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Ok I have decided to cave in start a blog. After seeing how many people post interesting experiences and opinions up in their own, I figured that my own opinions or experiences and whatnot might actually make an interesting read - one recent 'thing' of which might be of some interest. Im a bit of a 'noob' at the whole bloging thing so if seems a bit unnatural, just bear with me
Think of this as an introduction. Or a *wall of text*

Last year I had finished my final year of school and with the monotony of exams and study grinds behind me, fixed on the prospect of going to University (or College) I had to come to terms what field of interest I wanted to 'get into'. Personally im quite into art and design, and of course games. Five 'pre-selection folios', two tests and six interviews later I had received a bunch of successful applications for a variety of courses at different universities - courses ranging from Industrial Design, Graphic Design, Product Design Multimedia, and of course - Game Design (as you can see I like 'design' orientated things lol). So after allot of procrastinating, pondering, and just sitting around I had to come to a conclusion of what field I would ultimately like get into. As you are obviously aware of - I went for games.

Yep im now studying 'Bachelor of Arts - Games Graphics Design' at RMIT university - which seemed like the best games orientated course I could find (after alot of open day scouring).

Thus I have called it
GAMESCHOOL

So you are most probably thinking well wtf does your course even cover - which isn't that simple. Individually I cover basic programming, art, game design and maths and physics, however as the semesters move on (its a 3 year course mind you), you begin to specialise in a particular field - mainly game designer or artist. The course is also interconnected with Games Programming and Digital art - we all work together for certain team based assignments and tasks.

What am I DOING? Well right now im learning how to use the Neverwinter Nights 2 editor, and am part of a design team of five (2 designers, 2 programmers, 1 artist) people, tasked with creating a 'mini mod' for the game - in semester 1 we work with NWN2, and in semester 2 we will be moving on to learn how to mod with the Unreal 3 Engine - and ultimately create a mod - preferably a small total conversion. Im also doing some art based subjects ('imaging') and an introduction to programming + maths and psychics for 'artists'. Thankfully the programming and maths + physics only lasts a semester.

Whats it LIKE? Its awesome. Seriously. Im only into my second week (not including a weeks orientation) and im loving being lectured on game design (heck I have a Bioshock lecture in the 5th week) and fousing my attention on an area ive always wanted to be involved in. Even the programming is good fun (for the time being), as is the maths and physics stuff.

While I cant say right now how worth doing a 'games graphics design' course will be in the end, I can say if you are going into uni or college, and seem a bit troubled about going for 'games' orientated course, even though you have a passion for getting involved in creating games, rather than just playing them, consider giving it a shot, as regretting it is even worse.

Oh Uni in general? Its awesome. My campus is directly in the middle of 'The City' (which would be Melbourne - Australia - I train it in), and its fantastic having so much freedom (freaking finally), and being in a course where everyone shares a common intrest its fun making new friends. However the amount of organisation is phenomenal.

So ya, if this blog actually 'kicks off' instead of nosediving ill happily post updates of what creations, ideas, designs (already have quite a few) - let alone what stuff is happening, and i'll happily answer any questions, and post my opinions of games in general, quite a few which I feel as-though I should get off my back. Well a blog is supposed to be kinda self indulgent isnt it

Oh yea im also in a dilemma of whether to get Army of Two or Burnout Paradise. Its either going for the worse game that has fun - split screen co-op (which im pretty much looking for), or going for a much better scoring game.... That i'll only end up playing on my own (jeez I miss Burnout Split screen - glad I have revenge). Mind you im playing DiRT and PGR4 right now. Its almost as much of a dilemma as picking uni courses

Exept I have until tomorrow to work it out. Dun dun dun.

Anyway thanks for persevering through what I hope is the first 'Skrat Blog'