#NerdsUnite: Confessions of a videogame journalist

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy John. We started talking on the twitter not too long ago, and then he reached out and asked if he could write for us regarding his journey through the nerdy realm. I was all DUDDEEE!! That's so raaaddd!! And now, here we are. Like right now, in real time, this is happening. Pretty cool huh? HIT IT JOHN!!! </editorsnote> 

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's John Sollitto

You want to know something funny? I’m basically tricking the Honors Program at my school. And they totally know it and are okay with it so much so that they’re letting me get away with it.

So as a senior I have to do an independent study project that has something to do with my major, then do a presentation and write a paper on it. So you know what I proposed? Here, I’ll put the academic pitch for you:

I propose a study wherein I document and study the ability of students to practically apply the knowledge that they receive while in a university. Their goal will be to achieve professional and legitimate status as a professionally recognized media outlet in the videogame community.

What that meant was that I proposed making my senior project about my blog/website/Youtube/Facebook for The Game Creators Vault. I told the head of the Honors Department that I was just going to write a paper about the extracurricular I was doing for my own personal gain, and she was like, “Yeah, as long as you make it academic.”

In my head, I was like, “I’m not going to do any more work than I want to, or than I am already doing because screw work, that’s why.” I made my proposal, found a professor to be my mentor, and have since then, been ahead of my entire class in the Honors department because I figured out that school work doesn’t necessarily have to be as complicated as we make it.

I mean, I have friends who are bio-medical majors and teaching majors and those are really ones where you do need to do a research project that is heavily academic. But since I’m a communications major, the all-encompassing major of majors, and that gives me a lot of freedom because anything and everything is communication.

But the funniest part of this whole project is that I get to do stupid stuff like this and get a grade for it later:

I mean that’s just not fair. I’m getting a grade for playing videogames and writing reports on them and talking to industry professionals and doing what I love. OH WAIT. That’s why you GO to college. To get rewarded for learning and putting into practice the things you learn for what you want to do.

I feel like a lot of students are worried about how they’ll get a job outside of school, as opposed to looking for the job now or a way to apply their knowledge practically to be more attractive to an employer. We’ve been given this idea that if we have a degree and we do some clubs in college or university, then we’re appealing to someone who will hire us. The cold hard truth is that is TOTALLY not true.

The reality is that the most appealing people to a professional company is someone who knows what they’re doing even in school and shows it by doing it even without the degree. I’m not saying you need to start up some sort of black market medical practice if you’re a med student to demonstrate that you know how to perform surgery to prospective hospitals. What I am saying is that if you can demonstrate your skills and knowledge during the process of getting your degree and stick with it, it shows you have four plus years of experience and a degree when you come to an employer. Who are they more willing or likely to hire? Someone who knows their stuff? Or someone with a degree and says “Hire me please!”

Looking for internships is the key, honestly. Making connections while working in a professional environment shows that you’re a professional and may even get you a job straight away where you’re interning. But say you’re in a position where internships and other methods aren’t exactly viable to you.

Maybe then you can make a job. I mean, that’s what I did with the Vault. Mark told me that he was looking for a writer two years ago. And two years later we have a Youtube channel, a Facebook, a blog, and over 1,000 fans and followers! If things take off, I might be able to do that for a living and already be an Editor-in-Chief by the time I’m 23. How cool would it be if you could make your job? I mean, Jen did it! Look at her!

Don’t think so “inside the box,” especially these days when the job world is so crazy and fluctuates all the time. Try and be creative and sooner or later, you’ll realize that there’s a lot more you can do for yourself and your professional career than just sit around and study and watch Hulu.

Learn what you need and get your degree, but make the most of the time you have at school and utilize the resources it gives you to get a head-start. You don’t need a degree to be awesome. Look at all the famous people who dropped out of school and became historical figures: Ben Franklin, Einstein, Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, hell Walt Disney dropped out of school at 15!

I know it sounds really weird coming from a guy who hasn’t graduated yet and who is really young, at least think about what I said. Practical knowledge and experience matter more than a degree. Who knows more? The man who works with trees all day and cuts them down and shapes them into furniture? Or the guy who has only read about doing it?

Don’t waste your time in school, but definitely don’t think that you can’t do what you love without a degree. I’m already doing it, and you should be too.

#nerdsunite

Want more from John? Click here to follow him on the twitter!

