Go home, video games!
Go back to the black bunker-like box you call a home.
Go spin around in there until you’re dizzy.
You’ve overstayed your welcome, and I need some “me time.”
Category Archives: Video Game Technology
Here’s How I Fixed Up My Apartment
I wish I could enlarge my crowded apartment. But I can’t afford to pay for enlarging it. And I can barely draw a straight line, even with a ruler. How could I get the measurements right? I couldn’t.
Video games can solve my problem! I would need a home renovation simulator or something like The Sims. I could then enter the home-builder mode to add whatever I needed.
Maybe I’d build a skyscraper that skims the heavens and towers high above all other humans. The skyscraper’s shine would nearly blind people with its glittering gold trim. And the top of the tower would have a great eye-like object that would see everyone entering and leaving the skyscraper. And I would feel like a king.
On second thought, I’ll add this new spice rack. I’m thankful for what I have.
Filed under Video Game Misc., Video Game Technology
The Next Big Thing in Video Games
Oh, you think the next big video game thing is virtual reality? Guess again, pal.
This new thing is completely wireless, completely disc-less and completely machine-free. We send you a spandex outfit. Yes, you become the video game character.
Try it on and try it out this Christmas!
Filed under Video Game Technology
Remember When Video Games Were Black and White?
That’s when they made games that had real substance. There were no crazy colours, no mind bending alternate realities or fancy buttons. Everything was simple and straightforward, as it should always be.
I remember that buying games was less complicated too. Why, in my day, we walked five hectares through hail sleet and snow just to buy a game, and we were better off for it. Can’t we have those days back?
Filed under Video Game Misc., Video Game Technology
This Blog Post Is Now Loading
You might need to update your graphics card if the video game doesn’t start. The update will cost you $50. Enjoy your day.
Filed under Video Game Technology
If I was a Video Game Character Living in a Game World
Imagine that I was a video game character living in a video game world. You’d turn on your TV, flip the switch on your console and see me every time you played a game. What should I do with this great privilege and power?
I suppose I’d find cheat codes and give myself many abilities and supplies. First, I’d give myself unlimited money. I don’t know what I do with it all; maybe I could buy several thousand cars and race around town, like something out of Grand Theft Auto. Then I’d find the code to turn myself invisible. That would be a welcome method to take breaks without the player even knowing I was gone. After all, I would get exhausted after the player’s marathon gaming sessions. Finally, I’d rejigger the code to create stunt doubles for myself. That way, I could do whatever I wanted and never get hurt while the player played. What could go wrong if I had these codes at my finger tips and could do whatever I wanted?
On second thought, this kind of unlimited power could easily corrupt me; instead I would use these cheat codes to help others. I’d go invisible and wade through a sea of zombies, in a post apocalyptic game, just to help an elderly neighbour take out her trash. I’d also become invincible to avoid germs. I could then, without getting sick, babysit all the other video game protagonists’ kids, so they could have peace of mind while they save the universe and/or world. Finally, I would rejigger the code to help fix other characters who were frozen — in a malfunctioning game, that is. Or maybe I meant shoveling the driveways of snowed in characters on freezing days. No matter the problem, I would find some way to help.
What would you do if you were a video game character living in a video game world?
Filed under Video Game Technology, Video Games I Play
I Started This Game and I’m Finishing It!
I started this video game, and I’m finishing it.
I’m finishing come hell or high water.
I’m finishing in the face of rain, sleet or snow.
I’m finishing despite the weather service’s warning about an impending avalanche, tornado, tsunami and hurricane.
Meanwhile, an uncontrollable fire roars down the street, consuming all in its path. It doesn’t matter.
What’s worse, our neighbourhood just experienced a nuclear meltdown outside and the streets are empty.
And I’m thinking of other games I’d like to start playing now.
But I started this game, and I’m going to finish it before I start playing anything else.
Do you ever have the urge to start playing a second game before you’ve finished the first? How do you respond to this urge?
I’m Wondering about Video Games
Too often life tries to extinguish my sense of wonder. By wonder, I mean a desire — which never ceases — to know more about a puzzling topic, a desire that sometimes isn’t sated with mere information. Life throws dishes, pots, and dirty laundry at me in an attempt to keep me off this path of wonder. I suppose one can cultivate a sense of wonder while cleaning pots and pans, but this rarely happens to me. Many of my interests, pursuits and activities, though, do allow me to keep my sense of wonder burning brightly even on the darkest of nights.
