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This week our blog will be silent to support reflections on peace-filled actions, and to contemplate practical ways to form a personal and meaningful response to violence, blood shed and the loss of innocent life.
We will resume posting Monday, November 23, 2015 Peace on your journeys.  A good friend pointed me towards ZYNGA for the latest in fun to play games, great company culture and a host of open positions. A worldwide company, there are too many open position to list here. Here are the ones in San Francisco alone, check them out!
From https://www.zynga.com/about Connecting the World Through Games“Zynga today represents a unique combination of assets, talent and opportunity. No other company offers consumers our breadth of game offerings and dedication to combining consumer accessibility with fun and social.” San Francisco, CA, United StatesAdministrative Assistant, Facilities San Francisco, CA, United States Architect San Francisco, CA, United States Architect San Francisco, CA, United States Art Producer San Francisco, CA, United States Commercial Paralegal San Francisco, CA, United States Community Manager San Francisco, CA, United States Corporate Counsel San Francisco, CA, United States Creative Director San Francisco, CA, United States Data Analyst San Francisco, CA, United States Data Analyst - CDO San Francisco, CA, United States Data Scientist San Francisco, CA, United States Director Corporate Development San Francisco, CA, United States Director of Engineering San Francisco, CA, United States Director, Learning & Development San Francisco, CA, United States Director, Product Marketing San Francisco, CA, United States Engineering Manager San Francisco, CA, United States Front End Architect San Francisco, CA, United States HR Business Partner (Director/Sr. Director) San Francisco, CA, United States HRIS Systems Analyst San Francisco, CA, United States Intern/Co-op Product Manager - Current Students (Summer 2016) San Francisco, CA, United States Intern/Co-op Software Engineer - Current Students (Summer 2016) San Francisco, CA, United States Lead Recruiter San Francisco, CA, United States MySQL Database Adminstrator San Francisco, CA, United States New Grad Full-time Product Manager (UR) 2016 San Francisco, CA, United States New Grad Full-time Software Engineer (UR) 2016 San Francisco, CA, United States Principal Rendering / Graphics Engineer San Francisco, CA, United States Principal Software Engineer San Francisco, CA, United States Principal Software Engineer San Francisco, CA, United States Principal Software Engineer, Mobile SDK (Ad Platform) San Francisco, CA, United States Product Counsel San Francisco, CA, United States Product Marketing Manager San Francisco, CA, United States Project Manager San Francisco, CA, United States QA Engineer I San Francisco, CA, United States QA Engineer I San Francisco, CA, United States QA Engineer II San Francisco, CA, United States QA Engineer II San Francisco, CA, United States QA Manager San Francisco, CA, United States Recruiter (Executive Staffing) San Francisco, CA, United States Senior Data Analyst San Francisco, CA, United States Senior Data Scientist San Francisco, CA, United States Senior Database Engineer San Francisco, CA, United States Senior Director Studio Operations San Francisco, CA, United States Senior Director, Business Operations San Francisco, CA, United States Senior Game Systems Designer San Francisco, CA, United States Senior Manager, FP&A San Francisco, CA, United States Senior Manager, IT Audit San Francisco, CA, United States Senior Product Manager San Francisco, CA, United States Senior Product Manager, Data Science San Francisco, CA, United States Senior Production Artist San Francisco, CA, United States Senior QA Manager San Francisco, CA, United States Senior QA Manager San Francisco, CA, United States Senior Software Engineer (Front End) – Unannounced Project San Francisco, CA, United States Senior Software Engineer (Hit It Rich) San Francisco, CA, United States Senior Software Engineer, Analytics San Francisco, CA, United States Senior Software Engineer, Web San Francisco, CA, United States Senior UX Designer San Francisco, CA, United States Senior UX Designer - New, Unannounced Game! San Francisco, CA, United States Software Engineer San Francisco, CA, United States Software Engineer, Marketing Analytics San Francisco, CA, United States Sr. Director, Compensation & Benefits San Francisco, CA, United States Sr. Financial Analyst, FP&A San Francisco, CA, United States Sr. Manager, Global Facilities Operations San Francisco, CA, United States Sr. Recruiter (Contract) San Francisco, CA, United States Sr. Tech Recruiter (Contract) San Francisco, CA, United States UI/UX Designer (Hit it Rich) San Francisco, CA, United States User Acquisition Manager San Francisco, CA, United States Zynga.org Social Media and Marketing Intern San Francisco, CA, United States  It's Tech Talk and Thursday and never easy to report on controversy that includes a respected former colleague - whom you want to succeed - but ignoring the controversy around Mattel's new Hello Barbie, simply because the developer of the technology is a former co-worker, would be short-sighted. An organization I have long admired, the Center for a Commercial Free Childhood has taken Hello Barbie into the boxing ring. With SIRI taking over the role of The Question Man in the lives of young people, many see Hello Barbie as a simple next step in the evolution of interactive toys. Others see the new doll as opening the gates of hell, dragging our young people down a rabbit hole of confusion and addiction, replacing imagination with computers and handing the key to our children's bedrooms to corporate profiteers. It's possible to wish for the success of a friend, while still taking a strong stand in opposition to a technology. Many believe, as I do, that mobile technology has insinuated itself far too deeply into formerly private psychological spaces. It needs a big STOP sign erected to protect individual freedom, the space for an unmediated experience of life, open imaginative play and protection and relief from marketers. Remaining neutral on this doll is not taking the leap into the deep end that my life and work experience demands. A shout out to Miranda McDonald-Stahl, a 17 year old culture keeper who rightly pointed out that my appearing neutral on this issue didn't reflect my true beliefs, nor what she and many other young people, young consumers, new voters, and builders of the future, also fervently believe about the role of tech in the live of young people today. "As Robert Kennedy explained in 1964, "President Kennedy's favorite quote was really from Dante, 'The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who in time of moral crisis preserve their neutrality.'" Hello Barbie, in my view, represents a violation of a sacred play space for young people. Recording conversations, parsing those through an AI interface, crafting and delivering responses to unsupervised children deeply repels moms and dad who already have to cope with too many spaced out kids addicted to their phones, staring blankly at world they cannot focus on if there isn't a screen to touch. Posted here is the position paper from the CFCC and I hope to supply a statement from Toy Talk's founder, Oren Jacob in the January interview series, for a balanced perspective. For today's Tech Talk Thursday, please enjoy this side of the debate over your morning coffee and quieted SIRI please, I'm reading...... Re-posted from: http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/action/hell-no-barbie-8-reasons-leave-hello-barbie-shelf Campaign for a Commercial Free ChildhoodHell No Barbie: 8 reasons to leave Hello Barbie on the shelf This holiday season, Mattel hopes to make Hello Barbie, a doll that records and analyzes children’s private conversations, a must-have toy. But experts agree: it’s a threat to children’s privacy, wellbeing, and creativity. Here are 8 reasons not to buy Hello Barbie. Please help us spread the word about this terrible toy. If Hello Barbie is a hit, other eavesdropping toys are sure to follow. 