#NerdsUnite: Confessions of a videogame journalist

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy John. We started talking on the twitter not too long ago, and then he reached out and asked if he could write for us regarding his journey through the nerdy realm. I was all DUDDEEE!! That's so raaaddd!! And now, here we are. Like right now, in real time, this is happening. Pretty cool huh? HIT IT JOHN!!! </editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's John Sollitto

A while back I did an interview with two of the creators of the Fallout: Nuka Break YouTube series. Fallout is an awesome game franchise that takes place in an alternate timeline where the Cold War never ended and then nukes flew about and everyone was sent to underground vaults and mutants happened and then China and Alaska fought and it got crazy. Nuka Break is a fan series completely fan funded by YouTube subs and whatnot and it’s a totally original story inside that universe. What? You wanna watch it? Okay! Here’s a link.

I heard about it by trolling YouTube and looking at fan films and whatnot, and when I heard they were looking for extras, well, I couldn’t say no to that. So one thing leads to another and I’m driving up from North Hollywood to Agua Dolce to film at this crazy ranch at 5 a.m. in the morning.  To get to the set I had to drive up in these hills, past all these way posh houses, turn down a mountain, past an alpaca farm ( I honestly didn’t think those existed in California but there you go) and then I got to set. I won’t tell you about the giant doorway that I had to open by answering three riddles and fighting a Cyclops because, I mean, how many times have we all heard that story right? Haha, man, good times.

When I got out of my car I immediately see the director and lead actor talking away about fifty feet in front of me. Sort of shuffling my way over holding all my stuff that I brought to help with my costume I said, “Uh, Phil up at the front of the road said I should tell someone I was an extra?”

Zack Finfrock, one of the coolest dudes I’ve ever met and one of the series’ stars smiled and shook my hand. He introduced himself and gave me a few quick directions, then thanked me for coming out and introduced me to Vince Talenti, the director. Both of these dudes were way classy and super easy to talk to. I felt like I was going to REALLY enjoy working with and for them. The extra outfitter was in the back of the small ranch town and we were all getting dirtied up and dressing in our finest semi-western-post-apocalyptic wear. I had this cool hat and jacket from home and these old pants I was gonna mess up with combat boots. Then then threw a scarf around my neck, put some goggles there too, and then gave me a bandolier of fake bullets to go around my hate. I looked AWESOME. Like some sort of friendly-yet-slightly trigger happy cowboy. Below is a pic of all of us goofin’ around.

We’re all holding up different drinks because we realized that in horrible horrible desert heat and in like three layers of clothes we were sweating from our eyeballs.

The rest of the morning was devoted to shooting scenes on some roofs of buildings and holding airsoft guns while attempting not to slide to the ground after a 12-foot drop in 100 degree heat. It was a blast, and totally not in a sarcastic way. I mean I was having the time of my life.

My sister works in casting and we’re both big cinema buffs so being a part of a shoot and nerding out with all these other extras was awesome. I mean I got to see how the takes work, how some direction was done, acting, and everything in between. All the cast and crew were SUPER nice and so grateful to us for coming out and they took great care of the extras. I felt really at home and totally a part of what was going on there.

Maybe halfway through the day, all the extras were standing around taking a break and one of the assistant directors yelled at me, “HEY! JOHN! Can you come here?” There were two John’s (which is so freaking weird for me because I literally never run into other John’s on my own) and the AD was like, “No, sorry, the taller one. Big John, c’mere!” I’m 6’1” or 6’2”, depending on who you ask, so I figured that was me.

“We need you to switch roles with Phil cause he’s a little short to be playing the Mayor’s bodyguard. You’ll be with Steve and Doug. Go around that corner, take Phil’s clothes and give him yours and run back, okay?” I nodded and trotted off behind the buildings where Phil and I did the no-pants-dance. No, not THAT no-pants-dance. Get your mind out of the gutter. Pervs.

We ran into a problem once we had the clothes on. So, I’m 6 foot and some change, right? Phil’s like, maybe 5’8”? 5’9”? In any case he was like a head or so shorter than me and my clothes didn’t fit. I’m wearing his two sizes too small pants and he’s sagging in mine and we’re kind of standing there looking at each other and we just kinda laugh it off and I run back out to set. To be honest I just hoped no one saw that I was stretching the tanktop I was wearing down so that it covered up the fact that my pants were completely unbuttoned just so that I could fit in them. The rest of my look was black slacks, combat boots, and some aviator sunglasses. Cameron, the AD looks at me for a second and then takes off his utility vest and slaps it on me, “There you go. You look like a badass now.” He escorts me over to the two other guys I’m going to be working with and says, “John, this is Steve Dengler and Doug Jones.”  We all shake hands and then sort of wait.

It wasn’t till later that I found out that Steven Dengler is the CEO of a company called xe.com.  A big fancy pants outfit in Toronto. He had flown down here on his own money to play dress up in a fan film that he was also helping fund. I mean, the dude is the ultimate fan. I want to be Steve when I have my own dough. The dude is crazy awesome.

