This is my blog for both more professional (essays, guides and things) and fanfiction writings. For my personal blog, please visit Eye of the Tiger

My Gaming News Story-Draft

Just a draft, but my journalism professor (who's been nominated for a pulitzer TWICE) said it was "perfect". I just wanted to show a few peeps and the MSN thing isn't working for me.

The shelf under Dirk Auman’s television is reserved for the special video game consoles that have earned their place there. A Sega Dreamcast he searched yard sale after yard sale for in order to round out his collection after the system became obsolete. The Nintendo Gamecube that was the first video game system he bought with his own money. The day he bought it he also learned how debit cards; after making six withdrawals to cover the cost, it put him into debt. Finally the Playstation 2 system that his grandfather gave to him, despite his mother forbidding it, sits centermost on the shelf. Thinking about what his grandfather went through to make him happy, Dirk leans back, gazing at the system. “It’s humbling,” he says.
Video games have always been a big part of Dirk’s life, as well as millions of other gamers around the world. But as a busy college student, sometimes Dirk’s love of gaming conflicts with actual work that needs to be done for school. Dirk and others like him are not lazy, violent adolescents like the media sometimes makes gamers out to be. But Dirk’s freshman year, school work would often come second to more leisurely activities. With classes he sometimes didn’t care about, the instant gratification and often rewarding experience that comes with playing a well-designed game took precedent. There was also the added social rewards of online massive multiplayer games like World of Warcraft. Both the anonymity of the Internet and being able to play with people that share the same passions sometimes can seem more satisfying than real-life relationships. Before he knew it, Dirk had failed four out of five classes his first semester of university, and was facing academic probation.
Even though Dirk passed four of his five classes the next semester, the five failed classes in one year was enough to put him on probation. But Dirk was not the only college gamer experiencing problems with school.
Last year two professors at the University of Western Ontario and Berea college found that on average college students with video game consoles at school studied 40 minutes less which translated to a first-semester drop of 0.241 points on a 4.0 scale. The students of the study did not participate in other known activities proven to drop grade such as excessive drinking, partying, and skipping class.

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