Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Seminars
So, as a first year at RIT, you have to take Discovery, a one-credit seminar, and, if you're a GDD major, you also have to take GDD Seminar. Both of these seminars try to serve the same purpose, to make your transition from high school to college easier.
As far as I can tell, with Discovery, the effort is mostly too little too late. Now, in case you didn't know, your first week at RIT is spent doing orientation week. This fun little event puts you in an arbitrary group of people that are not of your major, with an orientation assistant that usually knows what they're doing, and tries to get you involved in RIT. Now, this may be your kind of thing. You may enjoy having a group of people that you can hang out with. You may enjoy having your own personal upperclassman to ask questions. You may enjoy all of the activities RIT has planned for you. Personally, all of the ice breakers made me want to cry. I found that spending Wednesday through Sunday doing silly orientation activities didn't do much for me. For one, I'd visited the campus already, so I knew most of this stuff. Two, I don't do well in large groups. I mean, our group had 16 people in it (not counting our OA), so it wasn't that huge, but it wasn't small enough to really get to know anyone. I found the idea of spending 5 days hardcore socializing and then having to dive right into classes exhausting, but it probably just wasn't my thing.
Anyway, the point with Discovery seems to be to extend that orientation week into the rest of the quarter. It seems to want to be an intro to the tools you'll use on campus, etc. The thing is, I still feel like it's not helpful. Orientation week told me things I already knew. Discovery tells me things that I either already can figure out, or are being covered in other classes. In my opinion, the bottom line is this: if you're having trouble, talk your professor. I feel like that would cover everything we're learning in Discovery. Now, it's only week 2 and I could be wrong, but I'm getting a very strong impression. Self-advocate, be able to figure things out on your own.
Now, the GDD seminar on the other hand, is almost entirely different. First off, you're with people of your major, so you know that you have common ground with these people. Second, Andy, if you haven't met him yet, is awesome. I know he teaches a lot of the GDD seminars, and he does teach mine. So far, this course has been about teaching you things you probably didn't know about the campus that would make it more useful. You know, stuff like "Here are the labs where you can print for free," "Here is how you get from this building to that building without ever going outside." It's very specialized and, as far as I can tell, very useful
As far as I can tell, with Discovery, the effort is mostly too little too late. Now, in case you didn't know, your first week at RIT is spent doing orientation week. This fun little event puts you in an arbitrary group of people that are not of your major, with an orientation assistant that usually knows what they're doing, and tries to get you involved in RIT. Now, this may be your kind of thing. You may enjoy having a group of people that you can hang out with. You may enjoy having your own personal upperclassman to ask questions. You may enjoy all of the activities RIT has planned for you. Personally, all of the ice breakers made me want to cry. I found that spending Wednesday through Sunday doing silly orientation activities didn't do much for me. For one, I'd visited the campus already, so I knew most of this stuff. Two, I don't do well in large groups. I mean, our group had 16 people in it (not counting our OA), so it wasn't that huge, but it wasn't small enough to really get to know anyone. I found the idea of spending 5 days hardcore socializing and then having to dive right into classes exhausting, but it probably just wasn't my thing.
Anyway, the point with Discovery seems to be to extend that orientation week into the rest of the quarter. It seems to want to be an intro to the tools you'll use on campus, etc. The thing is, I still feel like it's not helpful. Orientation week told me things I already knew. Discovery tells me things that I either already can figure out, or are being covered in other classes. In my opinion, the bottom line is this: if you're having trouble, talk your professor. I feel like that would cover everything we're learning in Discovery. Now, it's only week 2 and I could be wrong, but I'm getting a very strong impression. Self-advocate, be able to figure things out on your own.
