/**************************************
Function name: Review()
Params: void * (games, movies, schools, conferences, anything really)
Purpose: Fill out and return Opinion pointer based on passed-in parameters.
Return: Opinion *
**************************************/

This is where I would review new games, movies, software, etc. as I see fit, not as the media does. I don't always go out and buy new games right as they come out, as I hate spending money and most new games aren't my type.

Now be warned: most of these will be long reads (especially the Full Sail and FFXI ones), so grab a snack and a drink. Or just, you know, don't read them.

Final Fantasy XI
GDC 2009
Full Sail University
MadWorld
Mirror's Edge
LostMagic

/**************************************
Review: Final Fantasy XI
Type: MMO
Date: 1st exposure: Winter 2005; Restarted Oct. 2006
Overall: *****
**************************************/

This...this is gonna be a long one.

I have never spent more time playing any single game ever in my entire life than this one. Of course that's to be expected given it's an MMO, but even then it still shocks me. The only "MMO" I played before FFXI was Diablo II, which I'm not sure qualifies, but while it was fun it didn't draw me like FFXI does. I took a break from FFXI once to play WoW - which I'll admit was okay - but again, it didn't hook me. FFXI has become a part of me I can't get rid of. During Final Project at Full Sail I had a team member who also played. We would go on for HOURS (and I mean HOURS: close to 2 hours each day) just talking about the game: about how such-and-such monster was super hard, or about changes implemented in a recent update, or about experiences with other players with interesting names. Even now, when I see license plates with WAR or BLM or TNL, I giggle to myself.

Let me start with how I got introduced to the game. A friend in high school casually suggested I should start playing it, so I looked it up. I wasn't a huge Final Fantasy fan at the time, but I knew what it was. XI sounded interesting, so I convinced my dad to let me use his credit card if I payed him a year's worth of subscription fees in advance. I wanted to be a Black Mage, so I asked my friend what race I should choose if I wanted to excel in magic. Normally in games where I have a choice I'll choose Human or whatever middle-of-the-road choice there is, especially if I'm just getting a feel for the game, but this time around I wanted a change of pace. He said Tarutaru (short, childlike people) made the best mages, but I wasn't inclined to play a character that came to everyone else's knees. I felt that tarus were there just to be cute, so I didn't want to be one. His other suggestion was mithra, the race of all-female catgirls, and for some reason I chose to be one. Probably that change of pace thing. So I started out as Arcaedim, the Black Mage from Windurst.

Before I delve into my (mis)adventures as a BLM, let me first explain the character creation choices. First you pick a race from the following: Hume, Elvaan, Tarutaru, Mithra, and Galka. Each race has its own pros and cons, though it's irrelevant most of the time. Humes are average, Elvaan are strong with crappy MP (dunno why though), Taru have tons of MP but laughable HP, Mithra are like Humes but with more Dexterity and cleavage, and Galka are meat shields with worse MP than Elvaan. Once you pick a race, you proceed to one of six initial jobs, which you can change at just about any time in the game, so you're not stuck to your first pick. The options are Warrior, Monk, Thief, Black Mage, White Mage, and Red Mage, and if you're familiar with Final Fantasy at all then these are self explanitory. There are more jobs you can unlock eventually, and after a certain quest you can effectively have two jobs at once.

So back to my story. I remember my first days well, beating up mandragoras, bees and crawlers with my staff and casting the occasional Stone spell. I still remember them fondly, even though I deleveled almost as often as I leveled. I swear, my level progression was like 4, 5, 6, 5, 6, 7, 6, 7, 6, 7, 8, 9, 8, 9, 10. This game had a big learning curve for me. I had no idea why you needed to lose experience when you died, but whatever: I was still having fun. That is, up until I got to my high teens as a BLM and decided to start over as a male character because I was tired of being hit on. I deleted Arcaedim and created Theodus, the Hume White Mage from Bastok. However at around level 16 I hit another snag: money. Being a new character, I had no idea how to make money in the game. The Auction House was very intimidating and eventually I just quit.

I picked the game up again when I started at Full Sail, which in retrospect might not have been a great idea. I recreated Theodus the Hume and narrowed my job choice to the three mages. So at first I took to leveling them together until I started enjoying WHM and made it my main. In fact at the time of this writing, my Red Mage is still 8, the point where I decided to main WHM. So anyway, long story short, WHM became my first job at 75: the max level, although it didn't happen until after I graduated from Full Sail (nearly three years after I started playing). I've had tons of fun playing it - sometimes too much fun. The game is incredibly addictive, although very hard at the same time. People coming over from WoW might have a hard time adjusting unless they quit because it was too easy. Dying takes experience from you, which I've already mentioned, but it can be really frustrating to solo for an hour and lose everything with one death from an accidental link. Players are rude, missions are hard, endgame is boring, but I'm still playing! You just need to find the right people, and they'll help with the hard missions. Endgame is pretty much boring though. Especially Dynamis. Ugh.

