|
|
[img width=550 height=760]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-132/bf/U-132-S-05320-A.jpg[/img]
From the beginning, the conceptual design behind many if not the majority of video games involves some form of simulation. The original sports game of Tennis for Two and Pong led to our annual Madden and FIFA releases, each reflecting some abstract interpretation of an "IRL" game. It is this facet of virtual gameplay that brought some critics to declare games like Battlezone and Death Race as kid-targeted military training and violent "murder simulators" long before yellow-pajama-wearing ninjas were permanently curing back pain exclusively on Sega consoles.
Continue reading Simulating Simulations
[img width=550 height=690]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-016/bf/U-016-S-05640-A.jpg[/img]
This game taught me far more than urban planning.
When I first played Sim City, I wasn't much older than my first-born is now. I was an even more genre-blind gamer back then, playing anything I came across. The concept of a city-builder wasn't the most immediately appealing game concept to my pre-teen mind. Still, I'd already played through text-based adventures, CRPGs, dungeon-crawlers, and other complex time sinks, so it wasn't an intimidating idea. It was a video game and therefore by definition I'd give it a shot.
I will always remember it as the game that taught me a self-awareness of my addictive personality.
Continue reading Discussing Respective Gaming Philosophies With My Eleven Year Old
[img width=700 height=505]https://advancehappynewyear2017.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/advance-happy-new-year-pics-2017.jpg[/img]
Pic from advancehappynewyear2017.com
For many of us, to say the year 2016 has been difficult would be an understatement on par with mentioning the N-Gage never quite surpassed the Game Boy Advance. It seems everyone I know had a tough year for several reasons, and I spent quite a bit of it with family members in hospitals or medical appointments. Many good things happened, but it seemed every week the idea of a return to some 'normal' got pushed further and further out. I think I see some disadvantages to this whole 'being the adult' thing that never got spelled out alongside the whole cookies-and-bedtime-whenever-I-want setup. Or maybe it was spelled out and I was too busy drawing plans for my future home, complete with helipad and shopping mall in the backyard. (Was I the only kid who drew that up?)
Oh, and I guess some famous family is moving out of a nice house near Virginia and the new family moving in is making the neighbors nervous or something? We live in a strange country. And it's not even Canada! (Although I hear they have some nifty retro-stocked video game stores up there.) And apparently some Brexfast thing happened and now importing games is all confusing and/or tasty? Crazy world.
Most folks on this site likely play games to unwind, unless you play games to get mad, in which case I recommend Carrier Command for Xbox 360. For the rest of us, it's good to have our go-to games for decompression.* You know what I mean; those games you aren't necessarily playing to complete, but rather to mentally unfurl and let the stresses of the day process somewhere in the back of your mind.
Continue reading On Video Games as a Processing Tool During Tough Times
|
|
|
This is slackur's Blog.
View Profile | RSS  |
Thoughts on video games, gaming culture, concepts intertwining interactive media, my attempts at sounding intelligent, and other First World Problems.
Please don't leave a message, but a conversation. ;) |
|
Blog Navigation
Browse Bloggers | My Blog
|
|
Hot Entries
|
|
Hot Community Entries
| |
|