Now, the GDD seminar on the other hand, is almost entirely different. First off, you're with people of your major, so you know that you have common ground with these people. Second, Andy, if you haven't met him yet, is awesome. I know he teaches a lot of the GDD seminars, and he does teach mine. So far, this course has been about teaching you things you probably didn't know about the campus that would make it more useful. You know, stuff like "Here are the labs where you can print for free," "Here is how you get from this building to that building without ever going outside." It's very specialized and, as far as I can tell, very useful
Beginning Japanese I
One thing I can also recommend to first year students at RIT is to change your own schedule. If you're a first year, your schedule is assigned for you, and you can see it through SIS. If you check it as soon as you can, for a while it will just be empty. You can try to sign up for classes, but it will just tell you that first year students will be scheduled by their college. Somewhere around mid-July, your schedule will appear, but you still can't sign up for anything. Eventually, around mid-late-August, SIS will open up for you to edit. If you're in, say, a cultural anthropology class from 6pm to 8pm, and you hate the idea of having a class that late, mess around with the system. Look for an open class at a better time and, once you've found it, drop your cultural anthropology class and sign up for the new one. It's important for you to be in classes that work well for you. It's probably a good idea to check with your academic advisor to make sure your worksheet is up to date though
Due to this sneaky work-around, I was able to take Beginning Japanese I my first quarter. I'm currently the only freshman in my class (though there is a senior in high school who appears to be hanging out with us), but that's okay. The upperclassman don't bite.
Due to this sneaky work-around, I was able to take Beginning Japanese I my first quarter. I'm currently the only freshman in my class (though there is a senior in high school who appears to be hanging out with us), but that's okay. The upperclassman don't bite.
Game Software Development 2
Now, I had AP credit, so I got out of GSD1. This means that for fall quarter, I get to take Game Software Development 2.
At least if you take it fall quarter, GSD2 assumes that you're familiar with Java. The course, however, is taught in C#, so a bit of time is spent switching you from thinking in Java to thinking in C#.
At least if you take it fall quarter, GSD2 assumes that you're familiar with Java. The course, however, is taught in C#, so a bit of time is spent switching you from thinking in Java to thinking in C#.
Intro to Interactive Media: Lecture
It only felt fair at some point to give insight into the classes one might expect to take as a GDD major (for the record, I prefer the term GDD to GD&D because GD&D only evokes strange images of an alternate version of Dungeons and Dragons), so I'll start with Intro to Interactive Media (or IIM).
When I first saw this on my schedule, I thought "Hey! Cool! A Flash course!"
How wrong I was.
This isn't teaching you how to create interactive media (and, in fact, if you were excited about that idea, New Media Development might be more up your alley), but it's more an introduction to the history of interactive media. It shows how media has changed over the past 10, 15 years or so through the development of new technologies.
All in all, it's probably the most interesting history class you'll take, but it is clearly very social sciences-y. The first day, we were assigned a 2000-word paper, due in 3 weeks. No big deal, really, but just not what I was expecting going into the class.
The course has two components, a lecture component, held in a large lecture hall with about 120 students, and a studio component, held in a lab, with maybe 30 or so students. The lecture component is, if you're lucky, an interesting way of learning. I, for instance, am lucky. My professor for this class is Elizabeth Lawley, and she is fantastic. One thing you need for her class is an iClicker (which, thankfully, replaces the book Convergence Culture), which is essentially a little remote with 6 buttons on it. One turns the clicker on and off, and the other 5 represent the choices A, B, C, D, and E. This allows the professor to quickly gauge people's opinions on an issue or how much people understand. Personally, I think it's a fantastic tool that keeps the lectures feel engaging and personal. Lawley is also just a really chill professor.
I've only had one class of the studio component, so I think I'll leave that for another day.
When I first saw this on my schedule, I thought "Hey! Cool! A Flash course!"
How wrong I was.
This isn't teaching you how to create interactive media (and, in fact, if you were excited about that idea, New Media Development might be more up your alley), but it's more an introduction to the history of interactive media. It shows how media has changed over the past 10, 15 years or so through the development of new technologies.
All in all, it's probably the most interesting history class you'll take, but it is clearly very social sciences-y. The first day, we were assigned a 2000-word paper, due in 3 weeks. No big deal, really, but just not what I was expecting going into the class.
