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As promised, here's that follow-up mailbag episode.
And wouldn't you know it, our good friend Erin Siegel is back to help us out with some more
awesome drawings while Alison catches a breather.
We've still got a lot left to squeeze in, so let's get right to it.
Are you ever going to do that episode you mentioned about voice acting, putting roleplay back in RPGs,
or genres, or any of those other ones?
We will probably get to all the episodes
we've put in the future topic category at some point.
Because James spends most of his time running a consulting company and holding a full professorship,
Extra Credits episodes tend to be written as they overlap with problems he's thinking about in his work life.
But, like I said, all these things will probably come up sooner or later.
I don't actually need help with the research project itself,
but my topic is similar to what you guys covered in an episode once.
Where do you guys find your research sources?
Hmm, that's tough. We don't actually keep a list of footnotes for the episodes,
and some of the information can't really be shared anyway because
James gathered it from industry people he works with.
Other than that, though, all the information we use
is publicly available on the internet or through the U.S. library system.
We try very hard to keep things that are speculative in a speculative voice,
like the possibilities of tangential learning, for example.
We also try to always call out when we're making a logical leap in an episode,
and suggest other valid possibilities.
But we're going to miss this one sometimes, so fact check us and dig deeper wherever you can.
That's actually something I'd love to see come out of the show.
I got SO many cool game ideas.
Is there any way I could pitch them to a studio?
Well, here's the thing. Everybody's got ideas. In fact, people in game studios usually have a lot more ideas
they want to work on than they'll ever be able to produce.
Unfortunately, this means nobody's really going to be interested in your game ideas.
However, prototypes are a different matter.
If you can put together a prototype that really shows off what you're trying to deliver,
that's something that publishers will potentially look at.
There are thousands of ways to make connections and get people to notice your prototype,
but conventions are usually a good place to start.
Next question!
Is there any place I can apply my Psychology or Economics or whatever degree
in the game industry?
Most designers and producers I know came from disparate backgrounds.
James, for example, took his undergrad in Classics.
But if you're looking for an industry job more directly relevant to your field, that may be a pretty tough sell.
Only giant companies like Microsoft devote resources to dedicated psychologists,
and only companies who build their entire game around some non-game-related discipline,
like Economics and Eve Online, hire those fields specifically.
It could happen, but it's a long shot.
How do you get into game localization?
There's a small number of companies that handle a lot of the localization work for the game industry.
Just Google "game localization" and you'll find most of them.
See if they have any openings, or even just send them a resume with your skills.
Just be prepared. You'll have to have a strong grasp of the language you're translating from,
and an impeccable command of the grammar and idioms of the language you're translating into.
Are there any game design books you would recommend?
First and foremost, James recommends Jessie Schell's "Book of Lenses".
After that he suggests "Rules of Play", "Designing Virtual Worlds", and another book called "On Game Design".
If you're already a professional designer and have those already, you might also check out "Game Feel".
It's got an interesting and different take on the art of game design,
but other books like "The Design of Everyday Things", "Understanding Comics", and "Flow"
are also an essential part of the game designer's library.
Don't strictly limit yourself to books specifically about game design
to learn how to be a better game designer.
Is there a reason you haven't done a "Video Games and Violence" episode?
We've toyed with this one a lot. The problem is,
there's just not enough good data regarding their real effect for us to say anything definitive.
You've heard us complain a few times about the fact that most of the studies done in this regard
are funded by groups with highly biased political agendas regarding games.
And that goes for both sides of the debate, from within the industry as well as from without.
We touched on it a little in the non-combat gaming episode, but we could do an episode
on why violence is such a common theme in video games from a design perspective.
If that sounds interesting to any of you, just email, tweet, or Facebook us and say so. We'll add it to the stack.
Next.
What do you think about EA's Origin service thus far?
Well the EULA bugged James enough to not buy Battlefield 3 on the PC,
and I can think of plenty of things we don't like about Origin.
But lots of other people have already made those complaints,
and we seem to do a lot of EA bashing on this show. So instead,
I'm going to list off some of the things we do like about it.
Most importantly, it's a sign that EA realizes that physical product sales won't carry them through the next decade,
which is a positive change.
EA is a big player in this industry, and it would do a lot of damage if they were to collapse.
If you look at all their studio acquisitions over the last decade
and how quickly they've shut down many of the companies they've acquired, you'll see that they've been
groping for some answer as to why they're simply no longer profitable the way they used to be.
Origin may be the first step towards a real answer to that question,
and a sincere acknowledgement that the market's changing.
Besides, even though Steam's been a fantastic digital platform,
a little competition can only mean good things for digital distribution.
But all of that said, they need to fix their dumbass EULA.
Do you see a way for a Latin America or Africa or other seemingly absent markets
to become more relevant in the realm of games?
Latin America certainly will, and soon. James does a lot of work there.
In fact, if you Google the words "video games Brazil" or "CNN Argentina video games",
his work will probably be the first thing that comes up. Latin America might even be a future topic down the road.
We'll see.
As far as other regions go, we have less experience there. India is probably going to be viable in the next decade.
Turkey already has a pretty good MMO market going, but these things are really going on a case by case basis.
We'd like to use the Big Mac index. It... look it up. It's a thing.
As an off-the-cuff indicator of whether or not a country will be a reasonable market for video games
in the next decade.
If it takes the average person in the country more than an hour of work to afford a Big Mac,
there's probably a lot of other things that need to be done before they're really ready
to be a thriving video game scene.
Is there a way we could get the show closed captioned or translated?
We're all pretty slammed beneath our current workload,
but we would love to see the show be accessible to more people.
I'm not a hundred percent sure what would need doing through Blip or PA TV,
but if anybody out there is willing to volunteer,
we'd be happy to look into a closed caption edition.
As far as translation goes,
it's something we're working on but could use some help with.
We'd like to put the show up on major gaming sites in other countries so more people can find it.
But our progress has been pretty slow.
If any of you happen to work for that kind of major site, or simply want to tell us who's the best source
for gaming information in your country, please email us. That would be amazing.
And that is all we got time for. I'll plan on scheduling these mailbag episodes a little more often from now on,
and we're going to try to organize occasional Livestream Q&A so we can answer more of you guys' questions,
But for now, thanks again for all the questions.
Thank you, Erin for helping us out once again.
We'll see you next week.
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