Blog Task Week 1 - First Post About The First Week Of Being A Student Games Designer

Starting Out As A Games Design Student

After a week of introductory sessions in which we met fellow students/lecturers and were handed our timetables for the upcoming weeks, we began to settle in nicely to the course.

After already having lectures on the introduction to design methods and the introduction of 3D modelling this week, we were introduced to critical games studies. After being talked through the module break down and shown various suggested readings and hints that we will be delving deeper into the history of games, we were told we would be assessed on managing our own blog... and here it is.

For the first post in my blog I will be telling you a little bit about myself, specifically in digitally and non digitally terms, so that you can gain an understanding of why I am a Games Design Student and mainly why I love games...

Q: What is the title of the book (fiction) you are currently reading (or last that you read)?
Q: What it the title of the book (non-fiction) you are currently reading (or last that you read)?

A:  To kill two birds with one stone, strangely, I am not at all into reading. I guess I would be if I spent more time going out of my way to purposely read, but in general, it doesn't excite me much. That is not say I have never picked up a book in my entire life, because I have. The last fiction book I read was probably a toss up between the last Harry Potter book, The Deathly Hallows, or the last Lord of the Rings book, the Return of the King. It was so along ago that I read a book from start to finish, that I couldn't tell you which one I read last. How ever I can confirm that I have actually read both the Harry Potter books and the Lord of the Rings books in their entirety.

In terms of non fictional books, well that was probably a couple of days ago when I read a chapter from The Art of Games Design: A Book Of Lenses by Jesse Schell. Honestly its probably a book I will be reading much more of, not only for academic purposes but it was actually quite an interesting read considering my passion of games.

Q: What is the last live performance (music, dance or drama) you attended?

A: I last went to the Royal Albert Hall to see the genius himself, Mr Noel Gallagher, perform live for the teenage cancer trust. Music is another big part of my life its something I enjoy and is something that contributes to my mentality daily. I've been to plenty of live music performances before too, including Linkin Park, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, I have even been to the V Festival in Chelmsford an impressive four times where I have seen the like of Chase and Status and The Prodigy.

Q: What is the title of the last film you saw at the cinema or watched on DVD?

A: I watch a lot of films, on DVD and at the cinema. The last of which I saw was the most recent Superman movie, Man Of Steel. Without spoiling the film I enjoyed it compared to the other Superman films because it showed Superman in a new light, a weaker Superman that in order to gain his powers has to find out where he originates from. I prefer watching movies at the cinemas, mainly because I like things to be louder and everyone likes loudness and seat rumbling. Going to the cinemas reminds me of when I always used to go a lot with my dad.

Q: How often do you read a newspaper?

A: Quite simply, never, boring over exaggerated garbage is the view that I have always had over newspapers. The only time I ever pick one up is too view the sports section on the back when I am queing in the barbers, but I suppose even that is something every man feels obliged to do as part of the standard barber shop routine...

Q: Which art gallery/museum/exhibition did you last visit?

A: Eurogamer Expo 2013. This was a hugely interesting and popular event, mainly due to the fact that the next generation of consoles is literally looming around the corner. I went with fellow students of my Games Design course and actually we were free to explore at our will, which was a good thing because we all had different gaming interests. For me it was all about the consoles, especially the next gen ones. I've never been a huge fan of PC gaming, probably because I have never owned a PC with a good enough spec to run games, but most probably because I enjoy gaming online with my mates and my mates have always owned consoles. So for me to get my eager mitts on the next gen consoles was something I was very much looking forward too. My first taste of next gen was when I sat  down to play Need for Speed Rivals on the Playstation 4. My first impressions, graphics, hugely improved, but I expected nothing less. I got my hands on a five minute demo where I played as the police chasing down rival street racers (played by others around me). The Playstation 4 was impressive, but for me Sony have always been second best to Microsoft and that is why I went straight after the Xbox One. After queing for forty five minutes to play a sixteen vs sixteen team death match on Battlefield 4 for the Xbox One, I finally got fifteen minutes with Microsoft's console. The first thing I did instead of choosing my load out and running into battle was to invert the Y axis control because I am weird like that, then I hit the dashboard button. I was desperate to play around with the new dashboard and see how things had changed, but due to restricted access and some frowns from the staff, I thought it was best to jump back into the game. Without going too much in to detail, basically I was blown away with the scale of the game and the sheer number of things happening on screen. I cant remember the last time I was so immersed into a game then I was for that seemingly very short fifteen minutes of game play. Oh and I came sixth on my team, which out of sixteen is not too shabby I guess.

Q: How many hours a week do you spend playing video games?
Q: How many hours a week do you spend playing games other than video games?

A: How long is a piece of string? Every single day I pick up the controller to my Xbox 360. I love playing console games, occasionally mobile games on my iPad, but most definitely console games. The best thing for me about gaming is sharing the experience online with friends. Whether its a first person shooter, racing, football or more recently sandbox epicness, I am always playing with someone online. For me, single player games are not as appealing as multiplayer games. Even if I am playing a game online against people who are not my friends, I would rather be online that playing single player, most of the time. Not to say that I do not play single player games, I have played through Skyrim and enjoyed that a lot and also actually quite enjoy the Splinter Cell series, although more recent Splinter Cell titles have included multiplayer which is an added bonus. On a normal day I would say i spend between two to three hours playing video games, on a lazy day perhaps a day off with no essentials to do, maybe as long as six hours playing games. I don't think I am yet to meet a fellow gamer who would say they play any less than that either... yet. 

In terms of playing games that are not video games, occasionally perhaps once a week, I play football for 90 minutes.