Call me Sam. Spring semester's in swing and I'm starting SGD (simulation and game development). The first week was a little hectic, getting all the software for each class downloaded and every computer I came across was sending me raspberries. I was beginning to wonder if I made a bad choice. Now that everything's smoothed out I'm having fun playing with the programs and learning about game design. I'm a creative type. I love to draw and create things with my hands and now I have discovered a whole new medium to create with and I'm having fun making and tweaking things.
I wouldn't say I'm a hardcore gamer. I grew up playing Super Mario Bros., Oregon Trail, and Ms. Pac-Man at school, a friend's house or the arcade. I didn't get my first console until I was 15 and even then I never really played much. Then my hubby bought a game called Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic for himself to play. I watched and thought it too complex to even mess with, but for some reason I picked it up one night after he had gone to bed. After and hour I was hooked. A week later I had finished it. My hubby still has yet to make it past Taris. What had seemed so complex while I was watching my hubby play became easy once I was led through a cleverly hidden tutorial. In about fifteen minutes I knew how to control my character, level her up and access the menus and items that I would need throughout the game Ever since then I've been in love with RPG's ( and Bioware) and have played KOTOR 2, Jade Empire, Lost Odyssey, Dragon Age: Origins and Awakenings, the Assassin's Creed and Fable trios and I'm now waiting with bated breath for March 8th when I can pick up my copy of Dragon Age 2.
All these games share great stories, characters, puzzles and fighting. I also found that I can play through again with better strategy and kick arsery. The most important part is the user interface. A game can have all those great things, but if the controls are buggy the player winds up cursing at the screen while flinging their controller across the room at speeds that would kill a passerby (not that I've ever done this.... *cough-Altair stuck on a ledge- cough*). Everything else becomes for naught if you can't even work the character and menus and it's at that point you realize the only game you can play with it.... is frisbee.
