When she originally won an internship at SOE's The Agency through the Gamers in Real Life program, Julia Brasil had no idea what MMORPG.com would be tracking her progress, but mthat's exactly what our own Carolyn Koh is doing, checking in with the new developer on a bi-weekly basis. Today is part one.

The initiative (Gamers In Real Life) seeks to positively impact the way females are depicted in video games and create and influence content to be appealing to women and provides a scholarship designed to educate and recruit more women into the video game industry. Teaming up with the Art Institutes, SoE selected a recipient to receive a paid internship at one of the SOE studios, plus $10,000 toward tuition at The Art Institutes. Julia Brasil, a second year student at the Art Institutes California in San Francisco was announced as the first winner of this scholarship this summer. As the fall term came around, Julia was asked at which studio she wanted to do her internship. She chose the Seattle Studio in order to work on The Agency.

Read more on the Agency Intern.

This is an interesting new series on MMORPG.COM.   It's nice to get info about the Agency and It should be fun to see game development from the point of view of someone really in the trenches.    I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of these. 

I tend to like the same things in mmo's that girls like, so I have no problem there.  But editing or censoring how women are portrayed in mmo's I do have a fundamental problem with. 

Political correctness has no place in certain arenas...music, movies, art, games, etc. People tend to indulge in escapism to get away from the real world, they don't want to have their fantasies, dreams, or creative hobbies policed as well. 

Instead of emphasis being placed on 'how women are portrayed' which sounds like an intrusive political agenda, they should focus more on merely increasing their numbers in the industry as this is not so polarizing. 

I work in an industry 96% female, and as a man if I went into it trying tell the majority of my coworkers who are women how they should do things that would not have gone over well.  As a minority, I don't feel a sense of entitlement at all.  I have to excel at what I do, otherwise risk negative labels and be dismissed.

Anyway, my two cents.  It's my day off so I'm type happy, lol.

Originally posted by Terranah

I tend to like the same things in mmo's that girls like, so I have no problem there.  But editing or censoring how women are portrayed in mmo's I do have a fundamental problem with. 

 

Political correctness has no place in certain arenas...music, movies, art, games, etc. People tend to indulge in escapism to get away from the real world, they don't want to have their fantasies, dreams, or creative hobbies policed as well. 

 

Instead of emphasis being placed on 'how women are portrayed' which sounds like an intrusive political agenda, they should focus more on merely increasing their numbers in the industry as this is not so polarizing. 

 

I work in an industry 96% female, and as a man if I went into it trying tell the majority of my coworkers who are women how they should do things that would not have gone over well.  As a minority, I don't feel a sense of entitlement at all.  I have to excel at what I do, otherwise risk negative labels and be dismissed.

 

Anyway, my two cents.  It's my day off so I'm type happy, lol.

I tend to agree, this type of "political correctness" has no place in a virtual world...it is an escape from the eggshells you have to walk on daily as to not offend some thin-skinned individual and lose your job.  We don't need someone telling us what is appropriate in an imaginary or virtual world.  

As for the general topic of the story, I think it is great they are giving people opportunities like this, just don't let it turn into some bastardized form of affirmative action where people are advanced on gender and not qualifications/work quality. 

 I'm , I know.

I think internships are a great way to learn.  I'm supervising a counselling intern atm myself :).  I also think this is a cool opportunity for any student.

My hope though is that SOE doesn't put interns into situations that call for experienced developers, and then try to spin that into a positive.  You still need the experienced developers for quality control and for mentoring.  If interns are there mainly to bolster development staff, and if they're given more than they're ready for, it can set them up for a very bad experience.

With internships, the student's learning needs to be the priority, not cost-cutting on the part of the service provider.  Do I trust SOE to keep their priorities straight on this one?  Hmmm...let's just say I hope they will.

 At the SOE fanfaire, me and my brother were sitting up front in the first row. This girl was sitting 2 chairs away from us haha. Funny.

As the older brother of a sister addicted to Fiesta Online (yes, it's my fault). all I can say is cool. We need more "real-life" women/girls who are open about their gaming addictions like "the guys" are :)

And little did she know that Smed and co. were setting her up as the scapegoat in case The Agency fails.  ;)

Originally posted by Suvroc

And little did she know that Smed and co. were setting her up as the scapegoat in case The Agency fails.  ;)

It's already failed in my book because it's a RMT based game. Mo money for this mo money for that...

Originally posted by RedwoodSap

Originally posted by Suvroc

And little did she know that Smed and co. were setting her up as the scapegoat in case The Agency fails.  ;)

 

It's already failed in my book because it's a RMT based game. Mo money for this mo money for that...

For me I'd have to agree, it's failed before it's even been released for that very reason. But as P.T. Barnum said there's a sucker born every minute. We've already seen that with the loot cards in the SWG TCG, and I have no doubt that some will buy into this RMT model with The Agency. My only hope is it's only a mediocre success as I'd hate to see this model become the new "it" thing for developers.

