most is that each comedy sketch is in fact not a comedy sketch but Aaron Sorkin mentally masturbating onto the page.

Wait, is it Super Mario Galaxies or Super Mario Galaxy? I just want to know how many galaxies we are talking about here. I mean, will the PR fact sheet say... One galaxy. Or... OVER 1 GALAXY! It's a world of difference. (See what I did there?)

The first thread to graduate from the Spam Graveyard! Hooray!

I haven't worn watches for years but I am looking to buy one again, for the same reason as n0wak. I'm eyeing this super stylish super awesome watch of ultimate style. Sadly it costs $200.

Wow my response to season 3 couldn't be further on the opposite end. (I'm pretty amazed by how different the reactions can apparently be.) The only thing I agree with is that BSG could use some more quiet character development, which we haven't seen much of this season so far, but I'm expecting to get that when they get back to Galactica.

http://forum.vgcats.com/showthread.php?t=14075

Oh man Exodus Pt 1, another powerhouse.

Argh! /me slaps Metallus around a bit with a large trout (Does that still work?)

Wow high tech machines. I only read the first paragraph.

Ignore it.

OMG !!!! Believe. /thread

Fuck Nintendo and Sony, I'll buy a 360 and make my own games for it.

People who hate Kat might be relieved to know that ... (minor spoiler coming up regarding a new pilot)

GAF is the last place on earth that should have any opinion on anyone's style or appearance.

While the episodes are obviously inspired by Iraq, BSG rarely if ever takes a real "stance" and it doesn't do it here either. If you examine all the characters you can come up with valid cases for and against each of them. I don't think any side is meant to literally represent any side in the iraq war. There's a lot of allegory but I don't see the episodes as that kind of a direct and seamless metaphor. Edit: so yeah, what Redwall said.

That analysis on that blog is really good. I agree with it entirely. BTW, random tangent: sometimes it strikes me how little we actually know about these characters. Where are they from? What were their lives like before the attacks? Which presidential candidate did they vote for a year and four months ago? Did they have families before, on the colonies? But then you realize how much we actually DO know about all these characters just by extrapolating from their actions and who they side with. I feel like I've even got a pretty got idea of who minor characters like Anders or Jammer are even though there is very little character background given in the traditional sense. It's pretty amazing how these characters were originally just introduced for the purposes of a plot, or to give a bit more texture to certain locations (such as the hanger deck), but have since become almost as interesting and rounded as some of the supporting cast. I didn't give a flying shit about Anders on Caprica but I really care about him now. And when Lee Adama said "Hoshi! Do such and such!", I was like "oh yeah, that guy, Hoshi". Not that Hoshi is at all important, but just having him there on the bridge still gives more realism to the world. It's amazing how deeper and deeper the world becomes instead of Star Trek where it's ensign of the week all the time. It must make the hiring and scheduling of actors a bitch though, I mean aren't there like 50 recurring characters by now? By the way, I have no problems with Kat being CAG for the moment. I guess I sort of understand why some people don't like her, but I'm totally neutral towards her. The only character I don't like is the Deanna cylon, number 3, who is utterly bland. You can tell that the other cylons are all sort of specialized in certain areas, or at least have a unique perspective, but she doesn't. Even the black cylon ("Simon") who we barely see anymore is more interesting than her, as he's apparently the scientist/surgeon cylon. The writers don't even use the fact that number 3 still hasn't been exposed as a cylon agent.

Whoa dark, dark, daaaaark. These two episodes are a real tightrope walk. I love it though. Holy shit. Ron Moore has balls the size of melons. I don't like every plot development we're seeing here but I think the writers are doing a great job, and I really respect all the risk-taking.

Of course the best way to get a job is to network. And networking is not necesserily that social robot stuff that networking guides tell you to do. It's simply about naturally connecting with a lot of people in your industry and leaving a good impression wherever you go. Literally every job I have had so far (well, since being a paper boy when I was 15 or so) has just come to me through my network.

I would probably never hire a company to help me find a job, or use any advice like "wear a suit". (With all due respect of course ) Maybe it's because I'm in the game industry and every company I know is pretty informal, but I don't think I would even do anything special when interviewing for a job in any other industry. I believe the correct attitude is wanting to find out if a company fits with you, not if you fit within a company. Things that will help you get a job (or help you get anything in life really) are confidence, calmness and obviously some social skills. The way you shake hands or the kind of personality you display has a huge effect on people. Maybe that's what staffing agencies and such should teach about and not whether to send thank you emails or to wear suits, which is just part of the grand interviewing ritual and not the actual conversation in which 90% happens.

I think we sold the interview vehicle to pay for some booze.

Horrible! Her natural appearance in LiT is way way sexier.