Well this isn't nearly as long as I thought it'd be, but I attribute that to me being hungry. STAY TUNED FOR PART TWO!

goto(TOP);

/**************************************
Review: GDC 2009
Type: Conference
Date: 3/25 - 3/27
Overall: ****
**************************************/

Anybody who's anybody in the games industry has heard of the Game Developer's Conference. It's a once-a-year event held in San Francisco for industry veterans to get together to network, show off, and, most importantly, drink. The drinking part I kind of figured would happen, but I didn't expect it to be THAT much. They were practically shoving beer down our throats: it was easily available from every Career Pavilion booth whether in bottle, keg or plastic cup form. This was supposed to be a convention where professionals professionally profess their professions, though I will note that I didn't see anyone vomit or wearing a lampshade as a hat. However I was very offput by the vast amounts of drinking going on.

However that's probably the worst thing I can say about it. The conference is five days long, though I only attended the last three because of the insane admission price and hotel fare. In fact I would not have gone had I not had a friend to help split the bill. There are several different events going on just about every day, all day long. I can't speak for Monday and Tuesday, but from Wednesday on there were lectures, summits (no idea what those were, though I think I sat in on a few of them), tutorials, the Expo Suite and Career Pavilion. Lectures were mostly ego-stroking "hey, look how cool we are" moments, but a few I actually learned some valuable information from. The Expo and Career Pavilion seemed similar although the Expo was more "look at our awesome stuff" whereas the CP was "look at our awesome stuff, would you like a job?" I passed out a few business cards and resumes to a few companies, some of which I had already applied to and was denied for some vague reason, so I'm hoping that my effort to attend this conference has bettered their image of me.

I did catch a glimpse of several of my teachers from Full Sail, and I even got to talk to one of them. However he had distressing news: Mr. Bahin, probably my favorite teacher from Full Sail, was there at GDC! AND I MISSED HIM! Oh well, can't change the past. Another cool person I saw was Stig Asmussen, one of the guys on the God of War team and the Game Director for GoW3: I passed him in the hall twice! I'm still kicking myself to this day for not simply stopping him and saying hi or shaking his hand, more so for my GoW-fan side than my seeking-employment side. However, this industry is still relatively small: every developer is just one phone call away from every other developer, so who knows...

Speaking of awesome people, Grant Shonkwiler, a friend of mine from my graduating class at Full Sail, actually spoke there! And apparently the idea for that segment was pretty much all his. Anyway, it was a panel of several recent hires along with Jim Rivers, Hiring Manager at Obsidian Entertainment. They answered various questions involving the interview process, and much of their information was useful while other bits conflicted with what we had previously been taught. For example, they suggested to put something funny on our resumes, which until then I thought was a taboo since my resume is supposed to be Professionalism in paper form. However their reasoning was to give the interviewers something to talk about, and to help establish your position as a member of their tight-knit group: team dynamics plays a huge role especially in this industry, and if you don't fit, you don't fit.

And now for something completely different: while in San Francisco, I discovered my new favorite Japanese snack food: Pocky. Luckily there's a store that sells it near me, but in limited quantities....

So as of this writing, I can't say for sure whether the price tag was worth the experience. It was a LOT of money at a time when I didn't really have a whole lot, so it was as close to paying with an arm and a leg as I'd ever gotten (aside from FS tuition). When I finally DO get a job, I'll come back and edit this accordingly. However I will say that I am putting to good use the information I gained from GDC, so hopefully that edit will be sooner rather than later!

goto(TOP);

/**************************************
Review: Full Sail University
Type: College
Date: 9/25/06 - 6/28/08
Overall: ****
**************************************/

I first heard about Full Sail in my Junior year of high school. At that time I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do with my life, although I knew I wanted it to involve computers. I believe my decision to go into games was mostly comprised of the "I love PLAYING games, so MAKING them would be super awesome!" mentality: however I should say here that my grades were decent, I had taken Web Design/HTML/Javascript and Flash courses, and I was playing around with scripts in Neverwinter Nights' Aurora Toolset at the time, so the concept of programming wasn't entirely new to me. Actually in retrospect, the Javascript and NWN toolsets were a boon in disguise once it came down to learning C++ at Full Sail.