1) Children’s private conversations shouldn’t be shared with corporations or strangers. Children confide in dolls and reveal intimate details about their lives, but Hello Barbie won’t keep those secrets. When Barbie’s belt buckle is held down, everything your child says is transmitted to cloud servers where it will be stored and analyzed by ToyTalk, Mattel’s technology partner. Employees of ToyTalk and their partner corporations listen to recordings of children’s conversations--and ToyTalk won’t even say who their partners are. 2) Is Hello Barbie a “friend,” or a viral marketer? Mattel says “there is no advertising content within Hello Barbie,” and “your children’s conversations will not be used to advertise to your child.” But Mattel doesn’t define what it means by “advertise.” Will Hello Barbie discuss other Barbie products with children? Her script already includes several lines of dialogue about her sisters, who have dolls of their own for sale on Mattel.com. Mattel has also acknowledged that Hello Barbie will talk to children about pop culture, and the doll’s script will be updated to discuss the latest movies and music. Isn’t that marketing? How does Mattel decide which artists and media Barbie talks about? And when Mattel and ToyTalk update their privacy policy, they could use Hello Barbie—and the valuable information it collects—to advertise to children. That means parents (if they are even aware of the privacy policy changes) will face a terrible choice: allow Hello Barbie to market to their child, or take their child’s “friend” away. 3) Hello Barbie undermines creative play. Dolls have always talked—through the power of children’s imaginations. Children should use their own initiative and creativity to hold conversations with a doll, impart a personality, and build their relationships. With Hello Barbie, Mattel and ToyTalk’s programmers and algorithms drive the conversation, undermining the creative play that is so critical to children’s development. 4) Surveillance has no place in children’s play. In an era where corporations monitor what we say, where we go, what we buy, and who our friends are, Hello Barbie will instill exactly the wrong habits in children. Children should be taught to protect their privacy, not encouraged to divulge their private thoughts to a device that will share their secrets far and wide. 5) Children deserve a genuine listener, not a robot. Children naturally confide in their dolls and share their deepest feelings. At a tender age, they need to have their feelings genuinely heard and validated, and they should be sympathized with, uplifted, and supported. Children learn best from sincere dialogue with a real listener. 6) Why let the Barbie brand have more influence over your child? Barbie’s unattainable body type and her preoccupation with fashion and gender-stereotyped pursuits are well-documented. Research has found that girls have a more limited sense of what kinds of careers they can have when they grow up after playing with Barbie, and that girls’ exposure to images of Barbie correlates with lower body satisfaction and a desire to be thin. Mattel asserts that Hello Barbie is different, but the doll sports the same unrealistic body type, and sure likes to talk about fashion. 7) Even parents shouldn’t listen to secret recordings of their children. A child expects their intimate conversations with a doll to be private. But parents can access audio files of their child's conversations with Hello Barbie through daily or weekly email reports. Think back to how you played with dolls when you were young, and imagine how you would have felt if you learned that your parents were listening to recordings of everything you said. 8) Hello Barbie is vulnerable to data breaches. Hello Barbie’s recordings of children’s conversations are vulnerable to data breaches, like all information transmitted via the Internet and stored on the cloud. In addition, media reports indicate Hello Barbie could be a tempting target for hackers, who could access data stored by your family on home devices and networks through the doll. ToyTalk has acknowledged: “No way that we are claiming that the doll can’t be hacked.” What you can do:
1. Don’t buy it! And let friends and family know why you don’t want them buying Hello Barbie for your child either. 2. Spread the word by sharing this page far and wide. Pick your favorite reason(s) why Hello Barbie is a terrible toy and post our sharable pictures on social media with the hashtag #HellNoBarbie. 3. Talk to your child about Hello Barbie. Having an age-appropriate conversation with your child about why you won’t buy this toy is exactly the kind of good relationship-building that Hello Barbie devalues. Further reading:Advocates say "Hell No Barbie" to Stop Mattel from Spying on Kids Press Release—November 9, 2015  A World War II veteran shares the story of the harrowing six months he spent in German prison camps and his eventual triumphant return to the United States. At just 18 years old, Hjalmar Johansson went on his first WWII mission as a nose gunner in a B-24 bomber. When his squadron came under heavy fire, Hjalmar and the rest of the crew were forced to abandon their plane behind enemy lines with no help in sight.
http://www.history.com/topics/holidays/history-of-veterans-day/videos/leap-of-faith-a-wwii-story From our friends at www.history.com THE GREAT WAR & ARMISTICE DAY Though the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, November 11 remained in the public imagination as the date that marked the end of the Great War. In November 1918, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day. The day’s observation included parades and public gatherings, as well as a brief pause in business activities at 11 a.m. On November 11, 1921, an unidentified American soldier killed in the war was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C.; the U.S. Congress had declared the day a legal federal holiday in honor of all those who participated in the war. On the same day, unidentified soldiers were laid to rest at Westminster Abbey in London and at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Did You Know? Red poppies, a symbol of World War I (from their appearance in the poem "In Flanders Fields" by John McCrae), are sold in Canada and the United Kingdom on Remembrance Day to raise money for veterans or worn in the lapel as a tribute. On June 4, 1926, Congress passed a resolution that the “recurring anniversary of [November 11, 1918] should be commemorated with thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations” and that the president should issue an annual proclamation calling for the observance of Armistice Day. By that time, 27 state legislatures had made November 11 a legal holiday. An act approved May 13, 1938 made November 11 a legal Federal holiday, “dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be hereafter celebrated and known as ‘Armistice Day.’” In actuality, there are no U.S. national holidays because the states retain the right to designate their own, and the government can only designate holidays for federal employees and for the District of Columbia. In practice, however, states almost always follow the federal lead. FROM ARMISTICE DAY TO VETERANS DAY American effort during World War II (1941-1945) saw the greatest mobilization of the U.S. Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force in the nation’s history (more than 16 million people); some 5.7 million more served in the Korean War (1950 to 1953). In 1954, after lobbying efforts by veterans’ service organizations, the 83rd U.S. Congress amended the 1938 act that had made Armistice Day a holiday, striking the word “Armistice” in favor of “Veterans.” President Dwight D. Eisenhowersigned the legislation on June 1, 1954. From then on, November 11 became a day to honor American veterans of all wars. The next development in the story of Veterans Day unfolded in 1968, when Congress passed the Uniform Holidays Bill, which sought to ensure three-day weekends for federal employees–and encourage tourism and travel–by celebrating four national holidays (Washington’s Birthday, Memorial Day, Veterans Day and Columbus Day) on Mondays. The observation of Veterans Day was set as the fourth Monday in October. The first Veterans Day under the new law was Monday, October 25, 1971; confusion ensued, as many states disapproved of this change, and continued to observe the holiday on its original date. In 1975, after it became evident that the actual date of Veterans Day carried historical and patriotic significance to many Americans, President Gerald R. Ford signed a new law returning the observation of Veterans Day to November 11th beginning in 1978. If November 11 falls on a Saturday or Sunday, the federal government observes the holiday on the previous Friday or following Monday, respectively. CELEBRATING VETERANS DAY AROUND THE WORLD Britain, France, Australia and Canada also commemorate the veterans of World Wars I and II on or near November 11th: Canada has Remembrance Day, while Britain has Remembrance Sunday (the second Sunday of November). In Europe, Britain and the Commonwealth countries it is common to observe two minutes of silence at 11 a.m. every November 11. In the United States, an official wreath-laying ceremony is held each Veterans Day at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery, while parades and other celebrations are held in states around the country. Veterans Day is not to be confused with Memorial Day–a common misunderstanding, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Memorial Day (the fourth Monday in May) honors American servicemembers who died in service to their country or as a result of injuries incurred during battle, while Veterans Day pays tribute to all American veterans–living or dead–but especially gives thanks to living veterans who served their country honorably during war or peacetime.  