Don't be ashamed

[This was originally posted on my personal blog www.reachingperfection.com]

For this first post I want to talk about those of us who assign ourselves a job title when trying to answer a question like "What do you do for a living?" or something like "How would you classify yourself?" or even "What are you trying to become?". Word of advice to the lot of you. Don't be ashamed of what you are, what you are trying to be, and what you want to be. This particular post has to do with everyone, not just game related careers despite the fact that I am directing this towards those.

Dreams

A lot of us have grown up around video games. We've seen the evolution of the NES to the Wii. We remember the first Halo when it came out on the original Xbox. There are even those of us who pimped the Tetris on the original fat gray Gameboy. As we continue to play these games, sometimes we take the time to think "What if things worked this way instead?". Some of us go deeper than that and start to analyze whether that would be a reasonable change to the game or not. This, my dear friends, is how a game designer is born.

I'm sure many of you have taken the time to think up new rules, levels, or weapons for a game that you love playing. Remember those conversations when you were with your friends?

Billy: Dude what if you could fight a dragon after killing that boss?

Johnny: THAT WOULD BE AMAZING! And then after you beat it, you could convince it to let you ride it and then you could level it up and give it different powers like spitting acid!

And you know... it's not just us hardcore gamers either that think like this. Let's say Scott is a manager at McDonald's that has loads of his old high school friends on facebook.

Scott's Facebook Status: Has anyone ever thought of how cool it would be to be able to raise [insert animal here] on Farmville?

Those are just a few examples of how game designers are born. Some of us have always dreamed of making games from time to time. How cool would it be to get paid to make money from making games?

Reality

So what happened to a lot of us? I've heard tons of reasons for not going into game development career fields and I'm sure the lot of you have heard them too or even have some of your own reasons. But something that I have seen a lot more is the admittance of it. I've seen many of those who are ashamed to admit that they commit so much time to thinking about games. For those who felt the same way I had at one point in time in fear of being picked on, I want you to think about the amount of people that play Facebook games at least a little. Even my father takes the time to play games when he gets the chance. For most of us, our parents are the last people we would say play games. And those in high school or who recently graduated within the last like 5 years, think about how many jocks play Halo, Call of Duty, or Gears of War. Aren't/weren't they like the quintessence of cool in those times?

Be Proud

... of what you enjoy doing. Don't be afraid that what you enjoy doing will put you at the butt of all jokes. Don't be ashamed to tell your parents that you want to make games for a living. Let people know that those 2 hours you spend on Facebook is spent virtually running a farm or restaurant. If you enjoy it, then wear it on your shoulders. You never know who else in your physical life enjoys doing the same things as you do. It could encourage stronger relationships with one another. And if they don't, there is no harm in introducing them to the world of gaming. I mean if you are having loads of fun, don't you want to share it with those you care about?

Step towards perfection

Hopefully this inspired some of you. The more open you are about yourself the closer to perfection you could possibly be. What perfection "is" differs for all of us... but in a perfect world wouldn't you want to be open and proud of what you do and what you enjoy?