FS came with several perks that placed it above other schools I was considering. First, it was close: merely a 7-8 hour drive from my home of Ridgeway, SC. My only other options were schools in the distant, misty realms of legend such as Illinois and Arizona. Second, it was accelerated, meaning that if all went well I would be graduating a little over two years BEFORE students entering a similar 4-year college. Thirdly, while they had a few general education courses, they were still geared (if somewhat loosely) to the entertainment industry. And lastly, while my SAT scores were respectable, FS didn't require them. All they asked for was a high school diploma and a passion for your field. At first I thought the passion thing was fluffy talk used to get more students to apply, but later I learned that you seriously need to love what you do in order to stay sane.

The accelerated program features classes starting every month, so you can enter FS whenever you want. Each month has at most two classes which you attend every other day. At this point I feel I should issue a warning regarding the scheduling. Full Sail is able to put you through four years of schooling in less than two because they don't waste your time like traditional colleges where you have three classes a week for a few hours each. No, you have eight hours of classes each day, and sometimes six days a week. They make the most of your time there, meaning you may have some classes late at night and others really early. A prime example of this is my third month: we had Programming II from 5PM to 1AM on odd days, and Linear Algebra from 9AM to 5PM on even days. To those of you not gifted with math skills, that leaves me EIGHT HOURS between PG2 and LA, and TWENTY FOUR HOURS between LA and PG2. So more often than not, I was struggling to stay awake during math class, and afterwards I'd have more free time than I knew what to do with. And the schedule changes every month. Sometimes we'd get lucky with consecutive times like 1PM-9PM all week or even 9AM-5PM all week. However there is one week that I refer to as Deathweek, during which, through the shifting of vacation days by one of our teachers, we attended eight straight days of class.

On top of that, the course material was very tough for someone who hadn't had any real programming instruction prior to FS. Many of my colleagues have voiced the opinion that Full Sail should require a programming test before allowing entry into the program, and I agree wholeheartedly. My class started at 61 students, which was cut in half by our second programming course. We only have about four months of true programming instruction until they start getting into more complicated stuff like APIs and software architecture. Luckily I managed to get through all 21 months without failing a course, but it was absolutely NOT a cakewalk. I would strongly suggest getting a C++ book or taking any programming classes your high school might offer.

"So Theo," you may be asking, "you're a full page in and you've only had bad things to say about Full Sail! How come you still gave it four stars?" Well I wanted to get the bad stuff out of the way first in an effort to get you to realize what you're signing up for. There's plenty to like about FS as well. There are plenty of apartment complexes near campus, so communting shouldn't be a problem. I don't personally drink coffee, but they have a Starbucks INSIDE the school (which I'm sure is necessary to keep 80% or more of the students functioning). They give every Game Development student a laptop, which has its problems but gets the job done (I actually have a whole rant on the laptops, but a) I'm done with negatives for now, and b) they've probably upgrated to better models). You should make friends with the Career Development Department early on and keep in touch: that way it'll be easier to send leads your way. They argue that they are not a Placement Department as they will not simply GIVE you jobs. Instead, employers seeking programmers send requests directly to FS, who filter through their list of active candidates and forward the information to interested parties. This way, it reassures the employer that only interested and capable applicants are passed along.

Another thing about FS is the team projects. From the very beginning and throughout the program, you're assigned a number of group projects, the first of which is to create a design document for a game idea. You have a few individual projects like your collision library in Physics and Pong in Windows I, but the team projects outweigh the solo ones. I really like this because it puts you into an environment not unlike the actual field: groups of tight-knit people working together under strict deadlines and with heavy expectations to make a fun and engaging interactive experience. I won't say it's EXACTLY like the industry: to quote Brenda Brathwaite, "nothing can simulate the feeling of a $15 million %@#$-up." But it does put you in a similar environment as far as documentation, milestones, and interaction with the art and sound staff go. I really felt like I was part of a real production cycle, in a real studio. There are two courses with really big group projects that result in playable games: Structures of Game Production, a 2-month, 4-man game project, and Final Project, a 5-month, 5- to 6-man, more-often-3D-than-not game project. I have my two games up for download on my Projects page.

Now don't weigh my 4 paragraphs of bad against my 2 paragraphs of good. I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Full Sail and learned far more and in a shorter amount of time than I could have anywhere else. I recommend this school if you're serious about game development, but ONLY if you're prepared for the thrashing of a lifetime.

goto(TOP);