Dragon Age: Origins

From the makers of Mass Effect, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and Baldur's Gate comes Dragon Age: Origins, an epic tale of violence, lust, and betrayal. The survival of humanity rests in the hands of those chosen by fate. You are a Grey Warden, one of the last of an ancient order of guardians who have defended the lands throughout the centuries. Betrayed by a trusted general in a critical battle, you must hunt down the traitor and bring him to justice. As you fight your way towards the final confrontation with an evil nemesis, you will face monstrous foes and engage in epic quests to unite the disparate peoples of a world at war. A romance with a seductive shapeshifter may hold the key to victory, or she may be a dangerous diversion from the heart of your mission. To be a leader, you must make ruthless decisions and be willing to sacrifice your friends and loved ones for the greater good of mankind.

Video Game Addiction No Fun

ompulsive video gaming is a modern-day psychological disorder that experts tell WebMD is becoming more and more popular.
By Sherry Rauh
WebMD Feature

Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

At an addiction treatment center in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, teenagers and young adults begin detox by admitting they are powerless over their addiction. But these addicts aren't hooked on drugs or alcohol. They are going cold turkey to break their dependence on video games.

Keith Bakker, director of Smith & Jones Addiction Consultants, tells WebMD he created the new program in response to a growing problem among young men and boys. "The more we looked at it, the more we saw [gaming] was taking over the lives of kids."

Detox for video game addiction may sound like a stretch, but addiction experts say the concept makes sense. "I was surprised we didn't think of it here in America," says Kimberly Young, PsyD, clinical director of the Center for On-Line Addiction and author of Caught in the Net: How to Recognize the Signs of Internet Addiction -- and a Winning Strategy for Recovery. "I've had so many parents call me over the last year or two, particularly about the role-playing games online. I see it getting worse as the opportunity to game grows - for example, cell phone gaming."

But can a game truly become an addiction? Absolutely, Young tells WebMD. "It's a clinical impulse control disorder," an addiction in the same sense as compulsive gambling.


Defining Addiction

While most people associate addiction with substances, such as drugs or alcohol, doctors recognize addictive behaviors as well. In a WebMD feature on the definition of addiction, psychiatrist Michael Brody, MD, set forth the following criteria:

1. The person needs more and more of a substance or behavior to keep him going.
2. If the person does not get more of the substance or behavior, he becomes irritable and miserable.

Young says compulsive gaming meets these criteria, and she has seen severe withdrawal symptoms in game addicts. "They become angry, violent, or depressed. If [parents] take away the computer, their child sits in the corner and cries, refuses to eat, sleep, or do anything."
The Psychological Factor

Unlike with substance abuse, the biological aspect of video game addiction is uncertain. "Research suggests gambling elevates dopamine," Young says, and gaming is in the same category. But there's more to addiction than brain chemistry. "Even with alcohol, it's not just physical. There's a psychological component to the addiction, knowing 'I can escape or feel good about my life.'"

Bakker agrees. "The person is trying to change the way they feel by taking something outside of themselves. The [ cocaine] addict learns, 'I don't like the way I feel, I take a line of cocaine.' For gamers, it's the fantasy world that makes them feel better."

The lure of a fantasy world is especially pertinent to online role-playing games. These are games in which a player assumes the role of a fictional character and interacts with other players in a virtual world. As Young puts it, an intelligent child who is unpopular at school can "become dominant in the game." The virtual life becomes more appealing than real life.


Where's the Harm?

Too much gaming may seem relatively harmless compared with the dangers of a drug overdose, but Bakker says video game addiction can ruin lives. Children who play four to five hours per day have no time for socializing, doing homework, or playing sports, he says. "That takes away from normal social development. You can get a 21-year-old with the emotional intelligence of a 12-year-old. He's never learned to talk to girls. He's never learned to play a sport."

In older addicts, compulsive gaming can jeopardize jobs or relationships. Howard, a 33-year-old project manager who asked to be identified only by his first name, started playing an online role-playing game about six months ago. He plays for three to four hours almost every day -- more on weekends -- occasionally putting off meals or sleep. His fiancée says he's addicted.
Addiction Warning Signs

Spending a lot of time gaming doesn't necessarily qualify as an addiction. "Eighty percent of the world can play games safely," Bakker says. "The question is: Can you always control your gaming activity?"

