Fantasist’s Scroll

Get a degree in game design.

Well, a minor, anyway…. According to this story on Wired News, USC is now offering a minor in game design. They picture it as an “add-on” to a more serious degree, like, say art. (Actually, they interviewed an engineering student who was looking at taking the minor next year, too.) Anyway, I guess it just goes to show how enormous the gaming industry has become! So, think of all those video games you buy college-age people at Christmas not as “entertainment” so much as “research”.

Is Neo the Messiah?

I wrote about this on my other site, Diary of a Network Geek, but it’s worth mentioning again. The Christian Science Monitor has an interesting article about religion in science-fiction, especially the Matrix movies. It’s interesting to me because I’ve seen similar connections myself for a long time. Back in college, I wrote a paper about how similar the Luke Skywalker character was to the archtypeal hero from myth. It’s a short hop from that to the archtype of the messiah.
I think there’s plenty of room for religion in fantasy and science-fiction. In fact, I think it’s essential that it gets included more often. Why? Well, because it’s an important part of human interaction and has been for a very long time. Think about how many wars were justified through religion. How often has science been hindered, or helped, by religion? If nothing else, religion can give us our regular rituals and holidays. Sure, Christmas and Easter are often very secular holidays now, but they are still based on religion.
And, religion can be a great motivator for characters. Crusaders and missionaries both can be very interesting characters to follow. Also, people trying to escape religious persecution can drive plot. Even some one seeking enlightenment can be an interesting story, if told right.

My point is this, religion is a part of our everyday life in one way or another and as an author, I would be foolish to overlook the possibilities it presents me. It’s not something I’ve seen too much of in literature for quite some time. I wonder why?

Forgive me, it’s been two weeks since I blogged last.

Where does the time go? It seems like it was just Thanksgiving and now, here it is almost Christmas! At least I have almost all of my shopping done. Of course, I cheated and sent a bunch of stuff from Bells Farm again this year. I look at it this way, those folks up North have to pay a small fortune for fresh fruit and it’s cheap down here. Everybody wins!
My wife and I have one more gift to get, for her sister. It’ll be like pulling teeth to get her out to a store at this point, too. But, we’ll get it done in time, or my name isn’t Howard Johnson! (Er, sorry, bad reference to “Blazing Saddles”.)

One cool thing that’s been happening, though, is that my step-daughter has expressed a serious interest in learning to play Dungeons and Dragons. So, I’m sure Santa Claus will bring her something that has to do with D&D. The other cool thing is that it gives me a reason to get off my big, fat butt and learn to play the new edition. Great to have some motivation! And, I’m sure I’ll start designing adventures again, so we’ll have cool, original dungeons to crawl. If I do well enough with them, I might even offer them via this webiste. Maybe, even as shareware. (Insert dramatic music here.) Or, maybe not. Motivation only goes so far, then I have to actually do the work. Well, we’ll see…

Happy Holidays!