GameblurgKids Talking About the Future

Should I draw stuff? Program stuff? Organize stuff? Your goals need to be put into perspective, and David S.J. Hodgson and Bryan Stratton’s book, Paid to Play: An Insider’s Guide to Video Game Careers is a great start to organizing to skills and interests and harnessing them into a profitable career in the videogaming universe.

Many professionals inside of the gaming universe have followed a road well traveled. Initially, fans of the media merely play videogames.

After a large amount of time invested into various videogames, some fans begin to gauge a abnormal interest while thinking about them. They become knowledgeable about what they’re doing, and want to dissect their celebrated hobby at a deeper level: things like learning what makes videogames attractive to begin with, or learning what makes a bad videogame.

At the height of this curiosity, we gain an intense desire to know, at what was once a meddling inquiry to the mind becomes a healthy obsession about a subject that you genuinely care for, and alas, a career is born.

Although there are those who have stumbled into their careers without giving it much thought before college, those who do know that they want to enter the videogame industry as a professional have an interesting dilemma: what should I do?

Should I draw stuff? Program stuff? Organize stuff? Your goals need to be put into perspective, and David S.J. Hodgson and Bryan Stratton’s book, Paid to Play: An Insider’s Guide to Video Game Careers is a great start to organizing your skills and interests and harnessing them into a profitable career in the videogaming universe.

Paid to Play provides a vast overview of what many jobs entail that surround the concept of creating a videogame. Do you have the patience for hours and hours on end for a programming task? Do you really care about the proper color palettes that need to be applied to your character’s 3D models?

If you’re confused or overwhelmed in a world crowded with many interesting jobs, Paid to Play is a great starting point to figuring out where exactly your interest lays, and where your career can begin.

After EA’s previous installation of the Harry Potter series, I was confident that I could satisfy my prejudiced love for flying dragons and Hermione Granger, but eventually, my wizardly bias couldn’t fight the snail’s pace of the Half-Blood Prince’s beginning.

I like the “3 strikes” rule when approaching videogames: within the first 15 minutes of a videogame, if I encounter 3 major hazards, I move on to another game.

This concept is simple, and it has saved me plenty of time over the years.

Although this 3 strikes rule is in existence, when I grabbed a hold of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, I was sure I wouldn’t have to apply the rule to this game.

After EA’s previous installation of the Harry Potter series, I was confident that I could satisfy my prejudiced love for flying dragons and Hermione Granger, but eventually, my wizardly bias couldn’t fight the snail’s pace of the Half-Blood Prince’s beginning.

Let’s take it from the top:

The first slew of unstoppable cut scenes are stuffed down my throat. The thing that depresses me more than the bad acting is that I know there will be more of these to come.

(We can considered this as a strike, but I know Hermione is in some of these cut scenes, so I can just start paying attention when she shows up again.)

The game begins play with Harry conveniently placed on his flying broomstick outside of a rundown house called the Burrow. Practicing for Quidditch, the wizarding sport played between two teams of seven players who ride broomsticks and four balls to score points, we are instructed to flying throughout the sky and capture the Golden Snitch, a flying, darting object that must be captured in order for the game to end.

As I chase the Snitch, I start to notice how the flying sequence drags on monotonously. My movement is restricted to the thumb stick in which, all I can do is move in four basic directions and move through obstacles in order to gain speed.

Historically, the Snitch is extremely fast, which can be provided for an argument that defends the developer’s need to provide a linear and sterile path to track the Snitch down. Regardless, I’m still bored.

As I ride, I can not change speed, reach out to grab the Snitch when I’m near it or do any cool broom tricks. Not to mention, no Hermione sighting. (Strike one-Abysmal opening sequence)

Thankfully, we land and end this mess only to endure another. Harry finds his best friends Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger (five minutes too late) lurking outside of the Burrow.

Just as soon as I was ready to forgive the 1st strike because of Hermione’s appearance we encounter our second major hazard.

I learn that I’m being instructed to remove wasted cauldrons from a lawn. No catch, no hidden goals, just moving cauldrons up and over a fence because someone spilled them. Ron’s subtle sense of humor saves me from complete boredom as I continue manipulating the cauldrons.

