I wish I could be a WoW altoholic…

by Tami on April 25, 2012

I have a confession to make: I’m not an altoholic.  I am seriously jealous of WoW players who can shelf their main and roll up something new over and over again; I have this awful attachment to my main character that I just can’t shake.  In a perfect world, I can have a character for every season so that I can try out every class, race, starting area, faction, and tradeskill.  But alas, I really really suck at alts, just like Matthew Rossi.

The biggest reason that I am so terrible at alts is that I think my druid (Treetopsy) is perfect.  I love that she’s a cow, I love being a druid, and I love that I’ve been playing her since 2004 and she’s been everywhere with me.  She was my level 49 PvP twink, she raided vanilla Molten Core with me, she’s the only character I’ve maxed out fishing on, she’s the furthest along in Loremaster, she has the most achievements, and she’s just synonymous with my WoW representation of self.  There really isn’t much of a WoW without Treetopsy.

Whenever I make another character, I continuously compare it to my main and it just never stacks up.  All I can think about is how I’ll have to save up money to buy mounts and flying skills all over again, that I don’t have all the flight paths, that the character doesn’t have any achievements.  Every minute that I spend on an alt feels like time wasted that I could be putting into my druid, and I know that logically that doesn’t make that much sense.  In theory, I want to not care.  If I make a class like a priest or shaman, I spend the entire time comparing it to the druid and end up sad that I don’t have stealth, sad that I can’t shapeshift or fly instantly, disappointed that I can’t “do it all” like I can with the druid class.  It’s silly and it makes me angry that I feel this way.

I want to love playing alts.  I’m starting slowly this time by making yet another druid, but she’s a Night Elf and will be feral rather than Resto/Balance.  But I’m terrified that something is going to happen such as I’ll end up looting the Raven Lord mount with her and then I won’t have it on Treetopsy.  WHAT WILL I DO IF THAT HAPPENS?!?!  I don’t even want to think of it.

Maybe I’m a completionist.  I’m certainly quite casual — my druid only recently dinged 85 and she’s poorly geared and hasn’t done any raiding in Cataclysm. I haven’t grinded any rep with her, and I haven’t really done much achievement-chasing at all.  But if I do any of those things, I feel like it has to be on her and not some newfangled alt.  I really want to buck this habit though, I want to love making different alts and dressing them all up in different transmogging outfits.  How can I train myself to let go a little bit?

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I’ve only been working in the game industry for 5 years, but I’ve moved up faster than most and think I have a few tips that worked for me.  I might as well share them, because I want all of the people who work for me to adopt this kind of mentality.  However, please note that I have only worked on startups and your mileage may vary.

My career path so far:  Community Manager -> Associate Producer -> Senior Community Manager -> Product Manager -> Producer -> Studio Director.

Take on as much as possible

Ignore your title, ignore your pay, and take on as much work as you are physically able.  Don’t ever say “I can’t do that, it’s not in my skill set.”  Each time you do something new, you learn something new.  If you are the type of person who accepts and actually seeks out challenges, you will be seen as a leader, and as someone who can be trusted to step up and take on things no one else wants to do.  If you want to move up, volunteer yourself for those tasks that you want to eventually be paid to do.  Just don’t expect compensation for doing these extra things right away.  Do a great job, and when promotion time comes, someone will think of you.

Be available outside of work

You don’t have to be working 24/7, but having your email on your phone so that you are able to respond quickly when something needs answered makes you an indispensable resource.

Have strong opinions, and share them

Care about your work and about your industry.  If you have opinions and thoughts that go against the grain, say them and be eloquent about it.  Tell your thoughts to the right people.  Speak up and be the person who isn’t afraid to share their thoughts.  This has always worked for me — I’ve always been the person to send and receive the most emails at work.

Don’t settle for zero promotion from job to job

If you leave your job and move to another company, expect a raise. Ask for another 5k, another 10k per year.  If you were a Producer before, don’t be afraid to apply for Senior Producer roles.  If you were a Studio Director, apply for VP Development/VP Operations roles.  Use your change of company to shop yourself around for the best opportunity.  Note: this has worked very well in the social/mobile space where experience within this space > all.  You may not have as much luck in traditional gaming spaces.

Have a career path planned and act like you already are on the path

There is nothing that will make a person more stagnant than not knowing what their future holds.  I always plan out my desired career path and adjust it accordingly if things change.  I started out in Community Manager and originally saw myself as VP of Community, but quickly found that my skills align pretty well with management and production.  I set out a path of wanting to produce a game, then produce a few games at once, then manage producers and run a studio.  Next stop: VP of Production or similar role, if I continue on this path.  If you know where you want to be next, it’s easy to start doing tasks from the job expectations for THAT role in addition to  your own.

Don’t be afraid to fail or admit mistakes

When you’re constantly taking on things outside of your comfort zone, you’re bound to make mistakes. Almost everywhere I have worked has been just fine with mistakes as long as someone owns up to them and learns from them.  When you make a mistake, make damned sure that you don’t ever make the same one again.  Management notices when someone says “You know what?  That was my fault, I did this when I should have done that. I’ll make sure this doesn’t happen again.”  That takes a mature person to be able to do that, which is commendable.

Be obsessed with the game industry

One thing that I have always prided myself  on is my knowledge of the game industry.  When I’m not working, I’m at home reading the internet and staying on top of my hundreds of game industry RSS feeds.  I consider myself generally on the forefront of knowledge about anything happening in the industry, from new game launches, to acquisitions, to rumors.  I don’t just work in the game industry, I am super passionate about it and make it my goal to know as much as possible.

