My name is Shen, a freshmen at the New York City College of Technology. There’s currently two major I want to pursue, Communication Design and Accounting. It is very hard for me to decide since I find both majors very suitable for me. However, after taking the time to consider what is better for me, I decided to pick Communication Design. The reason why I choose this major is because of my passions for video games. I always been a big fan of video games ever since I was little. It is amazing how designers can develop interesting stories and 3-D animated or realistic characters that attracts our attentions. As time passes, I realized that I want to become a Game Designer because of my passions for video games. In the career field, video games is one of the world’s fastest growing industries, it contribute billions of dollars to U.S economy each year. In other words, there will be tons of opportunities in the Communication Design field. Besides that, what is better than turning your passion into a career you love? Plus I am a gamer myself too, which allows me to gather information and create something that will attracts the players. More importantly, I want the opportunity to create my own game. Therefore I believe this will be the best career for me. In order for me to succeed in this major, I need to cultivate conceptual thinking, creativity, and collaborative skills.

In New York City College of Technology, the department offer a two-year foundation to all students. “We offer a two-year foundation to give students a strong base in visual expression and communication.” (Biehl, par.3) The main task of the program is to prepare students to contribute in the field of advertising and design by cultivating conceptual thinking, creativity and collaborative skills. The program have the basic courses such as; drawing, design, color, typography, and photography. The important part is taking those courses and learn from it so that I can use the knowledge to succeed in the game design field. For this career, I learn that it deals with thinking critically and creatively to solve visual communication problems and develop multiple viable solutions to design problems. According to City College of Technology’s Catalog, The career options for Communication Design are “Advertising design graphic design, web design broadcast design/motion graphics or animation/illustration/game design graphics and explore the multi-faceted world of communication design.”(City Tech, par.1) As the options are listed above, there will be a lot options to choose from. After I graduate at City College of Technology, I want to become a Game Designer.

First, the reason why I think this is the best career for me is because I am the type of person that can think really far and deep. In other words, making the right decision, making smart choices, and planning ahead to achieve the optimum outcome. Therefore using Conceptual thinking can benefit me in this career field because it allows me to perceive and imagine, predict, hypothesize, conclude, and reflect. Also, I understand the importance of visual information such as pictures. A picture is worth a thousand words and it is a better way for people to learn. Sometimes when we learn things through words, it becomes difficult to understand. Of course, there’s still a lot of things I still need to learn such as how things are associated and connected. By using the visioning tools and demonstrate use of them, it showed me how things are connected and associated. “We do love learning and we’re good at it, but it is often frustrating in the real world because you don’t always get to go at the pace you want to go and often don’t immediately see the application of what you’re doing.” (Stuart, par.7) To understand things, we have to control the pace of learning so that we can take in all the information to something our brain will understand.

The second reason why this is the best career is because I am a gamer myself. I basically learned most of my English by playing video games through communicating with the other players online. “With games, learning is the drug.” (Koster, par.3) In other words, video games made learning fun and much easier for our brain to take in information. Games are fun because they teach us interesting things and they do it in a way that our brains prefer through system. It is my dream to have a job that is related to video games. Making games is still work, but work can be fun and it is hugely important to try to find something you are just satisfied doing every day. “Games allow us to create these little systems where learning is controlled and taken advantage of really brilliantly.” (Robertson, par.7) We can learn things better because we are learning in a system which allows our brain to absorb the information better. Therefore, I believe this will be the best career for me.

As I stated in the previous paragraph, it is my dream to have a job that is related to video games. I want to be able to create amazing games such as League of Legend, Call of Duty and World of Warcraft. When it comes to trying new games, I can tell which is a good game is and which is not. In order word, I am just a really experienced gamer. What attracts the people to play video games are the ones that provide us with interesting tools such as weapons or magic or surprise events. “Games give you a space where you have power.” (Robertson, par.10) It allow players to do something they can’t do in real life. Therefore, it makes them feel like they have the power, and it is a reason that attracts people to play video games. Overall, games must have something to capture our attention. However, I believe I will be successful at this career field because as an experienced game player, I understand what it takes to make a good game. Therefore, this is the best career for me as it gives me the opportunity to create my own game.

In New York City College of Technology, It offers a lot of courses that will prepare me to become a designer. The department provides course such as drawing, design, color, typography. “Courses will prepare students to meet the challenges of the profession: senior project, portfolio, the design team and an internship.” (City Tech, par.1) By taking these course it will help me develop conceptual thinking, creativity and collaborative skills which will lead to becoming a designer. New York City College of Technology also notify me when there’s internship opportunities, which I fell really thankful. Being an internship is really important because you get to experience what Communication Designers will be doing, and it prepares you in the future when you graduate. New York City College of Technology also help me enhance my skills such as thinking critically and creatively to solve visual communication problems and multiple viable solutions to design problems to prepare me for the future.

As you can see, New York City College of Technology prepares me for my future. It provides everything I will need for Communication Design. For those who have a strong passion for video games like me, I believe this is the best career option for you because this is a job where you can design games, characters, graphics, modeling, and more. Basically it is fun every day at work. However, things will get complicated as you advance, I recommend to you guys to have the basic skills such as drawing, design, color, typography and photography so that it can give you a strong base in visual expression and communication.

Works Cited

Biehl, Mary A. “A Message from the Chair.” Department of Communication Design.” Web. 10 May 2015.

New York City College of Technology (City Tech). “Communication Design.” New York City College of Technology college catalog 2014-2015. Web. 10 May 2015.

“The Seduction Secrets of Video Game Designers.” Game Culture. Keith Stuart, n.d. Web. 10 May 2015.

“Sally Reynolds.” Real Life Stories. Sally Reynolds, n.d. Web. 10 May 2015.