It's Dai Time

Katie & Scott & Simon & Cecily.

Tag: high school (Page 1 of 2)

Day 358: happy birthday, sims

February 4, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Today, our studio celebrated the 10th anniversary of The Sims.

The first Sims game was released 10 years ago today.  Since then, there have been two sequels (one of which I had the honor of working on), with both the original game and Sims 2 having dozens of expansion and stuff pack.

But what a different world it was back then.  When the Sims first launched, Metacritic didn’t exist yet.  I had not yet graduated from high school.  I had not yet dreamed of ever working in the video games industry.  I was fairly certain at the time that I’d probably be a computer scientist for all of my life.

I was instead updating a personal website that used frames, the marquee tag, a listbot subscription field, a guestbook, a visit counter, and had such stellar content as:

I’m back again. And I’m rip roaring ready for another fun-filled year of school. This time, it’s even more special, because (gasp!), I’m a…junior! So, I’m going back to the rat race, the drawing board, the cheese factory, the pit, the blue hallway, whatever you want. I’m going back. That means I get to see all my loyal friends (and loyal enemies). Yeah! A little bonus for you all…I now have a picture of me!

Unfortunately, that picture of me is lost forever in the Internet.  Even I don’t remember whatever unfortunate hairstyle or expression I may have been wearing at the time.  It probably looked a little something like this:

sound board hijinks

Anyway, the point is, the pedigree of the games that I’ve been working on for the past three years is long and grand.  I’m proud to continue the work of all those who have come before me, to make games that are about creativity, storytelling, and the lives of ordinary people.  I’m honored to be part of a decade-long commitment to making games that can be fun without ever requiring you to shoot anyone in the face.

Also, the celebration at work today meant I got free cake.  So, that’s a big plus, too.

Day 203: glee

September 2, 2009 / / 0 Comments

We watched Glee tonight on TV.  While the DVR is busted, we’ve been forced to watching shows when the network wants us to.  It’s frustrating and so last decade.

I liked Glee.  It’s like an aged up High School Musical.  Also, any show with choreographed dances?  Good in my book.

My high school never had a glee club, so I don’t really know what one is.  Do most high schools have glee clubs and mine was an outlier?  Do only schools in certain areas of the country have glee clubs?  Or is a recent phenomenon that only arose after I graduated from high school?

As if the show needed to cater to the demographic of me any more specifically, they’re having a “tweet-peat” this Friday, where they’ll replay the episode while simultaneously having people involved in the show tweet details and answer questions on Twitter.  Thank you Internet, for making something like this a reality.

OK, off to try to take Iwo Jima with some friends.

Day 129: rock me at home

June 20, 2009 / / 0 Comments

I’ve never been a big conert-goer. Before high school, I didn’t listen to much popular music at all. It wasn’t something that I had been exposed to when young and the first contact I had with it was probably through the BMG CD club. Remember those?

You’d get 10 CDs for $1 each, but then pledge to buy one CD at full price each month for the next 6 or 12 months or something. They’d also do something annoying, like send you a “featured” CD each month that you’d have to send back if you didn’t want to charged for it. Although the actual BMG CD club seems to long dead, the sentiment lives on with subscriptions like eMusic or the Disney DVD club.

Still, I never really went to many concerts in high school. The first concert I ever went to (aside from perhaps some free summer outdoor concerts where I don’t remember the artists at all) was a Moxy Fruvous concert in late high school. I would then see them another time and They Might Be Giants a number of times, as well as Ben Folds. But, aside from them, that’s about it. Throw in a few random concerts (Dispatch and OK Go, one time each) and that’s my life’s setlist in terms of live music.

Concerts are loud and only fun if you know the band’s music well. I don’t tend to get to know many bands’ music that well. I’d rather go to a musical, or listen to a band on a CD, or play their music in Rock Band. And, recently, I’ve felt that concert prices have become a big extravagant.

I think other people tend to disagree. Lots of people love live music and going to concerts. I understand the excitement of being at a concert, but it’s just not something I really “get.” Kind of like how other people probably don’t “get” why I enjoy watching something like curling so much.

Day 94: what ifs

May 16, 2009 / / 0 Comments

I went to the mall today and saw a mall cop zip by on a segway. It was an odd, somewhat surreal moment.

I was never a big mall teenager in high school. I was never a big anything teenager in high school. I was a bit of a loner, but I had my own little group of friends. I was a bit of a stick-in-the-mud, but not as much as some other kids. I mainly hung in the background and spent most of my time outside of school at home.

So, I don’t really know what the mall scene was like. Did people go on dates to the mall? Did people form cliques and gossip at the mall? Did shopping together form some sort of intimate high school bond that I missed out on?

I feel like there were many subcultures within high school that I was either not aware of or intentionally kept on the outside. In a way, I’m somewhat glad. I get the feeling that a lot of high school drama just caused unnecessary angst. I didn’t have to deal too much with what people thought of me because I kind of flew under the radar most of the time.

In another way, I do kind of wish I had more of a high school experience just because I’ll never have that chance again. In general, I feel that way about a lot of things. I wish I had the chance to experience different childhoods, different high school personas, different college times. What if I had been into football instead of chess? What if I had been really into newspaper? What if I had majored in creative writing or theatre instead? What if I had never left China?

I wouldn’t give up any of my current life and experiences, but it is certainly interesting to think about. And it is something I wish I had: several lifetimes of experiences. Am I the only one that feels like this? Do others think about this too, or do they just go about their lives, content with one life to live?

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