Recently, I've been getting in gear to go to Full Sail, a school in Florida that focuses on new media - television, radio, movies, and video games. I'm aiming to get a Master's in Video Game Design. As part of the application process, I had to answer a few questions, chosen from a set of 10, about my relationship with video games in general, and certain aspects of them in particular - guilds, or mods, or LANs, to name a few.
Below are my responses, c/p'd from the text file I sent to Full Sail yesterday. I think they say a lot about me, and it's the kind of soul-sharing I need to do more of, so... enjoy.
---
3. What computer game genres do you prefer to play?
RPGs, platformers, action/adventure, the occasional puzzle game. All of these games share a commonality of exploration - while all games have secrets and oddities in their worlds, these genres are, in my opinion, the most likely to offer up a game world that would make me want to *not* accomplish anything relative to the plot or even to the improvement of my character, and instead simply go for an idle stroll, taking in the aesthetic of the world, and personally discovering the world's hidden treasures.
6. What electives did you take during your undergraduate degree program?
I didn't have much time for elective courses, as I had an absolutely full course load for all four years of my undergraduate degree. However, there was one non-required course that's stuck with me: the Digital Storytelling class I was able to take, an experimental one-time-only class for both Computer Science and Business majors. It concentrated on how digital media, the ease of creating new work within those media, and the even greater ease of piracy, was shaping how stories were told and profited from.
It was not the first time I worked on CS-related material with non-CS students (in fact, my school had many classes designed for such collaborations, centering around modeling and hard sciences), but it was absolutely the best. The group discussions were insightful, our projects were all interesting, and all of the required reading has stayed on my bookshelf to this day. Bar none, it was my favorite class, because it allowed me to step outside of the requirements of Computer Science, and let me study something I was truly interested in and could contribute to.
---
I'll answer questions 4, 8, and 10 in one long answer, because, for me, they all tie together.
Back in 2002, I found an online community that was working to create a pen-and-paper RPG based on the entire Final Fantasy video game series, the "FFRPG". I lurked for a while, joined their forums. Around 2006, I became an official developer for the project. Although it was mostly finished, it still required a lot of proofreading, and a system for non-combat magic, both of which I contributed heavily to. I worked heavily on the Chocobo Racing rules, greatly expanding them and adding more depth to what was, originally, a not-entirely-finished system built to emulate the famous minigame of Final Fantasy VII. I also helped with a lot of little things, like terminology and flavor text, and participated in the original play-test campaign in 2003 or so. The official release of the completely unofficial FFRPG was in 2008.
Through all that experience, I gained a deep understanding of the Final Fantasy series, the differences and shared themes between each game in the series. I also gained a deep understanding of game balance, playability, and the need for a game system to allow players to try off-the-wall solutions without being artificially restricted.
During my time so far with the FFRPG, I ran and played in a number of campaigns - a series of gaming sessions tied together in an overarching plot, like an episodic television series or, yes, a video game. I started a play-by-e-mail game in 2003, and it lasted for four years before coming to a conclusion. I also played in a few games run over IRC, though the majority died out within a few sessions. Perhaps the biggest and most social game ran in the system (or that I have ever been in period) is the 'guild game', a style I helped to create.
This 'guild game' is not completely dissimilar to the guilds of MMORPGs, but it is subtly different: A large group of people (in this case, usually ~50) come together to socialize, roleplay, and have fun in the game together. The main difference is that the GMs on the other side are making the world, monsters, NPCs, quests and other bits as the game progresses, as well as solving problems and handling bad players. Instead of the guild forming within the world, as in an MMO, the world forms around the guild's need for adventure, storytelling, and other forms of fun.
The first real guild game in the FFRPG community was one of the first campaigns I played in, the Playtest Campaign in 2003, though it quickly died off. In 2005 I revived the idea in the community, and created another campaign, "Adventurer's Guild"; this one lasted slightly longer, and had fewer problems, but was still done in by a number of factors (see below). The community liked the idea, though, and ran with it; several other guild games came and went over the years. However, each guild game had problems similar to the last: GM negligence, player in-fighting, scheduling conflicts, waning interest.
Some of those problems, especially in Adventurer's Guild, were my fault. As the creator and first GM of the game, the other GMs and players expected me to keep everyone in order, to keep people's morale up, to keep the game moving and fun. Due to my own reluctance to take the reins, and the few harsh rules I did implement, the game died quickly once the initial sheen wore off. While later guild-style games learned from my mistakes, none of them could overcome them fully; at least, I thought so.
Finally, in 2009, the developers of the FFRPG, myself included, having officially finished the game itself, created a guild game to 'show off' the final result. This game, "Triumph of the Returners", has so far had more players, more interest, more co-operation and more overall fun than any guild game in the community to-date. We've learned lessons from the mistakes I made in Adventurer's Guild, and those that others made in later guild games. As of my writing this, we're still running it, and people are still having fun with it.
My own ability to help run Triumph of the Returners has been greatly improved by taking to heart the mistakes I made in running (or, rather, not running) Adventurer's Guild. I've learned to listen to the people around me, both fellow leaders and followers alike, and to neither blindly follow their advice nor to completely shun it out of hand. I've learned to keep people's interest in the project, and to not let a lack of time or preparation spoil people's fun - mostly, by reserving the time to make the preparation necessary. Finally, and most importantly, I've begun to learn how to not fear being in charge. The responsibility for others' entertainment is not a weight, but a challenge: "Can you top yourself, and their expectations?" I can; I have; I will again.
No comments:
Post a Comment