Back to the Job Hunt AND "The Simple Truth of the 'Are Video Games Art?' Debate"

So I'm giving up on the QA Job in Montreal. Trying to figure out visas just proved to be to much of a hassle for me. I was feeling the urge to hit my head on the desk every time I attempted to work on it so I gave up. I'm now back to the job hunt.

I posted this as a sample article for examiner.com and they want to "hire" me because of it so I thought I'd share it with all of you. I usually stay out of the "Are Video Games Art?" debate but I figured I'd weigh in on it for examiner.com to see if they'd like to hire me and hey it worked so here's the sample article for you to enjoy:

Can Video Games be considered art? There is a lot of debate surrounding this subject both for the “Yes it is art” side as well as the “No it is not and never will be” counter argument. There are a lot of experts and celebrities weighing in on the subject, from Roger Ebert the film critic to Samoa Joe the wrestler. It is impossible to say who is right and who is wrong at the moment because the debate is so heated and could sway in either direction at the moment.

However, there is one thing that could definitely help the “Yes it is art” side. And that is, surprisingly enough, History. Many years ago the motion picture was invented. It didn’t do anything of any real artistic value. It was used to record two people sharing a kiss or a man sneezing. By modern standards these movies would hardly warrant being posted on YouTube, unless the two people were considered incredibly attractive or the man sneezed milk out of his nose. But even still they probably wouldn’t get many hits.

Time went on and movies became more complicated and eventually were considered art. Then came Rock n’ Roll. When Rock n’ Roll first debuted it wasn’t considered art. It was considered the Devil’s music and a travesty to music as it was known around the world. Then in the 90’s the same thing happened with Rap music. But they have both, more or less, become respected art forms now.

Video Games are at the same precipice. Hated by the older, more conservative, art aficionados and loved by the younger generations. If History repeats itself than Video Games will be considered art eventually. If for no other reason than the younger generation will outlive the aficionados.

I hope you enjoyed that little sample article. I could have written much more about this topic but the article was supposed to be 200-300 words and I was pushing 300 as it was. Who knows maybe this examiner job will turn out to be so rewarding that I'll become a professional blogger about Video Games. You can do that and earn a decent wage right?

The Job Hunt

Well, it's begun. I've graduated from college and now the job hunt begins. I find myself oddly prepared and seemingly under-prepared for my future career.

I and some of my friends find ourselves in a predicament. Some companies feel we're over qualified for QA work and other places feel we're under-qualified for Design work. Leaving us in a little middle limbo. I mean granted not all of us have had this problem. I know a couple people have gotten jobs at Disney and Vicarious Visions as designers and testers. I know that some of my fellow graduates have gotten jobs elsewhere as well, I'm just unsure of where entirely.

I myself am pursuing both QA and Design positions. Over my four years at Champlain College I discovered that my two greatest enjoyments in the field of Game Development have been Level Design and QA testing. Which I believe, I could be wrong about the level design but I know I'm not about QA testing, are both entry level jobs so I could easily and quite happily make a career of these jobs.

The trick is getting someone to hire me. I'm not only applying to places in the industry but also around town to try and help me get an apartment so I can sustain myself while I hunt for a job. But even though people are hiring all over town and in the area... I find myself unable to acquire a job on the local or career levels. I think I'm driving all my friends crazy talking about how hard it is to find a job.

If I can't find a career and can find a local job I think I'm going to try and go indie. It's not the worst thing that can happen. I have some, what I think are, pretty good ideas for some games and if I can get some artists and a couple other designers/programmers together we could make some pretty sweet games. I just need to get a career, a job, or start up my own little company. It's completely simple...

Well the job hunt continues. If anyone who reads this knows of a position that needs filling at their game company or at a game company they have friends at let me know. I'll gladly apply there.