Why I Love Video Games

Right now, I'm working on my senior capstone project. It is an ambitious project that deals with video games and how they can be used in an academic setting. Basically, I am an English major that is compiling all the skills I have learned in that subject to the subject of gaming. I have never really gotten this involved or excited about anything I've done for school before. I am (dare I say it?) enjoying myself.

I love the research I'm finding on this topic because it's such a new and exciting field of study. I also absolutely love that I am given the chance to write about this subject. I think a lot of other schools or professors would turn away from the idea of taking video games seriously, so I feel pretty lucky that I get to write about something that has always just been a hobby to me. I'll be excited if I can infect someone with a love a gaming or even just pique their interest. I don't like the way video games are portrayed in mainstream media as wastes of time or (at the very worst) some sort of evil that is corrupting our youth. It's an old-fashioned notion that I'd like to see put aside. If we can see video games for their artistic value, we can start to encourage video game developers to focus more on character, narrative, and setting instead of sex and violence.



Assassin's Creed III recently came out, and I just finished it. It is a perfect example of the kind of game that I'd like to see become standard in the industry. Yes, there is violence, but it is violence with a purpose. The violence is used to encourage and drive the narrative. The story that is told is the main focus, and boy is it a good story. One of the things that makes this game so unique is that the main character is half Native American. The people who developed the game made a conscious effort to portray the main character in the most authentic way possible. It has actual Native American voice actors, many scenes entirely done in a Native American language, and realistic portrayals of Native American traditions and cultural values. In addition, the video game is set during the American Revolution, and allows the player to experience history from an entirely new perspective: from a Native American point of view. It's not a view that is traditionally going to be taught in school or in history books, and it makes for a very compelling story.


Video games combine all the things I love about books (a lengthy story with fully-developed and intriguing characters) and movies (a visual medium with added sound effects and music) with their own unique characteristics. You don't get the opportunity in a book or a movie to make choices that effect the outcome of the story. You don't get to actually be the characters in books and movies. I recently got Kinect with my Xbox 360 which allows you to play a game without a controller using only your hand and body motions to control your character. I got a game called Fable: The Journey with the Kinect, and it is the closest I will ever come to actually doing magic. The main character holds two different types of magic in his two different hands. To cast a spell, you reach out whatever hand you want to use toward whichever way your target is and the game reacts to your motions. It's a pretty amazing and empowering feeling, and makes for a much more authentic gaming experience.

The Kinect is the latest in a series of new technologies for games that are pushing the limits of reality. I can't wait to see what comes out next, and I predict that in just a few short years, the line between virtual reality and actual reality is going to be tested.

The Most Facial Hair You'll Ever See In a Movie Ever

I went to see Lincoln this weekend and was completely distracted by the amount of men with facial hair. I would say that about 75% of the faces shown during the movie were covered in hair. And it wasn't even just your standard beard or mustache here and there. These were works of art. Twisted up handle bar mustaches, mutton chops growing out of the sides of faces, and beards down to chests. It was very distracting.

Apart from the astounding show of support for No-Shave November, the movie itself was mediocre. It was about what you would expect from Steven Spielberg, and I'm sure it will be part of the Oscar discussion. Daniel Day-Lewis was absolutely perfect for the role. However, there was something lacking. I'm not sure I can even put my finger on it. I like my movies to be unique in some way, and this one was very much your standard Hollywood drama with lingering, back-lit shots of Lincoln in silhouette and poignant, emotionally-charged speeches. It was unnecessarily long, and this comes from someone who is no stranger to long movies. The friend that I saw it with made the comment that there were too many times where the audience was keenly aware of the camera and that a good movie should not draw attention to itself in that way.

The movie also took a painful time in our American history, one that was full of hatred and ignorance, and distilled it into the inspirational journey of a savior. There were moments in the movie where we caught a glimpse of the horrible racism that fueled the hate of that time period, times where you shook your head and wanted to cry for our national past, but I felt like everything was glorified. Those moments were only there to appeal to the ethos of the audience. They felt cheap. We were given the easy version of history in which we heard of the cruelties in passing but were not given the entire picture lest it be too much to handle. For me, the film seemed to play down the inhumanity of that time in favor of portraying the power struggles of old white men. In the end, I was left wondering why I was rooting for the winners. Was I rooting for them because they were putting an end to the immoral practice of slavery? Or was I rooting for them simply because they were the good guys and that's what I was supposed to do? The complexities of that time period were so vast, and the movie didn't seem to touch on them.

