E3

The first time I watched E3 was 2007. I remember it like it was yesterday. At the time, I was living at Mission Springs with my best friend Adam. He, Frady and I all went to UAT and didn’t like our roommates through UAT’s school-sponsored housing, so we got an apartment together. Adam and I shared a room. I feel he is partly to blame for my massive video game and movie collection. He bought the PS3 and Wii the day they were released and had a pretty formidable collection of games and movies.

I feel like I knew what E3 was before 2007. I hope I did. I mean, I was going to a school to study game design after all. I read about it in my Game Informer magazines, but I had never watched it before. When I lived in Georgia, I didn’t have internet access as home, so I spend my weekends on my laptop at the library. I think at that point I was more concerned with figuring out what I was going to do for college rather than trying to look at E3.

It’s so strange; I only watched one E3 with Adam, but I always think of him when E3 rolls around. Now that I think of it, I don’t know if we actually watched E3 together or I just watched it on his computer. For the sake of the story, and more importantly, the memory, let’s just say we watched it together.

I don’t remember a lot of that E3, but I have very fond memories of one particular game… LittleBigPlanet (and the song, “Get it Together” that was used for all the trailers.) I just remember Adam being so excited for it and it made me excited about it. I can’t begin to list how many damn games I ended up buying because of his excitement for them turning into my excitement for them. He was the reason I got back into playing Pokémon… and ended up buying a Nintendo DS, Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald and Diamond.

He introduced me to Kotaku and 4chan (though I don’t visit 4chan) and Kill Bill. After watching the movies, we decided we were going to write a script together, but we could never settle on an idea. That was my first time being interested in screenwriting.

I’ve been thinking a lot about screenwriting lately. At my second job we are allowed to browse the web in-between calls. I like to read articles from MSN.com and The New York Times. I had been reading about E3 and wanted to see more about video games (seeing the trailer for LittleBigPlanet 3 made me incredibly happy and it made me miss Adam.) I came across an article about indie video game makers. I can’t recall the exact details of the article, but it was talking about how many veterans of the video game industry are teaching in various universities across the country and how learning to make video games in the university setting is becoming increasingly popular.

This then lead me to an article about writing for video games. I’m sure I’ve read it before, but something about it sparked something within me. I felt this excitement I haven’t necessarily felt when thinking about screenwriting. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I like screenwriting. I like films and TV (probably TV more so than film), but there is this excitement I get when it comes to video games that the other two can’t compete with.

It’s made me question my whole plan. Why get this degree and try to get into Hollywood if I really want to work in video games? At first, I wanted to work as a screenwriter because it is essentially the same job as writing for video games, but with better pay. In a perfect world, I’d like to work in both industries. Part of me wants to still move to San Diego and see what happens, but another part of me is telling me I need to just go to LA, as it will increase my odds of networking. Thankfully, I still have some time to decide.

E3 this year made me so excited. I can’t express with words how excited I was to finally hear that GTA V is coming to PS4. I jumped up and down in excitement when I learned I got a code for the Destiny Alpha, despite missing the sign up deadline. Gaming news always makes me excited. I am always looking up articles and info for games. I don’t do the same thing for films and TV.

As a kid, Sister Act II was one of my favorite films. There is a part of the film that has always stuck with me. Whoopi Goldberg’s character is talking to Lauryn Hill’s character and trying to convince her to join the choir. She tells her about a book she read. In said book, an aspiring writer is writing the author of the book asking how to become an author. The man tells the guy, if you wake up one day and you can’t think of anything but writing, then you are meant to be a writer. She tells Lauryn the same thing about singing.

When I wake up in the morning, more times than not, I am thinking about video games more so than film or TV. That being said, I’ve been inspired so much by the films and TV shows I’ve watched. Films like Sucker Punch and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (though not critically acclaimed) have excited me just as much so as the latest game news has.

I have so many dreams and aspirations. I don’t know if I will reach or obtain them all, but I’m going to try my hardest to do so. This summer, though it has been busy and tiresome, I am starting to feel that fight I felt I had lost. I’ve been planning and plotting how to get my degree and get the hell out of Arizona.

One of the tips from the article about writing for video games was to create a website. That was very exciting to me. When networking, I could show people a website that has samples of my writing, as well as blogs or articles or whatever that I write about my favorite games, TV shows and films. If I want to be a writer, I have to analysis what I like and don’t like about others’ work. When it comes to video games, I have to do the same thing, but also think about how the story works with the game play itself.

The idea of taking on this project is very exciting to me and I hope to start putting together a website in the very near future.

As of now, my tentative plan is to graduate, move to LA and try to get into the screenwriting and video game writing business simultaneously. From there, I will see what happens. Hopefully, I won’t have to choose between one and the other…