New tier rewards are now available for supporting me on Patreon. Now
you can win a magnet of Fara or Inifinity Dragon, and 8.5"x11" print of
Infinity dragon, or a custom drawing of your choice! Please click
through, sign-up, & share with your friends!
https://www.patreon.com/cosmicglider?ty=1
Thursday, June 18, 2015
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Scared Away From My Own Dream
I've been dreaming of being a game designer since high school. I had been an obsessive fan of Mortal Kombat since I was 7 years old, & started my journey as a Gamer even earlier than that, on my cousins Atari 2600. When Mortal Kombat first moved to 3D, I became enamored w/how awesome it looked to me, & it was at that point that I knew, I wanted to be a game designer. Unfortunately my high school was ill equipped to help & I knew too little to clarify what I wanted. They asked me what career path I wanted to choose, & I told them I wanted to go into 'Video Game Graphics Design', because that was a literal description of what I had fallen in love with, & it seemed to coordinate with my love for drawing & computers.
Going to my regular counselor lead me to a dead end; she didn't know how to help me. She did know of a different counselor on campus, however, that possibly could. By the time I met with the new counselor, I knew a little more about the path I wanted to take. I knew I wanted to go to Academy of Art University & take their Game Art & Design program. When I told the new counselor this, he began looking it up on his computer & talking about it simultaneously. About the point he arrived at the website, he said, he could basically help me as long as the school was accredited. Unfortunately , AAU was having an accreditation battle at the time, & I felt I would have been dishonest if I didn't say anything. The moment I shared this, he covered the monitor with his hands & said, "technically, I can't help you. If I were to help you, I could lose my job." I was mad at him at first but he was able to calm me down as he explained how the school system worked & the restrictions they put on counselors. That helped a little, but the experience left me confused & the thought of going to AAU mostly left my mind.
I continued to build my dreams by reading everything I could find on getting into the industry, the most pivotal being a feature in GamePro called, "Take This Job & love it." I wrote a list of skills I felt I'd need to become a well-rounded game designer, & set off to community college upon graduating high school w/ the intention of either writing my own associates w/ those subjects in mind, or at least taking my liberal arts courses toward going to AAU down the road.
Sometime in my freshman year of college, I joined a mailing list for women in game development. It was such an exciting prospect & I got to read about/meet some amazing women, who regularly shared articles on what women faced in the industry. They also shared their personal stories. One thing that I heard on a regular basis was about sexual harassment. I had never considered that in planning my dream & it brought my thought process to a halt. I didn't want to work my way up the industry, I didn't want to be trapped in a AAA studio full of men who would make my dream job a nightmare.
My plans changed. I began trying to think of ways to start my own studio, but I hadn't even learned to animate or program yet. My community college ambitions became more & more drawn out as I tried to pile more skills on myself & avoid "the traditional route". I ended up pursuing 3 associates degrees & multiple certificates, in a continued but vague effort to "be well-rounded".
It's only recently that I realized...I've actually been avoiding my dream. I know what skills I'm missing and I'm delaying learning them. It was only until GamerGate that I finally realized, the stories of these women had scared me, & caused me to try to work around the one thing that I truly wanted with too little information. It was the story of a AAA dev where I learned that the stories that I read were not the only experiences! As a matter of fact, this woman dev said that the men she worked with were nearly afraid to interact with her so that they wouldn't accidentally offend her! I recently read something from the amazing Roberta Williams of Sierra Online fame, about how she also didn't have these problems.
Why hadn't I heard this before? the irony of this is that the women in the mailing list wondered how to get more women & girls into the industry, & how to prevent fear of entering. I think I've found the answer. Don't speak for every woman; we need to hear more voices & we need to know that these experiences are not across the board. We need to hear the positive stories so that we have a better picture of what the industry is really like & can make our own decisions.
We need to stop feeding the trolls.
As a woman & as a #GamerGate supporter, I know that the harassment being paraded in the mainstream media comes from 3rd party trolls. It's a shame that all gamers, including girl gamers, are being blamed for this & being called misogynists! I had little trouble being actively involved in #GamerGate as an African-American woman & I've met some amazing people. I have been inspired by indie devs that have come forward in support of GG, whose creative freedom I also fight for. It's also my own creative freedom I fight for.
Law enforcement even says not to publicize the harassers, especially not before the investigation is complete! You are giving them exactly what they want by running to every mainstream outlet you can find & telling them how much they scare you. They save these stories like trophies. I can tell you from 1st hand observation, in my occasional contributions to the #GamerGate Harassment Patrol, that you are making it harder to catch them & are encouraging even more trolls & harassers.
If we want these things to stop, we have to start by showing we're not afraid & by doing everything in our power to let them know that what they do is not okay. That means not giving their stupidity a platform. That means using the tools we are provided to stop them in their tracks. Don't refuse to help when GG Harassment Patrol helps find those perpetrating the threats!
