Uruare Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 (edited) So, I've read, over the years, no end of litanies and declarations from folks in the MMO community that challenge is desired. It is considered insulting by some when content is too easy; insulting by others when content is too hard; alienating by many when we're more at war against unintuitive systems and ineffective means of socializing, teaming and grouping. So, here's a challenge for those that feel they're up to it. A real one at that. In my whimsical gandering at Bioware/EA's job posting site, I found this and marked it to be of particular interest. Link goes to job posting. Click it, read it, then continue on. I read through it a few times, pondered its context and got a thought tossing about my brainbox; what if this job were presented to the vocal SWTOR community? Who amongst them, if any at all, would be able and willing to rise to a real challenge by participating in a little demonstration activity? What if that activity were to put their expertise where their opinions so often go and give their best showing on how they would do this job posted right here? So, that's my challenge to the community at large. Obviously, nobody here's likely to have all the information at their fingertips someone hired to this position would have, but I think we could have some fun with this. At least, if anyone's up for the real challenge far in excess of anything any of you've ever done in a raid of forming a team, working together, probably learning some advanced stuff on the parts of some just to participate at all and putting on the best showing possible on what we might collaborate on and professionally design by way of...theoretical social systems that might well have a realistic place in SWTOR as we know it to be. So, all that said...anybody up for a REAL challenge? Suggested Reading -- The Social Requirements of Technical Systems Basic Calculus Primer (Because not everybody took advanced math courses at any point in their lives) Learn Statistics -- Lovely people teaching math to others and to eachother for free. Do you really have a good excuse -not- to learn this stuff? It's free! And so is a lot else through Carnegie Mellon. Seriously, don't be a lazy scrub; sign up for something (preferably statistics at the least!) Welcome to Economics -- Did you know that MIT provides autodidacts and other self-guided learners with huge piles of free coursework and lecture material to independantly study? 14.12, 14.13 and 14.32 would be good places to start, while 14.126, 14.147 and 14.382 would be of particular interest as some final hurdles to clear in prep for this challenge. So, there's a good start! Happy learnings! Edited February 20, 2012 by Uruare Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaverickXIV Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 I'm not sure what your challenge is. Are you challenging someone from the community to get this job? Or is the challenge simply do design something as if you were in this position? The former is very much out of reach for most assuming the "5+ years experience designing/developing online games" part is enforced religiously. It's requirements like that which sadly keep this industry in such a "good ol' boys club" state. Then again, this is senior position, but still. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uruare Posted February 20, 2012 Author Share Posted February 20, 2012 (edited) Nah, just take the job concept and run with it. Don't worry about actually applying for it. You got it on the latter of your takes on it though. The whole premise is to see what, if anything, we might come up with that someone in that posted position might be responsible for. Why? We give all kinds of advice and insight and pop off with suggestions and comments and criticisms all the time, but how would we do in such a position ourselves? In a nutshell, I'd expect anyone interested in this to probably be less concerned with actually turning out a product (especially considering the knowledge base required) as taking interest in what -exactly- IS required by someone in such a position and, frankly...playing with their tools for a while. Getting a feel for what that kind of developer does with their time. And maybe, possibly, coming up with some idea or ideas derived from that knowledge base that could be presented to the devs. Maybe like one of those "I LUV U!" birthday cards children give their parents that're all goobered up with crayon and taped because we've eaten all the paste. -I've- never developed anything for a computer game before. My only real up on anybody that might want to play to would be that I'm already familiar with the math in terms of calculus, statistics, probabilities, advanced algebra and maybe also advanced useage of Excell (all of which I use regularly in my own industry). The coding expertise? Pfffffffffffffffff, I couldn't code 'Hello World!' without a walk-through. Most of that stuff I posted as suggested reading? I'ma reading some of it too, and may be digging into the game theory mathematics. That's new territory for me. So, I really meant it above! Happy learnings to anyone that cares to give this a crack! Edited February 20, 2012 by Uruare Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ansultares Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 * Proven ability to think holistically, and understand how minute adjustments can have huge ramifications for game balance and communities.This one really bothers me; apparently, copying WoW is a job requirement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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