LadleTaps

 Underneath is an excerpt from my upcoming book, "The Myth of Ethics." It is still in its draft form, but it is coming along. Plato asserts that the woes besetting Athens stem from the flawed education of its youth, influenced by the values propagated by Homeric heroes. Death, murder, thievery, enslavement, and sexual assault pervade the Iliad, shaping the minds of the young. Thus, Plato advocates for censorship and superior educational modalities. "The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future in life," he wrote. This perspective should not seem foreign even to our contemporary sensibilities. In many societies today, explicit content and violent imagery are restricted for younger audiences. Plato's ideal for child education lies in the imparting of wisdom and ethical virtues—elements we curiously find in modern media like Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street. Kindness reigns supreme in these programs, embodying Platonic values. However, ancie...

At one point in my career, I was asked if I had any suggestions on how to be a lead or audio director by adhering to philosophical ideals or mindsets. At the time, I had no answer I was willing to propose as a heuristic for effective leadership. Now that I've completed my work on Baldur's Gate 3 and advanced further in my career, I find myself revisiting this question. As someone who both studies and teaches ethical and moral philosophies, I should surely have some insights, both from my own experiences and from history. So, I shall attempt to address this query with some points that have recently become important to me. A Good Leader is Impervious to Corruption Corruption manifests in various forms, but the most insidious is financial. Leaders often succumb to the allure of monetary gain, jeopardizing the well-being of those they are meant to guide. I have worked under leads who were so preoccupied with their earnings that they deflected blame onto others to avoid criticism. I...

Having worked in the industry for a long time, I have seen both great and terrible audio leads, supervisors, and directors. People who will either encourage, destroy or do something in-between with those they profess to care for. Sadly, I was part of the column that said, "terrible." When I started at a game company some years ago, they decided to ask me if I could be their audio director. They presented the money I would make, which was half the reason I accepted it, and they spoke using 5-dollar words about my importance in that position. That was the other half of why I accepted it. Those two things became so ingrained into my daily routine that when sound designers presented me with WIP, I did not apply the suitable "game" to the process and instead went hunting for what was wrong. I heard rumors of private channels being made on Slack to vent about me, but I thought little of it. I mean, I made more money than them, and someone had described to me before I acce...

When it comes down to hiring in the audio industry, there are probably a dozen or more articles that meander about what you need to be hired. As someone who worked in the audio industry, from the movie business to video games, I thought I would put my own two cents in that slot, especially in the video game industry machine—both from the side that was hired and did the hiring. I hope something new can be gleaned from my ramblings rather than just adding to the white noise. I should add that these are my own opinions and don't represent the industry as a whole; you'll find some game studios tackling this differently. However, these are things I've noticed in the 10+ years to be the most common and what I personally look for and expect.  Junior Sound Designers:  Sound reel: 30 seconds to 1 minute long; Can be sound redesigns of other games (gameplay is a bonus); Can be a scene from a student film; Start with your best work; No music; No long introductions or logos. I don...