Even though the deadline for submissions has passed, this new initiative from SUNDANCE means we have some awesome new talent to watch out for in 2016. See the Press Release below: Sundance Institute Announces New, MultiYear Initiative to Support Theatre Artists from Middle East/North Africa Theatre Lab for U.S. and MENA Artists to Take Place in Morocco, May 2016, and TheatreMakers Residency at the Sundance Resort in Utah, June 2016; Submissions Accepted Through October 15 at sundance.org/theatre Institute’s Existing Programs for MENA Artists Include Documentary and Feature Film Creative and Financial Support through Labs, Workshops and Collaborations New York, NY — Sundance Institute today announced a significant expansion of its international cultural exchange programs for independent artists with a new, multiyear initiative to support theatremakers from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). With the goal of creating new opportunities for crosscultural connectedness and indepth mutual artistic reflection and exploration, the Institute will expand its existing international Labs to include a pilot Theatre Labin MENA, to take place in May 2016. Theatre artists in the U.S. and from MENA can submit their work for consideration for this Lab as well as a new TheatreMakers Residencyat the Sundance Resort in Utah in summer 2016 through October 15 at sundance.org/theatre in a new application process. Application guidelines are also available in Arabic and French. Robert Redford, President and Founder of Sundance Institute, said, “We believe stories have the power to impact our culture and build a more engaged society. With a spirit of experimentation and exchange at the core of our work, we hope our support for artists in the Middle East and North Africa will help the most interesting voices reach a global audience.” Under the supervision of Sundance Institute Theatre Program Artistic Director Philip Himberg and Producing Director Christopher Hibma and led by Middle East/North Africa Manager Jumana AlYasiri, the Theatre Lab in MENA will replace the annual Theatre Lab in Utah in 2016, which over the past three decades has provided critical support and development to theatre works including the two most recent Tony Award winners for Best Musical, Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori’s Fun Home and Robert L. Freedman & Steven Lutvak’s A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, as well as titles such as ToasT, Appropriate, Circle Mirror Transformation, An Iliad, The Lily's Revenge, The Good Negro, The Light in the Piazza, Passing Strange, Stuck Elevator, Spring Awakening, Laramie Project and I Am My Own Wife. Up to eight projects by theatremakers (with equal representation from both the U.S. and Arabicspeaking countries) will be selected to participate in the Lab, taking place at the Fellah Hotel, in collaboration with Dar alMa'mûn. The Institute will provide transportation, rehearsal space, dramaturgical support, and an acting company, creating an immersive environment where artists can experiment and see their work take shape. The Lab culminates in a closed presentation of each project for Lab participants, followed by a productive feedback session. For the Lab, the Institute will collaborate with Fellah Hotel, Dar alMa'mûn, Sahara Experiences and the Morocco National Tourist Office. In keeping with our look at the global rise of initiatives supporting the education of girls in the world of technology and science, sometimes we need to swing our vision over to macro-economic themes such as population statistics. Embedded in these statistics are realities that can be otherwise hidden, or difficult to tease out.
As the poet Maya Angelou put it: "I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass." Today I am sharing an in depth article that aired on NPR, contributed by John Poole, tackling the tough questions that surround China's one-child policy, (recently ended), and the trend in India for families to abort girl children. Re-printed from: http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/10/20/448407788/where-the-girls-are-and-aren-t-15girls The world's girls are healthier than ever. They live longer and more of them are going to school than at any time in history. This story is part of our #15Girls series, profiling teens around the world. But most of them face discrimination simply because they are girls. The discrimination happens at every point in their lives. In some cases, it starts even before they're born, when parents decide to abort a pregnancy if the fetus is female. A good way to get a sense of the progress — and the remaining gaps — in worldwide gender equality is by looking at the data. Numbers can tell a compelling story. The story we're going to tell focuses on girls ages 10 to 19, an age range used by the World Bank and other groups to track populations. Worldwide, about 600 million girls fall into this age range. Nearly half of them live in just seven countries. Those countries are the focus of our story. You might expect that there would be an even number of boys and girls in this age group in these seven countries. But you'd be wrong. The Missing Girls Consider the girls who were never born. On average, about 105 boys are born worldwide for every 100 girls. Girls tend to make up for this difference over time because of their greater resilience and resistance to disease. But if you look at the two biggest countries in the top seven, you'll find a very different picture. Based on 2010 numbers from the United Nations Population Fund, China is "missing" about 24 million girls between the ages of 0 and 19. That's over 14 percent of the female population in that age range. Since the late 1970s, China has had a one child per family policy. Many families want that child to be a son. The increasing availability of prenatal ultrasounds and blood tests for gender makes it possible for parents to abort a female fetus if they want. The uneven ratio of boys to girls born in China suggests this is happening. [Editor's note: Since this post was originally published, China has announced that it will halt its one-child policy, allowing couples to have two children.] A similar dynamic is at play in India, and preliminary data suggest that as access to prenatal gender tests increases there, fewer girls are being born. India's percentage of girls missing at birth is lower than China's at 5.6 percent of the female population between 0 and 19. But because India's population is so large, India is missing 13 million girls out of its under-20-year-old female population. Adding up the unborn girls, there are currently about 37 million fewer 0- to 19-year-old girls in India and China than the world average ratio would predict. To put that number in perspective, that's about 2 million more than the entire population of Canada. China and India aren't the only countries that show this trend. They are just the largest. Why Some Parents Prefer BoysIn India and China, the birth of a son is cause for celebration. The family has gained a future asset: a child who can earn money for his parents and support them when they are old. That's not the case for girls. "It's more expensive for a family to have girls than boys," says Charles Kenny, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development. A boy has greater earning potential in these societies because there is a stigma against women working outside the home. And in India, when a daughter gets married, her family usually makes a generous donation of money and gifts to the groom's family. So a daughter is seen as a drain on the family's resources. There's an Indian saying: Raising a daughter is like "watering someone else's garden." In other words, the benefits of raising a daughter will be reaped by the family the daughter marries into, not her own family. In India, a girl is also more likely than a boy to die before she turns 5; that's the only country in the world where that's true. It's mostly to do with neglect. Biologically, girls have an advantage in the first few years of life. But in India, where the majority of people don't earn much more than $2.40 a day, scarce resources can mean a boy gets extra food and medical attention while his sister doesn't. A girl who dies from neglect probably wouldn't create much of a stir among people in a small village in India, who understand the preference for boys, says Valerie Hudson, a professor in the Department of International Affairs at Texas A&M University who studies India's gender imbalance. "No one raises it as