This is my second attempt at blogging, my initial attempt Travel Like This... was rather successful in both sharing some of my travels through Thailand and created a notebook to look back upon. Well in this blog I hope to explore the ideas and culture of gaming. I returned from Thailand in August of 2011 and since have been working and attending graduate school full time. I have settled on the idea of pursuing gaming as my area of interest in Anthropology (my undergraduate major and now graduate major). The main reason for choosing this is this is what I have done nearly every day to some extent or another for the majority of my life. I love playing games! Talking about them and making friends who do the same. No one has to pay me to sit down and play a game, I will read books, magazines, articles or watch anything I can about them just because I am interested in them. Before I begin discussing gaming issues for those interested I want to give you some background on my experience so the reader can understand that I have a fairly extensive background when it comes to games. Personally I always like to know a bit about the source, and that it is credible. Also I wish to share this information to demonstrate that I am interested in and conversant in many different types of gaming.
I have been playing casually, semi-competitively and competitively in various forms really since late 1993. My interest had begun prior to 1993 but I can honestly say I began taking gaming much more seriously in my life since that point. In late 1993 MTG re-released the original card set and this was my introduction to gaming at a larger scale. Ever since being introduced to Magic during Beta I have been playing the game on and off over the last 20+ years. A few short years after the release of MTG, Legend of the Five Rings (L5R) was released in 1995. Due to the inclusion of story line elements and the fact that at our local card shop had greater interest in this game I focused on L5R, this was really the beginning of my semi-professional excursion into CCG's (Collectible Card Games). I began practicing and playing every day and traveled locally and around the state competing and winning tournaments, including winning Origins in Chicago 1997. During this period of time, L5R was tracking player ratings and ranked them in order of play and according to an alignment system known as clans, at age 13 I was the number 5 player in the Lion clan (according to the Imperial Herald publication). Which meant I was certainly within the top 30 players in the country at the time. Since that period of time I have had several successfully showings at larger CCG tournaments. In 2009 I finished 9th at a PTQ (pro-tour qualifier) at navy pier Chicago (a tournament of several hundred). I had a feature match at Magic GP Minneapolis 2009 (which I unfortunately lost, the picture above). And obtained an overall rating of just under 1900 in the old player DCI points system, which granted is not the 'true' professional level but I was a full time student working on two degrees at the time.
For brevity's sake I will just say that throughout my life I have been playing PC/Console games continuously, although I have not received any special awards or recognition for any of that play. Our first system that my family owned in 1988 was the Nintendo NES, since then I have escalated in order to SNES, SEGA Genesis, PC games, N64, Playstation, Xbox, Plastation 2, Playstation 3, XBox 360 (now with Kinect). Although I really cannot list all the games I have played, the highlights from the systems/games for me have been:
TBS: Dune(PC), XCOM(PC), Dawn of War(PC).
MMO: WOW(PC), EVE(PC).
RPG: Final Fantasy Tactics (PS&Iphone),FF VII(PS2), FF IX(PS2),FF X(PS2), Mass Effect(Xbox).
FPS: Goldeneye (N64), Counter strike(PC), Halo(XBOX), Call of Duty MW2(PS3), MW3(PS3)
Platformer: Super Mario Bros(NES), Sonic(SEGA).
Fighter: Street Fighter(SNES), Marvel Vs. Capcom(Arcade).
Action: Resident Evil (PS) Metal Gear Solid (PS).
My 'Professional' gaming career: In 2006 I was playing as part of a team testing software and gaming accessibility for kLoOge.Werks, this primarily consisted of playing D&D and giving feedback to the code writers. In 2007 I worked for Games Workshop, and helped open the Oak Park IL location. I was fortunate to receive training from some really excellent hobbyists including painting lessons from Tim Lison who is one of the most accomplished and recognized miniature painters in the US which have greatly increased my skills as a miniature painter. I have also helped contribute to design & production for Paulson Games from 2010-present. In 2010 myself and 2 friends won best Club Table, Best 40k Table and Best overall table at Games Day 2010 when we ran our event "Ramshackle Rumble" as the 'Lords of the Horde'. In 2011 I worked as a video game merchandiser informing customers and sales reps at retail locations about games and products. In 2012 I worked for SCUF gaming first as a game tester, ensuring quality of outbound product then helped develop new lines of product (including the custom grip backs) as well as managing the graphic end of production for a short time. Currently I work as a game developer for CoolMiniorNot on such products as Wrath of Kings and a number of games yet to be released. I am also pursuing a masters degree at Georgia state University where the thesis focus will be on professional game play in the Magic community. I still continue to play CCG's, Console games, MMO's and board games, Miniature and RPG tabletop games.
I feel incredibly blessed to have enjoyed so much time, and the company of so many fellow gamers over the years. Thanks to everyone for your support and friendship, the rest of this blog will be discussing my insights into gaming, ideas to possibly make games better and the way in which gaming has and will evolve.
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