BioWare Holds World Design Contest

grayblob writes "BioWare is holding a World Design Contest to find talented level designers to work in Austin on their first MMORPG. To enter you must create a module with a 20-40 minute playtime in the NWN1 toolset. The module should include 'a cut scene, intricate puzzles and interesting NPC behavior.' The contest ends July 20 and like the writing contest doesn't guarantee employment for the winners."

so let me get this straight

[timmarhy]

they want to create this artifical environment of competition to make people think it's a priviledge to work for them or something? people, it's a highly competitive employment market - and i mean for employers, not you. they need to be begging you for the chance to explain why you should want to work for them, not the other way around.

Contests alway produce winners!

[TheLazySci-FiAuthor]

I absolutely love this kind of thing. Contests seem to inspire innovation. My favorite contest in recent years was the x-prize - that result was great!

After all, competition made life: Just so long as it does not become conflict, it is healthy.

Good way to get new ideas

[Anonymous Coward]

Good way to get new ideas. Wasn't there a band that held a similar contest to find a new guitarist and just copied all the good riffs they heard on the day?

Who retains copyright over submitted works? No mention of it in the agreement.

I like this bit:
VGH Austin is under absolutely no obligation whatsoever to:

(a) acknowledge receipt of the Materials and/or this Agreement;

So you have to sign an agreement which they can deny ever receiving. Nice.

Re:Lesson should have been learned

[Anonymous Coward]

How about having the individual option to skip the cut scene. While the others are watching them, the skipped players could be doing something else tangentially tied to the game (reviewing strategy, modifying inventories, etc., etc.) Heck, evan spawn a completely stupid game like a Tetris-clone to pass the time while the others are watching... The possibilities are pretty cool. ~g

A common tactic these days, it seems

[muntumbomoklik]

The benefit of going this route instead of the dreary old slog-through-the-demos route is that you might find a one-in-a-million inexperienced young hack out there who can knock together some impressive stuff, is surprised that he has any skills marketable to a game company, and then pay him a crap salary for the "opportunity" to work for them.

So the company gets a cheap, eager, bright eyed new recruit for a few years while the product goes through its life cycle and the guy either moves on once he figures he's got enough experience to get a decent gig somewhere else, or the whole project flounders and the entire development team gets laid off anyway. I'm not sure if this is a profitable business model or not, but I do know that it will probably suck to be on the lower end of things.

Re:so let me get this straight

[timmarhy]

i've always had a problem with contests like this for many reasons.

firstly i promise it'll have a clause in it stating they will own your idea's and submissions.

In addition, employers like this like the breed this idea that you will need to accept any terms and any pay they offer because clearly they are doing you a favour.

employment is not a favour, it's an arrangement. your labour and idea's are VERY valuable. without people these companys make nothing, always remmeber that.

Re:NWN!??

[LurkerXXX]

Probably because it's a story/puzzle/level design contest, not a texture/physics/lighting contest. The NWN2 is extremely stable, and well known, so lots of folks are already familiar with it. If you can make an interesting level/story/puzzle in it, then it will be all the better when tied in with the latest engine of the day.

Re:A common tactic these days, it seems

[Anonymous Coward]

As one of the so called 'inexperied young hacks' that was hired about 4 years ago by BioWare, I'd like to offer a few observations on the topic.

- The community member to hire ratio is more like 10-12 out 2.000.000 active members or so, which is slightly better than 1 out of 1.000.000.

- None of out projects has yet gone 'flounders' and no development team has ever been laid off at BioWare. In fact, there have never been lay offs as a result of a project ending or due to 'operational circumstances' at BioWare.

- The 'young, inexperienced hacks' you're talking about have mostly worked in other high tech industries before coming to BioWare to do more interesting, rewarding work. Most taken a paycut for moving into this industry - in return for higher job satisfaction and a great work environment.

- That said, I'm paid a competitive salary and I wouldn't trade my job for a job paying twice as high in vanilla IT anytime soon.

The benefits of going this route for us are:

- We get applications from people that have a background with Bioware games and understand what our games are about.

- We get people from outside the industry to think about applying. Especially making an MMO, it is important to have people who have an outside view on things instead of having been shaped by the 'establishment'.

- We get people really interested in the job, not burned out people looking for another quick assignment.

As mentioned in the article, we ran a contest for a writer position a while back and hired a great writer as a result - from outside the industry.

Re:so let me get this straight

[dave1791]

Ideas are worthless without an implementation. There are more ideas than people in the game industry. People go into that line of work becasue they have an idea; sometimes more than one. This article is an interesting read for anyone under the illusion that ideas alone are worth anything.
http://www.sloperama.com/advice/idea.htm [sloperama.com]

As for accepting whatever pay terms and work hours. The fact is that making video games is one of the "passion" things. Jobs that people love can pay less than being say an actuary, database programmer or professor.

I might re-install NWN1 and take a look at it just for fun.

Re:You want me to buy your game so I get employmen

[RSKennan]

Do you get paid for writing your resume, or getting an artist's portfolio together too? People said the same things about the WotC Setting search a few years back, and even though I didn't win the contest, I placed in the top 11, which was enough to get me my first book deal and to give me a career in writing. Don't be so quick to be cynical about this kind of contest. Or, you know, do, and those who are willing to work for an opportunity won't have as many people to compete against.