a public issue within the community, so while it's not secret, it isn't commented upon." What Happens At 15? Turning 15 is an important milestone in many societies. Think of quinceañera in Latin American countries — the celebration of a girl's 15th birthday, marking the end of childhood and the beginning of womanhood. In India, 15 is the age where a young bride traditionally goes to live with her husband. (Child marriage is illegal, but still widely practiced, according to researchers.) This recognition of the age 15 as a milestone is biologically based. Researchers think that most of the world's girls have had their first periods by age 15 and are able to get pregnant. But it's difficult to get a good snapshot of what's happening with girls around the age of puberty — not much information has been collected. This is a problem, says Marni Sommer of Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health. "There's this assumption that [the age of menarche] is a nonissue since getting a period isn't a deadly thing, but we've found that many girls have never had conversations about periods, and it is a significant issue. Maybe they keep it a secret or are ashamed. This is a relevant issue for girls' health and well-being, for their confidence." Moving Into Adulthood: The Education Gap Some good news: The education gap is narrowing. Most school-age girls in our seven countries have attended some form of primary education. And those entering school now are projected to stay in school for more years than past generations, catching up with boys in many places. Pakistan still has a gap of about a year for the time boys and girls stay in school. But in the past 15 years, it has made the largest jump of these seven countries in closing the literacy gap, according to the World Bank. Almost 65 percent of young women are now literate in Pakistan compared with 43 percent in 2000. In India, 82 percent of young women are literate — that's up 14 percentage points from 2000. At the other extreme, Indonesia has made little to no progress in terms of girls' literacy in the past 15 years, and Nigeria's young women are now slightly less likely to be literate than they were 15 years ago. During this same 15 years, Nigeria's economy grew by almost 90 percent and Indonesia's by 120 percent, according to the World Bank. Marriage And Babies Early marriage (often forced) along with early pregnancies are two of the biggest barriers to girls getting more education. Almost 30 percent of girls in India are married before they turn 19, and marriage often means that the girl leaves school to live with her husband or because she becomes pregnant. Working Hard But Not For Much Money In countries with high rates of early marriage, the lives of girls and women are also held back by underlying social and cultural beliefs. The World Values Survey, compiled by a global network of social scientists, tries to quantify these attitudes. The most recent version was conducted in 60 countries between 2010 and 2014. People don't always act in line with their stated values and beliefs, but with that caveat, the World Values Survey gives a glimpse of the thoughts and attitudes that shape popular opinion — and action — around the world. One question in the survey asks people whether they agree with this statement: "A university education is more important for a boy than for a girl." A large proportion of people in our seven countries agreed that higher education is more important for boys. A possible reason for this bias could be that women make up less of the paid labor force in nearly every country in the world. In countries where the bias is strongest, there is an expectation that women do not work outside the home. Washing clothes, cooking, cleaning and taking care of children are hard work but often not paid work. The World Values Survey then asks participants whether they agree with this statement: "When jobs are scarce, men should have more right to a job than women." In Pakistan, 73 percent agreed. In India, where one-fifth of the world's adolescent girls live, more than half agreed. Women In PowerIn all seven of the countries we examined, there's an attitude that women don't make good leaders. For instance, when it comes to a man versus a woman holding a political office, the gender bias increases dramatically, even in the United States. The World Values Survey asks respondents if they agree with this statement: "On the whole, men make better political leaders than women do." Even in the United States, around 18 percent of people agreed. The actual percentages of women serving in a parliament or a congress in these countries reflect this feeling. Not a single one of our seven countries has even come close to gender parity in national political representation. It's interesting that the U.S., in many respects a relatively progressive country when it comes to gender, has a lower percentage of women in Congress than both China and Pakistan do in their national assemblies. Why do China and Pakistan do so well in this area? Both countries have passed laws that mandate minimum female representation quotas. The relatively high percentage of women in Pakistan's National Assembly is due to a law that requires 17 percent of its seats to be occupied by women. Also notable in Pakistan is that these women are not directly elected. Their seats are allocated by the winning political parties. Girls And The Big Picture All told, the state of 10- to 19-year-old girls in our survey of seven countries isn't great. They have to overcome the odds at nearly every stage of life just to stay on par with their male peers. But if we put things in a historical perspective, we can see progress. Compared with the year 1960, general health as measured by average life expectancy for women has improved in all seven of our countries. India and China's girls have much longer lives to look forward to now. And in all these countries, and actually in nearly every country in the world both then and now, women live longer than men. The quality of their lives is harder to measure. But looking at the United Nations Gender Inequality Index, a general measure of girls' and women's well-being, the trend over the past 10 years looks promising. Maybe one day in the not too distant future, the numbers will tell a different story. And if and when they do, it will be due in large part to the efforts of women and girls. As the poet Maya Angelou put it: "I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass."  Probably by far the most defining live action studio of our age, LucasFilm is located in glorious Northern California on the Presidio campus in San Francisco.
This creative and technical powerhouse employs hundreds of filmmakers in a wide variety of positions. The sound and post-production facility, Skywalker Sound, mixes the highest number of feature films in the country, and boasts a' school, organic farm and guest houses for friends and relatives when mixes go late into the night. The foley and sound stages and premiere screening rooms are deluxe. With an animation team located in Singapore, the company continues to push the genre of animation and FX into new global and creative territory. Film, games, effects, you name it, Landing a job at LucasFilm, LucasArts or Skywalker Sound is a lifetime achievement for many. With a long and rich history too deep to post here, let's just get right to the jobs page. May the force.... well, you know.... Job Title Company Country City Director, Engineering-ADGILMxLAB U.S. San Francisco 3D & Sound Asset AdministratorLucasfilm U.S. San Francisco CompositorIndustrial Light & Magic U.S. San Francisco Creative ExecutiveLucasfilm U.S. San Francisco Creative ExecutiveLucasfilm Animation U.S. Los Angeles Creature ModelerIndustrial Light & Magic U.S. San Francisco Creature ModelerIndustrial Light & Magic UK United Kingdom London Creature Technical DirectorIndustrial Light & Magic Singapore Singapore Singapore Facilities AssistantSkywalker Sound U.S. San Rafael FX Technical DirectorIndustrial Light & Magic Singapore Singapore Singapore HR AdvisorIndustrial Light & Magic UK United Kingdom London ILM SINGAPORE RecruiterIndustrial Light & Magic Singapore Singapore Singapore ILM UK Technology Support SpecialistIndustrial Light & Magic UK United Kingdom London Manager, Animation & Digital AssetsLucasfilm U.S. San Francisco Photo EditorLucasfilm U.S. San Francisco Previz ArtistIndustrial Light & Magic U.S. San Francisco Principal Rendering Engineer - ADGILMxLAB U.S. San Francisco Production CoordinatorLucasfilm U.S. San Francisco Production Coordinator (Business Affairs)Lucasfilm U.S. San Francisco Recruiting CoordinatorLucasfilm Entertainment Company U.S. San Francisco Senior AnimatorIndustrial Light & Magic Singapore Singapore Singapore Senior Concept Artist - ILM LondonIndustrial Light & Magic UK United Kingdom London Senior Crowd