What happens to our childhood dreams?

What did you want to be when you grew up? A firefighter? An astronaut? A teacher? All very good choices. But nothing compared to the swinging lady...

When I was much younger (maybe about 7 years old) we went on a little road trip to Texas. In Dallas, there used to be a restaurant my parents would go to called "The Old San Francisco Steakhouse." This time we visited, my parents decided it would be fun to take me. I can't tell you anything about what the restaurant looked like or how the food was or how nice the waitress was. All I can remember was the swinging lady.

In the restaurant they had a big, long, old-fashioned wooden bar. Part of the novelty was that every night a woman dressed in a red dress, fishnet stockings, and a feather boa would come out, climb on a velvet swing and start swinging as high as she could possibly go. She would swing up and up and up until you couldn't imagine her going any higher. Encouraged by the crowd, though, she would go aaaaaaall the way up to the ceiling and ring a tiny bell with her outstretched leg. Then she would twist around and ring the bell on the ceiling of the other end of the bar. It was quite a show, and my seven-year-old self was completely enamored by the whole thing.

To end the night, the swinging lady would pull up a set of black velvet stairs and ask for volunteers to try it out. My hand shot straight into the air. I ran up to the bar, she helped me up onto the pillow-y swing, and I swung as high as my little stubby legs would take me. My moment of glory was over all too soon. I got a pat on the head and a souvenir refrigerator magnet to take home.

By the time I got home, I had convinced myself that I wanted to be the swinging lady when I grew up. I can't tell you how many hours I spent on the swing in our backyard practicing. I would swing as high as I could go and pretend the branch of a tree was the bell on the ceiling.

We went back to Dallas when I was about 15 and decided to try to find the San Francisco Steakhouse for old time's sake. However, as we drove up to where it used to be, we discovered that it had been replaced....by a "gentleman's bar." Any hope of my becoming the swinging lady was crushed.

What I Wish My Education Was Like

I recently read an article from The New York Times that does a sufficient job of summing up my educational experience. Basically, I got As in all my classes and didn't learn anything. Okay...that's probably not fair. I learned how to take a multiple choice test. I learned about SparkNotes. I learned how to do the least amount of work possible for the grade I wanted. In essence, I learned how to work the system.

Every once in a while, a bright spark of a teacher would challenge me and push me to actually learn the material. However, I can count those teachers on one hand. I don't want to blame teachers, though. The problem with the education system is bigger than teachers, bigger than administrators, and bigger than students. And quite honestly, I don't have a solution. Learning is such an individual experience that when you attempt to create a program that fits every student, it ends up not fitting any student. I stopped thinking about how we could reform the entire education system and started thinking about what kind of education I personally wanted.

When I started college, I was struck with the thought that my education is getting in the way of my education. The classes were somewhat helpful and the instructors often imparted a sliver of their vast knowledge to me, but there is so much about school that is such a waste. I realized that I was learning more things on my own outside of school than I was in my classes. I thought of all the time I spent in class and working on things for class and wondered what I would know if I had just been given that time to study what I wanted. I think I'm a pretty intellectually curious individual and if you just gave me a library and a dedicated time for study, I would be able to learn so much more than from a traditional education. I would learn things that truly interested me, and that seems like it would be of so much more value to me. I wouldn't need to sit through the same lecture about Realism in American literature or write the same paper analyzing a text from a certain critical perspective. I could pursue things that interested me. If one week I wanted to read Charles Dickens' novels and the next week I wanted to study astronomy, nothing could stop me. Professors would be there to guide me and help me, but they wouldn't assign things and dictate my learning. I would go where my intellectual curiosity led me.

Obviously, this kind of education is not feasible on the largest scale, and it wouldn't be right for every student. It's what I imagine would be the perfect thing for me. I'm about to graduate, though, so I will play the game for a few more weeks. After that, I will be free to do what I please with my time, and I intend to take advantage of that. I've got a stack of books a mile high in my room waiting patiently for me and a list of subjects I want to know more about. At the end of my education, my education is just beginning.