The course has two components, a lecture component, held in a large lecture hall with about 120 students, and a studio component, held in a lab, with maybe 30 or so students. The lecture component is, if you're lucky, an interesting way of learning. I, for instance, am lucky. My professor for this class is Elizabeth Lawley, and she is fantastic. One thing you need for her class is an iClicker (which, thankfully, replaces the book Convergence Culture), which is essentially a little remote with 6 buttons on it. One turns the clicker on and off, and the other 5 represent the choices A, B, C, D, and E. This allows the professor to quickly gauge people's opinions on an issue or how much people understand. Personally, I think it's a fantastic tool that keeps the lectures feel engaging and personal. Lawley is also just a really chill professor.
I've only had one class of the studio component, so I think I'll leave that for another day.
Bathrooms
Now, I touched on this in an earlier entry, but I thought it deserved more explanation. Now, I'm a very private person when it comes to stuff like this. The fact that RIT only has one bathroom per floor in the residence halls was the number 1 thing that made me apprehensive about applying. After being here for a week or so, let me say something: it's not that bad.
Now, I may be biased, since my dorm room is pretty much right across the hall from the bathrooms, but it really isn't that bad. The water pressure for the showers (at least in my building) is fantastic, so you're actually getting water sprayed at you, not trickled down from a rusted over shower head. The showers also get pretty hot (not to mention that turning the knob toward hot gives you hotter water, and turning it toward cold gives you colder water, a novelty for some colleges I could mention), which I'm sure will be incredibly convenient in the winter. You also have a pretty good amount of space in the shower stalls, so you can lay out your clothing and stuff. The main problem I could list is that there are only hooks, and no shelves or anything. This is especially bothersome in the actual "wet" zone of the showers, where you pretty much just have to put your shampoo and such on the floor. There is a dish for holding the soap, but...I'm not sure I trust it. All in all though, the showering experience is not as traumatizing as I thought it would be.
My only qualm with the bathrooms is really that the ones in the dorms don't have purse hooks. Seriously. There is no place to put your stuff. I guess don't bring any more than you can fit in your pockets. A problem that was at least in my dorm was that there were also no trashcans in the stalls, but if you have that problem (at any college, I'd assume) just talk to your RA about it. They should take care of it.
Now, I may be biased, since my dorm room is pretty much right across the hall from the bathrooms, but it really isn't that bad. The water pressure for the showers (at least in my building) is fantastic, so you're actually getting water sprayed at you, not trickled down from a rusted over shower head. The showers also get pretty hot (not to mention that turning the knob toward hot gives you hotter water, and turning it toward cold gives you colder water, a novelty for some colleges I could mention), which I'm sure will be incredibly convenient in the winter. You also have a pretty good amount of space in the shower stalls, so you can lay out your clothing and stuff. The main problem I could list is that there are only hooks, and no shelves or anything. This is especially bothersome in the actual "wet" zone of the showers, where you pretty much just have to put your shampoo and such on the floor. There is a dish for holding the soap, but...I'm not sure I trust it. All in all though, the showering experience is not as traumatizing as I thought it would be.
My only qualm with the bathrooms is really that the ones in the dorms don't have purse hooks. Seriously. There is no place to put your stuff. I guess don't bring any more than you can fit in your pockets. A problem that was at least in my dorm was that there were also no trashcans in the stalls, but if you have that problem (at any college, I'd assume) just talk to your RA about it. They should take care of it.
Creepers
Now, this is a topic that will mean a lot to the females at RIT, and maybe not as much to the people applying. First off, RIT is a fantastic school, as far as I can tell. The GD&D program appears to be fantastic (keep in mind, this is week 2) but there is only one problem: the other people in the major.
Now, I don't mean to be rude, but this is a huge problem. First off, you may know about RIT's gender ratio of 7:3, guys to girls. This may not seem that bad to you. After all, this is a tech school, but keep in mind, that's the entire school. If you're applying to a technical major, such as game design, this ratio feels a lot closer to 9:1, if even. I'm not saying that this is innately bad. I, personally, get along a lot better with guys than with girls. In general, I don't find that it's a bad thing. The only problem comes in when you realize that a lot of the people who apply to RIT were the geeks, the loners, the nerds at their high school. Again, you may not think that's such a big deal, but honestly, there are a lot of social skills people are missing out on.
