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Groucho, GOOD LUCK! You won't need it though, you're using the fool proof Kingsley Method of getting a date.

Well, it is not fool-proof, it is just not complicated.

There is no such thing as a fool-proof method. ¬¬

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Certainly not writing things off yet, but you can never help that nagging feeling of, "have I made the right decision?" ;(

:)

A thousand times, yes you obviously have:

On the plus side, everyone has been very welcoming and friendly. There's plenty of joking, which is great, and I've already met a couple of people really in the same sort of geeky music and tech I am.

[...]

I've also negotiated my contract here so that I can still freelance in my spare time for friends and family, which I'm glad they agreed to. :buyme:

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Hey, you're a cool lady. Would you like to pick apricots with me this weekend at the organic farm coop?

Hey, you're a cool lady. Would you like to play go with me at the coffee shop some time this week?

Hey, you're a cool lady. Would you like to trespass with me at the hauntingly romantic abandoned factory at the docks this friday?

Tell me more. :molyneuxsmall:

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I've been employed editing local TV commercials for nearly four years now, and it's been at least three since I've learned anything new from it. There's been progressively less opportunity to make anything I would want to take credit for, because the goal, more and more frequently, is just to get something on the air as quickly and cheaply as possible. I've decided that if I'm going to be spending this much of my life on something for this little money, it should at least be something that I care about and that doesn't actively make the world worse.

So after a quarter of a century of playing games and wanting to make games and talking about games and talking about wanting to make games, I think it's time to get serious about actually making games. I released a game intro that I think is a pretty good start. I'm applying for jobs at places where I want to work, however lofty those goals might seem, and meanwhile I'm continuing to teach myself new skills and hone my existing ones. If none of those jobs pan out, then I'll just have to hire myself, but one way or another, by this time next year, I will be involved in making games as a career.

I'm posting this here as a matter of public record so that when I get discouraged I can remember why I'm doing this, and so I can be held accountable for actually following through instead of just getting lazy and sticking with the relatively cushy job I have now forever.

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Tell me more. :molyneuxsmall:

See, it works, proof positive, fool-proof. :buyme:

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one way or another, by this time next year, I will be involved in making games as a career

I'll go ahead and warn the cats now.

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Guh, so I think I'm almost finding employment right now, but I'm still not sure. I've been going back and forth with this company that makes shitty Facebook games on doing 2D art and animation, but I've been given this headache of an art test that never seems to end.

Apparently art tests are normal with some game companies (one place asked for something that would take a month of free work, so I passed on that), but I don't understand the point of multiple revisions of my art test. I just feel strung along over and over. I really hope they don't keep this asset and use it without giving me the job, that would be super lame.

These sort of things seem like a way for companies to get out of paying for training. Like they just want me in there ready to make crap Lisa Frank looking assets for a Facebook game without giving me hands on training or taking a chance ahead of time.

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Wow, that sucks. Doing free work for them... an art test? What the fuck? They either like your art or they don't, or they see potential and will hire you to develop you. But doing some huge endless test is not OK.

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Yeah among illustrators and graphic designers that sort of thing is pretty frowned upon. It's exploitation and it devalues the marketplace (it's ridiculous how many advertisements looking for graphic designers say the payment will be "good word of mouth").

Make sure you haven't signed anything that gives them ownership of these 'art tests' for commercial use. If they don't give you the job then remind them that you own your work and ask them to destroy all their copies.

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Indeed, what Dan said. Or you know, if you don't get hired and they do want to use it, make them buy the artwork. Don't let 'em jerk you around.

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Wow, that sucks. Doing free work for them... an art test? What the fuck? They either like your art or they don't, or they see potential and will hire you to develop you. But doing some huge endless test is not OK.

Yeah this is the last revision or whatever, but I am pretty annoyed. I guess I'm so desperate for someone to hire me. Hopefully I won't end up making a mistake here but no one else in this city is interested in my stuff at the moment.

