Bars, Girls, and...... Videogames?
Entry posted by Chris Vossen ·
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Like many college students, part of my time at UC Santa Cruz was spent visiting a variety of fine local establishments perusing their beverage assortments and discussing deep philosophical ideals with enlightened patrons.
(Me at an art meeting, the day after a night of enlightenment.)
Okay I’ll admit it, I went to bars and talked to girls (Give me a minute this story is going somewhere relevant). The easiest small talk to make in a college town is to ask someone about their major and every time I would meet someone for the first time this question would pop up. Now my major was Computer Science: Game Design and I was always timid to admit this to girls. So instead I would say that “I’m a business major” and immediately ask them their major to silence any further questions.
I realize that lying is bad and every PBS show I watched growing up tried to teach me to “be myself” (Thank you Mr. Rogers and Wishbone) but for some reason I was scared of the taboo behind playing and making videogames.
That is until one faithful night when I finally admitted to being a “Games major.” I braced myself for the reaction I expected: a look of disgust? Laughter? Silence? The cold shoulder? A drink tossed in my face? Instead I got “OMG, I was addicted to the Sims for years!” Surprised but happy, we went on to talk about her years of playing The Sims and the families she made and how much fun she had and it was wonderful.
(My summoner name is too inappropriate for the work place)
The dirty little secret of games is that everyone plays them! Sure not everyone is trying to climb the ranked ladder in League of Legends (currently at 1635 ELO and climbing) or going to a midnight release of Diablo III and missing the next day of work (Josh I might randomly be sick on Tuesday May 15th…) but everyone plays something and has memories associated with their experience.
My goal in game development is to one day have someone say “Of course I know that game, it was the first game I ever stayed up playing all night with my friends!” Because our job as developers is not to release “a product.” No, instead it's our job to create. Worlds. Stories. Fun. Challenges. Memories. We create.
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