MMmmm, unfortunatly, google videos are only playable in the US (well, at last not here in france)...

Doesn't France hate Google?  Maybe that is why?

Last time I checked, I wasn't connecting from the US.. the video worked fine, though.

no, France. that's just because you run away from the computer before it loads. computer your friend!

just translate it with http://translate.google.com/translate_t and voila watch the video.

I'm in argentina and the video plays just fine

Hahah, that's an awesome video, and I'm sure it's exactly like that. ;)

OMFG. I weep that Westwood Correspondence College is not intended for Texas residents. Maybe I could escape to Oklahoma just for this.

Surely a contender for Best Comedy.

yaz0r I'm outside the US too but didn't have a problem viewing it. Must be something on your end.

I'm getting a nice "Currently, the playback feature of Google Video isn't available in your country." message. But it seems to depend of the video. Some work, some don't.

For my entire life I shunned a career in the game industry because I always heard it was a hard, dirty job staffed by loney males in need of exercise and sex.

Now the truth is out.

Shame on all you videogame developers for keeping the truth a secret.

I test video game for a living, but I wish i had the skills of those guys

"just need to tighten up the graphics a little bit"

Genius

I must dissent. I never, ever look away from the game during battles. They definitely broke the concentration, and they're lucky they didn't get fired.

Game testing is like drownproofing. You have to immerse yourself completely, and cut off your ties to being human. You pee when your character has to pee. Got it?

Ron, you need to come play World of Warcraft. Jump on the Cho'gall server as alliance, and throw a message to me on my druid, leafmealone :D

I dissagree. It's not exactly like that. I'd say if you took half of that and half of Grandma's Boy, you'd be closer to the true game industry.

Out of the 5000 graduates from that school, it's rumored one of them actually got a job doing that stuff.  The rest are 40 years old and currently playing games at their mom's house waiting for their big chance.

Level 3 there not pros they dont even use a keyboard and mouse.  Graphics oh they sell games at least thats about the only real thing with the advert.

I think it's just LAME!

Wait... so if they're at college, aren't they supposed to say "the professor is coming"?

In another industry, they would have been saying "We've just finished chapter three and need to tighten the dialogue up a bit". Because that's how books are tested.

Thanks for your interest in Google Video.
Currently, the playback feature of Google Video isn't available in your country.

Shit! Alternative?

They MUST be professional game designers. They certainly aren't actors.

@ yaz0r : Got the same problem, as I'm in France too.
The only thing I managed to do :
Go to Google videos homepage
Type : Be A Game Designer Commercial
Search for it
You should be able to read the preview, but not the entire video.


And, no, France doesn't hate Google. Can't see a reason why.

What on Allah's green Earth are they thinking with this thing? Surely there are SOME people in the industry less amused with this than we are and already striving to close this place up?

Right...?!

There are more of these from the same "college" - just switch your TV over to the increasingly bad G4. The fact that the channel, as a whole, is getting progressively worse with each day is a feat in itself, since by all logic it couldn't have possibly gotten any more horrible after its first day on the air, but somehow they keep finding ways.

Anyway, there are mountains of "Be a game designer! Yay!" commercials from several different "schools" and they're all more or less the same. One of my favorites shows the students creating really horrible looking, amature craptastical crap and bragging about it. Heck, one of them even features one of the included scenes from an early version of Lightwave (the missle firing Hummer), so they probably couldn't even make the amature crap that's also featured.

I wonder how many people actually give these places their money. The only place that I've seen on G4 that is actually worth anything is the DAVE School (http://www.daveschool.com) and it only has the occasional commercial, and they don't make crazy claims and stupid representations of reality...of course, it's not really a Be A Game Designer, Hooray! school, either.

What are you talking about, designing games isn't work at all. You can just wing it all day long and tell people that the graphics need tightening up.

Oh God, just saying this makes my colon tighten up.

and you need to say "dude" too much as well, and mention your mum.

Most hilarious thing i seen all day.

The guy in the pink shirt really seems to hate his mom.

I sersiously doubt the guy in the pink shirt is a graduate of westwood college. He so totally freaks out when the boss comes. I mean he got the job, which is true - but he will probably only go as high as middle management.

Whereas the guy in the blue is a very well educated young man who knows exactly how to handle the situation (it was probably taken from live doco footage) and looks well set on the path to mega-successful game designer.

For the French people not able to see the video, try this one: http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo.google.com%2Fvideoplay%3Fdocid%3D3505951782174966240%26q%3Dgame%2520design&langpair=en%7Cfr&hl=en&ie=UTF8

Thanks Hawkje !
You save my day.

Yeah, thanks ! :)
Impressive stuff, I'm going to share that with the game designers I know :)

Nice. I'm close to ranting again ...