According to the Center for On-Line Addiction, warning signs for video game addiction include:

* Playing for increasing amounts of time
* Thinking about gaming during other activities
* Gaming to escape from real-life problems, anxiety, or depression
* Lying to friends and family to conceal gaming
* Feeling irritable when trying to cut down on gaming

In addition, video game addicts tend to become isolated, dropping out of their social networks and giving up other hobbies. "It's about somebody who has completely withdrawn from other activities," Young says. "One mother called me when her son dropped out of baseball. He used to love baseball, so that's when she knew there was a problem."

Howard, the project manager, says he still goes out with friends and family, so he doubts he is addicted. "I am not limiting myself to gaming as my only pastime or hobby," he tells WebMD. "If I needed to stop playing, I'm convinced that I could."
Parents, Take Note

Young and Bakker say the overwhelming majority of video game addicts are males under 30. "It's usually children with poor self-esteem and social problems," Young tells WebMD. "They're intelligent and imaginative but don't have many friends at school." She says a family history of addiction may also be a factor.

If you're concerned your child may be addicted to video games don't dismiss it as a phase, Young says. Keep good documents of the child's gaming behavior, including:

* Logs of when the child plays and for how long
* Problems resulting from gaming
* How the child reacts to time limits

"You need to document the severity of the problem," Young says. "Don't delay seeking professional help; if there is a problem, it will probably only get worse."


Video Game Detox

Treatment for video game addiction is similar to detox for other addictions, with one important difference. Computers have become an important part of everyday life, as well as many jobs, so compulsive gamers can't just look the other way when they see a PC.

"It's like a food addiction," Young explains. "You have to learn to live with food."

Because video game addicts can't avoid computers, they have to learn to use them responsibly. Bakker says that means no gaming. As for limiting game time to an hour a day, he compares that to "an alcoholic saying he's only going to drink beer."

Bakker says the toughest part of treating video game addicts is that "it's a little bit more difficult to show somebody they're in trouble. Nobody's ever been put in jail for being under the influence of [a game]."

The key, he says, is to show gamers they are powerless over their addiction, and then teach them "real-life excitement as opposed to online excitement."

Sequels are Sequels!

We've all heard it before and thought about it ourselves. When a franchise is driven into the ground with numerous sequels, we talk about the lack of originality and creativity, but we're also the ones first in line to purchase the next Grand Theft Auto, Halo, Legend of Zelda, or Super Mario Bros. With this in mind, why should any developer with a hot IP on their hands risk anything on a new title? With Fable 2, Grand Theft Auto IV, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Metriod Prime 3: Corruption, Halo 3, Final Fantasy XIII, Metal Gear Solid 4, and numerous other sequels due out soon, are sequels choking out original titles? When do we have too many sequels?

D'Marcus Beatty, Co-Site Director

Sequels are an unavoidable facet of video games, movies, books, and most forms of entertainment. When someone is entertained, they usually look for a similar experience to entertain them the same way. When a relationship is established with existing characters, it's easy for someone to seek to follow that character throughout multiple adventures or scenarios. However, it is also too easy for developers, authors, producers, etc. to become too complacent when churning out sequels by expecting a loyal audience to support their ventures. Consider the thousands of Mega Man, Street Fighter, and Madden games, each with only a slight improvement (if any) over the previous version.

A sequel is a difficult pitch because it has to be a fresh experience that, ironically, is also trying to recreate a previous experience. Very few games are able to pull this off. More often than not, games with endless sequels run the series into the ground, making each new iteration a shadow of the former games…unless the first few games were bad to begin with, of course.

The sequel decision is a difficult one. Most developers and producers are simply worried about figures and will create a sequel if there is a good chance of it selling. However, when considering making a sequel, the developers should ask if they can genuinely make a good game that builds off of the foundation the first (or previous) game(s) made. Is there anything fresh we can bring to the table? Is there something we wanted to try but couldn't that we could put in the sequel? Do we have some unanswered questions to resolve (if there is an interesting story to begin with)? If they sincerely think they can give us a good game, a sequel isn't a problem. But a sequel for the sake of having a sequel is a no-no. No more Megamans please until we get a next-gen update!

