[game_edu] QOL

[Ian Schreiber]

Are there archives of this mailing list? There was a previous discussion on the 
topic awhile back.

For me, QoL is a common theme that I reinforce at every opportunity in all of my 
classes whenever I see the opportunity. I think sometimes my students assume 
that I'm always trying to talk them out of their chosen career, but they're 
wrong. I'm only trying to talk them out of it if it would be a poor choice for 
them :)

One of the classes I teach is a survey of the game industry (I like it when this 
is one of the "gateway" classes to the game dev curriculum so that everyone has 
to take it early on). The course itself is sort of a window into game industry 
history, business models, job roles and responsibilities, important people and 
companies and games and events -- basically a "how to survive a conversation 
with a real life game developer at GDC without embarrassing yourself" kind of 
thing. I devote an entire lecture to current issues in the industry, spending 
most of my time on QoL and lack of diversity. The ea_spouse letter is one of the 
required readings for that day, as is the QoL whitepaper (the one that lists the 
"5.5 years" figure). And yes, there is a quiz. I also make two key points aimed 
at the student mindset:
1) "Sure, QoL sucks in some studios, but I'll just accept a suboptimal job to 
'break in' and then look for something better before I totally burn out." - yes, 
this is one potential strategy, but keep in mind that a job hunt is a full-time 
occupation in and of itself, and it becomes very hard to maintain the energy to 
do that when you're already spending 80+ hours at work in a death march, so this 
is a risky strategy.
2) "But I love making games. If I can do it for all my waking hours, that's 
great, isn't it?" - perhaps right now, but I promise that some day this will 
change. Maybe you'll decide it'd be nice to have a romantic relationship which 
requires you to spend some time outside of work. Maybe you'll want to have kids, 
I hear they can take up some of your time. Maybe it will just occur to you that 
if you're breaking your back working on a game, you'd rather it be your own idea 
and you'd rather profit from your hard work directly, rather than making someone 
else's idea in exchange for unfairly low pay. Whatever the case, if you're not 
prepared for this, it will burn you badly.

In capstone or other project-based classes, short-term crunch is often a reality 
(I make the class milestone-based), and take the opportunity to point out things 
that caused it, and particularly if the students are tired I will ask them if 
they would like to feel that way every single day for months on end.

- Ian




________________________________
From: Suzanne Freyjadis <freyjadis at austin.rr.com>
To: IGDA Game Education Listserv <game_edu at igda.org>
Sent: Tue, April 5, 2011 2:57:56 PM
Subject: [game_edu] QOL


Hello Educators!
 
A group of us at the IGDA would like to know if you incorporate Quality of Life 
issues into your curriculum and if so how you accomplish this lofty goal.
 
This is an important issue for both people in the industry as well as people who 
are entering it and I know that you are doing some amazing things in your 
classrooms.
 
I look forward to hearing what you have to share.
 
Thanks,
Suzanne
 
Suzanne Freyjadis
IGDA Edu SIG Co-Chair
Freyjadis at austin.rr.com
M: 512-619-4151
Twitter: GameEducation
Skype: suzanne.freyjadis


      
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