When I’m stressed out, I take a big breath and exhale. Then I try to take in the beauty of nature–the nature that the city offers—around me. I love to see and hear a breeze brush up against the tree’s leaves in late summer. It’s like mother nature is also exhaling, blowing away her own stress and scattering it into the trees for my amusement. This is a beautiful sight and sound that most people only experience outdoors. But we have a secret.
Our secret is that we play video games, and we might stumble upon breath-taking moments in fictional worlds. One of my favourite things to look at in games is water; I love when game developers make beautiful and realistic water. The shimmering blue ripples and marine life beg for eyes to adore their beauty. Far from being a laughable copy of the real thing, this beauty in the game, regardless of the developer’s intent, reminds me of the beauty of nature. I love a placid lake so much that it makes me happy to see it even in a game.
The beauty of life and the beauty of nature in a video game are, of course, different. But they can both be beautiful, and I can appreciate them both.
When have you experienced nature’s beauty in a video game, if at all? How did it make you feel?
I glued myself to the couch from the moment the images flickered on screen.
Outside night was starting to cover everything across the land. Inside, I felt like someone had locked me in a reinforced concrete bunker with a dying light petering through a crack in the wall. Note: that’s a fun reinforced concrete bunker. Or maybe some accident left me stuck in an elevator with no means of escape. Hmmm wait, no, it couldn’t be that one. That’s no fun.
The fun started after I picked up the controller. When I started playing, the clock “ding donged” three times. Then time flew by so fast that the hands fell off the clock and landed, as I later discovered, on the floor.
Suddenly, the rooster crowed and the light from outside blinded me. One minute I picked up the controller at night and the next minute the sun pushed through the crack to light up everything around me. The shower and food that I needed yesterday had faded away from my memory. “How could that have happened?” I asked myself.
I guess it was because I wanted more, more of the same. Sure, it sounds like an awfully long time, but awful had nothing to do with it. For I was playing a video game.
Filed under Video Game Misc.
This post is not what it seems; titles can be deceiving.
I don’t mean how to play like your boss, who I’m sure is a fine human being by the way. And I don’t mean how to play video games like a boss (read: total badass or cool person or whatever people mean by “boss”). No, I mean how to play video games like a decent video game final boss, which is a lot harder to imagine.
So, please, allow me to explain how that might work. And while you read, you should imagine yourself as a Bowser, Ganondorf, etc., who is playing a video game. Oh, and by decent final boss I mean a challenging enemy character who you fight at the end of the game.
Don’t break a sweat. Let the protagonist rush through levels, while nearly suffering a stroke, to save the princess. Instead of attacking him or her, you should take a little “me time.” You know: read, work out, eat a smoked meat sandwich, work on your tan, talk to your money manager about your portfolio. Anything but thinking about or attacking the protagonist. That’s your evil minions’ job for now. Then — maybe — draw up a plan for the final battle.
Take care of yourself because no one else will. You think those lowly minions you hired, with their scratchy claws, care about you? Pft! Nah. They’re walking right up to that protagonist and practically begging for her to stomp on them.
And for goodness’ sake, cover up your weak spot! It means you might last longer in the final battle. Plus no one wants to see your junk waggling all over their TV screen.
If your enemy memorizes the timing of your one devastating attack, you will never win. Sheesh! I thought you would have learned that after you died so many times.
Don’t just have one devastating attack: learn one hundred or more. You must learn new moves to keep your enemy guessing. I suggest enrolling in an online continuing education program and getting a certificate in conflict — without all that peace junk — studies.
I hope you slept through your ethics class. Do anything you have to — I don’t care what — to beat the protagonist. Your best hope is that the player will rage quit instead of beating you. Then, if you’re lucky, that player might pass the game on to a friend to renew the cycle of rage quitting and frustration. Ah good times.
You can’t always win. But if you’re interested in cheating, you should contact me for video game boss consulting. Just call me Astro Adam — consultant to some of the world’s worst final video game bosses. If you find yourself in a particularly sticky situation, you should ask about my emergency advice hotline.
If you were a video game final boss, how would you play video games?
Filed under Video Game Misc.
It slowly walked in a straight line towards its enemies, like it was wading through molasses. Its heart pounded so loudly that it sounded like someone striking an anvil in Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Il trovatore. The beating sound was so loud that even the enemies, over the crackle of their guns, could hear. But was it, with its beating heart, alive?
Nobody knows. Certainly it wasn’t hurt. The bullets bounced off as if they were rubber balls hitting a brick wall. And like a mindless tank enduring a barrage of pebbles, it felt nothing and kept moving forward.
It eschewed taking cover along the way. Cover, it thought, would make it seem weaker and much less of a masculine machine.
The bullets were useless against it. But the bullets increased until they were like a plague of locusts enveloping everything. One could not breath through one’s nose or mouth without introducing bullets into those orifices. And the air reeked of hot lead.
Yet, like a new-born babe, it did not have a single scratch on its cheeks, and it did not suffer from smoke inhalation. However, the price for this invincibility was dark red vision. Everywhere it went and it saw everything through blood-red lenses. There was no time for love or friendship.
At last, it reached the enemy, and it engaged in a punching match as if it was playing Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots. It was like a robot who didn’t feel pain, nor did he care about others’ pain. This is the life of a bullet sponge.
I’ve heard people describe some video game characters as bullet sponges. I tried to describe how the bullet sponge acts.
