Ambitions

My parents instilled in me a deep love of reading at a young age. So, naturally, I thought I wanted to be an author when I was a kid. That is, until I learned how few novelists actually “make it.” But I was still passionate about books and knew I had a knack for telling good writing from bad, so I adjusted my goals: Editor at a book publisher—different job, same skill set, right?

More recently, as my gaming hobby grew into a passion, I went through a similar cycle. First, the same thought that strikes every devoted gamer: “If I like playing games, wouldn’t it be great to make them?” I didn’t have much interest in art or programming, but I could write. Right? And considering the quality of most videogame stories, games writing looked like a pretty viable field for me. (Design and production seemed like appealing alternatives too.) That wasn’t the issue though.

This time, the career-planning roadblock I hit was called “crunch.” As I learned more about the development cycle, the concept of crunch scared me away from the dream of creating games. It didn’t sound like a healthy lifestyle. I went through this decision process a few years ago, but I just got a reminder that things still haven’t changed all that much.

But back to the cycle. For a long time, I’d given up on the idea of working in games, floating listlessly in my liberal arts education. I came to Wash. U. assuming I’d eventually be an Economics major, but started out just taking classes that spoke to my interests—classes like Japanese Civilization, American Politics, and Present Moral Problems (an intro Philosophy course). Oh, and a couple Econ and Calculus classes.

However, starting my second year, I enrolled in a class called Principles of Marketing—my first B-school class—and something clicked. That old dream of working in the game industry resurfaced. After all, there’s more to videogames than development, right? So, since the beginning of last semester, I’ve been focused on making my way into the business side of the game industry, with an angle toward marketing.

It just seems right for me. And since I’ve started thinking along these lines, I’ve been paying much more attention to that area of the industry. There’s a lot that could be done better. A lot that I could do better.

Though whether or not I end up in marketing, I just want to work with my passion. I just want to work in games.