Then I found out who Doug Jones was. You ever see Hocus Pocus? How about Hellboy? Hellboy II: The Golden Army? Pan’s Labyrinth? Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer? Doug was in all of those movies, but you probably didn’t recognize him since he is the master of prosthetic makeup roles. He was the Silver Surfer, the blue fishman Abe Sapien in both Hellboy moivies, and he was the guy they resurrected from the grave in Hocus Pocus. OH! And he was the actor playing Pan in Pan’s Labyrinth. So needless to say I had the best co-workers ever.

I spent the rest of the day toting a sawed off shotgun, acting tough and chilling with some of the coolest people ever. Dream come true. I tell you. Here’s a few pics:

Where am I going with this? Well I’ll tell you. The fact that a bunch of people could come together, be funded entirely by fans, and totally create and awesome webseries that even impresses the writers of the game just shows how amazing the gaming community is. Honestly, there should be more things like this, and I want to be a part of them. Hell, I might even write one myself. But I am constantly floored by the cool people in the gaming community and how they all band together to revel in their own nerdiness.

I encourage you all to revel in your nerdiness. Start a blog, make a fan film, make a fan site, dress up, do whatever. Because if we don’t do any of that? Then the dinosaurs come back. And no one wants that now do they?

#nerdsunite

Want more from John? Click here to follow him on the twitter!

#NerdsUnite: Confessions of a videogame journalist

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy John. We started talking on the twitter not too long ago, and then he reached out and asked if he could write for us regarding his journey through the nerdy realm. I was all DUDDEEE!! That's so raaaddd!! And now, here we are. Like right now, in real time, this is happening. Pretty cool huh? HIT IT JOHN!!! </editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's John Sollitto

Awwww yeah! Rock and roll baby! It’s been a heck of a week so far. For those of you who don’t know, I’ve been conducting an experiment with my team to see if the game Rocksmith to see if it can teach a couple of guys like us how to play guitar.

Not only that, we had a couple of guys learn with tabs to see if there was a difference in learning on your own without the game and learning with the aid of Ubisoft’s newest game.

So this week we’ve been buckling down cause we’re going to test ourselves and see if we can actually play the songs we’ve been learning for the past two weeks. If you want a rundown of the WHOLE experiment look at my last article here on TNTML and you’ll get the whole explanation.

Here’s a couple of pictures of science happening:

This here is Russell, he’s one of our tab guinea pigs and he’s workin’ away. ^

Little artistic over-the-shoulder-shot of Heath, our other tab guinea pig, playing his first round on the game this week. ^

Mike is rockin’ out and I’m all tuckered out napping behind him from…well I was just napping. ^

I won’t give you all of the observations we’ve made because then what would be the point of watching the videos we’re painstakingly making. And by “we” I mean Michael, since he’s our editor and camera dude. Jesus too. That being said I’ll tell you a couple of things that are somewhat personal for me about the experiment and keep the academia out of it.

My. Fingers. HURT. I mean seriously. I have such a newfound respect for all guitar players just from the sheer amount of pain my fingertips are feeling. Also, the rest of my hand is cramping from trying to stretch up the guitar neck to get to the frets. Having written that sentence, I now feel a little bit dirty. But in all seriousness, you would think that after years of playing videogames I would have some marginal hand and fingers strength. Apparently that is a fallacy.

Funny thing too. Now, I’m not as good as Mike and Jesus have become, which I am totally okay with admitting;  but, despite all the frustration and hundreds of times I’ve practiced, I really haven’t given up at trying to really learn this song. This has been a REALLY great exercise in patience for me.

There’s also something to be said about learning music that’s really therapeutic. I mean, this has been a BLAST, win lose or draw. I mean, even if in two weeks I still can’t play the whole song, I don’t care. I’m going to keep at this. I love doing it. It’s a peaceful thing to me and I really enjoy being a part of the music in a way I never really was before. Sure, I sang along, but now I feel really connected to it and I can really “rock out” you know? It’s another form of expression for me that I’m definitely going to pursue.

Looking at all the work I’ve put in (all the work meaning two weeks of just learning which is infinitesimal to the years of work other musicians put into this), I really look at musicians as artists and artisans more than I did before. Sure, I knew they were skilled, I mean, how they could not be? But looking at how their music is structured, looking at how dexterous their hands are and the amount of patience and concentration they must have, there really is a whole different level that people don’t see if they don’t enter the world of actually playing or making music.

