3/9     Interested in coding games for a living?
        Check out Three Rings Design.  They are working on a game called
        Puzzle Pirates.  It's a massively multiplayer game that's not
        'just another treadmill' (TM), and may appeal to a wider demographic
        than the traditional hard core gamer set.  They are looking for
        a kickass Java hacker.
        Job details at:
        http://threerings.net/jobs
        I met Daniel James, Three Rings' CEO and one of their game designers
        at the annual MUD-DEV dinner held during GDC.  He seems like a pretty
        cool guy, and I have it on good advice that he is a standup guy when
        it comes to business stuff.  Mention you heard about this from me,
        by way of the Berkeley Computer Science Undergraduate Association.
        If you have further questions, feel free to drop me an email. -dans
        \_ Other random info... their head art guy is Rick Keagy. Cal
           grad, and cool fellow that worked with blojo and me in the
           Bolt-Action days. -bz
        \_ I'll check it out right after I kill just one more mob.  I think
           he'll drop the stone shield of karthas for sure this time!
        \_ Oh, yeah, as an added bonus, you get to make piratey noises
           as part of your job, without having to be a warez kiddie. -dans
           \_ Is that part of the interview?  "AAARRRRR!  AVAST YE MATEY!
              SHIVER ME TIMBERS IF IT ISN'T EDONKEY SCUM!"  Like that?  Do
              I win?
              \_ I dunno.  I don't work there.  I just got a very good vibe
                 from Mr. James, and heard good buzz about the game.  Of
                 course, this begs the quest, why am I not trying to get
                 this job?  Main reason is that I'm a little busy with
                 trying to finally graduate, and, apparently, they want
                 someone NOW.
        \_ A general observation on game developers.  I'm not one and I have
           this image of game developers being a bunch of slackers who slap
           something together that sort of works and never fix bugs.  Seems
           like the nature of the industry.  It's not critical and there's never
           a version 1.1.  Another thing is commitment to the job.  Turnover
           seems high.  Can't get their ass in gear and do maintainance work
           or write specs.  That's why I haven't hired anyone with a background
           in gaming industry and is looking to switch.  Am I being too harsh?
           \_ I'm inclined to disagree with you entirely.  I work for a MUD
              company, and everyone here works his/her ASS off.  We have
              limited resources and often need to choose between maintenance
              and feeping creaturism.  This is an engineering tradeoff like
              any other with costs and benefits associated with each option.
              Unlike business/productivity software, when it comes to games,
              one can make pretty strong arguments for features over bugfixes.
              Basically, new features in games often make all users happier,
              while new features in a word processor will probably only appeal
              to a small portion of existing users.  Bugfixes in games only
              please the people affected by the bug.  That said, when a game
              crashes, what have you lost?  Some play time.  When your word
              processor crashes and you lose your PhD thesis, you're going to
              be pissed.  Like many things, ymmv. -dans
              \_ dans, you're confirming my views on game developers as far
                 as fixing bugs go.  Nothing personal, but it's the nature of
                 the industry not to fix bugs but put out features.  Fine.
                 If I need a guy to sit down and fix bugs and write specs,
                 game developers aren't a good fit.  Writing design specs and
                 test plans is more important than actually doing the work
                 for nearly all non-gaming businesses.  Are game programmers
                 cut out to do this?
                 \_ I think you misunderstand what I said.  I'm not saying
                    that game programmers choose features over bugfixes
                    because that's what they like to do (though that may be
                    true for some), I'm saying they make this choice because
                    it is often the correct engineering decision for the
                    situation.  The same can be said for folks who chose to
                    use two digits to represent the year in systems that were
                    never meant to last until Y2K.  I have seen people that
                    program games, and are capable of writing a solid spec,
                    testing plans, and following up on the project.  For
                    example, our very own appel holds the distinction of being
                    the most frighteningly good documentation writer I have
                    ever met.  He also happens to be the guy who hired me
                    at Skotos. :) -dans
                    \_ sounds like you don't know what an SDLC consists of
        \_ Considering many game engines are used by multiple teams at once
           over a lifespan of several games and possibly even for several
           generations of consoles, I think good game programmers need to be
           able to document code, fix bugs in a timely manner, all the while
           adding features to keep the engine cutting edge.  Oh and as far as
           bugs go, console games don't get to be patched and so the console
           company tends to be pretty anal at making sure there are no bugs
           in there.  (Not to mention a computer game's complexity is insane
           compared to something like a word processor.)
        \_ Game development is so much more difficult in every way than
           the puny "software development" you're familiar with, that this
           discussion is pointless.  Go try and make a modern game before
           you go slagging game developers.    -blojo
           PS: Not to say that a lot of game developers aren't lame.  Just
           like any industry, there are plenty of dumbasses.  Yet most other
           "software developers" don't even measure up to those dumbasses.
           Sad but true.
           \_ I see blojo has done some empirical studies of the software
              development industry and has come forward to present his
              results.  Hear hear!
              \_ I'd agree with him... game dev salaries are lower than
                 elsewhere in CS because the supply of geeks who want to
                 do games is high.  Companies can afford to be picky, and
                 their interview processes are usually tougher.  You can
                 argue that perhaps game developers are more willing to
                 use hacks to squeeze some more performance out of the
                 engine, but to question their overall professionalism
                 and engineering quality is probably misguided.
                 \_ Game development is all he knows.  He may be right, in some
                    limited sense (I am still not convinced) but more likely
                    he is just shooting his mouth off.