Hello there everyone; my name is John Mason, and I'm a game designer,...heh, well, an aspiring one. I am certainly not a professional yet and don't even know the simple basics (though that's why I'm taking the personal time to school myself in game programming and design, and hopefully I'll go to school soon to become certified for it even though I'm not waiting around 'till then to learn the skills, hence why I'm training myself. You know what they say, "If you want something done..."?!? That's me in a nutshell on that front), but I have lofty goals and the determination to make it all a reality. I'm also a pretty big fan of games; I don't have as much time to play as many of the bigger, longer epics out there these days, but I'm always trying to figure out some time to get around to playing them. Yet like any good would-be designer, I have influences beyond just games. I'm a major fan of films, cartoons, manga, anime, and music, and might read the occasional book from time to time. I also have a bit of a desire to hobby in music creation, though between that and learning design and programming and finding some time to keep my head from exploding, I gotta balance out time devotion on those fronts xD. I'm also a big fan of art, and like to draw quite a bit, including the art of furthering my artistic abilities. Finally, I also have a bit of fascination in learning of mythologies and certainly this big void of dark space we like to call the "Universe" (what a wierd name x3); currently I'm taking notes on various aspects of Hinduism and hopefully picking back up on Eygptian deities if and when I have the time, though of course I would want to read up on all the mythologies of the world-including their religious texts if any-before I finally rot and expire away. And to top it all off, I am not shy to read up on the odd conspiracy theory, or two,...okay maybe three but certainly not more than that.....that you know of ;) XD. So hopefully, that's a bit of a surmise of who I am and what I'm about for you all, so that you can get to know me a little better. I'll be taking a lot of this blogging space to, well, blog about game-related topics or topics that I feel transpire to the fields of being a well-rounded designer and thinker, and appreciator of the cultures of the world.