Filed under Silly Video Game Inspired Fiction
Imagine there was a site for people to meet their ideal gaming partner. We’re not necessarily talking about romantic partners here; we’re talking about a friend who’d love to play. I’d be looking for these things in that person:
And they should be a magic genie who can rub their bald head and grant me more time to play video games. And… And… Ah who am I kidding? It has to be a good friend who likes to play video games. For me, this is a rare person indeed.
What would you look for in an ideal gaming partner? Are you lucky enough to have someone like that already?
Filed under Video Games: Reader Q&A
“Non-gamers are weird.”
Someone searched for this phrase and landed on my blog. This type of thinking bothers me because it prevents both gamers and non gamers from getting along, and it paints a silly picture of both sides. Really both sides could do better.
The phrase makes all non gamers look bad. It paints this group of people all one color with a swift and silly stroke. And it doesn’t even explain what “weird” is. You could never prove such a ridiculous claim about so many people.
Gamers who agree with the phrase also look immature. The phrase offers no evidence for its irresponsible claim. Worse yet, the phrase attacks a large group of people instead of offering a thought-provoking statement. It’s as dumb as calling someone a name that a six year old would use.
Some gamers might find this phrase to be cute. It points out, in an immature way, that there are differences between gamers and non-gamers. It might bring a smirk to your face. But it isn’t funny for long.
Can’t we all we get along? Phrases like the one that began this article will not help us achieve this goal. If we all do get along, then I hope people will see video games and gamers in a positive light. Perhaps some people will then play video games for the first time.
I hope more people will challenge their negative assumptions about video games and play them for the first time. I want everyone to have fun, and I think video games offer that experience. But I can’t force non gamers to try this hobby, and it won’t help to call them names. We have to approach each other with mutual understanding and respect. Let’s do it!
Filed under Non Gamers
A whiny violin plays in the distance. It holds one note long enough to sting the ears with its shrill tone. Then it descends to a weepy cliff–ready to jump. While standing on the edge, it plays the same sad note over and over as the rain pours down.
A piano now accompanies the lonely violin on the edge. The piano speaks the rain’s language: a torrent of notes flow from its keys.
Moving closer, one can see the rain patters against a house’s window. A solitary drop trickles down the cheek of the glass rectangle. From the outside looking in, this tear seems to come from a video game console sitting in the living room.
Inside there is a drought because the console sits alone–not a soul in the world to play it. No, not even the fridge or dishwasher greet it with a hum. Now the dust bunnies are trying to consume it.
The console hasn’t played, and come to think of it, I haven’t played for a while. I’d use video games references to describe this drought, but it’s been so long that I’ve forgotten everything about them. I guess that’s it.
I have some time to play video games again. But a couple months ago, I was too busy to even think about games, and that’s what inspired this post. I wasn’t depressed then or now: I wanted to paint a picture of a depressed video game console in this post. No one would play with it after all.
Filed under Video Game Technology
Is love like playing video games? What an absurd question you might say, and you’re probably right. But one day I jotted down some cutesy similarities between loving someone and playing video games. These similarities include faithfulness (not cheating), joy, and spending time with others. Let me tell you more.
First, what is love? Love, the type I will discuss here, is a joyous state, an all-encompassing desire to care for another, to help them be at their best, and to make sacrifices to love them. And video games are something like interactive entertainment played alone or with others. Sometimes they encourage one to overcome challenges, win the game and experience joy. So, playing video games and loving others are quite different, and it’s not clear what they have in common.
Let us start with cheating. Cheating is wrong. It’s wrong, most would say, to cheat on a partner when you’re in a loving relationship. It would likely hurt that person’s feelings and generally make you a jerk. Yet some people still do it. Nice job by the way.
By contrast, cheating in video games doesn’t always hurt others. If you play alone and enable cheat codes, you’re not exactly hurting anyone, though you may “cheat yourself” or miss an exciting challenge. But there is an exception: it would ruin a person’s good time if you cheat in a competitive multiplayer match. In addition, when you cheat on your loving partner or in a video game, you might experience some awful guilt.
When you finish a challenging video game without cheating, you might feel joy–an overwhelming sense that lasts much longer than mere fun or pleasure. You’ve accomplished something that took effort and could leave you with good memories. Similarly, when you love someone, you can feel joyous, and you want to tell everyone about it. In both video games and in life, these joyous moments are probably preceded by ups and downs, mistakes and progress.
For some, sharing ups and downs with another person is a beloved part of loving others. You might want someone to come home to after a tough day at the office. And you might want to take photographs of your young family when you bring your baby home for the first time. You might also sacrifice your spare time to help a stranger shivering in the cold on an icy day.
Video games can also be great way to spend time with others. That might mean playing split screen Mario Kart with friends on the couch, or blowing up your strangers online, or helping another person to beat a game. You could help by writing a guide for them or showing them how to beat part of a game. So, spending time with others, and even helping them, is part of love and playing video games. Of course, not everyone will want to partner up in life or when playing video games.
You might want to play a video game by yourself, without any contact with others. You might choose to live your life as a single person. And, of course, you can still experience joy and have loving relationships if you play a game alone or live your life alone.
In sum, we can find some simple similarities between love and playing video games, including not cheating, joy and spending quality time with others. Maybe I see these similarities because I love video games so much and that colours all of my thinking. But I know that playing video games, for obvious reasons, is still mostly different from loving others; this is not an earth-shattering conclusion.
I suggest that playing video games is one way to share joy and love others. It could also be a great way to show your love of life–your desire to celebrate all that life has to offer–even if you play alone. And loving others, by itself, is a beautiful thing; go out and do it. Then, maybe, come back home and play.
Filed under Video Game Misc.
Video Games Nebula 