YouTube Fun

A few days ago, I was outside with my wife and son, chatting with one of our neighbors. My son, Sean, tends to keep to himself when he plays. He often draws on his imagination when he plays, thinking about the latest game he’s been playing. I saw Sean with one of his play swords attacking a bush. Of course, being the long time gamer that I am, I think of the Legend of Zelda series. For some reason, Link can go around towns and fields attacking bushes with his sword and find rupees in order to buy his empty bottles, bombs, arrows, and so on. So, as Sean goes to town against this bush, I can’t help but think about the Legend of Zelda. Using my iPhone 4, I record Sean attacking the bush, thinking that I can take some sounds and sprites from the games and place them on the video. With some quick work in Final Cut Pro, I got this as a final result. I hope you enjoy it!

World of Warcraft vs. The Real World

There has been a lot of controversy lately concerning Blizzard's announcement of Facebook integration into their Battle.net system, called Real ID. Apparently, people don't want their real names associated with their World of Warcraft/Starcraft II/Diablo III avatars. It makes sense to me because people tend to play games to escape the pains and the trials of the real world. One person's post about why WoW (and pretty much all MMO's) should remain anonymous pretty much sums up all reasons everyone makes in the 2500+ pages of posts in the official Blizzard forums.

However, I'm not writing about the controversy. Enough people have done that for me. What I'm talking about today is the issues presented in Nattie's post. I'm pretty disturbed at the thought that the collective community of gamers can act in the way described. I mean, the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory makes perfect sense, but I would like to think that the majority of gamers are actually good natured people. Unfortunately, anonymity brings out the true nature of most people...

When we went to PAX East, I was so happy because I felt like I was in a place that I "belonged". I joined together with a group of people who were JUST LIKE ME! Nearly every single person there was genuinely nice and well-mannered people. When the gamer crowd was united together, we could be ourselves. At least, I felt that we were being ourselves. Unfortunately, hearing about the racism and stalkers and harassment of females slapped that apparently unrealistic view of our community that I had!

Now, I'm not a WoW player. I have never played the game. I don't see the fun in grinding for levels and loot. I imagine that it is a lot like Diablo II. The game was fun at first, but then it became a continuous loop of Fight Bad Guys/Heal/Fight More Bad Guys/Grab Loot/Heal/Fight Even More Bad Guys/Town Portal/Sell Loot/Upgrade Weapons and Such/Repeat. I got kind of tired of it. Now add other people into the mix. Blizzard tried to do this in Diablo II in small groups with Battle.net. I never did that either. I guess it's because I prefer to play games on my own. I've never been a cooperative game player. Does WoW have a lot of players who are from the mainstream community? Are the the type of people who go to conventions like PAX more of the extroverted personality? Is this why I had such a "rose-colored lens" image of the gamer community?

Will you every stop playing video games?

While watching the latest installment of PATV, Mike and Jerry were asked the question "Do you think you'll ever stop playing video games?"  I was taken aback by the thought.  I've been "playing video games" since I was 8 years old and my Dad bought us the original NES.  I was never an arcade fan, until I met my husband, so home consoles were the beginning for me.  The first Super Mario Bros,
Duck Hunt, BurgerTime, and the Legend of Zelda were the baptismal waters for my lifelong interest.   I remember being taken on exciting trips to the Video Rental store (BEFORE BLOCKBUSTER BECAME A HOUSEHOLD NAME, can you believe it?), and I believe that the shop was called "PLACER VIDEO STORE".  And my brother and I would peruse the offerings.  Of course when I became aware of BOYS, video games became a latent interest, carried by my younger brothers as they purchased each new Nintendo Console as it came out. 
Then in high school I met a boy who's PRIMARY interest was video games and that altered my life forever.  He was immediately welcomed into my family of video gamers, as all three brothers were raised on them.  And I think Jeff would tell you that in the hours that he'd play sitting on the floor of my living room he found acceptance and a place that he belonged.  Because in the world I grew up in there were no restrictions on how long or when you could play.  We played Final Fantasy III for the SNES together.  That was our first game.  I went off to college and immediately found friends who played video games and HOURS were spent playing fighters and watching friends complete RPGs.
I married Jeff and he introduced me to the world of arcade rhythm games.  DanceDanceRevolution practically raised our children for a a few years.  And there were always the RPGs.  As the kids grew older our game playing time was restricted to "After bedtime" or to "kid-friendly" games.  And now the kids get a lot of say in what games we play.  Games like Super Mario Galaxy 2 are more for THEM then they are for us, but we enjoy them just as much, if not more.  Knowing WHERE Mario has come from gives the games a special flavor. 
But to answer the question, "Will I ever stop playing video games?"  No.  I doubt there will ever come a time that video games as an entertainment media will ever stop appealing to me.  Especially as the  media continues to change.  Now I use it as a fitness tool and an education tool for my children as well as entertainment.  I will continue to be there as video games evolve.  And I will enjoy every minute of it.