If you haven’t noticed by now, Harry Potter uses magic. I can not fathom any fan of the series, or sane human being getting excited over removing cauldrons from a pool of waste with his wand that’s capable of so much more.

Doing chores are as boring as it sounds, and in a world where I can cast killing spells and levitate, you’d think there were better things available to do versus cleaning messes. (Strike two-Failure to elevate excitement)

The cauldrons are gone, and I hopelessly wish for that whole fun thing everyone’s always talking about. Recovering from my exciting cauldron escapade, the gameplay stops and awkwardly, the game skips from one setting to another without warning or smooth transition.

Experiencing annoyance, I’m prompted with another long, unskippable cut scene. (I can not describe much of it as I shamelessly started scribbling notes instead of glancing to see more characters try that whole “good acting” thing.)

(Side note: Harry Potter’s tales are gigantic in scope, so the movies are scaled down to a two/three hour experience, so it often feels like a summary of all of the events going on, resulting in awkward pacing. A game can offer more than two hours of play to move from the beginning to the end of the story, so I can only blame the game’s terrible pacing on laziness and/or poor project planning.)

The gameplay returns as I’m dumped outside of Hogwarts with another friend of Harry’s, Luna Lovegood. We take a long, boring trail north to return to the school. I don’t have any funny quotes to describe how fun it was, because it wasn’t. (Strike three- Slow transition into the story)

Here, a smarter me would have given up and moved on to Google-ing for Hermione stills, but my blinding bias will not allow me to shake this game off that easily.

After a quick trip to the bathroom to splash my face with water to keep awake, my bigotry gets the best of me, convincing me that this experience will get better. I do not recall any substance abuse in my bathroom, and to this day, I have no idea what I was thinking.

I eat another long, dragging cut scene as I finally enter the boarding school. The headmaster Professor Dumbledore explains the school’s new teachers and more info about the school that I did not care to remember.

After more trite dialogue, the gameplay resumes, allowing me to navigate the school, following Nearly Headless Nick, an ghost who provides his guiding services for myself and Ron to get to our class. Wait, class? After nearly falling asleep, I’ve got to go to class?

I accept the punishment and trek down the flights of stairs. The school is replicated accurately and seems alive as it’s populated by active children and teachers.

As I explored more of the school, my interest began to surface. “Maybe it’ll be exciting,” I thought as I moved in and throughout Hogwarts. Naively, I stepped into the Potions class room and receive the final blow to my enthusiasm for the game.

I’m instructed to take a seat and begin mixing potions. At this point, I’m desperate to find any reason to continue. “Maybe the school will explode and I’ll get to fight dragons?” I said, stuffing imaginary (but encouraging!) thoughts into my head.

The process of mixing potions consists of the following: one by one, by one, I retrieve the specific ingredient and add it to a kettle of liquids and while controlling the temperature, I create a mystical mixture of…we’re done here.

You’re busy. I’m busy. Videogames that carry the goal of entertainment must do so within 15 minutes to obtain and keep the attention of the game’s player, or you risk losing him forever to something more satisfying like Spongebob or streaming internet pornography.

It’s as if developers and publishers forget that their competition is stiff, smart and creates a similar experience. Remember, your game isn’t the only one on the shelf: I have options and you should make yours a superior one.

In the span of 25 minutes, I was driven to a point of ultimate boredom and I firmly believe that the Half-Blood Prince’s only saving grace would’ve been making Hermione Granger a playable character.

I quit games that slow and stall on the regular and suggest you do much of the same for the sake of your sanity.

It’s a little strange that the Joker chose to take over our site, but as you can see, we had no say so in the matter. We just do what we’re told. It doesn’t really help when people are threatening you with butter knives and explosive teddy bears.

Just in case you’re assuming we’re just sitting on our hands, complaining about video games, we’re here to remind you about our dedication to creating a dynamic blog that visually celebrates our culture.

It’s a little strange that the Joker chose to take over our site, but as you can see, we had no say so in the matter. We just do what we’re told. It doesn’t really help when people are threatening you with butter knives and explosive teddy bears.

Enjoy the deranged takeover. We hope we put a smile on your face.