By Sophia Marcum

I had the exciting opportunity to catch up with John Oakley who is a member of Bluffton High School’s most recently graduated class. After his first few weeks of college he shared some of his initial reactions and insights into his freshman year. 

Where are you attending school and what are you studying?
I am attending Bowling Green State University and I am studying Computer Science.

What drew you to this field of study?
I knew that computer science was my area of interest when I took a programming and robotics class my sophomore year at Bluffton High School. Ever since then I've wanted to be a programmer.

The BGSU mascot is a falcon, which is one of the fastest flying animals. If you were given the opportunity to fly by way of growing permanent human-sized falcon wings….would you take the opportunity? Why or why not?
No I probably wouldn't. Flying would be cool, but I like having normal arms and hands more.

What has surprised most you about living at college so far?
The thing that surprised me the most is that a large portion of the work is now done online. I don't have to worry about forgetting about an assignment or filling out any worksheets because everything I need is stored online with reminders to when things are due. I have also found that the work is not as hard as people try to make it sound. If you can manage your time well and study appropriately, you'll have no problems.

What’s the best grub you’ve found on campus thus far?
I like eating at the on-campus Panda Express, but I think my favorite is build your own burger days at the dining halls.

How do you like your dorm? Did you bring any specific decor?
I like my dorm, it's small and compact. If I have a lot of room, it tends to get messier. I only have one poster of a video game character called Master Chief.

What is the most expensive textbook you had to purchase for your first semester? What is the title and which class if it for?
I don't quite remember exactly how much it was, but I think it was my programming textbook titled "C++". It is about 1,200 pages and it will teach me the programming language called C++ (obviously ha ha).

That’s a huge textbook! Carrying it around campus must be a great workout. How long of a walk is your farthest class from your dorm?
My farthest class is only about a 15-minute walk from my dorm.

You have a passion for gaming if I’m not mistaken. Do you have a favorite video game?
Right now Destiny is my favorite game. I play it with my friends whenever I have spare time after I finish my work.

What qualities make for a good video game in your opinion?
The qualities really depend. I'll play different games depending on what mood I'm in. I like games that really challenge you at one point or another. Nothing is as satisfying as beating something that you've been trying to do for an hour or more.

But, I think the most important thing is that it is fun. If a game isn't fun you aren't going to want to play it, and different people have different interpretations of fun, so what makes a game fun is up for the individual to decide.

Do you ever think about how you might improve upon games you play or have ideas for your own games?
I have ideas to improve games all the time. If there's one thing in a game that I don't like, I usually think about how it could be fixed. I also think about making my own games pretty often. Actually, I want to be a game programmer in the future and work on a game design team.

Exciting! Can you share a few of your ideas with us?
I don't really have any specific games planned out in my head, but I want to make a game that I would find fun. A lot of developers today try to make a game they think that people want, therefore we have a new Call of Duty and similar games coming out every year.

Developers have forgotten why they make video games in the first place. Yes, they want to make money, but that results in the same games every year that don't have a unique feeling.

If they went out on a limb and said, "I want to play a game with this, and this, and this, so let's try it." instead of, "This made money last time so let's do it again." I think that the video game industry would make a drastic change for the better.