There are graduate programs in Game Design? I feel like graduates should fall into one of the related fields for grad school.
RIT CS is awesome if you want to graduate with a BS and immediately go into industry. That's not what I want to do, though.
Actually, the Graduate in Game Design makes more sense than the Undergraduate. Learn code, then specialize. The undergrad program is really for those of us who can't afford Grad school.
Both our designers graduated from a grad program. It's nice to have a specialty before you learn the game stuff.
The undergrad GDD program does a good job of allowing for people to specialize, though. We dip a little bit into art and code and game design for everyone, but we have to take 5 advanced game classes of our choice. Generally, this is the point where you specialize. You can take specialized art and art programming courses, or you can do complex data structures, you can take classes in web programming...While not every GDD Undergrad...Graduate, will specialize...The smart ones will. They let you try all the different aspects before you pick the specialty.
Word of advice: Never go to grad school unless you get someone to pay your tuition for you.
Truth. Thank god for Ph. D funding.
No MD funding from medical institutions means I get to look forward to an illustrious future of luxurious living with a side order of $250k of debt.
I'm thinking of trying for an MD/PhD in Bioinformatics, Neuro, or Onco/Immuno. It will utterly consume me, but the stipends at places with decent programs are huge and I'll graduate debt-free.
Word of advice: Never go to grad school unless you get someone to pay your tuition for you.
Truth. Thank god for Ph. D funding.
No MD funding from medical institutions means I get to look forward to an illustrious future of luxurious living with a side order of $250k of debt.
I'm thinking of trying for an MD/PhD in Bioinformatics, Neuro, or Onco/Immuno. It will utterly consume me, but the stipends at places with decent programs are huge and I'll graduate debt-free.
I speak from second hand experience - being in $250k of debt post college is a terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible thing. Especially student loans. It will impact every facet of your professional life, and can easily spill over to your personal life. Just think very carefully about it.
My dad did it. My aunt did it. My uncle did it. My grandparents all did it. I know full well what it means for me if I don't get an MD/PhD at a place like NYU (or any other university that will offer me a full ride + stipend), which is why I'm planning on doing a significant amount to get there.
Good luck Bird. On another note, we are so much behind in geek culture around these parts, board games are so few, you have to buy them from abroad, just now we got a translation of Catan. But I'm happy that there is going to be a first official board game event on the 17th! It's going to be small but I have already volunteered to take Domion and teach people.
I think you grossly misunderstand the nature of Lars Von Trier's work. I find a significant amount of it repugnant (well, mainly Antichrist), but he's still an excellent director.
EDIT: That is to say, "Rapeman" is far, far beneath him. If I could peg Von Trier for a comic book movie, it'd be Misery Loves Comedy by Ivan Brunetti, which is a gutwrenchingly grotesque exploration of depression, self-loathing, and total misanthropy.
For all we bemoan the "1%" in American that caused all the protests we don't have it that bad. In Rome you had the 0.1% now that really sucked (making up the upper areas of society).
I'm thinking about carrying around a bunch of different currency in my wallet, from different time periods (some Roman coins, some pre-Euro lire and francs, some early-20'th century Chinese money), and act like a confused time traveler when I pay at cafes (and other cash-based places).
In other news, I'm constantly surprised by how much old things cost. Maybe I just have a good imagination and ability to visualize geologic time scales, but I feel that 2000 years really isn't that long ago. I always feel weird when I go to antique stores, because I'll find simple items (shoddy tables, un-ornamented gas lamps, etc) that are extremely overpriced, just because they're a few years old.
I'm thinking about carrying around a bunch of different currency in my wallet, from different time periods (some Roman coins, some pre-Euro lire and francs, some early-20'th century Chinese money), and act like a confused time traveler when I pay at cafes (and other cash-based places).
While that could be funny, it'd be very tedious to carry all that crap with you. Couldn't you at least have picked less shitty currencies than the lira and franc?
In other news, I'm constantly surprised by how much old things cost. Maybe I just have a good imagination and ability to visualize geologic time scales, but I feel that 2000 years really isn't that long ago. I always feel weird when I go to antique stores, because I'll find simple items (shoddy tables, un-ornamented gas lamps, etc) that are extremely overpriced, just because they're a few years old.
Welcome to the business. This shouldn't have surprised you.
The profit margin in antiques trading is too small. The secret is crafting new stuff that looks old, and then selling it at the same price as the old stuff. It's magic!
I guess I don't understand how rare antiques actually are. Both sides of my family are generally in the "keep old things and fix them up" mindset, so I grew up surrounded by a lot of antiques that I took for granted (e.g. apparently most people done have 2-3 gas lamps in their house, for emergencies and such?). When I look around antique stores, I see everyday objects, so I'm startled at how much they are charging for them.