Attend industry events

Some of the greatest moments I have had in the industry so far have been at trade events like GDC.  This is the place where you can meet people who share similar interests to you, where you can make connections that can lead to opportunities in the future, where you find out about new technologies, where you can learn valuable information that will help you do your job, where you can put yourself out there as a speaker and make a name for yourself.  It’s been fascinating to attend sessions, panels, roundtables, and of course — parties.  I highly recommend finding any way possible to attend GDC.  The passes are ridiculously overpriced for an individual who has to pay their own way, but volunteering is a great option for the cash-strapped.

Use social networking

Twitter and Facebook have been altogether more helpful for my career than anything else, hands down.  I have met so many amazing contacts on Twitter.  I have connected to people closer than I ever would have before via Facebook, and used it to find industry events and groups relevant to my interests.  I have also used Twitter extensively to stay on top of all the latest news and read about things as their happening.  For having a 140 character limit, there is actually a surprising amount of deep discussions about game design and industry strategy.  Mostly, though, the networking is absolutely the best thing for your career in the game industry.  People move around a lot, and you never know when you might want to call on someone for help landing your next gig.

What other tips do you have?

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Tree World is available on the App Store!

by Tami on April 19, 2012

Wow, I’m the worst person ever.  I totally forgot to update my blog to mention that Tree World, the latest game from my company, is live on the App Store!  It’s a universal free app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, and is one of the better games that I have worked on.  It’s simple, compelling, cute, addicting, and is one of the truly inherent social games on mobile.  The main goal is to grow the tallest tree possible and collect adorable Tree Food-producing critters to do so — however, collecting all of the critters requires you to trade with your friends.  No one to my knowledge has done a game for iOS that allows you to request trades with your friends, so I’m pretty excited about it.  I was Producer on this game for the last couple of months of its development, and I’m really proud of my team that got it out the door.

Try it out.  It’s free, so what do you have to lose?

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Doggie Diary – April 2012

by Tami on April 9, 2012

My dogs are basically my children, and I’m not really afraid to admit that. So I figure if there can be mommy bloggers, I can certainly be one too.  This last month has been an absolute mess in terms of tons of work, being completely swamped, and having very little “me” time to spend at home. Sadly, my dogs have likely suffered as a result.

Echo has decided that she’s going to be aggressive and naughty to other dogs.  She’s always been a more reactive dog, guarding our house with her life, barking at passersby, looking around at everything on the leash.  But recently, she’s started to attack other dogs at the dog park.  She’s no longer allowed to go there now, which makes me sad because I’ve had such a wonderful time in the past bringing her to the parks.  Krogan is still allowed at the park because he loves running around and has no problem with other dogs.  He is just such a happy guy.  I swear that if Echo and Krogan’s personalities meshed together, they would be the perfect dog.

I called a professional trainer and it looks like we’re going to get some help.  I know he’s going to suggest that we don’t spend enough time walking them and getting them exercise, so that definitely needs to change.  We only walk them a couple times per week, and the rest of the time their exercise is racing around in the yard like wild dogs. Bella is still Bella, she is adorable as usual and has asserted herself as the dominant dog in the household.  I actually caught her and Bella sharing a bed a couple of times in the last week, so things are moving in the right direction.

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A longtime friend of mine (and her daughter) came to visit from Minnesota, and I just dropped them back off at the airport.  This last week was spent with an amazing amount of activity. I went to Alcatraz (which is definitely a must-see excursion), ferried to Angel Island, went shopping in Chinatown and tried some interesting bakery items while there.  We ate delicious Moroccan food with our hands and watched a belly dancing show.  I went on a duck boat tour of the city, ate Mexican food in The Mission and enjoyed the Balmy St. murals, went horseback riding along the Pacific in Daly City, ate delicious sandwiches at Ike’s, checked out the cable car turnaround in Union Square, had a picnic in Dolores Park, went dancing in the Castro, sang karaoke, took a day trip in a party bus to Napa Valley and went to two awesome wineries.  All in all, it has been an incredible week so I thought I’d share some iPhoneography from my adventures.

View my Flickr set for more photos.

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The ruttiest of ruts.

April 3, 2012

I’ve been feeling down in the dumps lately, and I know the best therapy for me is generally just writing about it and getting my thoughts out there.  I don’t know where this post is going to go, but I just know that I have thoughts in my head and they need to go anywhere [...]

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Adventures in Returning to WoW

March 27, 2012

I’ve been pretty stressed out lately and my game of choice (League of Legends) causes me additional stress more often than not, so I’ve been looking for a more casual type of game to play.  Naturally, I could have loaded up Steam and enjoyed a number of singleplayer RPGs at my own pace that I’ve [...]

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FYI, you’re a feminist.

March 26, 2012

Note: This post is not written for those who have abandoned the feminist label because of problematic concerns with intersectionality.  I’m aware of that issue and chose to write this post geared toward a different audience. For the record, if you’re someone who feels that discrimination against people for their race, religion, gender identity, biological [...]

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Things keep moving really fast

March 14, 2012

Everything in my life has been moving in an absolute blur, so I’m not even sure why I bother to update this blog.  By the time I post something, it’s already out of date! Anyway, I have huge news.  I received a large promotion at work to the role of Studio Director, meaning that I’m [...]

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Some fun with Inkscape and Corona SDK

March 10, 2012

GDC was inspiring as usual, and it made me want to make my own game even more than I already did.  I am just in the playing around stage right now, so I don’t actually have a game concept in mind just yet.  I decided to play around with Corona SDK because I have a [...]

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