Contributors
There’s only one contributor to this blog - me. That could change, but I have no plans for that. This is strictly a personal web site.
I’m Leigh Roboturtle, or in the academic world, Leigh Schwartz. Here’s a photo of me with some turtles at the Texas State Aquarium in Corpus Christi. Go turtles!
I graduated with a B.A. from the University of Kansas, and later with an M.A. from San Diego State University, both in Geography. In fall 2006, I began doctoral studies in the Department of Geography and the Environment at the University of Texas at Austin. My research interest is geography of the imagination.
I wrote my master’s thesis on the representation of cultures in the Suikoden video game series, and you can read that here. You can also see my publications online. Viewing my Space and Culture and GeoJournal articles require subscriptions, but Volume Two of Aether is freely available.
I haven’t been able to play as many games as I’ve wanted to, but when I get a chance, I prefer games that are open-ended and relaxing. Sometimes I play cooperative video games with my husband. A few other things about myself: I play the electric bass, enjoy sweets, and fondly remember my cat, Spike, who died in February, 2007.
I thought I’d contribute an interesting story about Animal Crossing Wild World for the Nintendo DS. My kids are crazy about this game. So much so that after we got a Nintendo Wii they’ve been asking me about when AC will be released for the Wii. Unfortunately thats TBA (To Be Announced) as the common acronyn goes on a lot of the gaming websites. Anyways my kids and I were at the local Toys R Us store and we stumbled across Animal Crossing for the Gamecube. And the price was only $19.99 and that also included a memory card for the game as well. The only thing we needed was a Gamecube controller which we found on sale at Fred Meyers for less then $20 and it was a wireless controller to boot too. So after about spending $40 (gotta pay that state sales tax) we were all set to play AC on the Wii, ableit in Gamecube mode. Now my eldest son is autistic and although he’s quite capable of surfing the web and can pretty much handle Itunes or the Ipod he’s never really been interested in actually playing a video game console. He’s played some simple games online but nothing as complex as a game like AC. So after watching the younger kiddies playing, he asked me to set him up with a character on the AC gamecube version which I did. He loves playing AC on the Wii. Alas my story has a tragic ending. I have a couple of Internet friends who I have talked to regularly and I’ve gotten them interested in playing AC:WW for the DS. After visiting one friend and getting her started on AC:WW my younger kiddies were quite excited because they hadn’t actually played in another person’s town. Well my eldest got interested in trying his hand in playing the DS version. Unfortunately later that day while the DS was charging he took it upon himself to play AC:WW on the Nintendo DS. What happened was he somehow ended up erasing our fair city of Asgaard.
9 months of effort gone in an instant. *Poof* I wish the creators of AC:WW would have at least put in a question/challenge like “Do you REALLY want to erase your town? Please type in ‘YES’ on the touchpad to continue”. Unfortunately, after Hurricane Damen whizzed through Asgaard we’re left homeless and utterly destitute (goodbye $1.6M Bells - The bank was destroyed in the natural disaster as well as the house and all the special items inside it) So we’re starting over again as we’ve moved into a new town in AC:WW called “Meridian”. It’ll be a long while but it’s a game we really enjoy. This time thoough, we’ll set up a character for Damen as well.