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Elliott Blaser
Professor Doctor Angela Miss Ph.D
UWRT 1101
9 December 2016
Dat Me
At the age of three I had killed my first turtle. However, it was not a real turtle, but one
from Nintendos Super Mario Bros. Fascinated with the game, I loved how I could be in
control of a character and not just be watching one in a movie. I wanted to make my own story
and my own levels; so from that point on I began a long pilgrimage towards the art of game
design. Along that journey, I learned how to code, make games, and apply those aspects to my
daily life.
That journey began when my dad would came home from work. I would riddle him with
strings of questions. How do I make a game?, How do I code?, Can you teach me how to
make a game? Usually he would say to read a book about it or find out on the internet with our
dial-up connection. One day I clearly remember, at the age of seven, my dad set aside all of his
current projects and sat me down. He had noticed I was really sticking with this game design
topic and decided to teach me all he knew. So he taught me the most basic coding language there
was: C. I read and followed through hundreds of different tutorials; making the most original of
games like pong and tic-tac-toe. I shared each and every little aspect I had completed to my dad.
Parallel to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichies Danger of a single story when she says I was also an
early writer, and when I began to write, about at the age of seven, stories in pencil with crayon
illustrations that my poor mother was obligated to read. I parents too, were obligated to play my

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horrendous games yet they praised me for these minor goals and improvements. Unbeknownst to
them that praise pushed me further and further down the path and as I grew my thoughts about
game design matured.
By the time I was in middle school, I came to a realization, a realization that would
change my view of games. I had noticed that my friends and I would say a game would be good
or bad but never say why. I had dished out criticism but never made it constructive. So from that
point on, I decided that whenever I had pointed out a flaw in anything, I would tell myself how I
could make it better. This shifted my view of game design from being the lead designer to a more
specific role: quality assurance, a constructive critic. At the time I didnt know that role existed,
but I knew what it meant. Similar to Sherman Alexie and his understanding of a paragraph.
Alexie reveals that he Didnt have the vocabulary to say paragraph, but I realized that a
paragraph was a fence that held words This knowledge delighted me (Alexie). When I played
through games, I would often watch the end credits and see who and how many people designed
the game, what names I recognized, and what roles they took. I saw that there would be tens of
people under every category. Often in every game there would be only two to four names under
the job Quality Assurance or QA. For a while I thought they were beta-testers who looked
for bugs in the game. Upon further research those with the job QA much more. They were the
critics. The ones cynical enough to spot a flaw from a mile away then describe how to fix it.
Fixing things is what I decided to do, not just relating to games but to real life. Whats the point
of saying something is wrong and not helping out a little? Help was given to me a few years
later.
For my sixteenth birthday my girlfriend gave me a gift which I hold dear. She had paid
for me to go to my first game design classes where I worked in a team of four. This team

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consisted of a project leader, artist, musician, and programmer. The key lesson was that every
member of the team had to rotate roles. I couldnt be JUST quality assurance. I had to learn
about every aspect of game design; not just my specialty. It was to understand what each member
of a game design team would go through, what qualifications they would need, and how
restricted they are by the other roles. This knowledge of the other roles relates to how Adichie
describes that The consequence of the single story is this: It robs people of dignity. It makes our
recognition of our equal humanity difficult. It emphasizes how we are different rather than how
we are similar. The training I went through let me sympathize which each other role. Previously
I only had a single story of what I thought each other role did. Once I had donned the role myself
it gave me a broader view of what my expectations should be.
These expectations honed with my age and the age of twenty, my expectations shifted
fully after a deep conversation with a good friend. My conclusion was that if I set my
expectations too high, I am setting myself up for disappointment. If set too low, I would end up
stressing out and become miserable. Everyone has their own work flow and lives to deal with.
The world is like a game design team. The whole idea of the game doesnt revolve around me
but revolves around how I can work with other people. As time went on, I had formulated some
game ideas and started working as a programmer on a game design team. I wanted to work with
these people, but did not want to give out my secret recipe freely. I would lightly test them by
giving hints towards what I think should be done and gauge their response. I also didnt want to
do all of the work myself and projected my thoughts freely. This hint giving is like the passback effect from the Touch-Screen Generation reading. The author, Erin Patrice OBrien,
defines it as a name that captures well the reluctant zone between denying and giving. Through

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this method, I structured how I help people closely to how I structured my code. It did not matter
what path was taken as long as we got to the end.
As I become more literate in game design I become closer to understanding the phrase
giving the benefit of the doubt. Giving someone the benefit of the doubt was a task I was once
short of; a single story which I could only tell from my side. Now I can see from all angles; I can
achieve a birds eye view from another persons perspective easily. This ability allows me to step
back and understand where people are coming from, and how I should approach. Their
experiences would enhance and mature my experiences. These experiences I connected to time
and time again would push me along my path. Whether it was the heartfelt guidance from my
father, cold criticism of a game, the collection of many stories, or a conversation with a dear
friend, I will always be able to link my life to what I love doing: shaping games.

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Works Cited
Adichie, Chimamanda. The danger of a single story. TED, TED Conferences, LLC, Oct.
2009. Web. 30 Aug 2016.
https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story
Alexie, Sherman. Superman and Me. Los Angeles Times, 12 Apr. 2011,
http://articles.latimes.com/1998/apr/19/books/bk-42979
Rosin, Hannah. The Touch-Screen Generation The Atlantic, Apr. 2013,
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/04/the-touch-screengeneration/309250/