Zachary Grayson

Dr. King
ENC 1102-0016L
10/18/12
Saying, Doing, Being, Believing, and Valuing

In the saying part of Gees ideas he talks about the lexis, tone, and preferred forms of saying. In
video game design there are many different parts of developing each game. The main lexis for
the developers is the different terms for the different programming languages. The people who
write the coding use different terms based on the different languages that they are writing the
code in. The main languages that video game designers program in are Java, Java Plus, C, C++,
HTML, XHTML, CSS, and Python (Cezzar). Someone that is doing the special effects and
drawing of the games they are use terms such as frame rate, progressive, interlace, depth of field,
lighting, particles, and background design. All of those terms have to deal with a different aspect
of what needs to go into the drawing and designing of a character, accessory, and map (Grayson).
The tone of video game designers has to be relaxed because if they arent then they tend to make
errors which slow them down a great deal. They also work extremely long days and many hours
but they are relaxed for the most part because if they get too stressed while coding they will
make a small error by not putting one little detail into the code. When that happens it is awful
because it can take a long time to fix code sometimes since one will not always know what is
wrong. For preferred forms of saying they will speak in the discourse that is related to their
specialty in video game design. Programmers will speak in terms of code, designers in forms of
digital media terms, and writers in forms of writing terms. Examples of what programmers talk
about are loops, structs, files, functions, and objects. Designers would talk about the textures of

what they are developing, the lighting, the animation, and the perception. Writers would be
talking about the way they want that person to talk and how they are trying to make the character
come across to the people who are playing the game (De Girolami and Grayson).
In the doing aspect Gee talked about practices of the discourse and the pastimes of the discourse.
The practices for the discourse are a little complicated. No matter what part of video game
design one is in, one should know a little bit about everyones part. This way one can be able to
work with others better and be able to understand what they are saying when they are using their
form of discourse. Although for each aspect of video game designing there are different
practices. For the programmers they need to have practiced in coding for many years, and they
need to know multiple different languages. For designers they need to know how to make shapes
in programs such as Maya. They need to be able to draw by hand, be able to create things on the
computer, and be able to animate them to move around.
The writers need to be able to be creative and be able to know how to write for certain situations
in the games, and if the game has had a prequel they need to know how the characters have
talked before to not make them sound like they are completely different characters. The pastimes
for video game designing are not really there because it has not been around long enough to be
able to have pastimes yet. In, Mario How Nintendo Conquered America, Jeff Ryan claims that
video game design has been around since 1972, but Nintendo did not really take off until
Nintendo released Super Mario Bros. in 1985. Since 1985, video game designing has changed
drastically, and continues to change drastically at a fast pace (Ryan).
The being is the next part of Gees analysis which consists of demographics, appearance, and
attitude. For gender video game design is a mostly male dominated area, but it is welcome to
females as well. In fact I think more women should do this job to try to get girls more into video
games. The age level is from mid 20s until mid 50s. For education level it is good if they have a
B.S in Computer Science or a B.A. in Digital Media, but one should really try to get a master's
degree. For example my brother, Adam, said that, You should have an undergraduate degree but
definitely need a master, and that I am getting my Master in Science in Interactive Entertainment
from FIEA (Grayson). Regional upbringing can influence how one might make a game, and
what kind of settings that they put the characters they have developed in. The income level is a
huge range which can go from $40,000-$215,000. This big gab depends on many factors, which
are what part of designing the game one is in, experience, and how good at one is at his/her job.
Marital status for this job can be a little rough because if he/she are married then his/her partner
is going to need to understand that he/she is going to work a ridiculous amount of hours and that
he/she will be tired most of the time. Race does not really matter it actually helps when designers
are more diverse because then they know how to get games to appeal to different races and it is
the same thing when it comes to sexual orientation, and religion. The appearance of a video
game design in their work place is casual. Adam said, When I have worked with companies

most of the time we are allowed to wear jeans and a shirt unless we were pitching something
then we need to dress up in a dress shirt, slacks, and a tie (Grayson). The attitude of video game
designers is probably a little stressful because they are always trying to come up with new ideas,
and if they are not doing that they are working on something they have already come up with the
idea for.
Believing talks about why he/she would want to be in this discourse. I interviewed my brother
who is going to graduate school starting this fall at FIEA to get a M.S. in Interactive
Entertainment. I asked him why he wants to make video games for a living and he answered, To
me I do not think that making video games seems like a job because it is something that I love to
doing. I also find it interesting to make games that appeal to me, because I know there are other
people who will find what I make just as entertaining as I do when I play the game. I also
interviewed one of my brothers friends that is currently at FIEA getting her M.S. in Interactive
Entertainment, her name is Alexis. I asked her what made her choose to want to have a job in
video game designing she answered, I want to make video games because they are just
something that I love and I could see myself being happy making them for the rest of my life
(De Girolami). What I gathered from the both of them is that to be in this discourse community
one needs to love video games, and love the thought of making them.
This brings me to valuing which are the methods of pursuing the goals. When I asked Adam
what his values were he answered, I feel that video games are a way to entertain people, and
help people develop a more creative mind. I then asked Alexis what her values were and her
answer was, I hope that I can create video games that can attract everyone, and I want to make
family orientated games. I want to do this because I feel that by doing this I could give families
another way of bonding (De Girolami). What I got from Adam and Alexis is that they both want
to entertain people with their games that they hope to create in the future. I also took from them
that their main value to be in video game design one needs to want to help people through video
games and believe that they can be helpful.

Bibliography
Cezzar, Ruknet. A Guide to Programming Languages: Overview and Comparison. Boston:
Artech House, 1995. Print.
De Girolami, Alexis. Telephone interview. 22 July 2012.
Gee, James Paul. Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction. Writing about Writing a
College Reader. By Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston/New York: Bedford/St.
Martins, 2011. 481-97. Print.
Grayson, Adam J.S. Telephone interview. 22 July 2012.
Ryan, Jeff. Super Mario How Nintendo Conquered America. New York: Penguin Group, 2011.
Print.