Maria Montoro, Co-Site Director

Video game sequels have become necessary for game developers. Because of the ever-increasing cost of developing video games, companies can't afford to take a risk with every game they give birth. Developing video games for Xbox 360 and PS3 has become especially expensive, and some companies are having budget difficulties that they need to overcome with methods like creating cheaper, downloadable games with less overhead costs and developing sequels for those games that truly guarantee good revenue.

BF 1942: Secret Weapons of WWII

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Secret Weapons of World War II is the second expansion pack that EA has released for Battlefield 1942 this year. The first expansion, Road to Rome, brought the Italian theater into the game. Secret Weapons, as the name implies, introduces a host of high-tech toys, many of which were never actually used during the war.
Given that Battlefield has never strived to be all that realistic, I suppose that the developers at Dice felt that they could take this one over the top, although the bulk of Battlefield players I know roll their eyes at the mere mention of jets and rocket packs.

Secret Weapons adds 16 vehicles, 6 weapons, 8 maps, and one new game mode to Battlefield. I was as skeptical as anyone when I installed this expansion, but it turned out to be more balanced and playable than I expected.

The new vehicles range from relatively plausible motorcycles with sidecar-mounted machine guns and amphibious transports, to the rather far-fetched rocket planes and guided rockets. Some of the jets fly so fast that it's difficult just keeping them on the map. Unless you're flying in circle, you will be constantly harassed by the "deserters will be shot" message. With a little practice, however, they can be mastered, and the unguided missiles used by several of these new aircraft are easier to target accurately than bombs. Fortunately, there is also some very lethal anti-air weaponry in Secret Weapons, such as the Flakpanzer, to bring things back down to earth.

The Wasserfall guided rocket is an amusing addition, allowing players to steer a missile into enemy units from a stationary launch pad. Again, it will traverse even the largest maps in a matter of seconds, making it a challenge to control, but its payload is equally deadly against planes and ground troops.

Borrowing an idea from the Desert Combat mod, Secret Weapons introduces the C-47 cargo plane, which serves as a mobile spawn point. Although trying to keep this large, slow moving craft in the sky for more than one or two passes is not easy, anything that cuts down on spawn camping is a welcome addition. I would like to see something like this patched onto the original game.

As for the infamous Rocket Pack, it is surprisingly well executed. It doesn't permit you to zip around like Superman, but rather gives you the ability to make large jumps, reminiscent of low-gravity Quake. You are still susceptible to fall damage, and its volatile fuel will explode upon a direct hit from the enemy, so its strategic value is limited. However, it can prove quite useful for jumping from heights that would otherwise kill you, leap

More believable are the heavy tanks that come with this expansion. The Allies get the T95, which is an armored monster that is nearly unstoppable, especially with a couple lighter tanks backing it up. It has a hefty gun, but the Axis' Sturmtiger packs an even bigger punch with its mounted naval cannon. The Sturmtiger has no horizontal aim whatsoever, so you have to adjust your shot by pointing the tank in the direction of your target.

New weapons include a stealthy throwing knife, the Remington Auto 5 shotgun, a deadly grenade rifle, and the Gewehr 43 semiautomatic sniper rifle, which lets a sniper unleash a whole clip without zooming out. It might have been nice if the grenade rifle had been given to the anti-tank class rather than engineers, who already had a nifty variety of nifty things to use.

One of the best things about this expansion are the additional maps. They are very well thought out and involve a number of missions with a "destroy the top-secret Nazi laboratory" feel, which is a natural fit for the experimental weaponry. The rough terrain in the Eagle's Nest map is quite impressive, and there are an abundance of interesting features like tunnels, bridges, lakes and islands in the new maps.
One of the battles is set in the dark of night for a change. The only disappointment here is that there aren't more of them. It seems like 8 maps are barely enough to showcase the rest of the content introduced, a complaint partly outweighed by the fact that the maps are playable in an entirely new mode.