TDIndustrial Light & Magic Singapore Singapore Singapore Senior FX Technical DirectorIndustrial Light & Magic U.S. San Francisco Senior GeneralistIndustrial Light & Magic Singapore Singapore Singapore Senior Rendering Engineer-ADGILMxLAB U.S. San Francisco Senior Software Engineer-ADGILMxLAB U.S. San Francisco Senior Texture ArtistIndustrial Light & Magic U.S. San Francisco Shipping & Receiving ClerkLucasfilm U.S. San Francisco Technical Assistant, Level II Technical PublicistIndustrial Light & Magic U.S. San Francisco Texturing SupervisorIndustrial Light & Magic Singapore Singapore Singapore VANCOUVER 3D Generalist SupervisorIndustrial Light & Magic Vancouver Canada Vancouver VANCOUVER Animation AssistantIndustrial Light & Magic Vancouver Canada Vancouver VANCOUVER AnimatorIndustrial Light & Magic Vancouver Canada Vancouver VANCOUVER Creature TDIndustrial Light & Magic Vancouver Canada Vancouver VANCOUVER Lighting Technical DirectorIndustrial Light & Magic Vancouver Canada Vancouver VANCOUVER Matchmove / Layout ArtistIndustrial Light & Magic Vancouver Canada Vancouver VANCOUVER Pipeline Technical Director - Level 1Industrial Light & Magic Vancouver Canada Vancouver VANCOUVER Recruiting CoordinatorIndustrial Light & Magic Vancouver Canada Vancouver VANCOUVER Senior CompositorIndustrial Light & Magic Vancouver Canada Vancouver VANCOUVER Senior FX Technical DirectorIndustrial Light & Magic Vancouver Canada Vancouver VANCOUVER VFX SupervisorIndustrial Light & Magic Vancouver Canada Vancouver VFX ProducerIndustrial Light & Magic U.S. San Francisco Virtual Production Stage TechnicianIndustrial Light & Magic U.S. San Francisco VP DevelopmentLucasfilm U.S. San Francisco Today we're looking at the video game industry, a major employer and now new content generator for series and yes, even feature films, especially in Asia. New developments: Not being a gamer myself, I turned to the writers at The Guardian to get an international perspective on what's new in technology and what will define video gaming in the years coming up. This article is reprinted from http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/23/16-trends-that-will-change-the-games-industry 1. Parents as gaming advocates During her talk about the gaming habits of modern teenagers, Alison York, research director at Nickelodeon, talked about how we’re now seeing the first generation of parents who grew up playing games themselves and are passing that passion and knowledge on to their children. Through a recent survey of UK families, the channel found that 75% of parents they surveyed now play video games with their children, and that children aged 10 or under take most of their gaming recommendations from their parents. At the same time, families are spending more time together in the living room, with a reduction in the number of children with TVs in their rooms. Everyone may be on different devices (each household now has an average of 8.4 digital gadgets according to Nickelodeon’s figures, drawn from its own surveys as well as Ofcom figures), but they’re closer than they’ve been for years. This could all lead to a steep rise in titles that seek to challenge and entertain both parents and children together – a sort of Pixar effect. Of course, Nintendo has operated in this space for years, as has the Lego series, but the parent/child co-op market may well increase substantially as more millennials become parents. 2. 360 degrees of freedom According to Nickelodeon’s research, 34% of children under 11 have a tablet, and they are now tending to get their first smartphones as they enter secondary school. “As a result, this ‘swipe generation’ seamlessly navigates between the digital and real world,” says York. “They expect 360 play, where each platform adds something to the experience.” We’ve already seen brands such as Moshi Monsters, Bin Weevils and Angry Birds seamlessly working as physical toys, games and merchandise; there’s also the rise of the toys to life genre, with Skylanders, Disney Infinity and Nintendo’s Amiibo figures leading the way. We can expect more of these 360-degree franchises, as children become even more used to navigating between screened and live entertainment. The Angry Birds activity parks hint at how games companies will use brand extensions to broaden their scope. We’re also seeing the reverse happening: Legoland in Windsor, for example, has an app that offers games and features that interact with areas of the park itself. This won’t be confined to family brands. We’re likely to see more “hardcore” titles conceived simultaneously as games, movies and animated TV or web series, often sharing digital assets. There have been rather mediocre experiments in this area – notably the Halo Nightfall series and Defiance – but this won’t deter new projects, as cross-platform distribution evolves. “There are so many channels now and they’re typically looking for digital content,” said Todd Harris of Hi-Rez Studios during a panel discussion on the future of games. “You want your game to be a lifestyle, a hobby, a passion that people spend money on regularly.” Look out for Microsoft’s experimental TV/game title Quantum Break in 2016. 3. Indies get physical Children play Alistair Aitcheson’s physical game Tap Happy Sabotage at the GameCity festival in Nottingham. Indie developers are increasingly experimenting with microprocessors, RFID and NFC devices, and alternative controllers. Photograph: GameCityIt’s likely that creating toys that tie-in or interact with games won’t be confined to major publishers like Activision and Disney; 3D printing is getting cheaper, allowing the manufacturing of action figures. We’re already seeing the growth of companies like Sandboxr, which make it easier for game makers to create and distribute models based on their titles, while Amazon has launched a 3D printing store for customers. At the same time NFC (near-field communication) technologies are also becoming more affordable, possibly allowing the wider development and production of toys-to-life experiences. For example, Tawain-based studio Monkey Potion has developed a fantasy strategy board game named Project Legion which has NFC chips in all the pieces – this allows the game to interact with a companion app, which tracks each move and shows it onscreen.Hi-Rez Studios, meanwhile, has a service allowing players to buy 3D printed figures based on its game Smite, but it has bigger plans. As Harris explained during the Develop panel: “We want players to be able to go to Amazon, buy the game, see a 3D print, buy that too, and then have that open up a cool item in the game.” Peter Heinrich, a games development evangelist at Amazon, suggested that this prospect is very close. “I think we’re at a tipping point. Over the next 18 to 24 months RFID and physical devices are going to play a huge role.” Indie devs are also looking into alternative ways to combine digital and physical play. UK-based designer Alistair Aitcheson is using cheap Arduino circuit boards to create wirelessly connected game “buttons” which can be placed around an environment. His game Codex Bash has up to four players unravelling a code and then running around a room trying to hit the correct symbol buttons in the right order, before their opponents do. His next project features wearable buttons, turning participants into walking game controllers. There’s even a whole festivaldedicated to games created using alternative controllers. “Electronics has got very affordable,” says Aitcheson. “It’s possible for people to buy an Arduino off the shelf, and it’s something that’s easy to program and requires very little setup. It means that making weird object-based games, new controllers and new interfaces is possible for anyone with a tiny bit of electronics knowledge and some imagination.” 4. Blurred lines between games and social media Alphabear is a cute smartphone puzzler that has a social sharing mechanic built right into its game design. This will become more commonWe’ve already seen plenty of virtual worlds – like Moshi Monsters and Club Penguin – that operate both as games and social spaces. But a new generation of games is exploiting improvements in broadband connectivity and networking features to make more dynamic social experiences. Minecraft has become a popular venue for friends to meet and talk while working collaboratively, and titles like Destiny and The Crew have emphasised the sense of socialising, sharing and connectivity. Forthcoming co-op titles are likely to build on the idea of multiplayer titles as social rather than just gaming experiences. At the same time, the current consoles have built-in social sharing systems, so players can easily take screenshots and videos and distribute these on social networks without leaving the game. The recent smartphone word puzzler Alphabear has built sharing mechanics into its intrinsic gameplay, which creates weird, amusing sentences that can be immediately shared on Twitter – a perfect word-of-mouth marketing feature. Expect more games to make sharing integral to design. 