"Thanks for your interest in Google Video.
Currently, the playback feature of Google Video isn't available in your country.
We hope to make this feature available more widely in the future, and we really appreciate your patience."

I'm European, by the way ...

On a more serious note, this is also a lack of design : Assuming all people have the same possibilities ...
Like watching a video, for example ...

Well, funny one. I'm waiting for a commercial "be a game programmer in 3 days with this awesome game maker studio 3dxsy" where a guy/girls sits there and says "yay finished 2 months before deadline, thanks to my studies at xys university". Hah, let them get that crappy education, will leave more jobs for me....

:0 That commercial is older than I am.

You must therefore respect its authorita (aaa).   ahem

"Westwood Online, keeping chiropractors in business for 30 years!" Seriously, that guy's posture is dreadful... "My mom told me I would never get anywhere with these games, but dude, check out my herniated disc!!"

The only thing worse than that commercial is the network it airs on (G4).  Both make the gaming industry look like a joke.

you're right. you know what? It's crap like this that made me not want to get involved with game devlopment. That commercial is absolute BS and I've seen it and others like it aired half a billion times. "we need to tighten up the graphics a little bit" couldn't they train monkeys to do that? I guess they are gonna give you a "degree" that will get you in the door to a beta testing job faster. beta testing. The average joe dream job. "you mean I get to play games for money?! yipee!" No. First off that job sucks unless you really are passionate about the game you're testing and I'll tell you after a few days you wont be. This is sitting in a dark room playing the same bit of game over and over with old guys walking by to make sure youre working. No hottie wondering how you're getting along. You think this garbage is going to pay off what you paid westwood college for that "certification"? You better be living with your mom which would prove her right. You're not going anywhere. You're some idiot who got roped into paying a bunch of money for a fake degree. enjoy the instant noodles and easy mac, lazy ass.
   If it were 1985 or 1990 I would consider getting into game development but with the basterization the game industry is undergoing and our unstable society being bad enough as it is, It's just a dumb idea. Really, I'm upset because it was commercials like this that made me forget about that dream of making games I had when I was younger. The industry is getting flooded by idiots that see these commercials and wanna "get paid to play games". Oh yeah, because game developers need certified professionals to tell them to tighten up graphics on level 3.
  Also, this nation's society is becoming unstable. Because, among other reasons, plagues of scams like this have been going on for 60 years or so, Because people are on a consuming binge, Because there is gonna be a civil war, we're going to get nuked, and hopefully (forgive me for saying this) idiots like those two will fall victim to the pandemic that is headed our way. The industry sucks and I'm not gonna be caught with my pants down, getting 6 bucks to ask some jackass to tighten up the graphics, when some impending disaster strikes and such a tawdry job becomes null and void. I'd rather get done with a hard day of work, come home, have a nice dinner, and play something by a japanese developer or Valve. I'm sorry, that's just the state of affairs we're in.
Listen to your mom. She's probably going to be right in cases like this. If something sounds too good to be true, there is a 99% chance that it is.

Thank you Ron for posting this. I would of never sat down and actually thought about how sad things are getting in our society. I guess I am just bitter because video games used to be my little cult like thing I was into and now it's being dumbed down so everyone can buy a piece. It's just all about money money money like everything else that used to be good and pure in this world. Took a long time from the dark ages, to the cotton gin, to now, but money has ruined everything.

"It's just all about money money money like everything else that used to be good and pure in this world."

Right, back in that Golden Age when the laws of economics didn't apply to human activity and choices...

You are aware, I hope, that this tawdry, mercenary age of ours provides more varied and worthwhile gaming choices than ever before. Consoles, handhelds, PC, current or retro, online or off... it's an embarassment of riches.

Sure, there's plenty of vulgarity and stupidity - but when hasn't that been true? Was gaming "back then" all M.U.L.E., Starflight and Monkey Island?

yes, there will always be frauds...and snobby bastards. I'm also aware that there are different platforms for video games, smart ass. appearently, reguardless of how longwinded my post was, you didnt grip what I was getting at. Istead you were looking for a way to put my opinion in the dirt, as the troll often does. What I was getting at there was money is the root of evil, and as we see time and time again, a labor of love becomes a mass market of profit mongers. Yeah there are great games and an embarassment if riches ::rolls eyes:: in the gaming industry, but it's dying already, because corperations are becoming faster and more efficient at milking dry and corrupting a market. This site is a testiment to the fact that the industry is a racket. That is how it started and that is what is going to cripple it. I love games. they're great and this is indeed a great time for games, but they will grow out of controll and too far down people's throats, and it's my personal belief that if we even get to see the recession of the industry, something will happen in the world by then that will kill things like the video game industy and pop music. Say what you will. That is just my personal belief. And do say what you will. I'm not coming back to see if you responded because I dont care anymore so go nuts.

