Games are my Life.

So, unsurprisingly, games mean a lot to me. In college, I studied games, I now design games, and in my spare time, I either play games or write about them. If I look into it, its because I enjoy fun. Now, that's a strange statement to make, but I value fun incredibly highly. For me, as long as I'm having fun, it doesn't matter if I'm cold and hungry. Admittedly, being not-cold and not-hungry make it easier to have fun. However, I would rather be eating ramen and playing games than eating steak and working extra hours.

Of course, if work is fun, then I can have my steak and enjoy the rest of my life. Previously, I wasn't interested in creating my own company and being an independent game designer, but as time goes on, I become more interested in the idea. I enjoy the work associated with it, and it allows me to do what I love. It would strongly push my financial limits, particularly in the early days, but it would allow me the freedom to do what I enjoy.

Working on games, and their associated tasks is endlessly enjoyable for me. Every game is slightly different, and so each one produces new design challenges. Talking about games engages my brain in interesting ways, because they are far from solved systems. With Magic or League of Legends there are a huge number of strategies and combination of tools, so figuring out ideal tactics is a neverending puzzle that I can constantly make progress on.

My weekends consist of watching professional League (EU and NA LCS) and watching high level Magic (usually the SCG Legacy Open), while working on, writing about, or playing a game. All of this really reinforces the notion that games are important to me.

In playing these games, I've made friends who I've never met, particularly during my time playing World of Warcraft. I have friends who I've never seen, who's voices I can recognize from hundreds of hours of gaming together. What interests me, is that when I talked with them, my family and other people I have met in person, have denigrated my friendship. For some reason, they don't accept that I can be friends with people without seeing them, or that I can have a conversation with somebody without having met them in person. These same people don't accept eSports as a valid form of competition or entertainment.

I want to educate those who don't understand that with increasing globalization and communication tools, that entertainment and friendship can change as well. I know people who make their living from their bedroom, and others who would say their closest and best friends are those they met through the internet and have never met in real life.

To take a second to sound pretentious, the world is changing, and I understand (at least some of) what is happening.

Working the Front-lines of Game Design

Its been a long time since I've written anything, and I want to write stuff, so I will. I've spent my time these last few months working on The Diviner, an RPG with Visual Novel influences. Its been a ton of fun, and its really made me evolve as an individual. I had to rewrite the first sentence three or four times because I fell back into my "professional voice". When working with Two Crowns Entertainment and posting on their behalf, I have a particular way that I form my language, that is significantly different from how I normally talk. I use terms such as "I wanted to take this opportunity" and "I felt that this was a good time". This language reeks of an official message, and while that isn't an issue, its not who I am - most of the time.

The Learning of Design

This weekend, I was visiting with friends, and ended up talking about how I learned to make games. I constantly tell my friends, family and complete strangers how much fun game design is, and that they should give it a shot. The short answer is that I studied game design in college, and took classes, but that's far from being helpful.

Welcome to the Hamster Wheel!

So, the other day, I was talking with somebody who was interested in working on an RPG, and was excited with the idea of a more conversation focused game, but had a small issue with it:

The other problem with conversation-based instances/encounters is that I'm unsure how they'd have signifigance to the game aside from "that was interesting." The player could gain items, but what signifigance do they have? Are they just used for the next instance?

This statement is, well, interesting, and it is fairly common among gamers. If I don't get something cool out of it, what was the point? Why did I run across the country just to get some boots that I'm never going to use?

Making League of Legends More Accessible to New Players

(I originally posted this to Reddit, but it got absolutely no traction there)

Hey guys, I've tried to introduce my several of my friends to League, and have had some trouble when I do. It is oftentimes difficult for my friends to learn how to play the game. These include people with extensive gaming backgrounds- RPG, MMO, FPS and even RTS. They quickly grasp the basics, as taught in the initial tutorial, but have trouble figuring out mechanics that belong to MOBAs.

In the past couple of days, a post talking about how difficult it is for new players to get into the game made it to the front page (Link). While a lot of what he was talking about was the toxicity of other players, making the game easier to understand would be able to help.

I would like to see League become more accessible to new players and have a few thoughts that might help. I would also love to hear from you guys any thoughts you might have.

Spectators Guide to Summoner’s Rift

Many of my friends and family don't play League, and can't understand what's going on at all while I watch it. To that end, I've decided to write up a guide to watching professional level League. This is an on-going project, and I hope to eventually make it into a short video or something along those lines.

How to Watch eSports- Part 1: Why Watch eSports?

In my past couple of posts, I've been talking about League of Legends, not just as a game, but as a spectator sport. In my case, I don't have to many friends who watch the game regularly (two or three, at the upper end). There are very few people that I can talk to about the general tactics and strategies of the game and even fewer with whom I can discuss particular players or teams.