crummo

I don't necessarily want to get into the game dev hellscape. I want to get a good job with security, so I think there are definitely better fields to get that security than game design. I was just looking at games because they are heavily dependent on conveying systems through interface, and involve fast paced, constant interaction. I thought it would be a good place to get a lot of research data from. I am hoping that some of these suggestions click and I say "Aha! I can see this working out perfectly or a small to medium scale project." I agree with your point entirely. I would say that I am trying to find inspiration and opportunities everywhere. I don't know how to code unfortunately, and so I don't know how much I could do in terms of augmented reality. I suppose I could just make mockups that look like augmented reality, such as superimposing interfaces and images onto pictures. Can you think of any ways that I could do an augmented reality project without actually having working hardware, etc.?

Thanks for the input :)

Thank you all for the replies! I will check all these games out, and yes, that GT5 interface is like some sort of Metro crap. It's not the worst I've seen, but it definitely isn't ideal. I have never played Dwarf Fortress. I always assumed it was an early PC game, and I am ashamed that I just learned it was released in 2006, haha. I am gonna play it just because I feel like it's required reading :)

@dfl017: Cool, I will definitely look into this. It might be cool to present my work to them if they are in the middle of development. Thanks!

Hi everyone :)

I am building up my user experience portfolio to finally have a go at a job in that field. I am doing some independent projects on usability to flesh the portfolio out and I have come up with an idea to test and redesign a game interface. I think that game interfaces are a perfect place to showcase usability, because they are so interactive compared to your average website or app. Games are always feeding you information and interacting back at you, sometimes faster than you can handle. I was thinking that an RPG might be a good place to showcase good usability, because complex inventories and stat management lend themselves to information architecture. It could be interesting to see how different people organize many different types of items into categories, given the chance to make those decisions.

So, I am looking for some games that offer a lot of interface, but need help badly. Perhaps a game that you found unfortunate, because it was a good game underneath a difficult interface. Maybe a game that lost you in the way that it failed to express the systems at work, even though you wanted to figure it out in spite of its shortcomings. PC or mobile games would be ideal because it would be very easy for me to get people in front of them, as I could DL the game on someone's PC, or I could have them do the testing on my phone. I can make mockups for either mobile or computer, so I don't have a huge preference.

Thanks in advance for the help!

Just joined! Woot! I'd love to actually play with a group and make a team comp, pick good duos. I have been enjoying ETC and Diablo a lot. I also like Tyrande and Rehgar.

I've always known it as A. I'm from Massachusetts too.

This is a really good point. The guru forums need to be reminded of this. They're smoldering in rage right now. Me, I'm not really worried about the cash shop being bad to players. Doesn't seem like Arenanet has any track record of being greedy/shitty to players. If you can earn anything via time in game that you can buy in the cash shop, then who can really complain?

@rjayb89: hahaha yes!