There are a lot of genuinely nice, polite guys at RIT. Rochester in general seems like a very polite place. People go way out of their way to hold doors open (something entirely unheard of where I come from). People smile when you pass them in the hallway. Overall, I'd say that it's a nice group of people. I haven't really met anyone that just seemed like a pretentious jerk (Of course, I've definitely heard of a few. My advice is just to stay away from them, if you do). The problem is that people, guys especially, don't seem to get how they come off. One of my friends, for instance, walked a girl back to her dorm, and gave her a hug goodbye. That may sound entirely fine to you. On the other hand, this girl had some guy she doesn't know talk to her, follow her back to her dorm, and then try to touch her. It may be the fault of the guys; it might even be the fault of the girls, but seriously, a lot of these guys come off as highly creeperish.
If you're a girl at RIT, be careful not to just be overly nice to everyone. Don't give out your cell phone number to everyone who asks, because some people just will. It can feel awkward to say no to such requests, but just do. Trust me, you don't want some of the texts people start sending you. Don't let people you don't really know know where you live. Yes, the buildings are key card locked and each room locks individually, but that doesn't keep you from feeling freaked out when you know that that kid you thought was kinda forward, but sweet, turns into a full-on stalker. It's just not something you want to deal with. There's no harm in not giving out your cell number to everyone (in fact, it gets really hard to remember which "John" it was that you added to your phone when you feel like you've met 12 Johns in the past week), and there's no harm in hanging out in the campus center, or another public area.
If you're a guy at RIT, just try to be aware of how your actions come off. Even if you mean no ill will, a lot of guys on campus seem to. Keep in mind that the girls quickly learn that a lot of the guys here are creeps. If you make an effort to actually make yourself a person she'd remember before offering your cell phone number, you've set yourself apart from the thousands of other guys on this campus. It may not be your fault, and under normal connotations, you may not seem creepy, but you're fighting the uphill battle, at least in the Golisano College, that you're pretty much predefined as a creeper.
Another thing that's an issue among guys and girls seems to be the lack of personal hygiene. Now, I heard professors mention it and thought they were joking, but no, seriously. It's wonderful when you can sit in a room for class and not smell the person next to you's body odor. It's wonderful and rare. I'm really not sure what it is. The guys have given up on getting girls, and vice versa, so no one cares about their upkeep? Just, trust me, no matter how unpopular you were back home, there are probably at least dozens of people like you at RIT. However, one thing no one likes is someone who smells. Just take showers. Wear deodorant. Trust me, we'll love you for it. My morning routine consists of brushing my teeth, brushing my hair, getting dressed, and leaving. It takes about 10 minutes and isn't that hard. Just do it. Please.
Note that I didn't mention showering, which is also a must (and something it seems like people forget?). If you shower when you get home from class, the bathrooms (at least the girls' rooms) are pretty empty, which means you can just do your business and get back to your dorm. It's not a big deal; it's not socially awkward. Besides, the showers at RIT kind of rule. Again, please, just do it.
Now, I don't mean to be rude, but this is a huge problem. First off, you may know about RIT's gender ratio of 7:3, guys to girls. This may not seem that bad to you. After all, this is a tech school, but keep in mind, that's the entire school. If you're applying to a technical major, such as game design, this ratio feels a lot closer to 9:1, if even. I'm not saying that this is innately bad. I, personally, get along a lot better with guys than with girls. In general, I don't find that it's a bad thing. The only problem comes in when you realize that a lot of the people who apply to RIT were the geeks, the loners, the nerds at their high school. Again, you may not think that's such a big deal, but honestly, there are a lot of social skills people are missing out on.
