Something went wrong. Try again later

austinslin

This user has not updated recently.

6 0 8 0
Forum Posts Wiki Points Following Followers

The U.S. awards an athlete's visa to a pro gamer!

Cool Wired article on the redefining of what it means to be (a) global, (b) an athlete and (c) a global athlete.

Based on the description inside the body of the US P-1A Visa (below) who knows what this means for the further future convergence of what it means to be a contemporary, international athlete.

"You must be coming to the United States to participate in individual event, competition or performance in which you are internationally recognized with a high level of achievement; evidenced by a degree of skill and recognition substantially above that ordinarily encountered so that the achievement is renowned, leading or well known in more than one country."

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-12/16/starcraft-2-visa

35 Comments

Why Role Playing Games Make You Competitive in the Real World

RPGs have always made me want to better myself as well as be a part of a team composed of unstoppable experts.

Today in corporateamericaland, I still get the occasional raised eyebrow when I compare performance reviews, career development plans, and action plans to "character sheets".

My obsession probably started with Dragon Warrior on the Nintendo. Who doesn't get a high of accomplishment each time you hit the requisite amount of experience points to level up? After slaying the Dragonlord (thank you, Sword of Erdrick and the Healmore spell), I returned to my last save (remember that in-cartdridge battery backup anyone?) and just could't stop replaying until I maxed out. I explored every pixel of Alefgard and collected every piece of magical weapon and armor. I'd return to the desert town of Harksness to fight the boss knight there to rack up on gold and EXP. Incidentally, in seventh grade, I even wrote an extensive fanfic piece on the people of Harksness prior to the Dragonlord's decimation of the land. When Dragon Warrior II was released in the US, now I had not just me, but an entire TEAM of wizards and warriors to level? I found quickly that as much fun it had been to quest around solo in the first Dragon Warrior, I could now have a white mage accumulate healing spells (even though she got the shaft...literally..when it came to weapons--but the staff shot out lightning in combat so that was one redeeming factor) while two warrior class characters worked on tracking down the mightiest of arms and armor. Now having a compelling team (not to mention the hours of my life lost max-leveling all of them) was not just a challenge, but an expectation, a validation of the shot at success.

That's why these days, whenever I glance upon a certification opportunity or I step into a room with multi-functional experts, each of them masters in their disciplines, I can almost hear the MIDI theme song of Dragon Warrior in the background. Lots of incredible mentors and colleagues have helped me and guided me towards the career successes that I've had up to this point and I owe my competitive wins in the industrial landscape to their awesome support.

Whenever I step into a conference room to take on the fire of the day, I think misty-eyed about Alefgard and smiling blue slimes. "May the lights shine upon thee." King Lorik would say to you just before you departed on your quest in the Dragon Warrior realm.

I feel fortunate that they truly have.

Start the Conversation

The Adventure Construction Set

No Caption Provided

I have to give pause and give a shout out to my computer gaming past: a create your own world RPG style game called the Adventure Construction Set, made in the mid 1980s by Stuart Smith for Electronic Arts.

In addition to exploring the preloaded and prebuilt worlds, once you got a flavor for it, you could open up a back-end module and start building worlds of your own, one low-res monochrome Apple //e pixel at a time. You also got a taste for immortality if you could navigate your way through the character creation menus.

I actually learned the word, "melee" because of ACS because that was one of two weapon classes (melee weapons and missile weapons). For melee, the glory of battlefield victory was in each close quarters click of the joystick (you'd get a terse verbal description of what was going down in the combat zone). For a missile weapon, a large, flickering bulb would blink from your avatar to the intended target.

Not quite the WoW of today, but much more than battlefield construction, it was truly adventure constructing, one blocky piece of terrain, one text line of treasure at a time.

Start the Conversation