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The Agency: A Day in the Life of an Agency Intern, 4
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
When she originally won an internship at SOE's The Agency through the Gamers in Real Life program, Julia Brasil had no idea that MMORPG.com would be tracking her progress, but that's exactly what our own Carolyn Koh is doing, checking in with the new developer on a regular basis. Today is part four.
MMORPG.com:
What did you think this internship would encompass before you started working for SOE Seattle?
Julia Brasil:
To be honest, I had heard plenty of stories from colleagues about their internships, a few of which were quite intimidating. Some joked that they did little more than babysit computers and refill staplers. So when I started as an intern I expected to be doing small errands around the studio or watching over the shoulders of the real professionals as they went about their work.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
As a long time programmer/developer (of business apps sadly, not games), I can say that an internship will probably tell you two things about programming/developing (and probably most jobs):
1) Will you actually LIKE doing it?
2) It shows you that school is nothing compared to reality.
I remember one of the interns I had who said that he did "More work on his first day (with us) than his entire school career" (He went to a business school specialized for programming). I had to tell him "Forget everything you've learned at school.... this is the really real world now."
In theory, the theoretical world and the real world are one and the same... in reality, they almost never touch....
I agree completely.
One thing that's always annoyed me about the programming world (and I know many disagree) is the the emphasis on maths.
I'm crap at maths. I was part of a 'guinea pig' program where we didn't learn how to work things out on paper at school. It was all calculators. Getting my degrees was damn hard for me, and I only just scraped through.
So what do I do now? Well, I did a bit in the games world, and currently I'm involved in research on artificial intelligence. Headed back to uni next year though to study psychology, but that's probably a mid-life crisis thing
So anyway, as much as I find this ongoing story boring as hell and bordering on sexism, there really is no substitute for experience in a working environment. Skool iz fer teh suxxorz!
I actually found this to be an in teresting read.I wanted to see how they treat her,what they allowed her top do and explain the working environment she was placed in.
I kind of think they should have leaned her towards some texture work,as she is more into art than 3d modeling,but no question it was still a great experience for her.I bet she learned more in one month than a whole year in school.The Unreal engine is maybe the most popular engine in the world right now,so it is great she was introduced to it.I am not sure she even knew or heard of it before hitting the SOE studios.
The other reason i think she should have been shown the whole ropes behind a map is because it can really change your way of thinking,when you see how hard it is to implement some things,such as the textures ,lighting ect. ect.You would of course have to understand the size of the player models,so you are not creating tight spots or places that will seem unrealistic or unreachable in the game.Personally i would need to understand the whole game play before i design a part of a map,because you would want it to play properly for fight scenes.
I am not really sure on this bar she was making,was it actually a playable part of the game?or was it going to be part of a cut scene or something like that?I have a short memory ,maybe i missed that part in the earlier parts.
I think this shows,that development studios really should look at developing their own members by setting up their own schools designed to train students the way they need them.Sure it might limit your over all training ,but very marginally,as most games out there are pretty much using the same kind of engines and the same outside programs such as 3D studio max,albeit that one may be getting outdated .
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Julia Brasil" I found everyone at the studio to be really friendly and willing to help despite their busy schedules." Let me guess all the people that help Julia Brasil are guys and drop what they doing all just for you lol. Yeah I'm jerk.
Heh - yea...an honest one though.