My name is Nigel Arias and I am a mid-year commencement B.A Honors graduate candidate at the University of Hawai'i at West Oahu majoring in Creative Media with a concentration in Video Game Design and Development; and currently on the Dean's List. I was born in Silver Spring, Maryland and moved to Ewa Beach, Hawai'i in 2006. I attended James Campbell High School, and will be graduating from West Oahu on December 9, 2023. I will begin my second degree B.S. in Computer Science at U.H Manoa in January. If I were an artist's tool, I would be a palette knife which is very versatile and allows me to adapt to various challenges I may encounter.
Excessive overtime (crunch time), sexual harassment and racial, gender and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) discrimination are some of the serious employment issues currently plaguing the video gaming industry. Unfortunately, not much has been done to improve these issues over the years; and lawsuits or government intervention seem to be the only resolutions that will force these companies to make any real changes. Perhaps it’s time for the video gaming industry to consider unionizing to protect its employees and offer a safer and more inclusive work environment.
The concept of creativity has come a long way. The Old Greeks would call those creative forces muses, other religions referred to them as God. Today people still mostly treat creativity as an aha moment outside the area of influence. However, just by looking at the creative process one can tell, that creativity and creative work is more than just that one "Aha-Moment" (insight). It is clear that generating ideas demands planning and preparation, identifying something of interest like a problem, an opportunity or a challenge, doing research. This then leads to thinking of a solution, allowing time to incubate and iterations before arriving at something “complete.” Students learn that hard work is what makes their ideas come to life and sticktuiveness is what helps them get better.