Objective mode, in which the Allies must achieve certain objectives and the Axis must stop them, is good to see, as it gives the game some much needed depth. Conquest mode, the most widely used type of gameplay in Battlefield right now, tends to be a rather chaotic, every-man-for-himself effort to capture command points. When the game is played in Objective mode, organization becomes more critical to success. Of course, if your team is particularly clueless, this can be a bad thing, as they will ignore the objectives altogether and carry on capturing command points, ultimately losing the match because of it.

Secret Weapons is an entertaining, if not mildly comical, expansion, and it's few flaws are minor ones. Unfortunately, at around $30 the price tag is a bit hard to swallow.
Like the more economical Road to Rome ($20), I can't see too many people rushing out to buy it until they have completely exhausted the original game and the numerous free mods now available for it. There do, however, seem to be more servers running it than the Road to Rome expansion. If you're a hardcore Battlefield 1942 fan and you need more content, Secret Weapons will go a long way toward fulfilling your Rocket Pack dreams.

Battlefield Vietnam Review

Let me begin by saying, no, it's not an expansion pack, I repeat, NOT AN EXPANSION PACK for Battlefield 1942. Battlefield Vietnam, though it bears more similarities to Battlefield 1942 than just its name, is an entirely new stand-alone game and Battlefield 1942 is not required to play.
Now that we've cleared that up, you may have noticed that military themed first-person shooters are everywhere these days. Given the flood of titles and expansion packs that have been released in this area lately, one has to wonder how many such games the market can support. I couldn't help marvelling at the ad for Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault on the back of the Battlefield Vietnam CD case.

Subsequently, your first impression of Battlefield Vietnam is likely to be one of deja vu. Battlefield 1942 players will find most of the features and game modes they are familiar with in a very immersive jungle setting. If you haven't played BF 1942, the appeal of the game, in a nutshell, is that you can commandeer a wide variety of vehicles, including tanks, ships, and planes, on the front line. For the most part, this is accomplished with a very simple set of standard FPS controls which minimize the learning curve.

Battlefield Vietnam does not stray from this successful formula. It effectively takes the vehicular warfare we love from '42 into the chopper-filled skies of Vietnam, but it doesn't attempt anything as revolutionary as its predecessor did.

What's New
One thing you're likely to notice right away is the music. EA has licensed a bunch of popular protest songs from the Vietnam era, which go a long way toward recreating the atmosphere. Sound in the game is very well done, from the authenticy of the gun shots and helicopter chops to the ability to blast the soundtrack from vehicles in the game. No reviewer yet has failed to mention that approaching the battle in a Huey pumping out "The Ride of the Valkyries" is somewhere up there with, say, free beer.

The graphics have also been stepped up a notch. There is plenty of jungle vegetation to hide in and the terrain of Vietnam is well replicated. Models are a little smoother, the pixel-shaded surfaces are nice if your system is up to it, and explosions are more spectacular than ever. Even reloading your weapon is a treat, as the animations for this are now probably as accurate as those in America's Army.

Of course, better graphics means slower graphics. It may be more stable than BF 1942 was when it was released, but it would appear that there is still a significant amount of optimizing to be done. Prepare to do some tweaking to get acceptable performance with the detail cranked up.

It wouldn't be the Vietnam War without helicopters, and there are a variety of these available to both sides. Some of them have the ability to airlift other vehicles into combat, although this requires some rather precise flying which I have yet to witness in action. I was able to do it on an empty server, but the helicopter controls seem overly sensitive even with a joystick, and you'll see plenty of players having a difficult enough time just staying in the air while under fire, never mind trying to drop a tank gently on the ground.

The basic classes of soldier, bazooka/heat-seeking missle man, engineer, and sniper remain, but the beloved medic is noticeably missing in action! On the other hand, because each class now gets to choose from two primary weapon kits, you actually have more options than BF 1942 offered. There is also bit more variety to the weaponry available to the two sides and, although it's a little too early to say for sure, I suspect there are lingering balance issues. The M60/LAW combination seems particularly lethal at this point. As you can imagine, there is a lot of air power in the game, but there appears to be anti-air mechanisms capable of keeping the role of infantry interesting.

