I've been many things in my life. An athlete, a writer, an employee. But before all of those and more, I was... a video game nerd. That's right ladies and gentleman. Your favorite Editor-in-Chief of The Odyssey at THE Ohio State University is a massive video game nerd.
It all started when I was but a wee lad at the age of 3. I had a GameBoy Color, with Pokemon Blue, Red, and Yellow. I chose Squirtle as my starting Pokemon, and grew up with one of the biggest franchises in the video game industry. Not only did I play the games, I watched the shows, played the trading card game, and more. In the year 2000, with the second generation of Pokemon out, I saw the movie in theaters with my friends. There was even a play, and you bet your butt I saw that play. Hell, my junior year of high school, when Pokemon Black and White came out, I stayed home for two days and played it for almost 40 hours straight (I would say 'sorry mom,' but she knows me too well).
I had the GameBoy Color, Advance, DS, DS Lite, and now I even have a 3DS. I had an N64, GameCube, Wii. An Xbox, Xbox 360, and an Xbox One. A PS2 and a PS4, and even a PSP. What I'm getting at here is that...I love video games.
You might ask, "why, Dan? Why do you love video games so much?"
Why do I love video games? Why do people like to read books, or write stories, or binge watch Netflix? It presents a story, but only that you can interact with it. And as a 21-year old, I've grown up with some of these stories. Pokemon, Kingdom Hearts, Halo, Fallout, Elder Scrolls. These titles, to me, invoke a feeling deep within my soul. In my darkest of times, I can find comfort in something that's fun, interactive, and for the most part, delivers a great message.
*disk skip* A great message? What do you mean?
I mean that a lot of video games, like movies/TV shows, books, have a moral to the story. Pokemon is all about how you can persevere through any challenge with the help of your friends. Kingdom Hearts displays how all of us, deep down in our heart of hearts, have good inside. Halo taught me that one man with a "Failure is not an option attitude' can conquer an army. Obviously my mother had a majority part in raising me well, but video games like these certainly rubbed off on me as well.
A lot of people cast video games aside as lame, or chalk them up as violent and aggressive. Yes, a lot are, but kids shouldn't be playing those games. It's really up to parents to censor that. My first M-rated game was Drakengard, one of the goriest games of the era. I was around 13, but I begged my mom. She let me play it not because she gave in, but because she knew I was mature enough to handle fake-looking, digitized blood and not want to go around hitting people. Like I said, up to parents.
Continuing, a lot of video games have meanings and morals to the story that really make you think. Many these days present you with options on how to play the game: in-game choices that effect the route your game goes and your character's development (and indirectly, your development).
In a growing industry, video games are more popular than ever. With the newest generation of consoles out for a few years, there are some blockbuster games (like Fallout 4, Battlefront, etc) either out now or coming out soon that will be a hallmark for this generation's games. This market is only going to continue to grow. Do you play Candy Crush on your phone? Congrats, you're a gamer. More people are today than you'd think.
So next time someone you know is talking about a video game, ask them about it. Ask them about their history with games. Try some out for yourself. It's more fun than you'd think it is.