I think Game Art Students should go through the life of hard knocks to get thier position.  By getting the easy in through internship, or immediately after college.  They lose the drive you obtain from having no job in the industry for 2 years as you try to play catch up.  For me, I graduated from the Art Institutes as one of the top in my class.  I didn't get a job in the entertainment industry and have since been working whenever I can to improve my work so I can prove beyond a reason of a doubt I am good enough to be a great 3D Artist.  In the last 2 years while I was working 40~70 hours at $8/hour I have been playing catchup, and my art work has grown to such resounding heights that it makes the work I did at the art institute pale.

You just won't get that kind of experience working as an intern.  You may learn a couple new tricks from the staff, but if you looked at SOE's published games; they don't show a kind of expertise when it comes to normal/parallax and specular mapping techniques.  Also there will be things you will be asked to do and it assumed you already know how.  You can't really learn how on the job since it will take a much longer time to complete.  Such as to figure out the best method to create mutli-piece rigged geometry, I developed 2 dozen models, and 4 differing rigs.  The learning process took me about 2 weeks full time, but now I can reproduce the process in less then a day.

Well Cleffy, I really beg to differ.  The best kind of experience is on the job experience.  You just can't beat it.  I don't know your case, but I can safely say that most of the time, OJT beats any other learning method, no matter what the field.

I think SOE is smart to get these young people in there and get experience.  I think more businesses should do internships, they are far better than going through a pile of resumes that tell you zip about the person.

My experience has been people on the job remain at the same level until they get fired or if they work on there skills outside the job.  Also this is a problem with most students of Game Design.  They are un-humble and believe they are entitled to a job in the game industry.  Not having one and seeing people less talented getting those positions helps humble you.

Also I don't think employers want to hire someone who will develop thier skills on the job, but rather apply the skills they developed.  Developing skills takes alot longer then re-applying them, and its a waste of time, resources, and money to give them that time.  I know there is an argument about investing in future talent, but in a field as saturated as Game Design you can just as easily find people who have already developed thier skills on thier own.

Some marketing ploys here by SOE.She may be a gamer but in reality they chose a student already involved in the industry,so it looks good on the cover but underneath they are just trying to look good with no real honourable intentions,otherwise they would have chosen a total gamer not a student in the field.

I also wonder with nowadays laws how they were able to pick and target ONLY a female?Most places have become quite strict on racism/minorities/gender.If i am not mistaken ,i guess depending on what state there,it is against the law.Perhaps the females are minority in SOE so they had every right,it seems her manager is also female though.SOE has suffered lately in the public's eye,so they are after saving face more so than what they claim to be doing here.

They clearly state that there intentions were to get more females involved ,yet they took a female that is/was ALREADY involved in the industry,so they did not accomplish what they said they were after.

This whole marketing ploy,would have had a MUCH larger impact on the female community if they actually chose a total noob gamer.I learned an aweful lot on my own about gaming engines,i would say less than a year,so without a doubt they could have accomplished a lot with a noob gamer under professional guidance.

Anyhow i do wish her the student the best,it sounds like she has the skills already needed.I also wish the game the best,i just wish SOE didn't come off  looking so two faced and sneaky here.

Originally posted by Cleffy

My experience has been people on the job remain at the same level until they get fired or if they work on there skills outside the job.  Also this is a problem with most students of Game Design.  They are un-humble and believe they are entitled to a job in the game industry.  Not having one and seeing people less talented getting those positions helps humble you.

Also I don't think employers want to hire someone who will develop thier skills on the job, but rather apply the skills they developed.  Developing skills takes alot longer then re-applying them, and its a waste of time, resources, and money to give them that time.  I know there is an argument about investing in future talent, but in a field as saturated as Game Design you can just as easily find people who have already developed thier skills on thier own.

While I work on the programming side of things, I don't think that there is too much of a difference between a newbie programmer and a newbie 3D artist.

School? Nearly useless as a programmer. I've had to interview hundreds of people, most fresh out of school, some with shiny Master's degrees (and a couple PhD's). Almost all of them couldn't code their way out of a wet paper bag.

At my previous job, we took on an intern, who was finishing up his computer science school program (2 year thing)... he was shocked at the amount of "work" that went on. He learned more in  his first day on the job than in the 2 years at his school. We basically told him, toss out what you learned in school, its useless.

As they say, "Experience is the best teacher". After his internship, we hired him, because he was now "skilled" whereas someone coming straight out of school, wouldn't be.

The people I liked to hire were people who *already knew* what the school was going to teach them. The young lady I hired to replace me (had to leave for family reasons) was a perfect example. No degree, self taught, worked for herself and her father consulting for companies... AWESOME programmer, smart, could see flaws/issues BEFOREHAND. They don't teach that stuff in school (I know, I just went back to school to finish my degree, and upon reentering the job market, no one cared about the degree, only that I'd been out of the work field for a few years...).

This is a marketing ploy, no doubt, but with good intentions.

Cleffy:  While I agree that many/most people don't improve their skills once in a job, many employers would rather hire raw talent that has yet to fully develop than go with talent that may have topped out.  Companies would rather train you than have to get you to "unlearn" bad habits.

Wizardry:  They had to take someone who knew something about programming & art.  Taking someone with zero knowledge as an intern would make no sense at all.