No child's play

IT WAS his teacher who inspired Jason Chionh to pursue a career in video games, but not in the way you would expect.

While doing his final-year Computer Science project at Victoria Junior College, Jason was discouraged from proposing a games-related one. According to his teacher, his design could 'never compete' with the commercial games that are in the market.

'I didn't do a games project but it got me thinking that maybe I can do something in the future,' recalls the 33-year-old, who grew up playing Wing Commander, Monkey Island and Ultima role-playing PC games.

After receiving a computer science degree from the National University of Singapore (NUS), he followed it up with a Master of Science, all the while dreaming of entering the fledgling game industry.

'There were no game-related studies but I knew what I wanted to do and was prepared to move overseas if I had to.'

There was also the fantasy of creating his own game with a few friends, if no one would hire him.

All this while, he kept his aspirations from his family and friends, knowing that job opportunities were scant, with gaming still considered mere child's play.

In 2002, he applied through the Economic Development Board job attachment program to work with noted Japanese games company Koei but was not selected.

He found a job as a full-time teaching assistant at NUS and tried again the following year. This time, he was accepted by Sega, another noted Japanese games developer and publisher, and went on an 18-month stint.

What he found really useful was the on-the-job training and experience he gained from working on console games.

One title he worked on was Altered Beast for the Sony PlayStation 2 console.

He worked on all the programming aspects for implementing the fight scenario, the artificial intelligence behaviour of the boss character, the visual effects and the sound and animation of the characters, to name a few.

Upon returning home, he took on a job with G-Gadget, a local start-up working on games for the Nintendo DS-Lite platform.

His parents, however, did not like his job because they felt that game piracy limited any possible success in the industry.

Things took a positive turn when industry giant Lucasfilm of Star Wars fame announced that it was setting up an animation and games arm here.

Jason successfully applied to Lucasfilm Animation Singapore and soon found himself surrounded by his childhood movie and game heroes, from the Jedi masters, Indiana Jones to Guybrush Threepwood.

'I heard they were hiring and you don't question yourself if you want to join Lucasfilm,' he said.

As a games software engineer, he is currently working on several unannounced game projects. He already has one title under his belt - last year's Jedi Alliance game for the DS Lite.

His involvement in this game was more extensive, as he worked on programming both the engine for the game and the game systems, including the sound, visual effects and combat systems.

His parents have also come around and accepted his chosen profession.

For Jason, his long-time dream lives on. Although he is part of a large team working on several games, he still wants to create his own video game one day.

To turn that dream into reality, he realises it is going to take more hard work at Lucasfilm.

'What I find most valuable is to be able to work with a very talented pool of people here. We are able to openly discuss ideas and bounce these ideas off one another,' he said.

'Because of this, I have learnt a lot and I feel there is so much more that I can learn.'

After you read the above article, I would like you to answer a few questions

a) What are your views in pursuing a career with the gaming industry, especially in Singapore?

Dawn and Wei Ling:
I think that it is unpractical to pursue a career with the gaming industry. Singapore is an urban and realistic country. Although some people do succeed in this pursue, it is only a small percentage of people. Some of the parents complain about the violence and poorly developed skills caused by this unhealthy gamings. We strongly discourage teenagers to stop their addictions and reduce their over-spent times on the internet. Instead, they should do other healthier and more meaningful things like studying and sports etc.

b) What qualities does Jason Chionh have that allow him to do what he wish to do?

Dawn and Wei Ling:
He had inspiration and support from his teacher. He had a strong will to pursue his dreams and persevered through the setbacks. It was his life-long dream. He applied what he learnt in schooling/education to his career and succeeded.

John was checking his email one day, and he saw this
particular one, which was sent to him from someone he did not know. The subject
of the email sounded urgent, so instead of deleting it, John clicked on it to
read it.

