• 10Apr 13

  Why video games are important.

  Video games have been around for over 40 years, whether it be small blips on a screen, or two paddles exchanging returns with a single dot, video games have always been specifically about one thing... entertainment.

  I am preaching to the choir on an epic level by adding that, but entertainment is not always the core quality of a video game anymore. There was a time when video games were sheerly meant for keeping the kids happy, or giving people something to do with their spare time, nothing more... pure entertainment, like a game of Tennis.

  When playing Tennis, in most cases there is nothing emotional about it, maybe there is the anger that is created from defeat, or the "joy" that is created from victory in a match... but overall, playing a game of Tennis, basketball, football, etc. is purely for the sake of both sport and enjoyment. 

  Then there is the film industry. They have been the main-storytellers for a long time now, but that is starting to change. It wasn't all that long ago that you had to read a book to get any kind of impacting story, rather than watch television or play a game. Once the film industry rose up to the top, they became the main entertainers, and the television industry along with it. People were making movies about books, and books about movies... games were nowhere in the mix. Back then, I'm sure making a game meaningful, was like trying to morph Baseball into Shakespeare. 

  If you really want to go back a ways, music was one of the most common forms of storytelling besides literature, writing operas involved a lot of storytelling, and there are entire stories that have been taken from operas and vice versa. 

  In this new age and era, video games are not always created for "entertainment purposes". Writers can communicate to us through these interactive experiences in a way that no other form of entertainment can. We can literally feel what the character feels, because do a degree we are the character... It makes us a point of interest, makes us the one affecting and being affected by things. 

  Although there are still games that are only meant to entertain, there are also so much more video games that try to make contact with us, hit us in places we never thought possible, make us feel things that most films cannot, because we are not there, we are not literally IN the action.

  Many people face hardships throughout life, and the workplace can be rather special. The average Joe/Jane will definitely begin to feel very unimportant after working in a habitat where no one is particularly "special". A lot of people just work their hours to pay the bills, and live their lives without the slightest feeling of importantance. I mean, if you work in a small cubicle for 8-10 hours a day, and pass away prematurely, you'll just be replaced. Sure you may have family members that'll mourn, but overall - unless you're someone famous - the odds are you're just another face in the crowd, slowly trudging through life, just trying to make it by.

  That is where video games come in. When played responsibly, they can really make us feel like an important part of the world we are in. We are not usually "just another unit" or "another face"... games usually put us in a position of great importance. We can be the biggest and greatest, and the most wanted to our enemies. We can be cared for, and protected, but also endangered by the many enemies that have an unwavering desire to destroy us, to prevent us from accomplishing what only WE can accomplish.

  Maybe we can think of games such as Fallout or Skyrim... we are placed in a world that we alone can bend, we can shape the societies and lives of the people throughout the lands.. Maybe we are more interested in games such as Call of Duty and Battlefield, fighting for a cause, outsmarting the enemy, one battle at a time, or maybe even games like Heavy Rain or Red Dead Redemption, where we are very human and mortal, fragile and stoppable, but it is something like family that pushes us on to fight the next fight. We are responsible for the people who are in danger, and we will stop at nothing until they are safe. 

  The odds are, most of us will never end up in situations such as these, which is actually a good thing, but living these experiences virtually, lets us experience what we would otherwise never experience. Extreme dangers, exhilirating adventures, and thrilling suspenses plunge us into other worlds. Worlds we would have created as children playing outside, or perhaps worlds as adults that we would have wrote about.

  Claiming responsibilites, being given immense power, and becoming the person of interest... All the unlikely things instantaneously become possible with the gaming industry. We do not witness a storyline unfold, we are there when it unfolds.. we are what unfolds. 

  Its a very special kind of storytelling that cannot be done any other way, and it is a way for us to feel important and/ or independent in all the things we do. 

  In my childhood, and in the present... I enjoy video games because they let me experience new things, see new sights, explore new worlds, fight new battles, and discover new purposes. Sure it may seem a bit crude - the way we control everything with a controller (In most cases) and power up a system to get things started - but behind the controls and puppetstrings is an infinite amount of new realities for us to dive into. 

  That is why I think video games are and can be an important part of society, not because of the fact that they're entertaining (which they are) but because of the fact that they make us important, even when we feel unimportant.

  Thank you for reading this, and any feedback or responses of anykind would be appreciated.

  Long live the Fusers.

  -ARBALON

   

  • Posted Apr 10, 2013 6:45 pm GMT
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• 25Jan 13

  M for Maturity.

