Week #1: Course Start and Introductions

Hello, my name is Andrew Win, and I am a first year IDM grad student. I'm in grad school because I want to get into the gaming industry. I've always played video games growing up and was fascinated by the design and development process as I got older. I've been apart of a few game jams and created small demo sized games, but my role in the process was somewhat inconsistent. Most of our games were made with Unity, and it wasn't until last semester in Todd Bryant's and Matt Radar's class that I learned and used Unreal Engine. I instantly fell in love with the engine and loved created worlds and settings in UE4. However because I had no 3D modelling experience, I was always limited to the free assets that were available in the Epic store. I took this class to learn a little bit of 3D modelling as well as just learning lighting and texturing so that I could make my worlds more believable and fantastical.

The two articles, "Virtual reality is booming in the workplace amid the pandemic. Here’s why", and "The Future of VR" has similar topics but different viewpoints. Both articles talk about the benefits this new technology could bring to the world as well as some of it's negative side effects on society. Both articles speak of VR/AR/XR being used for training new employees and the potential financial market of this technology in the future. However,  the "Virtual Reality ... Here's why" talks about the negatives that come with this technology, and the challenges that will arise for the law and the companies that produce VR. Meanwhile, "The Future of VR" takes a more optimistic approach to VR, talking about what VR is used for now and the potential of this technology. 

While these two articles have opposite viewpoints of VR, I think it is still important to take into consideration both the positives and negatives of technology. Especially with new emerging ones, I believe it is our responsibility as consumers and designers to know the potential of this technology as well as its threats. Only then can we use new technology to the best of its abilities.