Soooo...

I'm a senior at California State University Los Angeles. I'm also part of the Early Entrance Program (EEP) they have over there. What EEP essentially does is take gifted kids from around 11-15 and sticks em into CSULA full-time.

I'm a 19 year old senior at CSULA.
I'm majoring in Anthropology.
My focus is on new forms of media (Basically, video games).

It wasn't always like this. I used to be a 14 year old Bio major looking to be a doctor (more like my parents wanted me to be a doctor - we're Filipino, BTW). Then, something miraculous happened. I took an Anthropology class where I was required to write about a sub-culture. Naturally, I wrote about what I knew - arcade communities in America vs. The Philippines. I expected ridicule and derision, but what I received instead was the support of my peers and professors. I haven't looked back since. I also picked up a freakin' sweet girlfriend along the transition (but I'll cover that in another post. Preferably while she's not looking in my direction).

Right now, I'm in the process of collecting 4 other people to present video-game themed papers at the 79th Southwest Anthropology Association's yearly conference. The general theme of my team's presentation is the different ways game features influence player behavior (Marriage systems in Chinese MMOs giving rise to a new cyber dating scene, for example). If any of you guys are budding Anthropologists, college students, AND live near/be willing to travel to Los Angeles, feel free to hit me up for a spot on the team.

While all that was well and good, it doesn't really cover the purpose of this blog here. What exactly am I up to? Well, truth be told, I'm not really sure. Then again, most of us here are probably in the same boat. What I'm going to try and make this blog about is my research. I'll be posting updates on what my team is writing about, including links to any articles we're reading. It's my small attempt at showing you guys what it's like writing academically about video games.

That's not to say it'll all be stuffy academic articles. I also plan to blog about my opinions on news stories, games I've played, and events I've attended (Pretty sure I'll be blogging about Brawl quite a bit when it comes out). I'll even attempt to regale you with tales of my attempts to get people into gaming (especially the girlfriend). All in all, I plan to contribute my fare share to the community. Thanks for having me.

P.S. Steam ID is Vajrapani, In-game name is Pankratos (I also play Shadowbane under those names as well).

Also, God Damn is it hard to write concise introductions!