Battlefield Vietnam has a new "Evolution" mode which allows scores to be carried over a pair of historically related maps. Though at least one map has objectives, Objective mode, featured in the Secret Weapons expansion, is gone, perhaps because everyone plays Conquest anyway.

Many subtle improvements have been made to the game over BF 1942. Your weapon remains available in many of Battlefield Vietnam's vehicles, which can make being a passenger a lot more fun. The command point capture timer is more sophisticated, allowing a group of soldiers to capture a command point more quickly than a lone wolf. VC engineers can move special tunnel entrance spawn points around the map, making for some great covert strategy gameplay.

To top it all off, there is a (beta) map editor and mod kit included.

What's Old
If your Internet connection goes down one day and you decide to try single-player mode, you'll discover the same weak (often downright bewildered) AI used in BF 1942. Battlefield Vietnam doesn't even pretend to offer a compelling single-player campaign, so if you're not into online play, pass on this one.

Despite the beefy new graphics, fog is still used in abundance to limit your viewing distance. It's a small annoyance, but you really notice it after playing games with minimal or no fog, especially when flying.

Joystick support remains at an absolute minimum. At the very least I would have expected separate options for planes and helicopters, but no such luck. I'm aware that a lot of people don't use joysticks, and employ no controllers other than mouse and keyboard, yet in game with air vehicles as a central feature, there is really no excuse for such poor controller support.

Maps are quite well thought out and present some interesting scenarios, all modeled loosely on battles that took place during the Vietnam War. Unfortunately, you can still fly across them in less than 30 seconds in a jet, so the familiar "out of bounds" warning is never far off. The slower moving choppers are better suited to maps this size.

The Bottom Line
I don't know if it's the appeal of Vietnam era or what, but gamers certainly haven't waited for the reviews to come out before running to the store and buying Battlefield Vietnam. Two weeks after its release it already has more players that BF 1942 and enough servers to make the in-game browser slightly dysfunctional.

What is here will be excellent in a patch or two. I'm slightly disappointed by what isn't here. For an entirely new game Battlefield Vietnam doesn't really try to do anything new. Surely FPS developers haven't completely exhausted the possibilities when it comes to things like multiplayer game modes? Some games have had integrated voice communication for a long time now, and given that Unreal Tournament 2004 has it, it doesn't seem like too much to ask. How about a favorites list and a buddy tracker in the server browser? I know we have the technology.

Minor omissions aside, Battlefield Vietnam does excel in the only area that really counts - it's undeniably fun. Whether you're spraying an enemy base with machine gun fire from the back of a chopper or sneaking around in the brush with your sniper rifle, the excitement is relentless. Not even the impending release of Doom 3 will keep people out of this jungle.

Gaming for Money: Trading Game Assets

One of the most interesting and unexpected things to arise from online gaming is the birth of real-world economies based on the value of persistent world game characters and items. When Ultima Online and EverQuest characters started appearing on eBay, a lot of people found it hard to believe that anyone was willing to exchange actual money for game items that are, after all, largely imaginary. Nevertheless, trade in these digital goods continues to grow, and it has already gone from being a pastime pursued only by a handful of hard-core gamers to being a fledgling industry in its own right.

Time is Money
We've all heard it said that time is money. This is no less true when it comes to persistent world online games. Under normal circumstances, it can take months or even years to work a character into the upper ranks of a game like EverQuest, or acquire some rare item that only drops on, say, the Plane of Complete Annihilation. I guess it should come as no surprize that many people are willing to spend a little extra to get there faster. In fact, since you're paying by the month to play in most cases anyway, purchasing what you need to get straight to the end game may even be cost effective for some people.

Enter eBay
For those who are serious about trading in game economies, the epicenter of activity is Category 1654, Internet Games, on eBay. While not every item in the category is a game item (lately I've noticed quite a few manuals on how to make big money trading game items), it remains the most popular auction for virtual marketeers. Dr. Edward Castronova, an economics professor at California State University, has been compiling statistics related to the category, and in 2004 it racked up over $22 million in total sales. Several entrepeneurs have taken notice of this and started other auctions and currency exchanges that specialize in virtual game property.

