In a market that’s oversaturated with incredibly talented artists and writers, up-and-comers and semi-professionals alike face the outrageously difficult task of gaining recognition in their chosen field. One dilemma out of many is that many young artists are forced to compete against traditional animators that didn’t get out of the mass layoffs and salary cuts plaguing Disney in the year 2001, the eventual closure of the animation giant’s 2D studios creating a flood of overqualified professionals entering into jobs that would normally be more accommodating towards talented students and other entry level applicants.

While this is hardly a bad thing– one would have a hard time arguing against widely-distributed mediums getting a boost in artistic quality– it leaves a lot of people scratching their heads, wondering how the hell they could possibly make it in the professional world, especially when it comes to video games. You know how they say the right answer is often the simplest? Well, here’s a simple answer to the headscratching:learn how to become a professional.
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June has already been a month of spectacular breakthroughs in science, spanning from the creation of honest-to-god replicators to prototypes of holodecks. Well, we just hit another major breakthrough. On June 2nd, it was reported that for the first time, scientists enabled a paralyzed man to walk. For years, science fiction has delved into the idea of humans being capable of interfacing with machines using little more than their brainwaves. Logged into the virtual world of Second Life– a sim to end all sims that sports everything from shopping malls to a ‘living’ online ecosystem– a 41 year old man with a degenerative muscle disease was rigged up to do just that. Fitted with headgear that employed the use of three electrodes ‘listening in’ for brainwaves related to hand and leg motions, the man merely used his imagination and his avatar on-screen began to walk.
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Some time ago, there was a rumor that the Stargate MMORPG being produced by Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment was going to generate story arcs for the shows themselves, an ambitious endeavor if there ever was one. The rumor was dismissed, and everyone went about their business. Recently, the rumor re-appeared in conjunction with the Sci-Fi Channel’s latest deal with Trion. Though it has no affiliation with the Stargate franchise, the announcement of a radical new take on online gaming turned out to be true. While this is a spectacular example of Ray Kurzweil’s predictions in concerns to where we’re headed in a technological sense– man entering the virtual world to a greater degree, blurring the lines between organics and machines even more– that doesn’t mean it’s destined for success. There’s the human element to consider, as well as Sci Fi’s incredibly dodgey track record.
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In one of the many cases where peer involvement might have done a better job of curbing bad behavior, a corporation has stepped in to wag a finger at the collective juvenile antics of anyone who chooses a ‘taboo’ online handle. This isn’t the first time it’s happened, and it’s certainly not the first time that Nintendo—which became famous for its censorship practices when Mortal Kombat was ported to the Super Nintendo and gouts of blood were replaced with buckets of sweat no human should ever be able to produce—has decided that it can take the ‘mommy knows best’ role when it comes to squelching the potential mishandling of their product at the hands of those that make a big joke out of everything. You know the type: they tend to refer to ‘the lulz’ like a Christian refers to Jesus Christ.

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