Game Show Case at Indie Grits!

I know it’s been a while since I have posted but I have been extremely busy working on many different events including this one.  This marks the first official year that independently developed games will be shown at Indie Grits!  Here is a list of the games to be shown:

Lost in the Middle Kingdom
Renaldo Doe, JJ Shepherd, Will Hoskins, Matthew Arnold:  2:00-4:00pm
A serious games that teaches the user to speak, read, and understand Chinese.  Think “Rosetta Stone: The Game”.

Cannon Crew
Renaldo Doe:  2:00-4:00pm
Shoot targets and score the most points in this mobile game.

Divide by Zero (/0)
Will Hoskins: 3:00-4:00pm
Difficult platformer, great music, and a robust level editor best describes this Android Mobile Game.

Hamster Ball
Vitale Zheltov, Michelle skipper, and Brandi Palmer: 2:00, 3:00, 4:00pm
Guide an adorable hamster through difficult mazes and around tricky obstacles.

Say It!
JJ Shepherd: 2:00, 3:00pm
Experience the therapy that teaches stroke patients how to speak again through this serious game.

[threshold]
Cecil Decker and JJ Shepherd: 2:00-4:00pm
Experience noise through play or non play with this thoughtful avant gard game.

Lost Sol
Richard Walker: 2:00-4:00pm
Solve puzzles using light in this mysterious game.

No Child Left Behind
Christine Cannon: 2:30, 3:30
Rescue children from a burning science lab to obtain the highest score in this witty and dark game.

Poker Smash
Drew Card: 2:oo-4:00pm
Shift cards to create hands in the fast paced puzzle game for the Xbox 360.

Don’t Be a Dick
Cecil Decker: 2:00, 3:00pm
Experience the dull and the mundane with this thought provoking and sometimes violent text-based adventure.  IN HD!

Guild of Mercenaries
Paul Park and Terral Patel: 2:30, 3:30
Venture forth, buy items, and slay enemies in this Governor School of Math and Science made game.

Lucy Heart of Gold
Susie and Jake: 2:30, 3:30pm
Guide Lucy through this platforming adventure to find happiness in this Governor School of Math and Science made game.

Defeat the Enemies 4: Into the Grid
Karl  Schober:  2:30, 3:30pm
Defeat your enemies in a surreal grid space.

Kinect Pong
JJ Shepherd: 2:00-4:00pm
Play the classic game Pong in a new way… With your entire body!  This fast paced game has all the charm of the 70′s with the controls of the future… Today!

Koy Button
James Sutherland Jr. : 2:00-4:00pm
Beautiful environments and tough gameplay await in a platformer game where you must collect and master the four buttons needed to power up a weapon that can destroy the ultimate evil.

These are a few that will be feature but there may be a few that may make a special appearance.  Hope to see you all there!

TEDx Talk

Here is my talk I gave at TEDx Columbia!  Enjoy BD>

Dissertation Work

Just another day working on the dissertation

Running for Mayor of UofSC

A Look Back at all the Boomboxes I Have Carried

This week I recently got a new boombox, and figured this would be a good time to take a look back at some of the previous boomboxes I have carried over the years.

IT HAS A STRAP!!!

When Elliot and I traded off carrying the boombox we carried a really beat up 80′s Sony.  The back plate was missing so we had a piece of cardboard covering it up and duct taped it all around.  We couldn’t move around too much while carrying it since the batteries would jingle loose.  This was also during the time where I had to make mix tapes and themes for the boombox, which was done by my very ad-hoc studio.  We carried Boxy around put it through even more wear and tear through our crazy adventures.  These were the humble beginnings of the boombox guy.

It was Leif Erickson day

When Elliot left, he took his boombox with him, and I was faced with a tough decision.  Was the boombox just a one semester fluke or was it worth carrying on?  After thinking about it and remembering all the laughs that it had brought to people I knew I had to carry it on.  I knew it was going to be tough going at it alone, since there were a handful of people who did not like the boombox guy.  Worst of all, I had to find a place that sold cheap D batteries!

Dismissing the haters and the power supply concerns, I set forth to find a new boombox.  Digging through stuff at my parents house I ran across a slightly newer Sony boombox.  It was black, twice as loud, and twice as heavy.  I liked it because it better represented my personality at the time.  I deemed this one Boxy 2 / “Blacky”.  I continued to make mix tapes, had theme days, and carried on the pursuit of spreading a little bit of humor around campus.

Jorts

I carried Boxy 2 through my sophomore and most of my junior years as an undergrad.  Sensing I needed a change, I went searching for a new boombox.  Boxy 2 had served me well but it was time to retire it.  I scoured through thrift stores, flea markets, and pawn shops to find a new one.  Despite my searching, I came up empty until my parents went to a strange flea market near the mountains.  They talked to a strange old man, who just so happened to have what I had been looking for.  Christmas that year they gave me Boxy 3 / “Boxy the Third”.  This Emerson boombox was slightly shorter but taller, older but sounded better, and was densely built.  This boombox became my companion through the rest of my junior year, my entire senior year, and through most of my pursuit for a masters.  This was also the one I was filmed in the interview for HDNet becoming the first boombox I had been televised holding.

Boxy the Third

It was around this time I stopped making mix tapes, since they were becoming increasingly harder to find, and decided to modernize with running a mp3 player through the boombox.  This turned out to be a great decision as I could now make playlists on the fly.

