About

Introduction

Hi, my name is Tudor-Cristian Ion, I am a graduate of University of Portsmouth with second class honours, higher division qualification in Computer Games Technology.

How it started...

My first memory involving video games was somewhere around the age of 5 where my parents brought me home a Ending-Man Terminator console which is a hardware clone of the Nintendo Famicom . I remember playing games such as Super Mario Bros, Duck Hunt, Batman, Bomber man, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat and many other more. The most frustrating moment was surely when the console would break due to excessively amount of used power which outmatched the power source of the console...

The journey continued on an exponential scale where my cousins rented a PlayStation 1 console and I remember that in the last day I woke up at 6 am and didn't moved from the TV screen. Then over the years I started to experiment as many type of hardware as I could, going into the PC world and playing games such as Counter-Strike 1.6 and organising lan party over night with my friends used to be the game changer.

From all my experience playing games, I learnt that doing such a thing is a very good way to educate children as they are the ones who decides what is happening and beating the game is up to them. Furthermore, in my opinion playing games uplift the individual's soft skills such as: space orientation, decision making, team work, focus, problem solving. This topic was actually chosen for my dissertation study which will be available here.

I personally was very lucky to have the support of my parents in chasing this passion. There were plenty of times when a new game would come out and I would go to my parents and tell them about it and they would say something similar to:"Do you have important lectures today in school?" and they would let me stay home and play it.

Hobbies

Apart from playing games I enjoy sports very much, especially the game of basketball, I think everything in that game is related to style, like dancing, everyone has it's unique moves and way to implement them. Playing this used to be an escape from our so called "problems" even though we were children, everything would stop in that second and what that is left is you, your friends and the game you love playing, same thing applies within video games.

I love to discover new places, cultures, food recipes and I try to sponge as much information as I can. The problem with travelling for me is the tedious process of commuting to that place (Plane flight - Bus - Train) there are so many things that can go wrong and I was the target of them multiple times. Don't get me wrong, the 16 year old train journey to the sea used to be the best as you had all your friends in there with you but as you grew things change a bit..

I also enjoy going to music festivals, my personal favourite so far is Electric Castle. I was there last two years in a row (2018-2019) and I was amazed by the atmosphere in there. Is like being in a community with people who are caring a love aura, who are eager to meet you and talk with you, where things like envy, anger, fights are not present. I would be there in this summer as well (2020) so hopefully will meet you there.

Volunteering

Before University, I have completed a number of periods of volunteering with three different non- governmental organisations. In these positions :

• EESTEC LC Bucharest: Junior Member,

• DJST Ialomita : Alumni

• Youth Academy: Member/Trainer

I have been able to gain experience of working inside of a team and manage to create actual projects which helped the community. An example would be the project called “Cartile Calatoare”, started by “Eudoxiu Hurmuzachi” institute and developed around Romania where people can give books to Romanians that are away from the country. In our area, we managed to raise 1000 books and I managed to lead the team in contributing into this project which it's end was celebrated with a talent show at the cultural house from Slobozia. This was just one example of the projects that we worked on.

I have greatly enjoyed these experiences, which have enabled me to gain a wide range of skills in taking responsibility, communicating at various levels and working collaboratively with others.