5. The spectator experience In the era of Twitch (120 million viewers a month) and celebrity YouTubers, it’s becoming increasingly important for developers to consider how their games will be viewed as well as played. “The statistics in terms of the hours people spend playing games and watching games, are beginning to tilt toward the latter very quickly,” said industry veteran Ian Baverstock, founder of small publisher Chilled Mouse. “It’s like the MTV moment for the music industry – suddenly you have to have something that is enjoyable to watch. Over the next 18 months, we’re going to see more developers trying to exploit that, specifically aiming their games at YouTubers.” This is already happening of course. Indie titles like Goat Simulator, Gang Beasts and Speed Runners have been built to appeal directly to YouTubers and Twitch streamers via fun co-op modes, quirky visuals and lots of potential for funny video footage. Dave Ranyard of Sony Worldwide Studios also envisions an era in which “how to” or “let’s play” videos and video production tools are incorporated into the games themselves. In this way, players won’t have to venture outside of the experience to see hints, tips and playthrough videos. 6. The era of transparent game design Dutch developer Vlambeer streamed the development of its game Luftrausers on Twitch, giving fans a behind-the-scenes view of the creative processDevelopers have spent the last three years using crowd-funding sites like Kickstarter to both finance new projects and gain a dedicated community. On top of that, initiatives like Steam Early Access and the new Xbox Preview programme allow fans to buy games before they’re finished and have a say in how the development process pans out. This is likely to become ever more common as small studios break out of the traditional publishing model and seek financial assurances before committing to major new projects. We’ll also see more studios seeking to make the development process itself more transparent, perhaps by live-streaming from the office. “It’s hard to do but it’s really powerful,” said Todd Harris of Hi-Rez studios. “Think about Vlambeer – they stream all their development online. They’ve got something like 12,000 subscribers who are paying a monthly fee to access that stream – that’s a huge amount of revenue on its own, but then they’re also interacting closely with their audience in real-time. Those people become amazing advocates for the game when it’s released.” Rami Ismail says we can expect these changes in the ecosystem to have an effect on the types of games that are made. For example, he suggests that roguelike games have become popular as a genre because people like the Steam Early Access service and roguelikes work well on Early Access. However, Alexis Kennedy of Failbetter Games thinks narrative game designers will also learn to use early access effectively. In his talk, Choice, Consequence and Complicity in Interactive Stories, he admitted that while “narrative games in early access are a much harder sell than sandbox games in early access”, there are ways to make an early-access narrative game work: write the beginning and end first so that players will at least be able to finish it, “keep your roadmap public”, and make sure you pay attention to both players who’ve been involved since the start and those who are new to the game. More recently, Ismail thinks, the introduction of refunds on Steam (which let users get their money back on downloads if they play for less than two hours) may begin to affect the length of narrative games. Whether people actually start to return to shorter games after completing them or not, developers may worry about that happening, and stop making short games anyway. 7. Players as creators A moment from Nintendo’s forthcoming platform game creator, Mario MakerGamers won’t just be watching development taking place in the future, they’ll be contributing too. A rising number of Kickstarter campaigns are offering backers creative roles in the project, whether that’s appearing as voice actors or helping to compose the music. We’re also seeing the return of user-friendly map editors with titles like Mario Maker, Hotline Miami 2 and Doom set to offer powerful creative tools, allowing players to construct their own levels and then share them online. Of course, modding has always been a vital part of the PC gaming scene, but player-generated content may be about to hit the console sector in a big way, leading to a new era in which developers are effectively able to outsource development of new content to dedicated fans. We may even see a mainstream version of Valve’s Steam Workshop, which allows PC game modders to sell their creations to other players. 8. Coworking creativesIn a talk entitled Killing the “Lucky Indie” Myth: How to Build a Sustainable Micro Studio, Simon Roth of Machine Studios spoke about how another developer rents a desk in his office in Oxford. This is becoming increasingly common as an increasing number of smaller studios set up without the funds to rent their own offices. Dedicated spaces like the Bristol Games Hub, the Arch Creatives in Leamington Spa and Playhubs in London offer cheap shared working space to developers, who are also able to share ideas and resources. These sites, along with university incubation projects, could facilitate a new generation of developers who aren’t reliant on publisher support or investor funding, perhaps leading to a wider variety of experimental projects. 9. Minor indies becoming major players No Man’s Sky from Hello Games is effectively an indie game with the reach of a major studio projectWe’ve seen how digital distribution and cheap tools like Unity have empowered a new generation of independent developers. However, that sector is evolving, so that, instead of producing niche titles for small audiences, indie teams are now working with console platform holders and Steam communities to create genuine crossover smashes. Developers like Mike Bithell, Hello Games, ThatGameCompany and FullBright may be small, but they’re operating more like the mid-sized Double A studios of the 90s, aiming at mass audiences with highly polished titles. The five most disruptive ideas in video game design “One of the great things I’m seeing is the transition of indie development to the mainstream – the whole definition is changing,” said Amazon’s Peter Heinrich during the panel session. “There’s been a democratisation of development, so now those one- and two-person teams are armed with the resources they need to bring their games to a much wider audience.” 10. Mainstream games become services and platforms We’ve seen how smartphone developers like Rovio, Zynga and SuperCell have turned their games into platforms by reacting to metrics data, tweaking difficulty accordingly, and then adding downloadable additions to their big brands – rather than bringing out regular sequels. This sensibility is now feeding into mainstream console and PC development. “We’re starting to see free-to-play design and ethos coming into premium games,” said Baverstock. “Developers are learning how to use metrics to evolve games in the face of user data”. The result may be more games like Destiny. Bungie’s online shooter is geared heavily toward co-op play and the studio has a whole internal team dedicated to watching and interpreting server data, as well as player feedback, which is then used to tweak the experience. Activision has also focused on delivering regular content updates, rather than announcing a sequel. Destiny: how House of Wolves builds on the story – and why there's no raid“Retention is key,” said Heinrich. “Keeping your current customers is easier than going out and finding new customers, particularly as acquisition channels increase. The consoles have embraced free-to-play, and that retention line is starting to come to the current machines.” Ismail blames the “platform dance” and other trends on what he calls “the revenue problem”, which he says results from the prices of games going down in real terms (thanks to the notion that games need to “stay the same price”, plus inflation) and the cost of development going up. Ways in which developers have attempted to make up for lost money include: “increased efficiency” (ie the damaging overtime and increased pressure late in development known as “crunch”), patches being sold later as DLC, micro-transactions, and pre-orders and special editions. Indeed, in this new era of post-release purchases and games as services, annual iterations are likely to get more rare, perhaps confined to the really big, very traditional titles like Call of Duty and Assassin’s Creed. 