Wednesday, March 28, 2012

What is the one thing you learned in your time at Sheridan that you will never forget?

I've learned that it's not the subject but the teacher.

Some of our teachers made the course a real joy to experience. Classes were fun, interactive, and we learned a lot beyond just memorizing things. Meanwhile there were some who just made their classes a bore, you'd show up and just be waiting for the class to end.

Alison was awesome, and not just cause I got an A in her Writing for Magazines class for getting published. ;)

But I took two electives, Japanese Culture and Spanish Culture. Both class basically had the same focus (simply on different countries). The course outline was the same for both. However the Japanese class was great fun. We learned some of the language, learned customs and manners, and had a wonderfully interactive class. Spanish however was boring and bland. We watched poorly done videos which didn't explain much, and had to use a "textbook" that was more of a colouring book.

The Japanese class gave me great lessons and I learned a lot. The Spanish class... not so much. We didn't even learn any actual Spanish, which was surprising.

It all comes down to the teachers. Learning has a lot to do with how the information's presented, not just what it contains.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Brian Fargo is working on Wasteland 2

The creator of the original Wasteland, Brian Fargo, has recently started a Kickstarter project to help fund the game. The original is what led to the creation of the first Fallout game, and the epic franchise that came with it.



Kickstarter is basically a site designed to let people get funding for their ideas. Fargo has had the idea of creating Wasteland 2 for quite some time. But up till now, he's not had the funding to get it going. He's gone to various companies, all of which have basically told him that his idea for a classic-style RPG wouldn't fly. Apparently they didn't believe that such a game would have enough of a following to be worthwhile.

Shows what they know. Within the first 24 hours, the Wasteland 2 Kickstarter project raised almost $600,000. That's one hell of a positive response. Considering donations can come in as low as one dollar, that's quite a lot of supporters. Add to that the fact that while a million dollars is the goal for starting the project, Fargo has commented that if the fans can raise $900,000 he'll throw in $100,000 from his own pocket.

Well, in 33 days the project has hit over $900,000. So the project is a go! Naturally, further funding is always helpful and will enable Fargo and his team to make the project even more special.

Anyone who donates at least $15 will receive a copy of the game. Higher donations will have more bonuses added. Needless to say I've already thrown in my support.

Fargo has explained that the game will be a top-down, "party centric", sandbox style game. It will be similar to the classic RPG's of old which many of us grew up with. And most importantly, it will be a game for the fans. While Fargo has endless pages of information on what will be in the game, he's also paying close attention to the forums for the game. He wants to ensure that while the players might not be writing the game, they'll at least have a strong say in how it's developed. Because unlike most of the big corporations, he knows that the players are what's important and has made them the focus.

And that's the way it should be.
All I can say is: