PVP:Yes | Distribution:Retail | Retail Price:n/a | Pay Type:Subscription
Desktop Client | System Req:
A Day in the Life of an Agency Intern - Final
Over the last few months, we have been tracking the progress of Julia Brasil, an intern on SOE's The Agency. Today, we wrap up the ongoing feature witha small interview with the game's Producer, Sherry Floyd about the intern experience.
|
MMORPG.com:
|
What was your first thought when told that Julia had chosen to intern at SoE Seattle? |
|
Sherry Floyd:
|
Well, I was out of town the day she arrived and found out that afternoon via email from Sarah Airington (one of our very talented environment artists) that Julia was here and we had full access to her as a resource. I arrived the next day at work and met with Julia; we sat down and reviewed her work as well as her goals for the internship. I was floored by her openness, fantastic attitude and willingness to "get into the trenches". I immediately saw many opportunities for her to contribute to the game at a very high level. |
|
MMORPG.com:
|
Did you immediately decide "Hooray, I know exactly what she can do!" or was it more of a "Help! I have an intern! What can she do?" |
|
Sherry Floyd:
|
Definitely Hooray! I was running our outsourcing initiative at that time and saw Julia as an internal creative asset who could benefit from a "soup to nuts" experience. I knew the Club Metamorphosa was the next level to be sorted out and thought we could start there. I set up a review of what we had from design and art to assess what we were missing for development to start. I thought this would be a good project for Julia, to get her involved with the brainstorming process and initiate constructive planning and feedback for the work. She seemed very excited and into the overall creative method. We came out of the meeting with a solid idea of concept, mood, gameplay needs and space requirements. From there I worked closely with Julia to make blueprints of each level of the space and show her the ropes of approvals and iteration. We then went to whitebox phase where she wowed everyone with her speed at picking up our tools and Unreal- she showed no fear and was always open to critique. I had her take her whitebox and do exploratory paintovers for mood and tone then planning for objects to populate the space. She should be very proud of the work she did, we're all very proud of her. |
|
MMORPG.com:
|
How did you enjoy the experience? Did you have to grade her? Provide weekly feedback? |
|
Sherry Floyd:
|
I thoroughly enjoyed working with Julia; she'll be a huge asset when she graduates. I never directly had to grade Julia, however I certainly had input. |
|
MMORPG.com:
|
Were her skills up to par for what you expected of her? |
|
Sherry Floyd:
|
Julia's skills far exceeded what I would have expected out of a student of her year. Her maturity and professionalism was refreshing as well. She really got along with the team- I know we all will miss her but are excited to see her grow throughout her education. |
|
MMORPG.com:
|
Would you do it all over again? Hire interns or create an internship program if allowed? |
|
Sherry Floyd:
|
Absolutely! Send them over! We could always use more agents...elite agents that is. |
)
What does it have to do with the game. I don't see it.
The game has not had an update for months, maybe financial trouble.
I doubt it has financial trouble, they are simply working on the game and it's not like release is around the next corner,
With that said, this has more to do with SOE's promotion of its sexist "G.I.R.L." plan than it has to do with the Agency.
Sony Online Entertainment - Where games go to die.
You're not a gamer if you work for SOE
I doubt it has financial trouble, they are simply working on the game and it's not like release is around the next corner,
With that said, this has more to do with SOE's promotion of its sexist "G.I.R.L." plan than it has to do with the Agency.
I agree, it was an extremely tasteless "contest". Especially when the "winner" ended up being very photogenic. Coincidence? Probably not. Tactless PR for the win.
I agree, it was an extremely tasteless "contest". Especially when the "winner" ended up being very photogenic. Coincidence? Probably not. Tactless PR for the win.
You're right, you guys. If they would have given it to just another fat goatee wearing pinhead, it would have been alright.
Sexist? Oh my god.
Name the last bit of money YOU have given out. I didn't think so. Hell, you guys probably don't volunteer either right?
MMORPG.com: Where the dregs of the internet go to post.
I agree, it was an extremely tasteless "contest". Especially when the "winner" ended up being very photogenic. Coincidence? Probably not. Tactless PR for the win.
You're right, you guys. If they would have given it to just another fat goatee wearing pinhead, it would have been alright.
Sexist? Oh my god.
