Would Technical Writing Work For You?

Writers have been needed all across the globe but with technology growing so fast some writing has changed.

Technical writing is in high demand and can work in almost any career. Technical writing can be defined as, a term that represents an increasingly broad set of activities that are designed to communicate understandable information that can help people be productive. Content created by technical writers has traditionally involved items such as "how-to" manuals, reference guides and corporate reports.

Content created by technical writers has traditionally involved items such as "how-to" manuals, reference guides and corporate reports. Each and every profession needs a clear understanding of what they have to do. Even more today when everything demands perfection and efficiency when working.

Here is the requirements to work in this complicated, growing field. One of the most important basics of the profession is to be proficient in writing as well as the computer. The second would to get an education to get a Bachelor degree.

Technically it doesn’t matter that much but it helps considerably. The degree can be offered at most technical schools across the United States. There are all sorts of careers waiting out there for the technical writer. Here are two options that are popular at the time.

The first way would be to write manuals, instruction booklets and tapes. They can be used for hospitals, construction work, and any software company.

The second way would be creative writing. This can include video games and board games as well as many other options.

If you can do this you are well on your way to becoming part of a fast paced career. We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master. --Ernest Hemingway

Good Girl = Bad Girl - How being too good may be bad.

There recently had been a book out on the market called, The Curse of the Good Girl by Rachel Simmons. Normally it wouldn't have caught my attention especially from the gaming perspective but it did.

The book explained that being a "good girl" holds some women from reaching full potential in society. It describes the "good girl" as being schooled, follows the rules, is a people pleaser and a perfectionist.

So how does that connect women to video games?

Simple, it shows at what kind of audience thinks the typical woman should act and I think most games use the thin line of being a bad vs good girl to an advantage.

There is the stereotypical good girl and bad girl in every game and they add them in to make the video game more appealing.

There isn't a huge difference in male characters in video games. In fact most "good boys" actually have a bad streak somewhere in their character. It isn't questioned if a male character has a good and a bad side but for female charactors they are more likely to be labeled.

Perhaps because in most games men outnumber women in video games, while even happening in movies. If there is five characters and it isn't a chick flick most likely three of them are male while two are female.

Women Outnumber Men in Statistics

In an online article it states in between the ages of 24 to 34 is the average age of a game player. But what they say afterwords is slightly shocking.

The CEA study found that 65% of women are in this bracket while only 35% of men are in there.

This leads me to think that there is more reasons to ignore these statistics while focusing on the typical gamer.

One of the reasons I think they like focusing on the typical gamer is because most people are looking at the baby boom era and how they tend to buy for children. This is stereotypical because they are even ignoring the 35% men in that age bracket. Its like seeing money just dropping into their lap. If they manage to create good enough ads and graphics.

Another reason is they enjoy making harder games for hard core gamers more than they like making casual games. Mostly I think is because they can charge 50 to 100 dollars a game this way. For the most part Nintendo is leading in creating games for the casual consumer.

The last but not least reason is that they don't take women seriously in gaming. It has improved over the last few years but there is still a big space we can improve on. Even thinking how many women put so much effort into these games you might have some insight on what target audience to aim for.

Someday they will catch on to the 75% to 35% ratio but for today they will remain clueless.

Sincerely.

Gamer Girl

Release Dates

From the expert video game player to the newbie there is nothing more frustrating than a late release date. But if you are one of the people that asks why here are some of the most common reasons.

Most of the games with late release dates are popular. Most of these games have hoards of fans just waiting in line at the store to get a copy. So it makes sense that they would put as much time and effort needed into that game.

Some games have to format their game to more than one console. Like when the Wii was just coming out some game companies had to make a copy for the Game Cube and some to the Wii, a new unexplored machine.

Releasing the information on video games can keep and hype up their audience. Its a cheap tactic for keeping their ratings high. For Halo 2 and 3 most of the people had pre-ordered their games ahead of time just because they have been waiting for a long time.

Whatever their reason is I believe that there is a time limit to announcing games early. I would have to say two years.

Sincerely,

Gamer Girl

I love working with the internet function on my console. Its quick,easy,and accessible while using the TV as a huge screen. However I wondered if game consoles can get viruses because they are able to use the internet and have a hard drive thus they should be able to get them.

I decided to look at each main console to see what each one could hold a virus. Here is what I found on each site.



I first started out by looking at Nintendo and thought it would be easy after all they do cater to the casual consumer. But as I got further and further into the site all I did was find was someone on the support group telling me that the Wii can't get a virus. I exspected more from this company but I ended up disappointed.



Playstation 3 was the second website I decided to look at and it was just as disappointing as Nintendo. I also looked at the description and I found nothing on viruses. I also looked for it using the search button and it came up with two main themes. A game called Blast Factor that consisted of killing viruses and in the terms of service and agreement form it mentioned not being responsible for any virus you put up yourself.



The Xbox was easier to find although finding out this information was easier than the rest. Of course now I knew where to look for the information before I began. Once again I looked at the console discription and found nothing about viruses. I looked in the search tool and found a more reliable source than the other two. It listed that you are more at risk for viruses when you do go on to the internet. At least Xbox acknowledges the possibility.

I wonder why none of the companies post inform the public more about viruses. The consoles are expensive and is even more expensive to fix. People will have to look out for themselves when it comes to maintaining your security.

Now all wii can do is cross our fingers and hope for the best.

Sincerely,

Gamer Girl

Communication Job's in Gaming

If you originally thought you had to be a drawing genius to go into gaming, you’re wrong. Here is some jobs that you might want to look into if you’re interested. Video Game Designer - The video game designer thinks of the original concept of the video game. Say you have this great idea about farm animals in space that you and your friends think should be a video game. Your role would be being the boss of the entire operation. Every single part of the video game process would come through you. Like you would see the characters dialogue and pictures of the evil cow and brave pig, make sure the environment looks like space, look at all the puzzles and play the game a million times. Sure this may sound like fun but after the sixth time through the whole game you would want to become vegetarian. Audio Engineer - Audio Engineers are basically sound technicians. You would work with the voice actors, background music, and the different types of noise you might need in that particular world. You also take care of and set up the equipment that Ernie, the annoying and helpful side kick, would use. Writer - writing jobs include dialogue, story settings, and instructions. For the technical writer you have to have a degree in that particular area. This job would be to say the Jerry, the flying talking pig, has to cut into the moon for the cheese. However Sam, the evil purple cow wants it all for himself. How would you picture them speaking to each other? What would the environment look like? Do they have any defining characteristics, like does Sam have a lisp? Translator - If you are fluent in a specific language or languages, especially Japanese and Chinese, you will do well here. This is all about translating the dialogue and storyline that the writers has been already written. So you get to change Jerry saying,"Something stinks more than Gouda cheese" into any language you need. It is needed because most games reach into all types of countries and languages. Jerry says,"Algo apesta más que el queso del gueta.” You can find many interesting gaming jobs by going on job search sites so you can see what is out there as well as some of the in depth requirements. Good Luck,

Gamer Girl

First Day

This blog is being created for one of my classes. I will talk about gaming and how it relates to communication.