DocSeuss

System Shock 3. No One Lives Forever 3. Homeworld 3. Oni 2. I'd have to go tournament style, flipping a coin for SS3 vs Homeworld 3 and Oni 2 vs NOLF3, and then taking the winners and pitting them against each other until I get a winner.

No. Yes and no. They teach for 16 weeks, three hours a day. I think they'd benefit from regular 3-day-a-week @ 50 minute classes. I'd say so. Not so far. ---- My current problem with my program is this: it's a two year program and many of the classes seem a bit strange for game design. Why am I taking Engineering Graphics and AutoCAD? Well, it's because the board of regents for our state has decided that we need something to "legitimize" the program and keep jobs (of which there are many engineering jobs to be had) in-state. While I could be learning something useful, I'm stuck with something that's interesting but not used by the industry, because of some crusty old men and women who are worried about keeping people in their state. They were going to teach, at one point, mapping in the old Tribes engine. I was going to learn scripting and modeling in Second Life, as well as take a course in Second Life, because apparently a bunch of people in the department are obsessed with it. Fortunately, those courses are being scrapped, and I know of at least two new courses that are being implemented to replace them. One of them is with sprites and learning flash/action script for making simple 2D games (not sure how useful this is for anything beyond indie games, but since I am interested in making at least one indie game, I plan on taking it). The other is Cryengine 3. Basically, I'm getting a two-year overview on the different ways to make games (there's a texturing course, for instance, that I'll be doing later), and some of the courses, like digital video editing, engineering graphics, and digital audio editing, don't seem particularly useful. Digital audio editing might sound cool at first, but mostly, we're learning how to make music. I'd hoped to have learned how to do sfx and stuff, but instead, it looks like I'll be cranking out some psytrance instead, which is cool and all, but not super useful for making games. I'm working on creating a games narrative class to submit to the department, since the department head really wants one, but his department can't figure out how to do it without requiring OODLES of reading. It's not all bad: I'm learning 3D animation and limited modeling in Lightwave kinda simultaneously, and will be learning more next fall, so, at the very least, I'm apparently going to have basic animation skills. Next semester, I'll be learning a little bit of Maya and 3DS Max. I'm also going to take a Progamming in C++ for Games class, but, again, it's only a semester. They're replacing the level design class with the CryEngine 3 course at my suggestion (he got so excited after I told him). My main worry is that due to this sort of shotgun approach to the program (there's no introduction to game design and game design fundamentals course, which I might propose later), I won't be a good hire for game developers, much less able to transfer into a four year school and get a Bachelor's, then master's degree. Maybe I don't need that. I don't know. I don't really know what I need. Wish I did. It'd be really nice if some developer out there could say "this is a list of things I want to see in my applicants. They should have a general knowledge in these fields and this software" or whatever. Also, apparently our art department thinks games are not art, so they refuse to help with an "art for games" course.

Well, the news that this is apparently a dev version of the game, as opposed to a legit version has hit. No idea if they're telling the truth or lying, because this version is quite clearly intended for consoles. Hopefully they'll have something by the time I get back from work. As it is now, apparently there's a patch that disables the preorder DLC and the Y/noclip option.

Dead Island is... absolutely awful. Here's how I felt about my first five minutes of the game. I posted on the Steam Forums because I was incredibly pissed and needed to rage somewhere quickly, and I was already on the Steam forums looking for a way to adjust the AWFUL FOV. I just got back from a vacation to Colorado that ended with me developing a House-like limp and, for a brief time, a Michael J. Fox-like shaking scenario, so please pardon any abuse of the English language I might have committed. I'm going to bed.

Don't plan to get commercial. I remember that! You were so dr--delirious from thirst that you kept protesting said delicacies and claiming your name was Sam. In a basilica - of course. A building, actually. What a fine building it was, too. Almost made up for the mimes. I was actually just about to ask for links to all this stuff: Anyway, welcome, and as long as any contrariness on your part is well thought out and reasoned, I for one look forward to reading your posts. Well, here's a blog post detailing why Valve can't reasonably make Episode 3 in time. It sort of turns into a criticism of the series as a whole as it goes, so you can see how I try to approach things. The first few posts were a bit rushed, and then I had work and school start up at the same time, and now I've got to go to Colorado for four days, so I'll start writing mostly-regularly again later. Right now, I think it'll be part of a ten-post series on the various problems of Half-Life 2. You can suss out the rest of my posts from the blog title at the top of the page in the link. Would you believe that I didn't link you directly to the blog just so I could use the phrase "suss out?" s'true. My game census is still an incomplete project on my computer, my HL2 deconstruction is still a draft (with a few nods on my blog, mainly the link above), and my FPS article was doing well until the second bit turned into a love letter to System Shock 2. While gone this weekend, it's my plan to try finishing the final FPS post and have it up on Tuesday, unless I get access to the internet before then. So, if it interests you, it'll be quite soon.