Players and Publishers React
To be sure, not all online game publishers, or players, for that matter, are happy with the real-world trade in game assets. Sony has been quite firm on this issue, and they've successfully had SOE game items removed from eBay. Blizzard has sternly reminded World of Warcraft players that it is against their policy as well, and that anyone caught doing it will be banned. Naturally, the trade in gear for these games continues through other auctions, and it seems unlikely that either company has the power to eradicate it completely. Other game companies have taken a more hands-off approach, condoning and sometimes even facilitating the exchange of cyber goods.

One can easily imagine the assortment of potential problems this trend creates for game developers and gamers alike. Many people equate it with cheating, and consider it unfair that a player can buy their way into game status that would otherwise take many game hours to achieve. For the developer, it can escalate into a customer service nightmare. Support staff will find themselves on the receiving end of complaints about bad transactions and rip-offs, while cheaters are provided with an economic incentive to hack and exploit the game.

There's Money in Those Swords
Nevertheless, it's clear that this sort of trade is here to stay, regardless of how game companies or players feel about it, and many would argue that it's a good thing. The best solution is probably to integrate secure exchange services into the game, so that players don't need to go to outside auctions like eBay to conduct transactions. Several online worlds are already experimenting with this approach. The inhabitants of There, for example, are able to purchase ThereBucks with a credit card and shop for, or sell, game items in an auction that is part of the game. Interestingly, although the last time I checked, there is no "official" way to convert ThereBucks back into real bucks, it is standard proceedure at player-operated banks. In an interview with ACM Que in early 2004, CEO Will Harvey pointed out that one of the top designers of clothes in There is earning the equivalent of $3,000 a month.

I don't intend to encourage anyone to dump their day job and pursue a career as a trader of virtual property, but it can't be denied that some people are making a significant amount of money in this enterprise. One of the highest profile and most forthright traders I've come across is Julian Dibbell, who has documented his experiences trading Ultima Online gear for the last year in detail. If you want some idea what it would take to turn playing into a career, I encourage you to read back through his blog, as it is both informative and insightful. Note that, in the last month of his year long experiment, Julian was the number 2 seller of UO assets on eBay, and made a handsome profit of $3,917. It sure makes the game's monthly subscription fee look like one hell of a bargain.

A Black Market is Born
Of course, World of Warcraft and EverQuest assets are probably where the greatest demand is, at least in North America. Services such as Player Auctions have stepped in to fill the gap created by the removal of EQ items from eBay. The Gaming Open Market once offered a money exchange for different types of game currency, allowing people to more conveniently transfer funds from one virtual world, or game server, to another. After a bad transaction that cost the GOM's operator a consider sum of real cash, the decision was made to limit services to Second Life. (The GOM has discontinued operations because Second Life decided to offer their own exchange system.)

Given the profit potential, I guess it was inevitable that we would see the birth of companies dedicated to the acquisition and sale of game property on a larger scale. Internet Gaming Entertainment (IGE) is one such company. With offices in Hong Kong and the U.S., they now have over 100 full-time employees and a small army of "suppliers" selling them virtual goods from a variety of online games. The whole thing conjures up visions of sweatshops in China where child laborers are forced to toil away at computer terminals 16 hours a day leveling Dark Age of Camelot characters. I don't think we're there yet, but considering the amount of money changing hands, it can only be a matter of time.

Looking Ahead
Over the next few years we can expect to hear a lot more about virtual economies and their impact on real economies, and it promises to be interesting to see how, or if, governments will try to regulate this growing market. I also look forward to seeing how game developers will respond to this phenomenon, since at the moment they seem split between embracing it as a potential enhancement to the game, and discouraging it as an impediment to fair gameplay.

Game Design Artist

Overview of the role of a Video Game Artist

As you might expect, artists in the game industry do a range of diverse jobs, and as such, several specific job categories have developed over time. Each of the categories is associated with different styles, techniques and areas within the game development process.

