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I’m a huge college hoops fan and while the Gophers are always my team, I have long-noticed and followed the fate of Gonzaga University. I love that small school from a small conference underdog aspect of them whenever March Madness rolls around, though I rarely play them in Draft Day Sports: Pro Basketball 2 or anything.

But now I’ve learned that Gonzaga isn’t just with it on the court, but in the classroom, too. They now have an online master degree program that rivals University of Phoenix and other online schools, because Gonzaga has a sterling academic reputation.

While my path is more religious in nature, I’m intrigued by their communication and leadership master’s degree program, although they also offer nursing degrees, servant leadership degrees, and degrees in organization leadership. They’re a Jesuit university, so it’s not quite my particular brand of religious training, but there are plenty of folks for whom they’d be an ideal fit. Too bad I already have a master’s degree in English, or I’d be at least looking into it more.

But wow, what a revelation! I thought Gonzaga was just about basketball, and here they turn out to be a whole lot more. The third-ranked university in the west, ranked one of the country’s best universities by Princeton Review and Forbes Magazine, and one of the few top universities to venture into online education and distance learning. Look out, UoP!

Well, let’s start with everything.

Like NC short term health insurance, Dragon Age: Origins is a bit of a revelation, if not an outright revolution. It’s from the makers of everything from Baldur’s Gate to Neverwinter Nights to Knights of the Old Republic to Jade Empire to Mass Effect. Talk about a resume!

And apparently the team is putting their all into Dragon Age: Origins. What’s not to like? What’s not to love? It’s going to be a great game with a kickin’ story and awesome graphics. I’m in.

When it comes to this holiday season, I’ve already said that my most-wanted game is Dragon Age: Origins. However, there are more games I’d love to own, though it may take awhile to get them. At least I won’t have to worry about setting off any wireless alarms in my attempts to get them; I’ll be buying them.

One already on store shelves is Uncharted 2. And, of course, the original Uncharted. These games are what Tomb Raider should be, only better.

Cross Edge has been out for a while, but I love my Tactics-style RPGs. This one has characters from five other NIS/Atlus RPGs. A fanboy’s delight.

Borderlands is looking good for anyone who enjoyed Fallout 3. And Demon Souls is the most hardcore action/RPG I’ve seen in quite a while. And I’ve mentioned before my love for Assassin’s Creed II.

That’s not to even mention Mass Effect 2, which should be available in early 2010, as well as Magna Carta 2.

The RPG heat is turning up.

Remember the days when videogames glorified common and important public service jobs other than policemen? Like, when is the last time you saw a videogame about firemen? I think I remember one around the time of the PS2 launch window; but that was helicopter-based and I can’t remember the name of it for the life of me.

It got me to thinking about how these heroes of public service get their start. So I did a little research and found out that all-volunteer doesn’t always mean “not formally trained.” After all, there are now programs offering a Bachelor of Arts in Fire Service. That’s impressive if you ask me.

And there’s a lot to be trained in, too, from fire protection, fire prevention planning, fire education, emergency preparedness coordination, resource economics, and much more. I guess like anything else, there are always going to be advances in fire-fighting that make the job more professional and requiring more training. So it’s good there are programs out there to help.

Still, I think we’re overdue for our next fire-fighting videogame. With PS3/360 graphics, if well-done, such a game would rock!

I got an email coupon from a local videogame store, Play-N-Trade, today; it offers 50-percent off any used game in their store. That’s awesome, because there are plenty of games I missed when they were new and spendy that I’d love to pick up now. I’m talking games that are not junk, that are almost as interesting as Fort Walton Beach hotels.

At the top of my list? The PS3 adventure game, Uncharted. Sure, the second installment’s out now and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves looks great; but I’d have to pay way more for that, and why play the sequel if I haven’t touched the original yet.

Hopefully, they’ll have a copy available.