Perseverance

Perseverance from a Professional

Brendon Gonzalez

English Composition 1

Amy Watkins-Copeland

09/26/15

Perseverance from a Professional

     I believe my passion to become a game designer will come true with a little patience, knowledge and perseverance tips.  I want to share these tips with my family members; opposed to employees, friends or colleagues who would benefit less from this.  When discussing perseverance I believe you all would feel a connection the most; considering some previous negativity and uncertainty I received when making this career choice.  

     I picked someone established in this career field who has credible work to mention, as well as challenges that I can learn from.  When researching professionals, Will Wright’s name came up.  He is responsible for one of the most popular PC games of my generation, The Sims franchise (Howson, 2008).  I chose Wright because it is my passion to develop games as similar and successful as his; also because the tips he shares about some valuable mistakes, career dilemmas, and persevering to greatness. 

     In an interview, Wright (2013) states “…Probably 70% of the time I spent working on Bungeling Bay were mistakes that I had to back out of.  But those mistakes were valuable...”  He later states that those valuable mistakes essentially became the blueprints for his future work with The Sims (Wright, 2013).  Another insightful idea comes from author Barbara Kantrowitz (1994) when stating: “His first introduction to computing -- college programming courses -- was a bust.  ‘That was back in the days of keypunch cards,’ he says. ‘I hated them.’ Instead, he studied architecture, mechanical engineering and aviation at three schools without ever getting a degree” (para. 2).  Studying in three different fields and never receiving a degree, to designing one of the most popular PC games of my generation is very impressive; this is what I admire most about Wright.  The idea that I learned lastly about perseverance is the dilemma game designers can face; designing what you like versus what the audience likes.  A source that sheds light on that idea is a review from TIME magazine, by editor Lev Grossman (2008). He quotes Wright, saying “The programmer and I really enjoyed playing with those. Nobody else did. They were a bit abstract. One of the drawbacks of being interested in everything is having to remember that not everybody else is” (para. 3).

     By studying these tips, I reflected and learned a lot from Wright.  In the first source, I understood mistakes could overpower corrections in a person’s work.  Although there may be many setbacks in one piece of work, they can turn into another future work’s success.  In the second article I realized that it’s okay to be uncertain about your future.  People may need to go through a few trial and errors in order to discover their true passion and excitement for a career.  With the final source, I learned the most important advice: build what will make your audience come back for more, instead of what entertains or satisfies you.  That is if you want to become successful for your work.

     Remembering these three main topics will assist me to become a great video game designer of my generation.  If my work isn’t doing great, I will fight through the rough times.  Reminding myself why I entered this career and learning from my setbacks will allow me to not give up so easily.  Also trying the Criminal Justice Major first really opened my eyes to where my passion rests; here with Game Designing.  Getting an A+ in four of my courses consecutively reassured my choice in making this career switch.  Lastly, if I am seeing constant self-interests put in my work, I will make revisions by remembering who the games are being creating for.  Studying Wright’s perseverance tips and trends of what the gaming community wants will give me the knowledge, patience and perseverance to become the next successful video game designer.

References

Grossman, L. (2008). Playing God. Time. 9/15/2008, Vol. 172 Issue 11, p64-64. 1p. 1 Color Photograph.

Howson, G. (2008, April 16). The Sims is biggest selling PC game ‘franchise’ ever.            Retrieved from            http://www.theguardian.com/technology/gamesblog/2008/apr/16/simsbiggestsellingpcg      amei

Kantrowitz, B. (1994). Meet Mr. SimCity. Newsweek. 10/24/1994, Vol. 124 Issue 17, p48.            3/5p. 1 Color Photograph.

Wright, W. (2013, April 30). First game ever with Will Wright. Retrieved from            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p1G7v3XPA0