Name the last bit of money YOU have given out. I didn't think so. Hell, you guys probably don't volunteer either right?
MMORPG.com: Where the dregs of the internet go to post.
Sure, give me just as much money as SOE has and i'll gladly support projects like this.
I don't care if the winner was a fat goatee wearing pinhead, but what I do find unfair is that this contest was for females only. I'm sure there are plenty of male students who would love to enter a competition such as this one, but they can't because they are males.
Sure i was a little bummed by the female only and it seemed like obvious PR,but you still cannot over look the good it did for this young lady.I am sure this will give that little extra into her future employment.I mean you can't possibly wish anything bad to come of this,because of usual SOE hate,it was all about her and how it played out.
Personally it sounds like the whole thing went about as good as it could have,and i am happy for both parties involved.
No matter how you look at this ,it is something that the other developers have not done,and there is no excuses either,albeit many would like to make some excuses for them no doubt.If every developer did this kind of thing it would be great for everyone,no question about it.
I still say you're not a gamer if you work for SOE, where games go to die
Having "Trained by SOE" on her resume may not help as much as she hopes.
Im gonna look at this in a more simplified way, and by simplified I mean stereotypicial male, if she is hot, it's ok lol. Hell I would much rather read about a girl getting an internship at SoE than some avrage gaming dude, there is plenty of that already lol.
I agree, it was an extremely tasteless "contest". Especially when the "winner" ended up being very photogenic. Coincidence? Probably not. Tactless PR for the win.
You're right, you guys. If they would have given it to just another fat goatee wearing pinhead, it would have been alright.
Sexist? Oh my god.
Name the last bit of money YOU have given out. I didn't think so. Hell, you guys probably don't volunteer either right?
MMORPG.com: Where the dregs of the internet go to post.
Well to be fair, why havent I seen them sporting these contests for other minorty groups. Wheres the ones for African Americans? Wheres the contests for handicapped folks in gaming? Perhaps there are some homosexuals who would like to bust into the development scene?
My point is that it was a PR move, what better way to garner some attention then putting a young attractive woman at the center of the contest? It wasnt just sexist, it was transparent.
SOE is in plenty of trouble , delayed games... Adding Microtransaction to their flagship EQ on top on the sub fees. Because of this, a new group of upset SOE customers are joining the SWG Vets in their shared disatisfaction of SOE's game management.
This story of the wonderful Julia Brezal Final acts on the delayed and incompleted "the Acgency" is just another piece of fluff forward to MMORPG.com to show that the SOE marketing machine can still crank out the crap , as always
Oh BTW , Happy New Year
You're right, you guys. If they would have given it to just another fat goatee wearing pinhead, it would have been alright.
Sexist? Oh my god.
Name the last bit of money YOU have given out. I didn't think so. Hell, you guys probably don't volunteer either right?
MMORPG.com: Where the dregs of the internet go to post.
Sure, give me just as much money as SOE has and i'll gladly support projects like this.
I don't care if the winner was a fat goatee wearing pinhead, but what I do find unfair is that this contest was for females only. I'm sure there are plenty of male students who would love to enter a competition such as this one, but they can't because they are males.
First off, I think it is great that SOE is doing this. I think they did the right thing and let her get her hands dirty immedicately.
As to the complaint that the contest was for females only, that was a completely thoughtless comment. The industry has few females in it, the entire point of the contest was to get more females involved in it. Nice of you to completely miss it.
You're right, you guys. If they would have given it to just another fat goatee wearing pinhead, it would have been alright.
Sexist? Oh my god.
Name the last bit of money YOU have given out. I didn't think so. Hell, you guys probably don't volunteer either right?
MMORPG.com: Where the dregs of the internet go to post.
Sure, give me just as much money as SOE has and i'll gladly support projects like this.
I don't care if the winner was a fat goatee wearing pinhead, but what I do find unfair is that this contest was for females only. I'm sure there are plenty of male students who would love to enter a competition such as this one, but they can't because they are males.
First off, I think it is great that SOE is doing this. I think they did the right thing and let her get her hands dirty immedicately.
As to the complaint that the contest was for females only, that was a completely thoughtless comment. The industry has few females in it, the entire point of the contest was to get more females involved in it. Nice of you to completely miss it.
