Times... how they have changed...

So an interesting thing happened several days ago...
Myself, friends and coworkers do volunteer work for few children's charities, mostly art/creative related. A little over a week ago we partnered with Rod Streater's (wide receiver for the Oakland Raiders) Foundation and had a bunch of kids came over to our office, take tours, see presentations and then we did drawing workshops where we showed kids how to draw characters (my workshop did Olaf). It was really a lot of fun and the kids were awesome.

So, as the kids filed out to get pizza, Rod comes over to me and thanks for doing this and working with the kids, and we pose for some pictures. Then, he pulls me aside and asks if he can ask me a few questions. I said sure, and we step aside and he starts asking about detailed questions about Photoshop, and how it fits in the production environment, what other image creation tools we use like SBpro, the input devices and environment, and well... a bunch of questions along those lines. Not cursory ones either, very knowledgable and specific and related to the production pipeline for 2d/illustrated game art, he knew what he was talking about. It turns out that art is a passion of his and he is pursuing a degree in illustration/art specifically to do video games. That is what he plans to do after his football career, and he wanted a professional perspective.

Now, I don't exactly chat with a lot of NFL players, (none actually, but oddly, handful of NBA players) so I don't have a point of reference. But he was a great guy, very genuine and passionate about his charity work and the kids. I don't know if that is typical of folks in his profession, but I sure hope so.

I am old enough that in high school if you even knew what a computer was you were a nerd, and only small handful of us actually had one. Though I was never harassed in the way 80's movies would have you believe, it was certainly the football guys that got the hot girlfriends and all the attention. I find it pleasantly amusing that a few decades later, successful, professional athletes hope to get a job like mine one day.

Making games is now cool... even to the cool kids.

 

Too bad he's an Oakland Raider.

 

Great story and very inspiring! I hope Rod gets that degree and his new career soon. Very smart guy to be thinking ahead and planning his future after football.

 

There was this article that gave me some hope. You do have to ignore the classification of Catan as a 'complex' game.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-packers-of-catan-green-bays-board-game-obsession-1421346102

 

Catan is a complex game for people who typically play Clue and Life. Maybe not for ultra smart people like you.

I belong to a gaming group and while Catan doesn't compare to some Eurogames, it is not a simple to master game. Easier to learn, yes, but it takes some practice to actually get the most out of it.

Love the link though! Great article.

 

Cool story, seriously

 

That is a cool story.

Though I knew that what was once only geek culture was now part of the "cool kids" mainstream when Vin Diesel wrote the intro to a Dungeons and Dragons book.

Come on, Jocks, let's see you pick on the gaming nerds when Riddick is here to kick your butt.

 

Can't remember much of the details, but wasn't there also a former MLB player who started a game company and made an MMO or something?

 

Yes, Curt Shilling, he formed a company called 38 studios, and released a single player RPG, Kingdoms of Amalur. The studio closed down shortly after.

 

Ha! That was the first thing my sister said too!

 

Catan seems to be a gateway type game, it seems like that is often the first game folks play when they venture outside the family game cabinet.

We have petty hard core board/game group(s) at work, we play all kinds of stuff, (we even do Diplomacy a couple of times of year), but by far the one we play the most is Blokus.