Also, I'd probably only have a few Roman coins, some old Chinese coins, and paper lire. Lire make me remember that wonderful time when everything in Italy was super-good-quality and dirt cheap. The Euro (and subsequent increase in cost of domestic production compared to China) basically destroyed Italy's economy, at least for consumer products (I'm thinking non-luxury clothing, jewelry, etc).
EDIT: I would love it if companies started making new stuff that had the quality of old stuff. Doesn't need to look old, just needs to last. I wouldn't pay antique-money for it, but I would pay more than for cheap Chinese crap. Unfortunately, it seems that most of these companies charge a ridiculous amount (see: well-made umbrellas and walking sticks, hats, men's shirts, dress shoes, etc).
Mike, that's true, but these weren't expensive things back in the day. Everyday household objects were made sturdier than their contemporary counterparts, by and large. See: shaving equipment.
Mike, that's true, but these weren't expensive things back in the day.
I wouldn't count on that either. People generally bought fewer things because they couldn't afford very many things, so the things they did buy tended to be of a higher quality. We have more disposable income, and thus more disposable things today. We also have a lot of items that are more convenient to own, so there's less maintenance that you have to do.
Also, I can buy badass sturdy shaving equipment today. It's just that most people don't - they want cheap disposable stuff for convenience.
The Nogero Sensei was an early 1950s attempt at improving the popular safety razor by allowing the head to pivot and tilt with response to pressure and actuation of the handle. It was put out by a consumer products division of Mitsubishi in hopes of securing some soft power in a burgeoning American import market.
Unfortunately, the Nogero was critically flawed; the actuator didn't lock properly and several people accidentally slit their throats or lacerated a major vessel and had to be rushed to the hospital. Two men died of what Mitsubishi would later term "a misuse of lubrication"-- really, too much shave oil caused the blade to glide gently into their carotid, killing them in minutes.
There's a really good reason you never, ever hear about the Nogero Sensei anymore.
Mike, that's true, but these weren't expensive things back in the day. Everyday household objects were made sturdier than their contemporary counterparts, by and large. See: shaving equipment.
It's just that material science had not advanced sufficiently to give them cheapass materials that we make things out of today. They had to make everything out of glass and steel. like this kind of desk that you still see almost everywhere.
They still make desks like those, y'know. And honestly, I'm fine with cheaper desks, because they don't weigh a ton.
Seriously, I moved my coworker's new Corcraft desk into place. Fucking 350 pound monstrosity. No, I'll take a cheap desk that weighs 1/3 of that, thank you very much.
Comments
I'm thinking of trying for an MD/PhD in Bioinformatics, Neuro, or Onco/Immuno. It will utterly consume me, but the stipends at places with decent programs are huge and I'll graduate debt-free.
On another note, we are so much behind in geek culture around these parts, board games are so few, you have to buy them from abroad, just now we got a translation of Catan. But I'm happy that there is going to be a first official board game event on the 17th! It's going to be small but I have already volunteered to take Domion and teach people.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rapeman
EDIT: That is to say, "Rapeman" is far, far beneath him. If I could peg Von Trier for a comic book movie, it'd be Misery Loves Comedy by Ivan Brunetti, which is a gutwrenchingly grotesque exploration of depression, self-loathing, and total misanthropy.
In other news, I'm constantly surprised by how much old things cost. Maybe I just have a good imagination and ability to visualize geologic time scales, but I feel that 2000 years really isn't that long ago. I always feel weird when I go to antique stores, because I'll find simple items (shoddy tables, un-ornamented gas lamps, etc) that are extremely overpriced, just because they're a few years old.
Also, I'd probably only have a few Roman coins, some old Chinese coins, and paper lire. Lire make me remember that wonderful time when everything in Italy was super-good-quality and dirt cheap. The Euro (and subsequent increase in cost of domestic production compared to China) basically destroyed Italy's economy, at least for consumer products (I'm thinking non-luxury clothing, jewelry, etc).
EDIT: I would love it if companies started making new stuff that had the quality of old stuff. Doesn't need to look old, just needs to last. I wouldn't pay antique-money for it, but I would pay more than for cheap Chinese crap. Unfortunately, it seems that most of these companies charge a ridiculous amount (see: well-made umbrellas and walking sticks, hats, men's shirts, dress shoes, etc).
Also, I can buy badass sturdy shaving equipment today. It's just that most people don't - they want cheap disposable stuff for convenience.
Unfortunately, the Nogero was critically flawed; the actuator didn't lock properly and several people accidentally slit their throats or lacerated a major vessel and had to be rushed to the hospital. Two men died of what Mitsubishi would later term "a misuse of lubrication"-- really, too much shave oil caused the blade to glide gently into their carotid, killing them in minutes.
There's a really good reason you never, ever hear about the Nogero Sensei anymore.
Seriously, I moved my coworker's new Corcraft desk into place. Fucking 350 pound monstrosity. No, I'll take a cheap desk that weighs 1/3 of that, thank you very much.