On the gaming side, I can say this: EDUCATIONAL GAMES CAN WORK! Holy crap! I really didn’t think I would ever say that but sweet-tap-dancing-Moses this game WORKS. I mean, if this game could be used for anything after this experiment, it should be used as a model for other companies to just see how practical and fun a learning game like this can be. I am just so impressed and incredibly proud to see that our generation of games has produced a game like this that is both functional and fun.

Now all they have to do is increase the set-list. :D

Well nerds, it’s been fun but I gotta get back to rockin’ out! Love all, serve all!

#nerdsunite

Want more from John? Click here to follow him on the twitter!

#NerdsUnite: Confessions of a videogame journalist (I can haz blisters!)

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy John. We started talking on the twitter not too long ago, and then he reached out and asked if he could write for us regarding his journey through the nerdy realm. I was all DUDDEEE!! That's so raaaddd!! And now, here we are. Like right now, in real time, this is happening. Pretty cool huh? HIT IT JOHN!!! </editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @JohnSollitto

I GOT BLISTERS ON ME FINGERS!!!! Sorry, I’ve been saying that all week and if my coworkers have to deal with it then you all do too. You know why I’ve been saying it all week? ROCKSMITH EXPERIMENT! That’s why, baby.

Okay, so if I tell you EVERYTHING that happened so far then there’s no point in all of you watching the videos when they come out, so I’ll give you an update as to what we’re doing and what’s been going on so you can feel like you’re there without actually being there. S’alright? S’alright.

So, day one? Pretty good, we all showed up, got our duel TVs set up and we all began workin’ away like busy bees.  Our experiment group, the guys who are doing both tabs and the game came and we talked them through their portion of the experiment and what they would be doing. We’re checking on them periodically to make sure they’re workin’ cause we want good data.

                  Everybody picked a song and here’s the list:

                  John: Tighten Up (The Black Keys)

                  Michael: Take Me Out (Franz Ferdinand)

                  Jesus: Breed (Nirvana)

                  Heath: Sunshine of Your Love (Eric Clapton)

                  Russell: Plug In Baby (Muse)

                  What’s that? You don’t like reading lists? Oh, okay, here’s a little picture to go with it:

The reason Parker isn’t participating is because we found out that he actually knew how to play so we couldn’t have him mess up the data for us learners. Oh, P.S. we found that out about Anders too so he got booted from the group. Buncha liars. Okay, so they didn’t lie about knowing how to play, I guess I just wasn’t paying attention. Which happens…a lot. That’s probably not good since I’m Editor-in-Chief but it’s because I think about editor-y things all day. Yeah, I just made up a phrase. Deal with it.

                  Here are some wonderful pictures of us all attempting to be musicians:

Mike looks so pensive.

Jesus is not amused by us taking pictures of him while he rocks. And I think those are my feet in the back. ^

And me wearing my oh-so-appropriate Hard Rock Café Hong Kong shirt. ^

I’m sure this all looks so scientific right? Well, actually we’ve been really testing out the game and putting it through its paces and I’m very honestly impressed by it. Are there issues? Yes. It can be very finicky when it comes to getting certain chords exactly right, and that can grate on your nerves if you’re a beginner and don’t know how to play. It’s really about finger strength and dexterity which, surprisingly after years and years of videogames, we don’t quite have.

However, I’m really enjoying learning guitar this way. I actually switched the type of music I was learning mid-way. Let me explain this. At first learning I was learning the rhythm guitar part of Tighten Up and was finding it very difficult due to all of the chords. I found that the lead guitar part was an option in the game and checked that out. I did just as good at that as I had been doing after three days of playing rhythm so I put in the appropriate amount of time for lead and have switched so that the data isn’t skewed.

The fact that the game offers such a variety of learning methods, parts of songs, and types of songs is so awesome because you can go from bands like Megadeath and Red Hot Chili Peppers, to The Rolling Stones and T-Rex and learn the type of music you like at your own pace.

This is an honest and completely unbiased opinion right here: If you are thinking about learning guitar and you want an introduction to the instrument and would like to learn at your own pace with a program that acts as an amp, tuner, and partial tutor, seriously consider this game. I paid about $200 in total for my guitar and the game and honestly, I was a great decision. The game now costs about $80 and you can snag a good learner’s guitar at Guitar Center or wherever you wanna buy it for about $100. It has to be electric though so it can plug into your system, keep that in mind. And you have to have an X-Box 360 or PS3, so there’s that too. Other than that, it’s up to you to decide if you want this.

I can’t wait for you all to see the vids and all the pics of us when this is done. I’m really proud of our team and of the work we’re doing here. If you want to keep updated, follow me on Twitter or check our Facebook page (facebook.com/GameCreatorsVault) for our posts. Rock on with your bad selves!

#nerdsunite

Want more from John? Click here to follow him on the twitter!