Subject: 81 feared dead from swine flu in Mexico

I sent
this email to you with a very heavy heart. I’m sure you have heard of the recent
swine flu outbreak. Novel influenza A (H1N1) is a new flu virus of swine origin
that was first detected in April, 2009. The virus is infecting people and is
spreading from person-to-person, and has sparked a growing outbreak of illness
in the United States with an increasing number of cases being reported
internationally as well.

To date, A/H1N1 flu has killed 337 people in
121 nations and regions and the number of the total infected exceeded 80,000, a
top official of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday. There are
already 1003 cases in Singapore, a country known for its stringent health
measures.

Just FYI, in 1918, there was flu pandemic -commonly known as
the Spanish flu- which was caused by an unusually severe and deadly Influenza A
virus strain of subtype H1N1, claimed the lives of 50-100 million people.
Researchers are speculating if the one that is ongoing will have that high
number of death tolls, that is, if the pandemic persists.

I’ve attached
a file on how to protect yourself during this period of outbreak. I sincerely
urged you to take a look at it, so that you can take the said preventive
measures. You are not only protecting yourself, but also the people around you.

My cousin, who lives in Mexico, introduced me to a type of medicine that
is said to work effectively. I’ve also given you the link in the file
attachment. I strongly encourage you to purchase the medicine, as I have also
purchased it myself.


Yours sincerely,
Max Wilkertin

Now,
what should John do? Should he open the file attachment? Should he buy the
medicine?

Dawn:
I think that John should not open the file attachment. However, he could take a look at it. It is quite fake as the News has not announced this "medicine" for H1N1 yet. How could Max Wilkertin's friend know it exists? He should not buy the medicine. It is a scam, to cheat others. They might just pass of normal cough medicine for this "special" H1N1 medicine. I think scam mail like this is a very childish act.

Wei Ling:
I think that John should not open the file attachment. But if he wants to know what is inside the file attachment, he could take a glance of the contents inside. The file attached may contain viruses that will harm the computer. Max Wilkertin may gang up with his cousin and trick him into a trap. John should not buy the medicine, as the medicine may not be effective to the H1N1 flu. It may just be a flu or cough medicine, where you can get all this in hospitals, clinics, or polyclinics. The website that is attached to the file may contain harmful viruses too. In conclusion, this may be a scam mail and the information inside this file is most likely to be fake. This type of mails are normally sent to teenagers like us, and they will try the encourage you to buy the "special" medicine. The people will try to state in the mail that if you forward this message to more than 10 people or something, their lives will be saved, and they will not be affected by the H1N1 virus. People should not be so foolish and believe this type of scam mail. They should just listen to the news so as to update themselves on the latest H1N1 flu condition.

In Session 1, we shared about how your online identity is public, not private, and how you should always be careful what you post online.

Watch the following clip linked below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOwpGF1SOQM
What do you think the clip is trying to share?

Dawn and WeiLing:
We think that the information that we reveal online is freely accessible to anyone and everyone if we did not state who can look at this blog or information. If we did not state who can look at our private information, strangers may think that we need some "love" or some "care" and may call us and they will try and find a chance to meet us. Some people just want to irritate us and annoy us, therefore, if we put our private information online, and everyone can see this information, these people may spam us with lots and lots of mails, messages or advertisements. If you post a "funny" picture online, and you allow everyone to see it, you are being very foolish. These pictures if posted, they will be staying in the system forever. Although you might think that if you deleted the picture, everyone will forget about it and will not tease you about it. If you think that is what happens when you delete something online, you are very wrong.

These pictures will stay in the computer of the system as the people working in this big companies usually clear the things that you have deleted a long long time later. Therefore, to prevent this incident from happening to everybody, you must ensure that the pictures that you post or the messages that you post can be seen by your friends, and friends only. You don't want to be recognized by a crowd of strangers that you don't know, and you would be wondering why do they know your name? You must ensure that the private information they you give can be seen by strangers and "weirdos". So, you can try to hide your identity by using you nickname like "Mistygirl" or "HAHAgirl". In this way, people will not know your real name and your private information.

Stay safe and Have Fun!!!