Make sure you haven't signed anything that gives them ownership of these 'art tests' for commercial use. If they don't give you the job then remind them that you own your work and ask them to destroy all their copies.

Yeah I never signed an NDA or anything like that. Not even ownership was spoken about. So I suppose it's mine to put on my portfolio if I want, even though it's really not in tune with anything I do. If they want to lay claim to it, I guess I'll see.

I'm going to some Game Dev meet up in town tomorrow that's once every two weeks. I'm going to start asking other working artists about the commonality of art tests. I've heard of programmer tests, but making art assets when you have a portfolio of art ready seems odd to me.

If it's not common, I guess I will avoid games places that do this like the plague.

If I do get hired, I'm imagining I'm going to keep looking because there's other stuff about this company that I don't like. The places I did want to work at just weren't interested.

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Tonight a drunk girl came up to me and said "My friends and I think you look JUST like Badger from Breaking Bad!" Time for a haircut, methinks.

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Groucho, GOOD LUCK! You won't need it though, you're using the fool proof Kingsley Method of getting a date.

Well, it didn't work out. She's leaving the area in a couple weeks, it turns out...I got a firm, but friendly rejection and it was not nearly as awkward or painful as I imagined. I hadn't asked anyone out in about 4 or 5 years...so I feel pretty good about taking the first step. It is pretty embarrassing though to go out on a limb like that and not succeed, but I guess that's just a necessary part of the process. I'm trying hard not to wonder what the true reason for the rejection was (though it's human nature to wonder such things). But I responded to the rejection with aplomb, I think, and hey...it was good practice. I mean...she's extremely beautiful and intelligent (law student) so I'm glad I was able to face down such a challenge and aim so high, because in the past my instinct would have been to disqualify myself from even speaking to someone like her.

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My method goes down in a blaze of glory! You gave your best try. I guess it's time for you to start hoarding PUA manuals, dressing like a douche and treating women like chattel.

Anyway, there it is. I would take her arguments at face value—until and unless you acquire a reason to doubt them. There is no point in wondering what she may REALLY mean by her arguments.

She means that you're just too nice a guy for her. She probably prefers assholes anyway, like women always do.

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Well, it didn't work out. She's leaving the area in a couple weeks, it turns out...I got a firm, but friendly rejection and it was not nearly as awkward or painful as I imagined.

Well done. If it's any consolation: whatever her reasons, you probably made her day.

Keep in mind how not-difficult it was next time you feel the same way about someone else.

Things going well, I'm going to attempt the same today.

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Well, it didn't work out. [...] I got a firm, but friendly rejection and it was not nearly as awkward or painful as I imagined.

Gutted for you, but also thrilled to find out you went ahead and did it! :tup:

And I reckon Dan might be right, too; not too often anyone gets a genuine compliment like that.

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Going to be spending the next 7 days in Melbourne at a week-long games confestabaloo, of course I came down with a terrible cold/flu 2 days ago and i'm just now recovering. I'm going to be the nerd flu case zero at this thing.

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Thanks guys. I think I will be able to try again when I meet someone else special. When I was younger, I'd fall for a girl and always think I'd never meet another about whom I felt the same way, but you always eventually do.

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In a way, it's a little depressing. There is no such thing as 'the one', there are no mystical bonds in time and space. Relationships are decisions that you yourself make and commit to, based on temporal feelings that you could also feel for someone else.

[ADDED] Come to think of it, that makes it more precious in some ways too. No gods, nor kings, just man.

Edited by Rodi

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I think that's a good thing, Rodi. The whole "soul mate" mythology is depressing and can lead people down some odd roads.

As subbes says, it's just chemicals... some wonderful ones.

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She means that you're just too nice a guy for her.

"Friends!? Friends!? We've only gone out together three times and already you're telling me you just want to be friends? You never gave me a chance! And for that, you'll fry like a pork sausage!"

"It's not that I don't like you. It's just that, well, you're too nice a guy, I guess. I think I'd rather go out with someone a bit more... unpredictable."

(Oh yeah, I got that dumb job...)

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