There are a lot of genuinely nice, polite guys at RIT. Rochester in general seems like a very polite place. People go way out of their way to hold doors open (something entirely unheard of where I come from). People smile when you pass them in the hallway. Overall, I'd say that it's a nice group of people. I haven't really met anyone that just seemed like a pretentious jerk (Of course, I've definitely heard of a few. My advice is just to stay away from them, if you do). The problem is that people, guys especially, don't seem to get how they come off. One of my friends, for instance, walked a girl back to her dorm, and gave her a hug goodbye. That may sound entirely fine to you. On the other hand, this girl had some guy she doesn't know talk to her, follow her back to her dorm, and then try to touch her. It may be the fault of the guys; it might even be the fault of the girls, but seriously, a lot of these guys come off as highly creeperish.
If you're a girl at RIT, be careful not to just be overly nice to everyone. Don't give out your cell phone number to everyone who asks, because some people just will. It can feel awkward to say no to such requests, but just do. Trust me, you don't want some of the texts people start sending you. Don't let people you don't really know know where you live. Yes, the buildings are key card locked and each room locks individually, but that doesn't keep you from feeling freaked out when you know that that kid you thought was kinda forward, but sweet, turns into a full-on stalker. It's just not something you want to deal with. There's no harm in not giving out your cell number to everyone (in fact, it gets really hard to remember which "John" it was that you added to your phone when you feel like you've met 12 Johns in the past week), and there's no harm in hanging out in the campus center, or another public area.
If you're a guy at RIT, just try to be aware of how your actions come off. Even if you mean no ill will, a lot of guys on campus seem to. Keep in mind that the girls quickly learn that a lot of the guys here are creeps. If you make an effort to actually make yourself a person she'd remember before offering your cell phone number, you've set yourself apart from the thousands of other guys on this campus. It may not be your fault, and under normal connotations, you may not seem creepy, but you're fighting the uphill battle, at least in the Golisano College, that you're pretty much predefined as a creeper.
Another thing that's an issue among guys and girls seems to be the lack of personal hygiene. Now, I heard professors mention it and thought they were joking, but no, seriously. It's wonderful when you can sit in a room for class and not smell the person next to you's body odor. It's wonderful and rare. I'm really not sure what it is. The guys have given up on getting girls, and vice versa, so no one cares about their upkeep? Just, trust me, no matter how unpopular you were back home, there are probably at least dozens of people like you at RIT. However, one thing no one likes is someone who smells. Just take showers. Wear deodorant. Trust me, we'll love you for it. My morning routine consists of brushing my teeth, brushing my hair, getting dressed, and leaving. It takes about 10 minutes and isn't that hard. Just do it. Please.
Note that I didn't mention showering, which is also a must (and something it seems like people forget?). If you shower when you get home from class, the bathrooms (at least the girls' rooms) are pretty empty, which means you can just do your business and get back to your dorm. It's not a big deal; it's not socially awkward. Besides, the showers at RIT kind of rule. Again, please, just do it.
Welcome to my 2 hours between classes
So, my name is Kelsey and I am, as you may have guessed, a freshman at Rochester Institute of Technology. I've dabbled in blogging before, but never in a public forum, so here goes nothing. My purpose is to try to create something that, if not comprehensive, is at least worth reading. I plan on writing things from video game reviews, to general advice about college life, to specific events at RIT. To get more specific into what I'll probably be getting to, I'll list the sort of games I play and systems I have.
First off, I adore my PS3. It's shiny, it gives me access to PS1 games, and it has some of the best systems for storing DLC ever. If you've bought DLC, it's attached to your account, and if it's attached to your account, you can log into any PS3 anywhere, and see things you've bought and redownload them. If that doesn't seem exciting to you, you must not have many other friends with PS3s.
Second, in case you haven't noticed, I have a bit of a soft spot for games that aren't exactly on the cutting edge. While I've been known to go crazy obsessing over a new game that just came out (Heavy Rain and Dragon Age come to mind), my heart lies with games that maybe don't get as much hype anymore because they're not tolerable by today's standards. As such, my N64 was just about as important as my PS3 to bring with me to college. Banjo-Tooie was one of the first games I ever completed, and the original Smash Bros. 64 is the only iteration of that game that I enjoy playing.
