Monday 30 January 2012

2012 - and it's almost February!

So here we are in 2012, and it's a new term at Brunel University.  This term sees a slight change of focus for the course.  Last term the game theory was just that, talk about game-theory debates and terminology and things.  It was interesting and useful, but this term is much more my cup of tea as we are doing Socio-cultural studies in games, covering things like militarism, structuralism and gender in games, So far it's been fascinating although I am stuck for what to write on this term, I find it all fascinating, and am having trouble choosing!  I did ok in my theory paper I worked on over Christmas, and learnt a whole load too.



We also have a slightly more practical approach in the design classes, with one MMF (multi-media fusion) project being expected per week, which is quite a buzz.  I enjoy creating games in it and like the challenge and accesibility it provides for people like me who don't 'speak code'.  We have a pitch project deadline fast approaching already and so that's going to consume time once more.  Waiting nervously on work from the design assessment of course.

The pressure is on, rightly so, and trying to balance work (as in my 'real' job) with the course (with my intended future job) with having any sort of life at all is quite hard work, not that I mind, it's the challenge I knew I had set myself from the start.

I am also trying to do as much reading as possible and am enjoying Third Person at the moment.  My preferred reading is the collections of essays that I am engaging with - I think I handle the topics better in shorter bursts (I also don't own a bookmark, and it's easier to find your place in an short essay!) 


It's hard to believe we're already 3 weeks into the term, it really has flown this year.  It's almost February already, almost into actively working on the next bit of work, all too soon it will time to work on the dissertation!  Gosh.

In other news Preto in Putney is an amazing restaurant!

Thursday 5 January 2012

Dressing Up

I've mentioned before that I think the things that people do related to playing games are fascinating and I think this video (which is on the Kotaku site) is fascinating and really rather impressive, not only is is nicely filmed but it features some stunning costumes alot of which will have been 'home made' - truly hugely impressive.

I'm afraid I can't work out how to embed a Vimeo video into a Google blog without creating a war, so in the meantime you'll just have to go there and watch it!

It's worth it though - go take a look!
What it doesn't feature though is this, which is something to amuse before taking that video!