I’m going to try my best to be as brief as possible…
- There are now plans for me to be a thesis advisor at SVA. One full time student who took my class over the summer wants me to help oversee his senior project. Originally I made the offer to lend my services in a purely nonofficial role, but I guess that’s been changed, and I’m rather psyched to see how this will go.
Also, I finally found someone whom I might be able to collaborate with on a Flash game that I’ve had the idea for years now (anyone who knows me personally knows that game I’m talking about). I’ll find out more later this weekend or early next week, and even though it’s not definite, just the chance to finally get it made is something I’m extremely happy about.
- But back to game academia, I’ve just learned that I’m now officially SVA’s only game design teacher, which is both good and bad. There were two other classes running, but despite an earnest search by myself and the school, no qualified instructors could be found to replace the two who had to leave. And now my fall class is just a few weeks away, but with the numbers being as low as they are, there’s the possibility that it may not run. After the surprisingly large number of students the first time around, I figured I won’t need to do nearly as much promoting, but I guess I’m wrong.
So when I was asked to be interviewed by a magazine on the subject of my class, I jumped at the chance. But as it was being conducted, it was discovered that the article was for a Ziff Davis publication, and since I write for them, it’s a conflict of interest, so I cannot be mentioned by name, so there goes that chance for some free publicity. But I still contributed some facts, and with the veil of anonymity on my side, I ended up being far more “honest” than even I expected to be.
- Last week, at the last Gamer’s Nite Groove, I met a number of new faces including a guy named Jim who’s a second year cartooning student at SVA that’s interested in video games as a career. Job, the guy who organizes the GNG, recommend to Jim that he speak with me since I have a similar background and was able to quite a bit in a relatively short amount of time, as well as in a less than ideal location for such a thing. I met him on Wednesday and he showed me his work in progress, which I was genuinely impressed by. So I passed along some advice, from design to career-wise, which I’m always happy to do. But I have to say, the most eventful thing about the meeting was the location.
Jim lives in the George Washington Hotel, which serves as the dorms for SVA, and is where I first lived when coming to New York. It was so weird being back; anyone who’s been there has plenty of crazy stories, and I myself have enough to fill a modest sized book. And the place actually looks worse now than before, with all the walls now a solid (and sickly) yellow. But what was most shocking was to hear that the tenants (the original occupants of the building before SVA moved in) can still be found. Though Jim didn’t recognize my description for the “Yoda Woman”. I wonder if the old British lady is still around? Last I saw her, she was still nursing a hurt arm from the time this punk rock chick pushed down a flight of stairs (trust me, the old woman sorta had it coming to her). As for the punk rock chick, there’s a million stories surrounding her as well, but I will say real quick that she was the only girl who was willing to go topless and spread shit on her breasts for a film I was directing at the time. Ah, memories…
- BTW, my Alien Hominid overview was finally posted on Insert Credit this week. Truth be told, it’s not exactly my best piece of writing, but in my defense, I’m not used to the IC method of reporting. Also, while digging around the Internet Archive for stuff to spotlight, I came across an awesome interview with Tetsuya Mizuguchi. Instead of simply repeating what he said, I suggest that everyone simply check out the vid for themselves.
- Perhaps the biggest headaches of the week has been provided by Gamestop and EB, though one should never be surprised by any among of incompetence or bullshit that they’re well versed in providing.
First off, a few weeks ago I purchased Gradius V via Gamestop.com in order to secure the pre-order bonus which is a bonus DVD (I’m assuming it’s just the Gradius Appreciate DVD that came out in Japan). So now that it’s been released, I like everyone else got an email saying the game was being shipped…. without the DVD. No reason was given (of course) and attempts to get an answer from them has been futile (of course). Now word has it (from the GameFAQs message board, which isn’t exactly the most reliable of sources) that due to a production mishap the DVD was delayed, but everyone who is entitled to one will receive theirs, but this just sounds like another one of their bait-and-switch tactics yet again. The only fucking reason why I even bothered with Gamestop in the first place was for that damn DVD, which I now hear may not even be the same one from Japan!
EDIT: I just got an email telling me that my copy is on it’s way. So I’ll be keeping Gamestop.com Customer Service Agent “Randi” to his word.