I love to read, write, talk and reflect about topics such as life and death, beautiful things in nature, history, people, ideas, music, culture, food, entertainment and others. I have so many questions about these topics and will never stop asking because there’s so much I don’t know. Sometimes I just stop and stare, slack-jawed and all, at a beautiful vista in a foreign country. I wonder how that vista was created, how something so beautiful could exist and why it exists. I also wonder about how to live my life, how to treat and help others, and things that are greater than myself. There remains one topic, though, that I didn’t mention — video games.
I wonder, when I play video games, how such a beautiful, imaginary world could exist and why I bother to explore it. I stare in awe at the beautiful digital mountains and valleys, puddles and oceans, seemingly borderless terrain and the limitless skies of fictional planets. Why do we spend time creating digital worlds that mirror our own instead of going out and seeing them first hand? What’s the point of it all — I mean a life spent playing video games?
Who or what put this digital world together and what inspired it? I mean, maybe I could know a bit about the developers of the game by learning about their personalities and experiences, and how that shaped their product. But would I truly get to know the developers and their thoughts about their games, or why their game has heavy trolls who can crush anything but also hurtle thousands of feet in the air after a tiny stick taps their shoulder? Maybe I’m asking too much.
I wonder if these developers took the time to craft a good story. I wonder if the story and characters can tell me something about my life and how I should live it? Or is this a game without a story? Does this game have goals, and what is a goal?
Why do I play video games anyway: is it because I chose to do so or because some external force has pushed me toward them? Why should I continue playing games when I have a kitchen sink full of dirty dishes? I wonder. I don’t have all the answers, but I do know that video games keep me wondering.
Filed under Video Game Technology, Video Games I Play, Video Games I Want
A Reflection on the Duality of Video Games & Life
Video games are both smooth and bumpy. One side of the disc is smooth, shiny and calm, like a tranquil lake on an early Saturday morning when the mist is settling over the water and no one is nearby. The disc also has faint lines going around part of it, resembling ripples on the surface of the lake. The machine is able to read and reflect on this side of the disc, and the metal box does this work quietly as if it were meditating near a calm lake. Then the machine can display something beautiful and creative for all to see and enjoy.
Sometimes playing this disc is a smooth experience, one without hardship that flows from beginning to end. The game doesn’t punish small mistakes during a smooth experience. The game doesn’t offer strange design choices that keeps gamers from playing until the end. Instead, the game lets you play, and encourages you to do so, without interruption.
We might also say that a gamer could be smooth. What do I mean by “smooth” gamer? I mean someone who sails through a game calmly without hitting any waves. Maybe he does see waves, but he knows how to avoid them. The smooth gamer’s actions are deliberate, well-thought-out and appear effortless, but not everyone acts in this way.
By contrast, there is a bumpy aspect to video games. One can feel this by picking up a video game disc and touching the side that has the game’s title and possibly other images. This bumpy side is like a rough path that is uneven to the touch rather than a tranquil lake.
The rough path is not inherently bad, for this side lets one know that one is holding a video game that a machine can run. However, some people will not see it as self-evident that the bumpy side faces up as the disc goes into the machine. You have to walk the path to understand, you have to put the game into the machine, or read or hear some instruction, to understand this is how you play a video game.
Once you play the game, you can sometimes expect a bumpy ride. You might get knocked off the path because of an increase in the game’s difficulty, just as you start to enjoy playing. You might get frustrated and lose your temper. Perhaps this angry person might throw a controller at some unfortunate bystander or some unfortunate peace lily.
Some of us might feel this anger and frustration in a more intense way than others. This person might be a gamer who cannot experience the bumpy side without exploding in rage. They are unpredictable and antipathy of the cool, smooth lake, the cool, smooth gamer.
Perhaps all gamers, all people have some degree of the cool, calm lake within them and the potential to lash out in anger. Although the path can be a little bumpy sometimes, one need not give in to aggression, to hate. Play like a smooth, calm lake, live like a smooth, calm lake.
Filed under Video Game Misc., Video Game Technology
Video Games Nebula 