What obstacles do or don’t exist to a teenager living at home becoming a professional game developer like Matthew Smith or John George Jones?

Write a 2-3-page response to the following readings, taking the discussion questions below as a starting point. You can post your submission as a Word, OpenOffice or PDF file. I’m not going to assign you a specific font size and paragraph spacing, just try to stay in the spirit of the assignment, okay? This is about giving you a chance to explore your own thoughts and reactions on the subjects we’re discussing.

Readings:

Spacewar! by Stewart Brand for Rolling Stone (1972)
https://www.wheels.org/spacewar/stone/rolling_stone.html
or
https://archive.org/details/BrandSpacewarRollingStone

Soft & Cuddly (Chapter 5) by Jarrett Kobek

Questions to consider:

How does the moment in computing Stewart Brand covers compare to how we use our networks and devices today? How do you think the MIT researchers’ hopes and anxieties have played out in the time since?
Jarrett Kobek describes the ZX Spectrum as an open platform, one that teenagers were able to develop for. In what ways are some contemporary game platforms open or closed? What obstacles do or don’t exist to a teenager living at home becoming a professional game developer like Matthew Smith or John George Jones?
Over the last fifty years, how has technology changed and failed to change who is developing games?

Tips:

There aren’t right answers to these questions! This is an exploration. If one of these questions sets you off down a 2-3-page journey, don’t worry if you don’t have room to fit the others.
Be sure to use quotes from the readings to support your claims. When quoting an author, make sure it’s clear which author you’re quoting.

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