+1 Love to All Party Members
“Cho Aniki already perfected shoot ’em ups, so what are we even doing?”We have all asked this question in our time here. This way of thinking is not helpful. We as game students already have so many new challenges and responsibilities to navigate, an existential crisis over our work is the last thing we need. Each of us is having our own struggles, but we are also part of a group. While that means we potentially have more support, it can bring its own difficulties as well. As part of my role in the group is to bring anyone together so we can function effectively, but it is also so much more than that. “L’enfer, c’est les autres,” the notorious phrase from Sartre’s No Exit (Huis Clos), is generally translated into English as “hell is other people.” While the latter phrase is true, it is not what Sartre meant. It does bring to mind, however, the struggle of interacting with others, which is compounded in times when one must work together to achieve a goal. The right atmosphere can be a great benefit in these kinds of situations. For my own group, I have established early on that informality and openness are encouraged. We all want to be comfortable around each other. This means having a place where we feel safe and welcomed. I think an open and informal environment is a good way to accomplish this. Meetings with my group often involve good amounts of humor and discussions of things other than our work. I make sure to always allow room for the others to speak their minds and to ensure that no one would ever be disrespected or ostracized in the group. We all have different opinions and we all want to be heard. When these conflict at times, I find the group typically does not have to compromise. Rather, we collaborate. What is the difference? In collaboration, everyone works together to avoid any conflicts that would lead to a compromise as a solution. Deadlines and duties along with our own inexperience can really wear us down. It is important for us to take time for ourselves. Everyone needs to be able to go home, relax, and watch some Minecraft videos on YouTube. Refresh and recharge. I discourage working on weekends, and I always make sure to check with everyone on whether they feel they have too much work. Or too little. I emphasize that if we do not get so some things in our backlog, it is not a big deal. We can cut as much as we need to from the game. That is how we have set it up.  A welcoming family does not necessarily make a happy family member. I cannot think of anyone whom I would choose to talk to every single day. Not to mention that the daily standup meetings can be a hassle. You start to associate the stress of work with those you work with. It can sometimes take a lot to not throw an Acer Aspire V Nitro which has an NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1060 with 6 GB of dedicated memory and an Intel® i7-7700HQ quad-core 2.80 GHz processor at someone’s head. And sometimes things are out of our control. We just have to be prepared to deal with this if it happens. There may be external stressors: just look at the state of the world and try to feel positive. I, for one, have refused to follow current events since I found out there was a rapping ninja on Naruto. I also understand the effects of mental illness. I am bipolar II (the Sequel) myself and I have problems with anxiety. Ask me about group therapy! I will tell you that it is boring. With the other measures put into place, we can avoid most of the punches. Not all of them. We have to be there for each other. Or away from each if that is what is needed. My team is small, which makes a lot of this sort of thing easier. Everyone is motivated; at least the others are, anyway. Everyone contributes. Maybe if we had done things differently, things would not be going as well, though. If, in the future, unfortunate circumstances occur, I think we are prepared.  |