11. eSports becomes Sky Sports Major eSports events like the League of Legends world championships are attracting huge numbers of online spectators – how long before they end up behind a paywall? Photograph: LIONEL BONAVENTURE/AFP/Getty ImagesSo far, game publishers have allowed their content to be streamed for free on platforms like Twitch and YouTube, but that is unlikely to continue. “The YouTubers are massive celebrities, and they’re effectively parasitically living off the games industry, making a lot of money out of it,” said Baverstock. “We’ve got to figure out how to make that work for us as well as it does for them”. Of course, Nintendo has attempted to introduce revenue sharing programmes with YouTube gamers, and there’s been an angry backlash – but if the likes of Activision, Electronic Arts and Ubisoft follow suit, there’s not much that viewers will be able to do. This could well extended to the eSports world where, currently, the major tournaments are all available to view for free. This runs counter to traditional sports broadcasting where rights are charged and consumer must pay for subscription access, usually via satellite or cable channels. A similar model may well find its way into pro-gaming. “Fifa charges an awful lot of money to view its content, but in the games industry we don’t charge anything,” said Ranyard. Already, Twitch allows partner channels to charge a subscription, and Major League Gaming has added subscription packages to its own eSports streams. More will follow. 12. The evolution of crowdfunding: first deviation then regulation Shenmue III is coming to PC and PS4 in 2017 – helped by a hugely successful KickstarerThrough large-scale projects like Elite: Dangerous and Shenmue III, we have seen crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter being used as a way to gauge interest in a product before full development (or wider investment) begins. As the use of crowdfunding evolves, we can expect to see a wider variety of experiments with the process. Major eSports games like Dota 2 and Smite have both used crowd funding to boost the value of prizes offered at pro-gaming tournaments. Last year, Valve managed to raise a prize pool of $10m for its Dota 2 championship by charging players $10 for the game’sCompendium virtual sticker book. Hi-Rez put in a prize pool of $600,000 for its first Smite tournament, but then managed to bring in an extra $2m by offering players paid in-game items. The company has also used in-game item sales to raise money for charity. However, it’s likely that crowdfunding will become the subject of greater regulation as its use expands, and as we see more high-profile controversies, likethe recent upset over the game Godus. “There was a recent ruling in the States,” said Harris. “For the first time, The Federal Trade Commission came in and made a ruling for a Kickstarter campaign. In that case it wasn’t just that the project didn’t reach completion, the FTC judged that the developer had misrepresented how the funds would be spent. That was interesting and there will be more of that in the future.” 13. Rise of the silver gamers As the population ages, we’re going to see an increasing number of people either carrying on gaming into retirement, or perhaps discovering gaming in their later years. That’s a huge market for developers to explore. Helping people to cope with isolation could be one huge benefit. “We are social beings and social interaction is very important,” says cyber-psychologist Berni Good who presented a talk about silver gamers at Develop. “We know that people’s thoughts, feelings, actions and behaviours are influenced by real, imagined or even the implied presence of ‘others’ and, even if that’s with non-player characters in video games. “As psychologists we are beginning to understand that eudaemonics (the theory of being happy) can be realised with engagement and immersion on video game play. Research on character identification suggests that audiences regularly imagine being the character, and research around parasocial experiences suggest that people react to character as if they were real, physical beings.” So there may soon be a large market for games that simulate social experiences in a very different way than current titles – or that emphasise or exploit the greater range of life experiences of older players. Good argues that ageing gamers may find they have important roles to play in shared co-op experiences with younger relatives. “With added moral and ethical choices in games, older people may have more emotional intelligence than younger players,” says Good. “Older players may not be able to pursue the hobbies they used to because they just don’t have the same stamina or capability. This is where video games can really help, by playing games, older people can still get a sense of purpose, they can relate to others in a meaningful way.” 14. Managing trollsAs the interaction between developers and customers increases, so does the amount of anger and abuse that studios open themselves up to. A key element of making games in the future will be learning to manage this influx. In his keynote speech at the Develop conference in Brighton, Gearbox Software chief executive Randy Pitchford advocated trying “to get fuel from” haters as well as fans because, “if they tell us they love what we’ve done or tell us they hate what we’ve done, we’ve still moved them”. Rami Ismail of Vlambeer, however, took a different approach in his keynote. “The implication is that you need every single one of your customers,” he said, and then showed the audience a particularly offensive email he received. “I don’t need this guy.” He summarised his talk with a similar sentiment: “You don’t have to accept something from a consumer just because they might give you money.” 15. The “platform dance”In his keynote speech, Ismail mentioned something he calls “the platform dance”, in which developers are moving from one platform to another. Several of the talks from the conference reflected this movement between platforms, like Relentless Software’s Andrew Eades’ From Console Superstars to Mobile Wannabes and Back Again. According to Ismail, the pattern he sees is that developers move from mobile to PC because of its lower user-acquisition costs, from PC to console, in pursuit of higher discoverability, and from console to mobile because they want to make more cheaper games. Furthermore, Ismail said that because PC customers are split into those who buy day-one special editions and those who wait for Steam Sales, “we’ve effectively recreated whales in the PC segment”. In other words, PC developers may have to start thinking more like smartphone developers, specifically developing and then exploiting a small group of higher-spending fans. 16. Virtual and augmented reality become commercial realities Virtual reality headsets like the Oculus Rift have the power to utterly change the player experience of interactive worlds Photograph: Jae C. Hong/APTalking about the arrival of virtual reality as a mass consumer phenomenon, Sony’s Dave Ranyard said during his Develop panel discussion, “It’s not if, it’s when”. Most of the Evolve day at Develop was dedicated to sessions concerning the development of VR games. The key headsets are almost here: the HTV Vive is out in November, the Oculus is possibly February 2016, the Morpheus will follow in the second-quarter. Microsoft is preparing its Hololens augmented-reality headset; Google is backing the Magic Leap. On top of this, there is already a vast development community, experimenting with the tech, ironing out some of the technical problems and forming the design conventions that will create brand new (and non-nauseous) experiences. Big publishers like Ubisoft are also stepping up their research into the area. For game developers, there could be a huge boom in business as major corporations suddenly scrabble to provide their own virtual-reality applications. Because of this, venture capitalists and angel investors are apparently crowding in on the sector. As Ian Baverstock put it at Develop: “From an investment point of view, oh my God, virtual reality is the place you want to be.” EMPLOYMENT! To work successfully in this industry requires more than years of being an avid gamer. A solid education in engineering, project management, art or finance provides the best background for creative, management and technical positions. This morning ur blog outlines the positions that people can expect to apply for, the best background for those positions, and shares a recent (2014) report on the top gaming companies in the world. Images courtesy of Creative Skill Set: http://creativeskillset.org/creative_industries/games/job_roles In terms of "WHERE TO WORK" the video game industry is a global enterprise with literally hundreds of thousands of positions open worldwide. To find the top tier firms to work for I turned to Tom Fronczak who writes for Animation Career Review.