I have a DS, but I forgot it at home. It should be being sent in a care package soon, though! Either way, I'm not too experienced in the realm of DS gaming. I kinda dropped out of handheld world after Pokemon Crystal. The only games I really remember caring about on the GBA were the first two Harry Potter games. (For the record, they were awesome)
I obviously have a PC, but with very few exceptions, I don't usually use it for current gaming. For one, it sucks. It overheats when trying to run Skype and Youtube at the same time; I can only assume it would burst into flame if I tried to play Crysis. Generally, I don't mind, because if a PC game has a console equivalent, I prefer playing games with a controller in my hand, on a television. It feels less isolated to me. The main exception to this is first person games, which I just cannot play on a console. Luckily, I don't play many first person games, since many are shooters. Unfortunately, this means Oblivion is just sitting on my shelf gathering dust.
The one major exception to my no-PC-gaming rule is retro gaming. I am arguably obsessed with the Sierra games of the 80s and 90s. I enjoy LucasArts from time to time too. Honestly though, I grew up on Mixed-Up Mother Goose and spent all of my allowance tracking down the King's Quest Collections on eBay. I have a huge passion for the adventure games of old.
Honestly, that's one of the reasons I got into game development. I've never been a creative person (Well, except for that one time in 7th grade where I thought I was the next poetic genius), but mathematics and code and logic have made sense to me since I was very, very little. I created my first website at the age of 8, to celebrate my love of my literary doppelganger, Hermione Granger. Even before that, I spent most of my free time during car rides doing logic puzzles (you remember, the ones with the grids, that were like "Mrs. Green bought 3 items, at least one of which was a bicycle, and none of which were purple" and you have to decide which person bought which items and what color they were? Anyone?). It really was a no brainer to me that I wanted to program for a living. However, the King's Quest series, and other related products, were the things that made me decide I really wanted to create games.
I know that a lot of games these days rely on skill. You have to be skilled to play a first-person shooter online. You have to be skilled to succeed in an action game or a platformer. The difference between the requirement for skill in modern games, and the difficulty level of the older games lies in the fact that modern games require reflexes, physical ability. Classic adventure games require thought. I'm not saying that modern games are mindless, certainly not. They require a lot of strategy, timing, etc. My point is that adventure games were a lot slower-paced. It could take you weeks to figure out a puzzle, but once you did (provided you didn't look up the answer in a walkthrough) you got a huge sense of accomplishment and a sort of high. This slower-paced, more cerebral gaming experience is something I found hugely influential in my childhood, and something I'd like to help bring back. Games like Heavy Rain (which, in retrospect, require no skill at all) take it back to a slower, more intense gaming experience. I approve.
The last thing I really have to address here is that I'm a college student. There are plenty of gaming blogs, probably a lot fewer that focus on old school gaming, but still a good amount (maybe?). There are also lots of blogs about RIT (in fact, Brick City Ambassadors is a bit of a feature on RIT's website). So why do I feel I have something to say?
Well, first off, I get to chronicle the freshman year experience as I see it, which I don't think is something any of the official RIT bloggers do. Second, I'm a girl in RIT's Game Design and Development program. There can't be more than 100 of us in the freshman class. I'd honestly be surprised if there were more than 50. Third, I like to believe I'm an interesting person. I generally give good advice, so if you're interested in going to RIT's GD&D program, if you're interested in going to RIT even though you're a girl, if you're interested in the sort of games I'm interested in, if you're interested in the life of a random self-important college student with a blog (...I'm sure there are some people out there), you might want to check out what I have to say.
First off, I adore my PS3. It's shiny, it gives me access to PS1 games, and it has some of the best systems for storing DLC ever. If you've bought DLC, it's attached to your account, and if it's attached to your account, you can log into any PS3 anywhere, and see things you've bought and redownload them. If that doesn't seem exciting to you, you must not have many other friends with PS3s.
