I am visiting my hometown, Cincinnati this week. Walking along “short” Vine Street, in the neighborhood where I went to grad school, I stopped in to a used CD and Video Game shop. I was interested in knowing more about the state of my favorite street and I was also interested in getting a Nintendo DS. Cincinnati has many neighborhoods and yeah with its own populations. The populations move and neighborhoods change. And Cincinnati, since it is always developing, builds universities and expands roadways, which causes the neighborhoods to change, and not always for the better as far as the neighborhood is concerned. As I walked down short Vine, I could see some familiar sure fronts closed… and the University housing was providing space for a few chain restaurants…
(I am not very good at staying on topic when blogging. Blogging seems so informal, like a conversation. I’m making a huge effort to focus, I hop you appreciate it.)
I was checking out the used DS and 3DS and the games … talking with the young dude keeping shop… and I explain that I want to pay all those games that the younger people all played on NES while I was in college, grad school and post doc, which was basically 1988-2004. So I got a DS that plays Gameboy games–instead of a 3DS… I bought A Link to the Past. My dear friend tells me this “Zelda” introduces the puzzles that make the game series so fun. I’ve tried to play it n my PS3, but I just can’t get into it. I think my home office and kitchen are too distracting. With my new DS I will be playing A Link to the Past on the Metro trains in DC. And Scribblenauts! I love that game! And if I pay these both and take care of my DS toy, I might get some more games!
So I tell the sales guy that I am making learning games (which is 1/2 of why I love Scribblenauts) and he asks, “Oh you are a coder?” and I say, “No, I am a biochemist, I make games about biochemistry.” He says, “Oh, you must have a common sense approach to the world.” Whoa. “Wow,” I say. No one ever says that when I say I am a biochemist! Common sense approach to the world. I admit that I think I do, indeed have a very common sense approach to the world. I pay him for my games and DS and walk down short Vine again. .. in the hot Cincy sunshine I am fascinated, wondering whether many other non-scientists agree with this used video game shopkeeper: that a biochemist has a common sense approach to the world. See, a common sense approach sounds to me like a desirable thing. I assume this guy also wanted a common sense approach. I wonder how many people think the same way? How many other people would like to be common sensical, like a biochemist?
I am trying to bring this approach. I am trying exactly that, to share what I know about our bodies, the Earth, and the hormones that are released as we think about the wonder of our own cells… This is why I am starting this indie game studio, searching for funding, and taking these risks. This is why I am iterating upon our game design, so that I can reach a maximal number of people. I want to share this common sense approach to living and thinking… and now, with new evidence that others would appreciate it, I feel inspired to keep pushing forward!