http://www.animationcareerreview.com/articles/2014-top-100-most-influential-animation-studios Under his influential firms to watch blog, I found his top video gaming list, which is reprinted below. Most teens and young adults know someone who wants to work in the video game industry. TOP 9 FIRMS: 9. Bohemia Interactive If this list was made last year, this studio would have been even higher. It’s only dropped because their influence on the industry’s future has resulted in such a big whirlwind of copycat studios releasing similar games that they’re finally seeing major competition. Not only did they make Arma 3, but their DayZ zombie survival island mod took over the PC gaming scene for months. Almost a full year has passed since its initial release and the game continues to be one of the most played titles on Steam every single day of the year. Some of the other most played daily games each night are Bohemia Interactive’s Arma 2 and Arma 3. They’re a great example of how old ideas done in new ways can often make the biggest splashes in the game industry, as well as a reminder that the zombie obsession is far from over in the gaming industry. 8. Epic Games I’m really excited for their Fortnite game that’s in development, but it likely won’t be released for a long time, and the beta testing hasn’t even begun yet, so that game has nothing to do with them being on this list. So, what then? Their Unreal Engine. In the past few years the Unity game engine has accomplished pretty much every bit of our high hopes for it in the game industry, but the majority of the industry still eats, breathes, and lives on the Unreal Engine. Dozens – if not more than half – of the other studios on this list use the Unreal Engine to make every single one of their game releases. Without the Unreal Engine we’d see several game studios shut down overnight. It’s like the Microsoft Windows of the gaming industry, and they even announced that it’s now free for academic use! As long as the engine continues to receive jaw dropping updates and studios continue to release jaw dropping AAA games, then this studio will continue to boast a high slot on our annual list since they influence so much of the game industry. 7. Rockstar North Pretty much exactly one year ago today, they released Grand Theft Auto V. Game sales are the easiest quantifiable metric of influence, and in case you had somehow forgotten, they earned $800 million in sales in a single day, and then broke $1 billion in the first three days. It’s a sales record that might not be topped until they eventually release GTA VI. So, your previous game had over 8.2 million copies sold. What now? They just announced they’re working on a sequel to Red Dead Redemption, which means they’re getting ready to reconquer the sandbox and western genres over and over, but that’s not even the most exciting part. They’ve been working on their Agent project for years and appear to be getting ready to finally fully reveal their new stealth action series. Imagine a near future where they earn $3 billion in 3 months from 3 game releases and make the entire movie industry look like a small entertainment sector. That’s the power of Rockstar. We might have to wait a few years for them to resurface, and until then their rank on our list will slightly drop each year, but we’ll happily wait for their next release since their previous titles have years of replayability in them. Don’t forget they also could – and should – make a sequel for LA Noire. 6. Naughty Dog What do you do when your bestselling platformer game series Jak and Daxter comes to an end? Naughty Dog makes Uncharted, a bestselling action adventure game that’s the sole reason some people bought PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. What do you do when Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End won’t be out for a few years? You cough up The Last of Us with a brand new storyline that wins countless video game of the year awards, receive over four million game sales, create DLC, contemplate a sequel, and then reveal a Hollywood film adaption is in the works. This game studio hasn’t made a single mistake since before most gamers were born and if The Last of Us is their version of an Uncharted intermission then I can’t fathom what their version of an Uncharted finale will be like. Especially considering Uncharted 2 is still locked in as many gamers’ favorite game of all time. We have yet to see an amazing video game get an amazing film adaptation, but Naughty Dog could be the first to finally deliver that industry milestone. 5. Ubisoft Montreal Sometimes you don’t need to tell others why something is important, and instead just show them. So, in all of 2013 and 2014 combined, they’ve unleashed. . . ahem . . . Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, Child of Light, Watch Dogs, Assassin’s Creed Unity, The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot, Far Cry 4, and Assassin’s Creed Rogue. Need I say more? Fine. I will. Their Watch Dogs game sold over eight million copies and their sister subsidiary studio, Ubisoft Reflections, is helping Ivory Tower create the upcoming The Crew, which is looking like it might be the most influential driving game for years to come. Next year they’ll be releasing Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege and some of the other Ubisoft divisions will release Tom Clancy's The Division. Their brother subsidiary studio, Ubisoft Montpellier, is responsible for Rayman Legends, Valiant Hearts: The Great War, and is (hopefully) still working on Beyond Good & Evil 2. In Ubisoft’s spare time they release yet another Just Dance game and gobble up five million sales like it’s no big deal. Ubisoft and its countless subsidiary divisions is like the hydra last boss of the game industry, with Ubisoft Montreal being the most fierce and influential head of them all. 4. Riot Games I’ve been completely hooked on the MOBA genre since around 2008 when I first played DotA. I’ve branched out to play just about every MOBA ever made, and seeing the genre reach its full potential by flooding the entire game industry was my wishful dream for years. It looks like it’s finally an inevitable future, and while there are tons to thank for that along the many years it took for it to explode, Riot Games arguably deserves the most credit for evolving the entire existence of online gaming in the new direction. A few years before League of Legends was released, only a handful of gamers could make a living from playing MOBA games competitively every week of the year, and now these days we see several MOBA players becoming millionaires each year. League of Legends deserves the most credit for sweeping the nation with the eSports fever that helped blur the line of gaming and sports, and it has no signs of slowing down over the coming years. College campus eSports leagues for League of Legends are nothing new and schools are even beginning to give scholarships for LoL players now. Valve’s Dota 2 recently broke their single tournament prize pool record but I have no doubt that it will be a record that’s repeatedly broken every single year for years to come, if not decades to come, and there are no losers in the game industry when that happens. 3. Mojang Minecraft has surpassed the original Super Mario Bros. as the third bestselling game of all time, with only Wii Sports and Tetris ahead of it. Markus “Notch” Persson began Minecraft back in 2009, and the cultural phenomenon is still continuing to walk all over the rest of the game industry. Minecraft is the Mario of this generation’s children. But whereas Pong, Space Invaders, Super Mario Bros. and other timeless classics had to break into a mainstream media that wasn’t too interested in gaming, Notch took the world by storm when every household in America had a machine that could run Minecraft. As more time passes the sales aren’t slowing down, and thanks to companies like 4J Studios helping them port it to other gaming platforms, Mojang’s five year old game continues to receive more sales than most bestselling games of 2014. Despite years of amazing game releases coming and going, everyone just keeps on playing Minecraft with no end of its impressive mods in sight. 2. Blizzard Entertainment Recently they’ve given us a new StarCraft II game, a Diablo III expansion, and most importantly: Hearthstone is their gamble that free card MMOs could be the wave of the future. In the past I predicted the original DotA spinoffs would cause the MOBA genre to dominate the industry, and now I’m predicting the card MMO will be the next great uprising. Not a hard prediction to make based on Blizzard and Wizard of the Coast’s success so far. On top of everything else, their huge changes to Diablo III made it more enjoyable than it ever was in previous years, and they’re already beta testing their first official MOBA (Heroes of the Storm), and Blizzard even found time to pump out a Hearthstone: Curse of Naxxramas expansion. It’s not even up for debate: this is the golden era of Blizzard right now. Oh yeah, and did I mention their industry shattering MMORPG, World of Warcraft, has been running an alternate universe for a decade straight with millions of players and is about to have its fifth expansion? 1. Valve Corporation In this entire list, the only easy decision was that Valve needed to be at the top. It’s not just gamers who are influenced by the best game studio in the world; even game developers agree they’d rather work at Valve. With Team Fortress 2 they helped show the industry that you could give games away for free and make even larger profits through selling cosmetic items and other microtransactions. They continue to use their own game engine, and in recent years they gobbled up IceFrog – the current developer behind the Warcraft III DotA mod that popularized the MOBA genre – and just wrapped up their fourth The International tournament by breaking the global eSports prize pool record with a total amount of $10.9 million. 46% of the total went to the winning five player team, making five gamers instant millionaires. Dota 2 is currently played by about one million players every single day of the year. The digital sales of video games are increasing at such an astounding pace that it feels like in a decade we won’t ever buy games from brick and mortar store shelves anymore, but could walk into a bar and watch a game of Dota 2 while talking about the teenage gamer who made more money last year than the NFL player on the other TV channel. GO FORTH, CREATE, PLAY, HAVE FUN!  As we head into the holiday season, it's time to start thinking about what stories we will tell. Over the November and December time frame, family and friends gather, children cuddle up with blankets and toys and story-telling gets a front row seat. Devices are put away, tea is served. |
Julie M McDonaldArchives
October 2022
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