Second, in case you haven't noticed, I have a bit of a soft spot for games that aren't exactly on the cutting edge. While I've been known to go crazy obsessing over a new game that just came out (Heavy Rain and Dragon Age come to mind), my heart lies with games that maybe don't get as much hype anymore because they're not tolerable by today's standards. As such, my N64 was just about as important as my PS3 to bring with me to college. Banjo-Tooie was one of the first games I ever completed, and the original Smash Bros. 64 is the only iteration of that game that I enjoy playing.
I have a DS, but I forgot it at home. It should be being sent in a care package soon, though! Either way, I'm not too experienced in the realm of DS gaming. I kinda dropped out of handheld world after Pokemon Crystal. The only games I really remember caring about on the GBA were the first two Harry Potter games. (For the record, they were awesome)
I obviously have a PC, but with very few exceptions, I don't usually use it for current gaming. For one, it sucks. It overheats when trying to run Skype and Youtube at the same time; I can only assume it would burst into flame if I tried to play Crysis. Generally, I don't mind, because if a PC game has a console equivalent, I prefer playing games with a controller in my hand, on a television. It feels less isolated to me. The main exception to this is first person games, which I just cannot play on a console. Luckily, I don't play many first person games, since many are shooters. Unfortunately, this means Oblivion is just sitting on my shelf gathering dust.
The one major exception to my no-PC-gaming rule is retro gaming. I am arguably obsessed with the Sierra games of the 80s and 90s. I enjoy LucasArts from time to time too. Honestly though, I grew up on Mixed-Up Mother Goose and spent all of my allowance tracking down the King's Quest Collections on eBay. I have a huge passion for the adventure games of old.
Honestly, that's one of the reasons I got into game development. I've never been a creative person (Well, except for that one time in 7th grade where I thought I was the next poetic genius), but mathematics and code and logic have made sense to me since I was very, very little. I created my first website at the age of 8, to celebrate my love of my literary doppelganger, Hermione Granger. Even before that, I spent most of my free time during car rides doing logic puzzles (you remember, the ones with the grids, that were like "Mrs. Green bought 3 items, at least one of which was a bicycle, and none of which were purple" and you have to decide which person bought which items and what color they were? Anyone?). It really was a no brainer to me that I wanted to program for a living. However, the King's Quest series, and other related products, were the things that made me decide I really wanted to create games.
I know that a lot of games these days rely on skill. You have to be skilled to play a first-person shooter online. You have to be skilled to succeed in an action game or a platformer. The difference between the requirement for skill in modern games, and the difficulty level of the older games lies in the fact that modern games require reflexes, physical ability. Classic adventure games require thought. I'm not saying that modern games are mindless, certainly not. They require a lot of strategy, timing, etc. My point is that adventure games were a lot slower-paced. It could take you weeks to figure out a puzzle, but once you did (provided you didn't look up the answer in a walkthrough) you got a huge sense of accomplishment and a sort of high. This slower-paced, more cerebral gaming experience is something I found hugely influential in my childhood, and something I'd like to help bring back. Games like Heavy Rain (which, in retrospect, require no skill at all) take it back to a slower, more intense gaming experience. I approve.
The last thing I really have to address here is that I'm a college student. There are plenty of gaming blogs, probably a lot fewer that focus on old school gaming, but still a good amount (maybe?). There are also lots of blogs about RIT (in fact, Brick City Ambassadors is a bit of a feature on RIT's website). So why do I feel I have something to say?
Well, first off, I get to chronicle the freshman year experience as I see it, which I don't think is something any of the official RIT bloggers do. Second, I'm a girl in RIT's Game Design and Development program. There can't be more than 100 of us in the freshman class. I'd honestly be surprised if there were more than 50. Third, I like to believe I'm an interesting person. I generally give good advice, so if you're interested in going to RIT's GD&D program, if you're interested in going to RIT even though you're a girl, if you're interested in the sort of games I'm interested in, if you're interested in the life of a random self-important college student with a blog (...I'm sure there are some people out there), you might want to check out what I have to say.
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