You may or may not know that this past Saturday, Rutgers celebrated Homecoming. Free food, pony rides for all, palm reading, carnival games, caricatures, and more commenced. Ordinarily, free food will draw me nearly anywhere, but I made other plans back in September.
Game Day Live, our on campus video games playing club, went on an all expense paid trip to VGEXPO in Philadelphia this Friday, Saturday and Sunday!
I cannot stress enough my love of Philadelphia and Rutgers Camden’s proximity to the city; around 20 minutes via public transportation. I do not think Philadelphia receives the credit it deserves as an exceptional city. They have great art (i.e. The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Rodin Museum), theatre (most national Broadway tours stop in Philly), internships and job opportunities, food (if you have money, go to a Stephen Starr Restaurant, if you don’t have the money, sell your brother and go to a Stephen Starr Restaurant), and more. The food below is what I ate at Reading Terminal Market. It's a Greek chicken platter wit ha foreign name I cannot recall. Reading, pronounced Red-ing, Terminal Market is like a food court on steroids.
If you come and visit Rutgers Camden, which you should, and think the campus’ small size feels prohibitive, go visit Philadelphia and consider it your part time campus. Use the Camden campus’ small size to your advantage when you are running late for class, knowing everyone’s name, etc., and use the campus’ proximity to Philadelphia and other nearby cities to your advantage if you need a change in scene.
Anyway, the VG in VGEXPO stands for VIDEO GAMES. Not a huge gamer myself, I opted for a single day Saturday pass.
Part of Nintendo's space.
Exhibitors ranged from Omonompoeia, a creator of handmade video game jewelry, plushies and more, to freelance artists, to retro game sellers, to the big bad Nintendo themselves. Breakdancers breakdanced, gamers gamed, and musicians...musiced?
A freelance artist's booth
The gaming music room.
I tried out a few of Nintendo's new games. Two of which, the new Zelda game, and the new Bowser game, by Nintendo, I found boring.
I tried two games by independent developers and liked them A LOT more than Nintendo’s. The kicker: these two games were by local videogame developers. One of which, whose publisher and name I regretfully cannot remember, used the new Nintendo DSI’s camera to stream live video and put aliens into said video.
The second game, already coming out for the Nintendo DS, is called Hands on, Tangrams! was created by Island Officials, of Southern New Jersey. The gaming industry is changing. You do not need to get a job with Nintendo, Sega, etc. to make create video games. People make millions on their own. At this convention, I met so many entrepreneurs going out on their own and chasing their dreams. They can; the internet offers the ability to form companies with low start up costs at the drop of a hat.
Omonomopoeia's booth.
Odds are, you do not want to go into the Videogame Industry, but I find this particularly relevant.
Picture from a panel about doing Public Relations work for Videogames. I attended other panels too, like one about videogame stories.
In and around Rutgers Camden you will meet people striving to make their dreams a reality. Have similar goals as these people? Join them. Have a new goal? Go after it with everything you got.
Bring your passion to Rutgers, and Rutgers will give you the opportunities and experiences you need to succeed. Even if it means stepping out of your comfort zone, take these privileges and go after what you want. Your education is an investment. Make it worth something.
In other news, I really need to get my own business card. I wanted to offer my writing services to some people today, but I do not know what my title should be.
“Jennifer R. : writer and scientist”
“Jennifer R.: Renaissance woman”
“Jennifer R.: Leonardo da Vinci reincarnate”
I know the last one sounds very pretentious, but I love so many things!!! Suggestions welcomed.
This weekend and last weekend my experiences came out of my attendance of Rutgers Camden. Both weekends proved enjoyable and inspiring.
Location: SinglePost