Greetings, fellow readers! This post is about a different medium than I usually write about, but one that has been especially relevant in my life recently: video games.
Aside from a Chronicles of Narnia video game I played on GameBoy Advance when I was a kid, I've never been a big fan of video games, mostly because I find them boring. Without an engaging story line to keep my attention, I get sick of using the same old attack combos over and over. I also really suck at traditional racing/fighting games, which comprised a significant portion of the games I had access to as a kid. Unsurprisingly, because I didn't like them, I rarely played them, and so I never got any better at them.
It's also not that much fun playing those kinds of games by yourself. It's one thing if you're the main character in a point-and-click adventure, or if you can interact with well-developed NPC's within the game (as I could in Chronicles of Narnia), but when playing a competitive game, there's little to no motivation for me to improve if I'm only playing against the computer.
Since coming to college, however, I've had more opportunities to experience the social aspects of gaming. It started my freshman year, when I lived on the "Nintendo 64 Floor" of the Honors dorm. Our walls were decorated with the pipes, plants, and coins of Mario's world, and we had an old N-64 with classic games like Super Smash Bros in the common area. For me, playing against other humans made the game much more enjoyable, and talking with more experienced players made me a stronger competitor, especially when it comes to swallowing people and pooping them out as eggs (ahem, Yoshi).
Later on in my freshman year, I got into playing Brawl with a group of friends and discovered the fun of range weapons (Link and the Arrows of Justice forever!) and heavyweights who could throw their opponents to the ground.
More recently, I played Call of Duty: Black Ops for the first time, and aside from the really creepy music, I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected. I played this with my friend Jordan. She's really good at knifing zombies, which is lucky for me because as I said, I am more of a range weapons person. I am also really good at problem solving within the video game environment . . . must have been all those Nancy Drew point-and-click games I played as a kid! Together, we made a really kickass team: we built a generator to power the train station door, exploded zombies with balls of fire, and managed to hold a farmhouse for more rounds than we knew we were capable of.
Another game I've gotten addicted to recently is Spellfall, which I downloaded onto my phone. It's a tile-matching puzzle game in the tradition of Candy Crush, but what I like about it is that there's also a story line and a significant amount of strategy involved. I play as a character with magical powers (they're called Dustwalkers in the game) and depending on how I match the tiles, I can cast additional spells to defeat monsters. There are also runes, which act like power-ups to restore health or perform special attacks, in the game, as well as different weapons and armor, which you can tailor towards which type of monster you're fighting. My favorite now is an electric claideamh, which is basically a magically electrified version of the
Scottish claymore sword, very good for slaying water monsters.
I've gotten really into this game, not only because it's fun and diverting, but also because it gives me a chance to feel like a heroic warrior. It's the same feeling I get when I read a really good book and I identify with the protagonist: I live vicariously through them, and I learn things about myself.
For example, there have been times within the game when I'm fighting monsters with limited resources. I go into the battle expecting to lose, but still trying because I know I will collect experience points no matter what the outcome.
That's a lot like life, if you think about it. Things don't always work out the way we plan, and sometimes, we do things that we know are going to fail anyway. Or, we really expect something to succeed, but in spite of our best efforts, it's a flop. The important thing is to keep those disappointments in perspective and remember that although we may feel hurt or sad, we also gain valuable experience points from having lived through it. So what are we, as gamers and as fellow human beings, to do about this?
My philosophy, as told by video games, is this: nothing ventured, nothing gained. You haven't really lived if you haven't experienced the bad as well as the good things in life. When in doubt, be daring and go for the experience points. You never know, you just might win, and even if you don't, you might discover something else along the way.
That's all I have for now. Stay classy, you guys!
Until next time,
Anna
