We received this email through our contact page from a fan who was looking for a little advice.
Hello,
I am contacting you on behalf of my shattered dreams. I have had the same dream in mind since I can remember. This goal helped me through many a difficult time in my life, ranging from the abuse suffered at the hands of my step-mother to the mundane day to day interactions “suffered” at work.
Now, I recently moved back to CA to further pursue my dream of Video Game “STARDOM”, what I mean is I wish to become a developer or a game artist.
I have the skills needed just no experience. I am about to just GIVE UP. I mean I do not wish to but there seems to be nothing awarded for tenacity. I have the drive but slowly the will is waning away. I do not know what to do, should I continue through another disappointing year of rejections or just give in to the idea that I will never achieve my goal. I need a little guidance, positive reinforcement or something.
As a Gamer to a Gamer…help…I do not know what to do any longer..I don’t want to give up but it seems I have no choice but to leave and let my dream die.
Thank you for reaching out, and let me first and foremost say that I am by no means someone who pretends to know all the right or wrong answers, however I would definitely offer you this based on my own experiences.
I’m sorry that you find yourself down, but I would encourage you to focus on this line in your email: “I have the skills needed just no experience.”
The fact that you know without a shred of a doubt that you have the skills to make it in the business is a huge advantage. The video game industry is a very collaborative business, yet is also extremely competitive, in essence, it can be very fundamentally broken down to two groups of people: those who gave up and those who didn’t!
Trust in your skills and the rest will fall into place. Do not fight to pursue “STARDOM” but to develop your passion for what you love doing and working as hard as you can to see that you reach your fullest POTENTIAL!
Just yesterday we reported a story of a fan who was thinking about leaving the game industry altogether, assuming it just “wasn’t for him.” He has gone on to launch his first video game through his own website. That’s not to say you have to follow the same path, but it shows we are ultimately the ones who decide our own fate. The fact that you know what you’re passionate about and believe in what you can do actually puts you AHEAD of many people.
Whether or not you want your dream to die should ultimately fall on how much you genuinely want to be in the video game industry. If you firmly believe you have what it takes and are willing to overcome whatever challenges come your way to achieve success and make a career, than your answer should be simple.
Make sure your decide the answer FOR YOURSELF — not because of what I or anyone else tells you. It will be YOU that has to deal with the conflicts and challenges of working in a hyper competitive industry, make the decision for yourself and trust in everything that you do.
Winners aren’t defined by how often they win but by how much they refuse to lose. You only lose when you quit… Anything else is making progress in one way or another. Patience is an amaxing ally.
You might not always get the result you hoped for but if you work as hard as you can and make decisions you believe help move you towards your goals, there’s no way you can lose!
Jace Hall – who has written 43 posts on The Jace Hall Show.
Aside from being the Executive Producer and star of The Jace Hall show, Jace Hall is involved in many other productions and has numerous creative titles under his belt across multiple entertainment mediums.
Click here to view Jace’s music videos, including his most recent Mortal Kombat video.
Jace’s daily job is to actively creates new film ideas, television shows, video games and internet content of behalf of his company HDFILMS INC.
Jace has created and produced numerous commercially successful video games and franchises, television shows (he is the Executive Producer of the hit ABC television series “V” for instance), critically acclaimed feature films (such as PVC-1 ) as well as fresh new internet series innovations like The Jace Hall Show, Creepshow:RAW and CHADAM.

Logan Huffman wants to know who is posting comments about him online and asks Jace for help. Meanwhile Joe Flanigan is caught again flirting in the V costume. Jace heads to the set of Law and Order: SVU to catch up with Ice – T and Coco and the Starcraft II team gets “rushed” by World of Warcraft Lead Designer, Jeff Kaplan.
Jace has decided to take advantage of his co-hosting duties at the Sony Online Entertainment Fan Faire celebration, by showing his new music video to the thousands of EverQuest players in attendance, much to the dismay of the crowd. That didn’t stop one enthusiastic guest from doing something radical.