Next: last week I went to my local EB to pre-order Katamari Damacy and pick up a copy of Dog’s Life. Since I was told that wasn’t out yet, I pre-ordered it as well. Then a few days later I’m at Bust Buy and saw Dog’s Life on safe, one day before it was “supposed to be” available (which was the 15th). I went online and found out that the game has actually been out for at least a week (hence all the impressions I’ve been reading online) and that EB for whatever reason was only getting their on the 15th. So when the 15th arrived, I gave the store a call, which of course is never fun since every EB seems to have only one phone line (cuz they know nothing makes customers happier than hearing a busy signal) and once you actually get someone, the person is usually a complete idiot. This one claimed it “didn’t exist” despite being the personal who actually filled out the order in the first place. Eventually she did figure out what game it was after realizing the game’s proper spelling (cuz we all know how hard the word dog is to spell) and was given the classic “the shipment hasn’t arrived yet” excuse. I’ve heard this two days straight, and now it’s the 17th, I bet it still hasn’t come in because it will never come in, and I’m confident those copies at Best Buy are long gone (it’s been reported that the print run was super small, hence why I was so shocked to see it at Best Buy).
I swear to God, there had better be no problems getting Katamari Damacy.
- At least my copy of Twin Snakes arrived on time. I’ve been pretty busy so I really haven’t had much time with it, but thus far, I really hate the redone music. Plus there’s the controls. The means to pause the game is far too complicated; on the PlayStation controller, you have a select button, which activates with codec, and a start button, which simply pauses that action. But since the GameCube only has a start button, you have to hit that plus A for the codec and start plus B to pause. When you consider how the action is paused anyways when you use a codec, plus when accessing your inventory and arsenal, its total nonsense.
I also finally got Virtua Racing: Flat Out, but have yet to give it a spin.
- Well Star Wars seems to be getting more and more news, with the DVDs coming out next week (I think). I’m still steadfast with my objections towards them, but I have to admit, I am curious to see how they turn out (though I still refuse to support the endeavor financially, though I know it ultimately doesn’t matter… piece of mind I guess). Anyway, here’s an awesome thread from Something Awful relating to the subject, which I think is one of their best ever (with this one being the best, imho). It’s certainly a lot more than the Watchmen thread from a whiles back…. though this one is still pretty funny. And this one.
- Since I’m going over almost everything, I may as well mention my health, which has not been so hot as of late. Basically, my ulcer is back, plus I’m just tired of being run down and feeling like shit all the time, so I’ve decided to get serious and really watch what I eat. I almost want to say I’m on a diet, but considering that fast food is still a major component of my eating habits, I’d feel pretty stupid doing so (though it’s mostly healthy stuff, I swear!). I guess it’s working because the other night, with no water in the fridge, I had to drink milk instead. And for whatever reason (I guess lactose intolerance?) I can’t drink milk by itself, I had the very last bit of chocolate chip cookies I had lying around (I had sworn of junk food, so these cookies were before this, but I hate to throw out food as well). And after eating them, I felt incredibly guilty.
But the inability to cook really is the only thing standing in the way of a truly healthy diet. But simply given up on any notions of ever creating anything more complex than a baloney sandwich in my home. I guess that’s the sacrifice I’m willing to make to live in the Upper West Side….
… Though I just noticed a huge banner that was raised right across the street from my apartment. Next weekend there’s going to be an “Anti-Gentrification Street Fair” whatever the hell that is. And it said “14th Annual” as well. This can’t be good. I am of course Asian (as Dave so astutely pointed out to me), so I should theoretically have nothing to worry about, but I still have a really bad feeling about this.
- As for this one that’s coming, and as tired as I am, I’m afraid I won’t be getting any rest. I’ve already had to blow off a coworker’s bachelor party and an IGDA event (both in the heart of New Jersey), and getting what I have to get done was already going to be a bitch, but with the threat of yet another tropical storm rolling into town, I’m ready to just roll into a ball and throw in the towel.
Also a number of flicks are opening tonight that I want to catch, such as Sky Captain, Ghost in the Shell 2, and Silver City, Plus I still haven’t seen Hero (on the big screen at least) or Resident Evil 2 yet (yeah, I know it’s bad… I just want to see it, and it’s not because I have the hots for Mila Jovovich anything). But with the weather again, I might just pass till the mid-week, though I might not have any time at that point. At least I have plenty of movies at home (Shaun of the Dead, among many others) plus Trailer Park Boys season 3 to keep me occupied at home.
- And one last thing… even though I’ve been checking it out for over a week, this has yet to get old.
… Well, so much for trying to keep things “brief.”