Nearing completion of my matsters, it was about time to retire “Boxy the Third”.  I then found an 80′s Magnavox which was very promising.  This one was slightly larger and louder, and was a beauty.  Easily this was going to be Boxy 4.  However shortly after taking it out and about, the line in for the mp3 player died, and the tape deck’s motor was busted.  It was a good radio, but couldn’t fulfill the role of a boombox.

Boxy 4

As strange fate would have it, around this same time my parents went to that bizarre flea market in the mountains and talked with that weird, little old man.  He just so happened to have another boombox.  For my birthday, my parents presented me with Boxy 5 / “The Beast!”  It was big, twice as heavy as the last, twice as loud as the last, it was a beast!  Also for some strange reason it took 9 D batteries instead of the standard 6 or 8.  This boombox became the most photographed of all of them.  From the “Garnet and Black: Have you seen Boombox Guy?” to “Rock Out with your Gamecock” to performing at “Runaway Runway” to being on the news here and there, I have been seen with this boombox more than the rest.  Thus became my signature boombox, and continues to serve me as one of the best boomboxes.

THE BEAST!

Being as heavy and cumbersome as it was, I then needed to find something a little smaller for other uses like kickball games, pub crawls, and other shenanigans that wouldn’t get in the way.  This is when I discovered Boxy 6 / “Skinny”.  This was a light weight, and surprisingly skinny GE boombox.  It was a perfect companion for a lot of nonsense I got into as I could easily run with this one.

Krampus

Now we come to the newest boombox, Boxy 7.  I do not yet have a name for it, but so far I like how good the sound quality is, how it hearkens back to the retro boxes but still modern, how light weight it is, and most of all it has a strap!  It’s funny to think I have went from 80′s boomboxes where we had to make mix tapes and repair it with duct tape to something a little newer, but still has all the character as the ones before.  Where do I go from here?  Who knows maybe I’ll build my own one day BD>

It’s a New Year!

I’m happy to be back at work, and I am working on some pretty big plans for this year.

What I wake up to

This year is going to run the gambit from different flavors of challenges.  First and foremost I am working on completing my PhD work this year and will be forever known as Dr. Boombox Guy.  Then to work on various tasks such as giving a great TEDx Columbia Speech, working on several games, hosting tournaments and show cases, teaching various classes, and finally giving a lot of love to my friends a family.  There are also some other secret projects I’m working on that I may or may not reveal this year.  Stay tuned to hear about my progress, and hear more wacky adventures for 2013. BD>

Video Games DO NOT Create Killers, but Killers Love to Play Video Games

I have been mostly silent about the appalling tragedy in Connecticut as to give the families of the victims the respect they deserve.  However I have been closely watching the steady stream of accusations, excuses, and scapegoats stream forward.  From the lack of gun control to the lack of media control, from the lack of mental help to the lack of understanding for people who need help, from the lack of social reform to the lack of God in society have been all major points discussed.  Discussing these points would not have been appropriate, since I believe I am not fully educated on each.  All that would have been done is aggregating talking points by people who are educated within those fields, and have an invested interest that co-aligns with whatever agenda they hold.

However, today the NRA condemned video games as a “Shadow Industry” that “sows violence against its own people”.  Being deeply involved with games this ignorant statement angered me and finally broke my silence.  Here is what I have to say,

VIDEO GAMES DO NOT CREATE KILLERS!!! BUT KILLERS LOVE TO PLAY VIDEO GAMES!!!

There have been many failed studies trying to link violent video games to violent actions, but all they have shown is that violent games temporarily increases the level of aggression in the person playing it.  This does not create killers.  On a personal note the most aggressive I have ever become while playing any game was during Mario Kart, which is not a violent video game.

I hate you so much

I grew up post industry crash of 1983 when everything involving games was starting over and evolving.  Playing games like the Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros, Sonic was a staple of my childhood.  As I grew a little older I played games like Doom and Mortal Kombat and remembered seeing on the news how people like Joseph Lieberman condemned those games as corrupting the youth and calling them nothing more than “killing simulators”.  Today I play all sorts of games ranging from indie to triple A titles, and even go back and play some retro games I missed, and within each of these classifications they include very violent games.  So what does all of this make me?  I am the product of growing up in world that has always had video games.  I am a teacher.  I am a performer.  I am a creator.  I am a thinker.  However, I am not a killer.

Me and some amazing students / friends

The only real connection I can see behind killers and video games is that killers love to play video games.  So why is this the case?  Games provide an escape for people to play out their fantasies in a safe environment.   The industry makes games where people can act out their violence because they sell.  Granted I am tired of playing a bald (space) marine killing either aliens or foreigners.

Ugh… Who am I shooting at this time?

Then why would they want to act out violence and buy these games?  That is a hard question to answer.  Some feel they have been wronged by society and they must seek vengeance against the people who have wronged them.  Sadly this is what many people are taught in our society, and ironically goes against our society’s most pervasive moral system Christianity; where forgiveness and love is put above vengeance and hate.

No

Now how can we prevent this from happening again?  There is no easy or even right answer to this one.  More available mental help, reformation of gun laws, anti bullying initiatives, not stigmatizing people who need mental help, are all very good ideas in the short term.  Here is what I would suggest for the long term.  I believe we need to teach people that love, forgiveness, understanding, and compassion is not a sign of weakness, but a badge of strength.  It is very easy to be angry and hate, but it is very hard to forgive and love.  Granted I still got a long ways to go with learning those lessons and I try to practice what I preach, but I slip up.

Games are not to blame here.  They are a byproduct of a deeper seated problem.  Let’s learn to forgive and love, so that we can avoid these tragedies.