  I'm sure nearly everyone is aware of the claims that politicians from Connecticut, California, etc have been making, I've spent time reading comments that you the fusers have been posting on what would appear to be articles of "absolutely outrageous behaviour" from our leaders.

  I am sure these claims will not end today, there will be many more to come, just like there were many in the past when it came to Television and Games. The politicians began by opposing mature and violent games, now some of them appear to oppose the gaming community. This is rather unfortunate, and raises a lot of questions. What kind of people do they think we are? Do they think we just allow our kids to play Mature games? Who are they to judge? Isn't this the land of the free?

  All of those questions would be valid, video games have caused problems before.

  A few years ago a guy was so addicted to Halo 3, that when his parents took it away from him for his own good, he killed his mother and wounded his father with a gun, he now faces life in prison. Years before that, a kid was addicted to TrueCrime, played it for a long time, then after a long while.. he snapped, tried to kill some policemen who ultimately shot him down.

  But.. these are not evidence enough to prove that games make us all dangerous. Sure there is the irritation of losing, sometimes people do fight over games. I knew a kid that would get in fist fights with his sister over losing or winning Soul Calibur II.

  Games have ratings for a reason though, and there are plenty of parents that barely even have an awareness of the kind of games their children play. Of course there are plenty who do as well. There is a reason that there are games rated E for Everyone, maybe these seem "Lame" or "Boring" to some, but if its the only kind of games your kids know, then they're great to them.

  We want our kids to have fun, and enjoy themselves, that is the purpose of most games.. some are more artistic, some are for the experience, some are for a story.. but in the end it is a passtime, and it is something that we enjoy.

  It would be unintelligent for them to claim that Paintball and Airsoft was something causing violence, let alone virtual reality. Now there are some very VERY brutal games out there, some of us enjoy them, some of us don't, that is just how being in a gaming community works.. We all have our own preferences.

  Ever since we were kids... before we even were fans of video games.. Think back to a time where you did not play many video games (if any).. In most cases when you put some boys in a schoolyard, or out in the backyard, or let them play outside.. The stick they find becomes a club, or a gun. For girls, hey, maybe they did that sometimes.. I was used to the girls thinking we were idiots hitting each other with sticks, they're smarter than that. But in the end, my point is, Violence has unfortunately, always made it's way into this world, far before digital entertainment, far before television...

  They are right to a degree... there weren't mass murders at elementary school in the olden days.. there was just World Wars.

  It is alright for us to be upset, with politicians assuming that we are irresponsible people who are angered easily, and are potentially hostile.. That we have no business having an opinion about violent video games because we play them, if anything that SHOULD give us an opinion, and prevent them from having one.

  The odds are that the pictures of them holding games such as Red Dead Redemption/Assassin's Creed II/and GTA IV are pictures of the first time they've ever even laid hands on these games. They have a newer found obsession with getting rid of these things, because they have been condemned by the NRA, who they don't usually agree with anyways.

  It is something to blame... a way of revenge for the deaths of those innocent, beautiful children. Those children deserve justice, not vengeance. Further tainting our constitutional rights to prevent future violence will not be a fruitful course of action.

  Enough blood has been spilled without video game violence... We are people who decide what WE wish to do, with the things WE have been given... We will decide what our children play, not the government. We will decide what we purchase, not the government.. and We the people will decide what we know to be right and wrong.. We are not incompetent, We have a voice.

  So do not be angered over the things that these politicians say, we are better than that.. Do not give them the satisfaction of a severe reaction to these false claims.

  The only thing we SHOULD do.. is just think twice about what we let our children play. Live on, and be respectful, and mature about it.. If we are going to play games that are rated M for Mature.. then that is what we should be... M... For mature.

  Thank you for reading.. You all have a fine day.

  • Posted Jan 25, 2013 7:09 pm GMT
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• 17Jan 13

  Unseduced.

  I will not write much into this Blog except for this..

  Over the course of the last few days a game known has "Seduce Me" has went up the ladder (to 2nd place even) in the top ten games.. I'm sure most of you are aware of this.. my only question, is how?

  Until a few days ago, I didn't know this game existed, it just came out of nowhere without warning, Fuse is suggesting it as a game I follow, advertises it as "what's hot" and ultimately has it in 3rd place today in the top ten games.

  All I know, is I hope there is some news coming soon that will explain this phenomenon, because for a game this random to come up above Far Cry 3 and Halo 4, etc. THERE BETTER BE A REASON.

  I'M NOT TURNED ON!

  How about you? What do you think? haha

  • Posted Jan 17, 2013 10:58 am GMT
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