Uberculture is yours. I relinquish any and all rights to the word uberculture to you, excel_excel, until such time as you die, at which points the rights transfer back to my estate. I don't remember my reply to his speak-up post. I don't even remember his speak-up post or what it was about. I'm not sure I want to. D: EDIT: Ohey, what's the policy on linking to your own personal blog n' stuff? I didn't see that in the rules.

Oh, I forgot to add in my intro that I'm going to school to learn game design. Turns out I'm actually helping shift the course of the program (they'll be offering a Cryengine 3 class because of me. Oops.), and am currently writing (teaching? I wish) a proposal to the dean for a game narrative course. The department head wants to do one, but the previous proposals have all involved an inordinate amount of reading for a non-literature/philosophy/humanities class, so it keeps getting shot down. So I'm working on one that doesn't involve much reading at all. Like my game census thing, my blog series on FPSes, my HL2 deconstruction, and some other stuff, it's... taking time. Getting there, but slowly. School and work both beginning right around the same time certainly impacted me. How am I doing? Well, your spelling of my name just about gave me a heart attack. I kid, I kid. I've been doing better. This may not mean much to you, but before I started getting treatment, I tried reading a rather phantasmagoric comic book by Frank Miller and Bill Sinekiewicz (or however you spell it) called Elektra: Assassin. I couldn't really understand what was going on, much less follow it. I abandoned it. I picked it up again two days ago and everything is clicking into place with clockwork precision. My mind tends to wander, but overall, focus is a little better and pain is somewhat less. I'm never going to be perfectly healthy, but I do think I'll be better than I am now, and incredibly better than I was three or four months ago. It better. While I assume you're kidding, I did register and firstpost at school. My avatar, which will be updated by the time I post this, was hiding on Charlie, my desktop. Well, well, well, my old nemesis. I'd forgotten you, you know. In fact, I still don't remember you, or even what it was about. I just remember Gunflame's star post really bothered me and several people got in a tiff about it. Sorry! But NOW we are nemeses again! Clearly! It must be so! Funnily enough, I do remember the one time Deanb and I argued. It was over a word I made up, megaculture. Or maybe it was extraculture or superculture. The basic gist of it was that the United States is essentially a new type of composite culture, since its population exists almost entirely of immigrants who come from a broad spectrum of cultures, rather than one distinct culture subtly influenced by small outside sources over the centuries. I think I must have worded it oddly, 'cause I vaguely remember Dean taking offense and thinking that I meant the US was better. Don't ask me how I remember ANY of that, because I seriously do not know. Miscommunication sucks. But whatever, what's past is only accessible by time travel. One thing I've been trying to do on my blog is talk about things people haven't really thought out before. Like... we could all talk about how Valve used great facial animations, physics, or environmental storytelling, but we already know that, so it's not really worth talking about, since it's been praised to high heaven and back. Talking about how the game appears to have ripped sound effects from/used the same sfx libraries as 8 Legged Freaks and Black Hawk Down is much more interesting, or discussing how the plot is actually horrible (using the exact same mission objective in the three-act structure is beyond stupid) is much more stimulating, because it requires you to criticize things you like, and, hopefully, help you to demand better games as a consumer, appreciate better games as an art audience, or, best of all, make better games as a developer. That's really my whole philosophy in a nutshell. Unfortunately, people like things more the more time they expend on those things, so any perceived attacks on those things are perceived as an attack on the effort and time put into those things, so people can take it a bit personally at times. Personally, I don't understand this point of view, but whatever. Mwahahaha. Thank you for introducing me. HAY GUYS IF YOU EVER GET MAD AT ME IT WAS DEX'S FAULT. HES THE ONE WOT BRUNG ME HERE.

It may have been me. I really hated the one that got Gunflame starred, which is odd, because generally, I like Gunflame, even if I do disagree with him more regularly than I do with others. Oh, hi. I'm DocSeuss. On Kotaku, I am known as DocSeuss. Apparently there are other mes on the internet, which is why I can't be DocSeuss on Steam or PSN, and I remember that one time, googling that name found me a gay ex-military guy who sold pot and wanted casual sex. That one is not me. There are a lot of people with my name who aren't like me. So it's probably just best to call me Doc, What's Up Doc (not really tho), or Sully. I have Opinions Wot Upset People. I'm always interested in critical analysis on video games, and some times this lends to criticism of beloved developers/publishers/games/whatever. My opinions are quite different from the norm on occasion, and I generally come to them after putting a lot of thought in the matter, so it can be challenging (not impossible, mind) to change them. If you're prone to overreacting to well thought out criticism of things you happen to enjoy and tend to view them as personal attacks, um, you won't like me. If, like me, you enjoy discussing differing viewpoints on games, then we'll get along so famously they'll write ballads about us, and I will be played by Sean Connery in the Hallmark movie about our discussion. That said, I try to be nice, and I generally succeed. I see no reason I can't be awesome here. That's everything, I think. Time to go to class.