It has begun!!

My Twitter followers already know this, but I just started school on Tuesday in the Video Game Design program at Full Sail University Online! I've already done a few assignments, which have mostly been about getting used to taking classes online, and becoming more familiar with the MacBook Pro that I am typing this blog post on. I've got a lot of fun looking projects and assignments coming up, and I have decided to share what I am going through with you, my loyal readers! This will also (maybe) help me be a little more consistant in the frequency of these posts.

So, for this first school-related post, I am going to share with you what I wrote for my first discussion board assignment for my first class, Digital Literacy. Here were the instructions for this assignment:

Respond to the following prompts to start a dialogue and connection with your peers. 

Share your story:

• What brought you to Full Sail and your particular program?

• What are your career goals?

• We all have something or someone that we admire or that inspires us; who or what inspires you? This could be a concept, topic, someone you know, an individual or company in the industry.

• What specifically inspires you about this person or concept?

• What motivates you to succeed?

And now, dear reader, is my response:

My story of coming to Full Sail and the Game Design program can be rather long, so I will try to be as concise as possible. I have known since high school that I want to work in the video game industry. However, at that time, I convinced myself that I couldn't since I am not much of a drawer and didn't start learning to program when I was 6. Now, after a different bachelor's degree, 7 years in retail, and 2 in e-commerce support, I have finally realized that my preconceived ideas of what it would take to create video games have been wrong all this time. I have the passion, the drive, the creativity, and am here now for the education. As far as specific career goals, I would ultimately like to own and run my own game development studio after working my way through several game design positions.

The biggest source of inspiration in my life is my wife, Uriah. She is the one who has helped me realize that I can do anything that I put my heart, mind, and effort into, including pursuing the career of my dreams. I once mentioned to her that I could go back to school and become an accountant. She told me that I could, but would be selling myself short and that I wouldn't be happy if I was doing anything besides making games. She is also very supportive of my passion for video games, even going so far as to pick up the controller and play with me sometimes.

My motivation to succeed is a combination of how much my wife believes in me and my own desire to realize my potential. I have lived too much of my life and worked too many jobs without challenging myself, and I am ready and fully prepared to change that.

There you have it, true believer! My first assignment towards becoming a video game designer is complete, and you are in on the ground floor! Stay tuned for more assignments and projects as I continue my education, and feel free to let me know what you think of my work! You can either post comments here, or connect with me on Twitter @NinjaPatBeck. Thanks again for reading!

Literary Critical Theory? Things are gonna get bumpy...

Hold on kids! I've been thinking lately, and those thoughts are about to be formed into a blog post. This could get messy, but please don't run away. We might just learn something.

So, I've been thinking about why I like the things that the I like. This started because @jasonalmenas on Twitter asked which was a better movie: Fight Club or Donnie Darko. (Fight Club, of course!) This got me thinking about literature in general for some reason (yes, movies are literature; so are many video games). There are definite literary themes and devices that are in common between all of the literature that I like the most, and I have decided to explore and discuss that here tonight!

To begin, let's look at literary theory. I studied literary theory and comparative literature during my last semesters of college, which became a requirement of all Language & Literature Department students during my Junior year. At the time, I felt these classes were going to be a waste, since I was studying a language, not literature. But as I was taking the classes, I started to realize that the ability to view literature through different "lenses" was actually very fun and useful, especially considering all the different types of literature that I regularly consume. Looking to my future as a video game designer, I am incredibly grateful for that curriculum change!

In my Comparative World Literature class, the professor would pair a piece of literature with a specific school of literary theory to teach us not only the ideas of that school, but also how to apply those principals to whatever we were reading/watching/listening to in class at the time. For example, we listened to the song "Losing My Religion" by R.E.M. in class, and then examined it during a class discussion from the viewpoint of the New Criticism school of literary theory.  We also read a poem, and wrote about it as a Deconstructionist, with various other projects like this throughout the semester.

The last project was the best though. We watched the pilot episode of Firefly and had to write an analysis from our own perspective, using whichever school or schools most matched how we viewed literature. This was perfect because I didn't have one particular school that I identified with, but had been taking bits and pieces from everything to heart. Also, that was the first time I had seen Firefly, but it is a show that was right up my alley, making it even easier to enjoy and excel at the project!

Here's what I came up with as a result of that final project (besides the A): My literary school of thought relies heavily on division, and the breakdown of that division. My final project looked specifically at dichotomies and deconstruction of dichotomies in Firefly. For example, one of the biggest dichotomies across all literature is Good/Evil. Typically, the listener/viewer/reader is meant to identify most with the Good side of that division through the main character(s) and the conflicts that arise. In Firefly however, that division of Good/Evil is not very clear, and the crew of the Firefly ship could be seen as the bad guys because they are continually breaking the laws and subverting the main authority that isn't wholly Evil or wholly Good. Even the captain is commonly referred to by a shortened version of his name, "Mal," which means "bad" in Latin (read: malware, malnourished, maladjusted). This is a large part of why I love Firefly, and the more this literary theme is present in a work of literature, the more that I tend to like it!

As I was thinking about Fight Club tonight, I started to realize that it also utilizes the breakdown of division device throughout the movie. The characters of The Narrator and Tyler Durden are personifications of the concepts of Order and Chaos, respectively. I cannot think of a stronger epitome of the breakdown of that dichotomy than the revelation **spoiler** that these two characters are actually one. This helps explain why Fight Club is easily in my top 5 movies of all time.

Now, I would like to invite all of you to think about literature that you enjoy with a more critical, analytic eye. You don't (and shouldn't) only use my school of thought, but rather do some research and develop one of your own! And share it, like I have done with you today! Literature is good, and intelligent conversation makes it even better! This applies double for video games. If we want video games to evolve and grow into a more viable form of art and literature, it is up to us, the gamers, to think and talk about games as if they are art and literature!

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It has been a while since I updated my Sonic list, so I figured it is about time to do just that! Sadly, only two more games get crossed off today. I'm playing Sonic 4: Episode 2 now though, and should be crossing it off soon!

Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 

Sonic Spinball 

Sonic & Knuckles 

Sonic CD 

Sonic Chaos 

Sonic Triple Trouble 

Sonic 3D 

Sonic R 

Sonic Adventure 

Sonic Adventure 2 

Sonic Shuffle

Sonic Advance

Sonic Advance 2 

Sonic Heroes 

Sonic Advance 3

Sonic Rush 

Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)

Sonic Rivals

Sonic and the Secret Rings 

Sonic Rush Adventure 

Sonic Rivals 2 

Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood

Sonic Unleashed 

Sonic and the Black Knight 

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I

Sonic Colors 

Sonic Generations 

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II