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We have ideas of our own
Elta
Member Posts: 297
I am not sure where to put this, so it's going here.
This forum has made it clear to be that developers have plenty of ideas of their own, which is why most companies don't have an "idea guy" as a lot of the youngsters here wish. As of right now I am in college and going to become a HR manager, I know very little about coding etc although I have worked on some rather large mods in the total war series.
In short: Working as a HR manager for a mmo developer, while I have any shot at having some input? (In case anyone is wondering, I am going - Sociology major - Business minor - Communications minor and graduate school Masters of Human Resources - All of my Sociology thesis have been on the Sociology of MMOs)
I am envisioning brain storming meeting every morning or once or twice a week that I could sit in on, is this plausible?
Comments
I know this isn't what you would like to hear, but the chances are so close to astronomical that they might as well be zero.
Idea brainstorming sessions are not that common even amongst the developers themselves, or at least not in the way that most people imagine. Pow-wows like that tend to be focused on implementation issues like "How do we include this without hurting that while staying within memory budget of X?".
The kind of very high-level thing you see on most forums (aside from a rare few who can and will dig deeper) just doesn't happen except at the very top of the development food chain.
You've pretty much hit the nail on the head with your comment about the "idea guy". The more people who can contribute (or think they can contribute), the less valuable the contribution becomes.
Just about anyone can come up with very high level ideas. So the ones who get to make those decisions tend to be the ones who also have the know-how to take that high level idea through every single granular step to full implementation.
That said, your chances are a bit better with a small company wherein the lines between jobs tend to blur. But realistically, I can't imagine a group of hands-on developers hitting a wall and wondering if the guy from HR has any ideas.
Sorry if this bursts your bubble.
Thank you for your advice, I asked another friend of mine who works in the U.K. (though it seems he thought I was asking for someone else)
His quote based on the OP:
"Based on my experience, he's dreaming. He's also very wrong. To answer his HR manager input point, no he's not going to get input, and if he tries adding his 'brainstorming' prowess to game design he's likely to piss a lot of people off. Primarily the very 'ideas' people that he thinks don't exist, i.e. the designers.
"
Every game company has Game Designers (this is my job) and we're the people who provide fresh concepts, game modes and mechanics and all the other bits and pieces that make up the game. Sometimes producers and biz dev staff and suchlike will have some input if they're creative people, but this is generally very limited, and to be honest usually far more annoying than helpful.
What people don't realize is that every little detail of game design has carry on effects throughout a project, and the people who understand that and can see the repercussions of design decisions are usually the designers who do this stuff every day.
Tell him if he wants design input to go be a designer.
I am sad now
Oh well, I have one more semi related idea, I'll bump this thread with it in a bit when I make a new thread. You can check it out if you want.
I think you should at least get the basics of programming before people will listen to your suggestions.
When I worked at a Chemical factory the HR guy always had a lot of "helpful" suggestions but it always ended up with us thinking for a moment and then rolling our eyes. You need a basic knowledge on how things work before making any useful suggestions.
Some companies do have used an idea guy teamed together with a master programmer teamed up (like Bill Roper and Jeff Strain in Diablo) but the idea guy still must at least have a basic idea on how things work, what can be done and not.
A lot of players dream of doing their own game but few have the basic skills you need to know what will work and not.
Of course a few devs creates things in a way no one thought would work but they are master programmers or at least very good.
I guess writing quests and making NPcs and similar is something you could help with but I doubt that is what you are hoping for.
I see what your saying on everything else, as to the quote it self; I've done that stuff Personally, I've never played on any private servers, but I had my own L2 server for myself so I could put models I make in Unreal 2 engine script and see how they look, made a few animations for spells/bows. Etc, I just don't see myself being a programer out right. Though yeah, what you said sounds possible, and fun
I guess writing quests and making NPcs and similar is something you could help with but I doubt that is what you are hoping for.
Even that is suspect.
There is a good reason why there is a division of labor. I highly doubt a HR guy knows enough about the lore, and have enough writing skills to out-do real writers in NPC/quest designs.
In fact, like someone has said before, become a designer if design is what you want to do.
If everyone who wanted to could sit in on meetings like that you're likely in one of three situations:
If you ended up working at a development studio I think you would have a great chance of influencing the game if you just make sure to get to know the project and the developers very well and can give an outside-the-design-team point of view in a helpful and insightful manner - say over lunch or while playing Rock Band and having a barbecue. Even if your ideas would suck (hopefully they don't) you may still get them thinking of something that leads to that awesome feature or encounter players dig.
And if that happened, maybe they'd invite you exclusively to those meetings some times. ;-)