I prefer to be brave instead of being afraid, but if I must, I'll fight even while afraid; because I have been playing games for longer than most of these trolls have been alive & I can tell you, they're not going to stop me now!
~Cosmic Glider
https://www.patreon.com/cosmicglider
Going to my regular counselor lead me to a dead end; she didn't know how to help me. She did know of a different counselor on campus, however, that possibly could. By the time I met with the new counselor, I knew a little more about the path I wanted to take. I knew I wanted to go to Academy of Art University & take their Game Art & Design program. When I told the new counselor this, he began looking it up on his computer & talking about it simultaneously. About the point he arrived at the website, he said, he could basically help me as long as the school was accredited. Unfortunately , AAU was having an accreditation battle at the time, & I felt I would have been dishonest if I didn't say anything. The moment I shared this, he covered the monitor with his hands & said, "technically, I can't help you. If I were to help you, I could lose my job." I was mad at him at first but he was able to calm me down as he explained how the school system worked & the restrictions they put on counselors. That helped a little, but the experience left me confused & the thought of going to AAU mostly left my mind.
I continued to build my dreams by reading everything I could find on getting into the industry, the most pivotal being a feature in GamePro called, "Take This Job & love it." I wrote a list of skills I felt I'd need to become a well-rounded game designer, & set off to community college upon graduating high school w/ the intention of either writing my own associates w/ those subjects in mind, or at least taking my liberal arts courses toward going to AAU down the road.
Sometime in my freshman year of college, I joined a mailing list for women in game development. It was such an exciting prospect & I got to read about/meet some amazing women, who regularly shared articles on what women faced in the industry. They also shared their personal stories. One thing that I heard on a regular basis was about sexual harassment. I had never considered that in planning my dream & it brought my thought process to a halt. I didn't want to work my way up the industry, I didn't want to be trapped in a AAA studio full of men who would make my dream job a nightmare.
My plans changed. I began trying to think of ways to start my own studio, but I hadn't even learned to animate or program yet. My community college ambitions became more & more drawn out as I tried to pile more skills on myself & avoid "the traditional route". I ended up pursuing 3 associates degrees & multiple certificates, in a continued but vague effort to "be well-rounded".
It's only recently that I realized...I've actually been avoiding my dream. I know what skills I'm missing and I'm delaying learning them. It was only until GamerGate that I finally realized, the stories of these women had scared me, & caused me to try to work around the one thing that I truly wanted with too little information. It was the story of a AAA dev where I learned that the stories that I read were not the only experiences! As a matter of fact, this woman dev said that the men she worked with were nearly afraid to interact with her so that they wouldn't accidentally offend her! I recently read something from the amazing Roberta Williams of Sierra Online fame, about how she also didn't have these problems.
Why hadn't I heard this before? the irony of this is that the women in the mailing list wondered how to get more women & girls into the industry, & how to prevent fear of entering. I think I've found the answer. Don't speak for every woman; we need to hear more voices & we need to know that these experiences are not across the board. We need to hear the positive stories so that we have a better picture of what the industry is really like & can make our own decisions.
We need to stop feeding the trolls.
As a woman & as a #GamerGate supporter, I know that the harassment being paraded in the mainstream media comes from 3rd party trolls. It's a shame that all gamers, including girl gamers, are being blamed for this & being called misogynists! I had little trouble being actively involved in #GamerGate as an African-American woman & I've met some amazing people. I have been inspired by indie devs that have come forward in support of GG, whose creative freedom I also fight for. It's also my own creative freedom I fight for.
Law enforcement even says not to publicize the harassers, especially not before the investigation is complete! You are giving them exactly what they want by running to every mainstream outlet you can find & telling them how much they scare you. They save these stories like trophies. I can tell you from 1st hand observation, in my occasional contributions to the #GamerGate Harassment Patrol, that you are making it harder to catch them & are encouraging even more trolls & harassers.
If we want these things to stop, we have to start by showing we're not afraid & by doing everything in our power to let them know that what they do is not okay. That means not giving their stupidity a platform. That means using the tools we are provided to stop them in their tracks. Don't refuse to help when GG Harassment Patrol helps find those perpetrating the threats!
I prefer to be brave instead of being afraid, but if I must, I'll fight even while afraid; because I have been playing games for longer than most of these trolls have been alive & I can tell you, they're not going to stop me now!
~Cosmic Glider
https://www.patreon.com/cosmicglider
Friday, January 13, 2012
Ani-Jam, w00t!
Ani-Jam 2012 was just announced on Facebook, woohoo! It's going to be in the Ernest E. Valdez Exhibit Hall at the Fresno Convention Center, August 17th through the 19th. Ani-Jam is so much fun, and local for me which is an added bonus. It's great being around so many local anime fans (and folks from all over) at once. It's also been great seeing Ani-Jam progress over the years.
