Games Games Games

I grew up with video games. I love video games. One of the ideas on my list of possible careers I could get into has always been character designing for video games and concept art for video games.

I certainly played them a lot more when I was younger, and if I had more time I'd probably play more of them now. But as my life got busier my video game playing diminished. However I still return to them when I have time or I need a distraction. And when new games come out I may indulge in buying one. My favorite game of all time is Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, I've always been a huge Sonic fan, and SA2 was one of my first games. To this day I still play it now and then, and now that I'm older I can truly appreciate the design and extra goodies that were all packed into it.

I do think a lot of people play unhealthy amounts of video games, and get way too involved. Have you SEEN videos of how absolutely enraged and upset people get over video games? Over something as simple as their World of Warcraft password not working anymore? Over other players causing them to lose the battle? It's unhealthy, it's insane, it's ridiculous.

You could look up video after video about people getting dramatically upset over video games. People even get into make believe relationships and lust after characters from video games, even buying merchandise that's been made for sexual situations of the character.

Even online 3D chat communities (which isn't exactly a video game but still that visual imaginary indulging) people get all enthralled with each other's avatars and get into relationships fascinated by the other's avatar, which more often than not is never an honest perception of how the person really looks IRL. And they never meet, they just meet on the 3D chat program and hang out for hours on end watching their avatars make out or role playing with each other.

And kind of tying video games back into the whole feminist argument is the issue of how women are treated in the gaming industry, and how they're portrayed in games. Women are put into armor that is sexually pleasing to the eye, armor that would never protect them in real life, armor that is not designed for functionality, but designed to look sexy.

In the recently released Hyrule Warriors, men were complaining early on about how there were too many female characters and not enough men. Men in the video gaming community can be some of the most sexist harassers you'll meet. Hurling dehumanizing insults at girls playing online, saying they should show their boobs, making fun of their inability to play because they're girls, etc.

I think video games should be thought of as an art form to a degree. Indie games are some of the most inventive and entertaining games out there. I don't usually enjoy the mainstream games, if I do they're the less heard of mainstreams. I've never found Call of Duty or any of it's likeness and other FPS games to be fun at all, but that's my personal opinion.

Everyone loves different types of games, I prefer action adventure games, I don't enjoy FPSs or Street Fighter-type fighting games (with the exception of Super Smash Brothers) I don't enjoy most RPGs or online gaming. By the definition of the gaming community, I would probably be labeled as a "fake" gamer or maybe less than moderate. 

If I had more money and more time, I would love to buy proper gaming equipment, I would love to buy indie and mainstream games, I would love to play all kinds of video games and really indulge in the video gaming community. Heck, I've always wanted to be a video game reviewer, but I don't have anywhere near the money or time to do it. So I can only watch Youtube gamers like Markiplier and dream.