User:Wazat

About Me
I go by Wazat on the web. I'm a 25 year old computer programmer living in the western United States. I've been in the video game industry for about a year now, though I was making video game mods for many years prior.

I'm not particularly religious but I have no problem with other people's beliefs as long as they don't try to force 'em onto me. :)

Education
I have a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science from Dixie State College. I tended to do fairly well in high school and college, usually pulling off A's and B's. I do quite well in math, chemistry, programming, English, etc.

My weak points tends to be art, history, and other similar classes. I'm not very artsy, though I do enjoy pottery. Despite my love of the History Channel and learning about history for pleasure, History classes tend to kick my butt. I often don't enjoy history from an academic (and thus grade-based) standpoint because you're required to recall afterwards, and I really don't care to memorize names, dates, places, and events and other fairly trivial details. And history classes are all about memorizing trivia.

American old-western and colonial history in particular can be painfully boring. I don't know why, but the early history of my country isn't nearly as cool to learn about as the history of other places, or current events. I suspect that I'm over-saturated because I grew up learning it over and over again, while more modern history (World War II etc) and the histories of other countries were simply glazed over or never even touched on in most classes.

I also hate any class that gives a lot of mundane, mindless busywork. I loved college because the focus was on learning (and learning things that interest me), not doing 50 problems from the book each day and assuming that's the only way to teach us.

Video Games
I ***love*** playing games, and have been playing for much of my life. This usually means video games, but I also play D&D and Magic: The Gathering. I also used to program my own mods for the original Quake, and I work in the video games industry. I make Warcraft III maps from time to time, but never seem to manage to finish them. ;)

The big limiting factor for me and games is time. However great my love for my hobby may be, I still need to take care of real-life commitments, and I often end up working overtime at my job (that's just how the game industry is). So, despite my impressive list of games below, I don't actually get to play them all the time, or much at all depending on my schedule.

That is one reason why I refuse to play MMORPGs. There's simply not enough time in the day to play all the games I like already (and get real-life commitments done), and an MMO is simply too demanding on time as it is. NWN2 and D&D are good enough for me for that style of play. Other than those two, I've actually started cutting out all RPGs from my diet in a desperate bid to find more time for everything else. We'll see if it works.

Games I currently play

 * D&D (2nd and 4th editions)
 * Super Smash Bros: Brawl
 * Neverwinter Nights 2 (based on D&D 3.5)
 * Starcraft
 * Warcraft III, especially DOTA
 * Metroid Prime 3
 * Halo
 * Magic: The Gathering

Other games I've played and recommend

 * Ratchet & Clank (original, Going Commando, Up Your Arsenal, Deadlocked)
 * Jak & Daxter
 * Half-Life, Half-Life 2, and Portal
 * Disgaia 1 & 2
 * Front Mission 4
 * Final Fantasy Tactics
 * Final Fantasy 7
 * Azure Dreams
 * X-COM
 * Unreal Tournament (original, 2003)
 * Quake
 * Paper Mario (original, Thousand Year Door, and Super Paper Mario)
 * Super Smash Bros, original and Melee
 * Armored Core series
 * Onimusha series
 * Command & Conquer: Zero Hour
 * Pokemon (video game)
 * Pokemon Trading Card Game (played it on the Game Boy Advance, which had the original cards; haven't tried the newer editions)
 * Xenosaga
 * Chrono Trigger
 * etc etc etc...

TV
I occasionally watch a movie (theater or rented), but I don't really watch a lot of TV at all. When I used to have cable, the channels that interested me most were the History Channel and Discovery Channel, etc. I think if I get cable again, I will need to do whatever it takes to be able to skip commercials. I have a low tolerance level for loud hucksters screaming "BUY THIS BUY THIS BUY THIS NOW". :/

And in order for me to get cable again, I'll need some way to get the channels I want without paying for a bunch of crap I don't, which is not how the cable companies operate.

So, if you say "Hey have you seen [X] show?" I'll probably say no, I haven't even heard of it. :)

My Interest in D&D
What I love most about D&D is the ability to craft an awesome character that is distinctly and uniquely my style. Someone may have something similar somewhere else in the world, but I was able to sit down by myself and think out a really cool character that has both awesome combat abilities and excellent role-play potential.

I also love the story-telling element of D&D... A good DM can give an experience many times better than I could get out of Neverwinter Nights or any other video game. And while a video game is static and you're basically stuck with the linear story that was written for you, D&D is as dynamic as a game could possibly get. The DM and players can take the story anywhere, and all but the most rigid plans can change as the game progresses. I haven't played many pen and paper games, but what I've seen so far in D&D has let me truly understand the allure of role-play and story-telling games.

I'm also an incurable power-gamer, and D&D's very open character building and mechanics play to that nicely. :)