I've been going to anime conventions since 2003 and started with ReccaCon at Los Medanos College in Pittsburg, CA. It was fun and really inspired me to try to attend more conventions. The same year, I attended the first Ani-Jam which was packed to the brim and I was so proud of Fresno that day for it's new, successful event. After that I started an event with my local Anime Club called Anime Day which is a campus-wide micro con. Anime Days are still going strong and have definitely grown and evolved into something great that I look forward to attending. I went to Anime Expo in 2006, their 15 year anniversary, and blessed to see CLAMP in person.
Besides daydreaming about Anime Cons, I've been searching/researching Ronin Warriors action figures. I've wanted them for ages and haven't been fortunate enough to get my hands on one yet. I wanted to see how available they are. They are still obtainable but, nowhere near their original price points which, is to be expected. The Rowen figured was the most expensive, running around $140. Someday...someday!
It's been great updating, since it's been ages once again, hehe. Ja ne, and hope to remember to glide back here soon!
~CG
1/13/12
I've been going to anime conventions since 2003 and started with ReccaCon at Los Medanos College in Pittsburg, CA. It was fun and really inspired me to try to attend more conventions. The same year, I attended the first Ani-Jam which was packed to the brim and I was so proud of Fresno that day for it's new, successful event. After that I started an event with my local Anime Club called Anime Day which is a campus-wide micro con. Anime Days are still going strong and have definitely grown and evolved into something great that I look forward to attending. I went to Anime Expo in 2006, their 15 year anniversary, and blessed to see CLAMP in person.
Besides daydreaming about Anime Cons, I've been searching/researching Ronin Warriors action figures. I've wanted them for ages and haven't been fortunate enough to get my hands on one yet. I wanted to see how available they are. They are still obtainable but, nowhere near their original price points which, is to be expected. The Rowen figured was the most expensive, running around $140. Someday...someday!
It's been great updating, since it's been ages once again, hehe. Ja ne, and hope to remember to glide back here soon!
~CG
1/13/12
Monday, June 21, 2010
In Development
Wow, it has been ages since there has been an update to CGD but here I am and here it is. I will be working on a new version of Cosmic Glider's Dimension. I will be reworking the layout and links and refocus the purpose of the website.
~CG
6/21/10
~CG
6/21/10
Monday, October 11, 2004
Reworking the Site
Well folks, I'm finally reworking the site using xhtml and style sheets. I am no where near a pro at web-standards, but of what I have learned from the World Wide Web Consortium, and from people that I know that use web-standards, I now have a strong belief in web-standards. Switching to web-standards will mean increased interoperablity (works with multiple web-browsers), and accessiblility (people with visual impairments will still be able to access the informaton on the website). This is only the start as I steadily learn more about standards set for the web by the W3C.
~CG
October 11, 2004
~CG
October 11, 2004
Saturday, June 21, 2003
Books and Updates
Copies of the newest Harry Potter Book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling are in stores today. They're fairly hard to come by if you haven't reserved or preordered a copy in advance. I have yet to read it, but at the intensity with which my younger brother is concentrating on the book, it must be a very good read. I'll be cleaning up links and straightening out my plans so that I can put more of my focus on adding content to the site. I may not be moving the site to lycos.co.uk after all. They recently added two atrocious banner ads to every page and they're not very pretty. But I will continue to work on getting this site up to its best and hopefully, my dream of a payed host and domain name will come true...maybe even my own server ^_^. Well, see you all next update.
~CG
June 21, 2003
Thursday, May 22, 2003
Switching Hosts
The site will be moving to http://members.lycos.co.uk soon. There isn't much there right now but you may want to bookmark it now and check there periodically because more, and more stuff will become available over the summer. This new account gives me the 50MBs that the US lycos once offered plus a 15MB e-mail account for you all to be able to send Fan Art, Fiction, etc. I'm mostly going to be working online during the process of the move. However I will link the homepage to the new message board so that you can all communicate with one another. while I'm working. Also, as the site gets slowly closer to being finished, new rules, goodies, and news may appear so keep on the look out for that. Also, I'm going to implement a new system of accepting art. Well, it won't be much different but I'm going to be raising the standards for the art (fiction, etc.) that will be actually displayed on the site. All other works that are not accepted for the actual say may be displayed on the message board freely. The only exception to this new policy will be the art that has already been submitted to me since before this message and any art that will be submitted by the first of June. So if you want your art on the main site without the harsh rules start sending it in now to cosmicglider@lycos.co.uk, do not send your submissions to any other email address on the site or they may get ignored or they may not arrive to my mailbox *some of the accounts have been deleted or I've forgotten about them, etc.* Well, I'll return as regularly as possible with up dates and goodies.
~CG
May 22, 2003
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)