Although the details will vary between companies, the following list of definitions should be useful at least as a guide:

Concept Artist
2D/3D Animator
2D Texture Artist

Concept Artist

This person will create and design characters and worlds used within the game.
To begin with, everything is created on paper as a rough concept. When this is approved, it goes through a cleaning up period which may involve scanning the designs on to computer and using an art package such as Photoshop to perfect fine line work and add details. Colour is then introduced into the Image so that the texture artist can create the correct textures for the world or character. Once the concept artwork has been completed it is passed on to the 3D Model Builder (or Animator if it is an animated character).

A concept artist will be required to:

Ensure the design fits with the general look and feel of the game

Achieve maximum effect with minimum complexity - complex designs eventually lead to more complex 3D models (something that can be easily created with as few polygons as possible is desirable)

Consider colours and colour schemes used to maintain a balance of colour throughout the design.


How do I become a Concept Artist in the games industry?
Hmmm, this is a tricky one. Concept art cannot really be taught. Being a good concept artist is about drawing as much as you possibly can, whenever you can. The great Chuck Jones once said that every artist has a million naff drawings inside them, it's just a matter of working through them so you get to the point where you only produce your best.
I myself have been drawing from the very first moment I picked up a pencil, but to get really good takes time and persistence. It's good that you admire Disney and Anime but don't try to copy and imitate them too much, use the style and line construction as a guide and try to develop your own line style and characters. If you spend most of your time copying other people's work you will never learn how to come up with outstanding creations of your own.
A good way of getting good is to focus on an aspect of drawing that you really enjoy. I chose traditional animation and background art, it teaches you a lot about a character's attitude, emotion, and motivation, aspects which are all to important when creating believable characters and environments.

Drawing characters and animals
One of the most important parts of becoming a good character and animal illustrator is life drawing and good observation skills. Try to learn as much as you can about anatomy, proportion and skeletal structures, this will ensure that you put the right muscle in the right place, there's nothing worse that a character with made up anatomy. Life drawing may be a little daunting at times but if you get good at it the rules of construction and pose that you learn will come across in your own creative work.

Creating environments
Again, as with characters, observation and drawing from real buildings and landscapes will teach you how to produce realistic environments that seem real and believable. Focus the layout and try to find the hidden composition that makes for a captivating and impressive environment, this will all go towards helping you to come up with your own creations and how to make the unreal seem real.

What you need to do now
If you're sure (as I was) that illustration and design is the direction you want to go I would suggest you find a course which tries to encompass all aspects of Art and Design. After School I went into a Graphic Design course at Stafford Art College which taught me many different aspects of Design. The course itself involved life drawing, graphic design, photography, animation, illustration, calligraphy and technical drawing. All of these media types helped me find an overall understanding of art and design.
After my 2 years at college I went to University to study Traditional Animation. This again involved a lot of drawing from life and a lot of observational drawing, as well as learning how to animate characters and produce background artwork.

The route here isn't necessarily the best route and everyone's different but the best advice is to try to find a good art course at a respectable art college and see where it takes you. You may find out that you have other skills that you never thought you had.

A few main points to remember:

Keep drawing and don't copy other people's work, use it as a guide and learn from what they have done.

Don't be afraid of blank paper - just get in there and draw, nothing ever comes out right first time anyway.

Be critical of your art, and look hard at it to see what doesn't look right and then change weak aspects and improve on parts that already work within the illustration.

2D/3D Animator

The job of a 3D artist is to provide a game's levels and character content. You may also be required to provide high definition models for concept and marketing purposes.

The animators position involves animating individual characters and scenic elements within a game. They may also be required to animate filmic introductions, cut scenes and endings for the game.

The task of texturing a 3D object is often given to a specific 2D artist, but you may be required to create textures and apply them when needed.

2D Texture Artist

The job of a 2D Texture Artist is to provide all the texture elements within a game for the 3D models.

We use in-house developed tools for applying the textures to the models, but the creation of the textures requires the use of packages such as Photoshop, Painter, Deep Paint and vector based applications like Xara and Illustrator.

There are also other 2D elements required within a game such as lighting and special effects.