The economics of games have changed though.  15 years ago we still had plenty of commercial games produced by tiny development teams; a couple of programmers and an artist perhaps.  Combine with the fact that the rules of 'what will sell?' hadn't been as clearly defined and you have an environment thats much more open to new ideas and risk taking.

Sure there were plenty of turkeys back then (just as there are good games now), but I for one preferred the days when there were more surprises and fewer games dumbed down for the lowest common denominator...

>Doesn't France hate Google?  Maybe that is why?

Why do I have to read stuff like that ? :(
Why would there be any trouble accessing google videos from France ? (You think France has a Chinese Republis-style internet or what? :))
Works fine with me here, you guys must have a problem with your browser or whatever.

Someone watches G4?  shudder

It's google-- they won't stream to certain countries until certain legal issues are resolved. i've got the same problem here in germmimiminy.

that was a brilliant commercial, when was that made, like 1990? it looks like ancient history.. it couldn't have been made from 1995 and up.. or?

There is a URL at the end of the ad, which suggests that it was aired after 1995 (or later).  It might have been made before that and re-run after 1995.

I'm pretty sure this is a recent commercial, unless they've been running it for a long time. I've seen this commercial within the last 3 months or so.

I just love the way he looks at the camera at the beginning for no apparent reason whatsoever. And that woman is SO a programmer... and the guy's wearing a pink shirt. So funny.

> And that woman is SO a programmer
She may be a producer. If so, I found that bit to be scarily reflective of my three years experience in a games company.

Big game corporations know every trick in the book to exploit young game enthused bodies. In the corporation I was at, they hired super hot femme producers. The office became a hive of sexual tension. I think they know  that hot females will get less conflict from you. It also acts as a kind of glass ceiling. No guy in the building came close to having similar qualities to the female, and so no one ever questioned her rank, or aspired to become a producer.  

( being fair, I guess there is the argument that 'most' women make better managers. etc )

I'd never thought about it like that, but from my (admittedly very limited) experience it sounds like you're right on the money!

That said, the company in question was recently shut down so I guess their producers weren't hot enough after all...

What baffles me is that they are still airing an ad that looks like it was made in 1976.

I see this commercial on TV all the time, and I'm not even a programmer and I know its utter crap.

If I paid a tester an hours wage so that he could tell me to 'tighten up the graphics a bit', I think he'd be out of a job.  Maybe things work different in games, but we'd expect a page of 'do this and this to cause this' type comments.

There doesn't seem to be much easy about being a tester...

"Not intended for residents of Texas or Massachusetts."

That is great.

I think it's very sad to watch this commercial.
And I think it also applies to other entertainment education programs, like film schools or music schools.

"Oh, how cool is that; get paid to make movies/music!
I'm gonna be the next [insert popular director]/[insert popular musician]!"

What's even more sad: I know people like that.

Huu, the boss is sexy :0

This got a good gut laugh when I first saw it. I didn't know game testers designed games. Wow! I'm going to sign up right now!

The only thing worse than watching this commercial as a designer, is watching this commercial as a designer who is now teaching at a similar school. This concept of "Game Design == Playing Games" is not only present in these commercials, it's also hardcoded into the minds of school administrators who pay for these commercials to be made, judge the quality of teaching by the number of students who pass the course, and hire banking/business programmers and assign them to teach game programming courses. ("3D hit detection? I don't know anything about that... today we're learning how to caclulate compound interest.")

These commercials lead to enrollment by students who think they can get a degree in playing games. I often get harrassed by students, "What do you mean I have to (do trigonometry/write a 30 page paper/draw storyboards)? I came here to make video games!"  

I am often seen as "the bad guy" by both students and administrators because I have the largest failure rate in the school - why? Because I won't let them get away with "designing" a GTA:3 clone or simply memorizing a few command names in order to pass a programming class. I require them to come up with unique game concepts and actually follow through to completion.

And in return, I get a huge black scar on my resume. I lay you odds that at least a dozen game companies have looked at my resume and said "Hey, you know that 'Be A Game Designer' commercial? I got a resume from an instructor at one of those schools... ha ha ha." I then get tacked up on the wall next to the guy who put "I write good" under his qualifications.

It makes me a bit of a 'grumpy gamer' myself, but it does have one bright point... Those few students who do manage to do well in my classes will one day make games worth playing, and I will get to play them.

And from us students who actually want instructors like you... THANKS!  There are some of us out there that appreciate being challenged and taught properly. :)

Funny thing is the Westwood guys are getting free mileage from the crazy ad they have created

Red alert was the greatest game ever (except for MI).

Quake is the best game ever - I thought everyone new that ;)