Why should there be more females in the industry? Why? So the SOE developers can get dates too?
The industry doesn't need more females, what the industry needs is better game developers and it should not matter if they are male or female. Females want to join the industry? Sure Great, but there is no reason why they should suddenly start giving contests for females only.
When you have a crappy company and have a hard time recruiting you take in interns. That way you can get free help and get them right away when they graduate.
Man, woman...yeti....I could care less about the gender of the intern. If her work is crap it's grap, if it's good its good.
Most women who apply for a job in the game industry get it. The acceptance rate is near 100%. This isn't because women are naturally talented artists but because of a double standard. Conversely men who apply for jobs in the game industry have less then 1/10th of a percent to get a job. There are plenty of talented male developers who will never get a job in this industry simply because they don't have breasts. The reason why SOE games are so bad is because of the hiring practices of SOE, and the untalented people they hire over real developers simply because they are female or a friend.
This has to be one of the most insensitive and sexist posts I have seen on this site. One most certainly that has zero facts to support it. That post just screams immaturity. Time for you to grow up or at least think before writing such a poorly thought out comment.
SOE's problems lie in it's executive suite, not it's programming staff.
Whats sexist about it? I didn't say women are naturally untalented. I said women benefit from having boobs when getting a job in the game industry. Based on 30% of the employees at SOE are female, and less then 1% of the applicants are female, I think this is true. Whats sexist is giving women jobs just because they are women and not because of qualifications.
Considering how poor SOEs art quality is, I have to assume that this hiring practice has a negative impact on thier development.
People, why all the conspiracy theories? The point of the contest was actually very simple and well intended, there are not enough women interested in gaming, developement or otherwise, period.
The simple goal was to get exposure of gaming and the gaming industry to more women because they're a significant part of the consumer base as well as a talent pool from which to draw. They dont need these contests for men because we are already there in mass.
I applaud SOE for doing this and hope that they continue to do such things in the future.
I am also however a person that still believes when it comes to hiring that the best resume wins regardless of sex or ethnic background.
I wish this young lady all the best and sincerely hope that she goes on to have a wonderful career.
I ask again, why do we need more women in game development?
This whole thing did not pull any women to playing video games whatsoever, lets get that out of the way first, this whole contest was only reported on a few gaming websites. Nobody outside of gaming knew this took place.
Do women bring anything to the development table that a man can not? I think not. Some people like to argue that women know better what women want in gaming, but I find that to be ridiculous. Will Wright has pulled in more female gamers than all female developer or designer combined. Or look at other industries. Fashion for females is often (and I think most of the time) designed by males. Movies? Same thing.
What the industry needs is more game designers, not more females just for the sake of being political correct.
What's next? A contest for black people to get more black people in the industry? Or what about asians?
I ask again, why do we need more women in game development?
This whole thing did not pull any women to playing video games whatsoever, lets get that out of the way first, this whole contest was only reported on a few gaming websites. Nobody outside of gaming knew this took place.
Do women bring anything to the development table that a man can not? I think not. Some people like to argue that women know better what women want in gaming, but I find that to be ridiculous. Will Wright has pulled in more female gamers than all female developer or designer combined. Or look at other industries. Fashion for females is often (and I think most of the time) designed by males. Movies? Same thing.
What the industry needs is more game designers, not more females just for the sake of being political correct.
What's next? A contest for black people to get more black people in the industry? Or what about asians?
I imagine this went completely over your head.. Gamer-base has absolutely no part in what this is, it's her being a female artist, and for quite awhile, the media was completely overrun by a huge male-base..
You actually proved a huge point on why we need females with equal jobs as males, they're no better than we are, and vice versa my friend.
This has absolutely nothing to do with game design, and what women can bring to the table on this.. It's a matter of equality, and the need to balance things out, while also still keeping it a fair career choice.
This went over your head, man.. Women are not a minority, and that's why this is an issue, knowing you think they're a minority tells me you know they don't get the same opportunities males do, as far as career choices go.
Asians? You've got to be kidding me, they have more game designers than anyone.
Not to mention, these people look at your work before they look at what you even look like.. They did this so they could pull these girls out of hiding, and give them opportunities.
I know it's incredibly stressful applying to art jobs for these studios.