I don't really know how much of this class will translate into the rest of my life. In all honesty, drag and drop programming was not what I entered this class to learn, and, in reality, that's the only skill I'm leaving with. I have always had an interest in programming and I hope that will continue, but after taking this course I can't see myself developing video games in the future. No, it's not just because everything we used this year was either drag and drop or held our hands. I just don't see the appeal of spending the rest of my life working to please a demographic of teenage boys. Until something changes in the gaming industry to make that demographic a thing of the past, I simply cannot justify entering the field. That's not to say that I will stop playing games myself. I will always have an autistic brother with a knack for them, and playing them will never cease to be part of my life. I don't know what role they'll take in my future, but at least I'll always have this basic knowledge of a glitchy programming software to fall back on.
0 Comments
I do not have a favorite first-person shooter game. I just don't see the appeal of a first person shooter. They're kinda like those cheesy first-person horror movies that are of such poor quality that no one actually pays to watch them and they become available on YouTube two days after their theater release. It's not fun to me to just run around shooting things in a virtual world. If I wanted to be randomly violent, I would just go outside and throw my axe, provided it was not winter. Honestly, because of the way these games are set up, they become predictable and kind of annoying in a sense. Thus, I have no favorite first person shooter game, and almost nothing you can say will change my mind.
When the Wii first came out, it was the cool thing to own. I can remember being in elementary school and hearing kids screaming about the latest games and updates. Frankly, it was kind of annoying. The Wii was everywhere, from commercials during children's shows to advertisements in my mom's cooking magazines. When my brother turned seventeen in the March following the release of the system, we purchased one. We played it nonstop for a while, but then I got older. When I was seven or eight, the simplistic, monotone games were pretty entertaining. By the time I hit nine or ten, I was on to the strategy and complexities of the PlayStation 3, which my brother received from my grandparents when he graduated high school. I think that was why Wii sales never quite maintained their dominating status: they never evolved. I own about eight different versions of Wii bowling and two editions of Mario Kart, and those same types of games were presented for the system over and over again. Eventually, with the monotonous manner of play-ability, people stopped being entranced by the system and moved on to the newer experiences brought on by the PlayStation 3 or XBox 360, and have moved even further from the Wii with the release of the PlayStation 4 and XBox One. The refusal of Nintendo to make the leaps and bounds of other companies killed their product, and it can be seen more recently with their rapid decline with the DS portable system. If Nintendo doesn't learn to adapt with the times, I fear it's products will be lost to the public entirely.
Game Informer released a list of known games to be released in 2016, which is viewable here. Now, the image above is from a game that is due to be released at some point during the year called "Assault Android Cactus". Upon reading the title on the list, I was going to use the name satirically to point out how people will market will market anything they could possibly come up with, but then I looked a little further into the game. It's a second-person shooting game featuring eight playable characters, all named after different plants. I'm a plant science student and also a huge geek, so this might be the best thing I've seen all day, and not just because it's 7:30 in the morning. The graphics seem very animated in nature, which makes the concept of a plant-themed shooting game even more exciting. Other games on this list, perhaps, contain the same appeal for other people. I know this game seems a little out there, but I think it's so cool and absurd enough to be addictive, certainly playable. Shout out to Witch Beam Games in Australia for developing this colorful array of characters and their surroundings.
Final Fantasy VII will always be one of my favorite games. Yes, there have been more Final Fantasy games made since the release of number seven but this one has by far the best story. That places it far above any of the newer games with newer graphics. However, there is one catch. I will only play the original version of the game. A newer version was released with "better" graphics years after the original, which I think degrades the original game. You wouldn't take an original arcade Pac Man and update the graphics, and this is the same premise, essentially. Play the game, that's all I'm going to tell you because I don't want to ruin it.
Over break I played several board games because having ten people living in one house only leaves so many possible options to entertain said people. Monopoly, however, certainly lasted the longest. We started at approximately six o'clock and the game lasted until two the next morning. My mom had to make me bankrupt myself so that I could go to bed at a reasonable hour. Seven of us played, excluding the eleven and eight year old because they would not sit still long enough, and the eighteen year old because she never came home. My father ended up winning, which greatly upset my uncle, but he'll get over it. My mother was the first one out, having owned only Pennsylvania Railroad and Illinois Avenue the entire game. I almost wish we hadn't played because now all these rivalries are in place and there's going to be a rematch Sunday and there is only so much Monopoly a person can take before they get really bitter. Thus, Monopoly ran the last night of my winter break and potentially all the Sundays at my house in 2016.
Okay, Wii bowling. Now maybe I'm being a mega-dork again, but who doesn't secretly love Wii bowling? It isn't very difficult, and you can teach little children and old people to play quite easily, which makes it fun for the whole family. No, this is not a marketing pitch. I'm just saying, while I prefer playing sports outside, Wii bowling is something I have come to enjoy. I can't take my 80 year old grandfather out to actually bowl, it doesn't work like that. Because of this game, he has yet to notice that he can't lift a bowling ball and I think that's fantastic. It actually simulates the real life excitement of bowling, which is cool, if anyone else actually finds bowling exciting. Plus, isn't it wonderful to finally destroy that annoying cousin of yours virtually in your grandfather's living room? That's what I thought.
Okay, before you start laughing at me like the kid that sits next to me did, hear me out. Last year, whenever it would snow, my best friend and I would sit on her floor with her giant dog sprawled out on the both of us, and play this game. It was really fun, even if it wasn't 100% because of the game. Even though one level took a while, there were mini-levels and quests that could be completed quite quickly. Plus, I'm a total geek, and Marvel comic books helped to spawn that, as did Legos. Maybe it's overly-sentimental, but every time I see this game, I can't help but want to play. There's something oddly satisfying about sitting on a floor drinking chocolate milk and battling Loki. Don't ask me why, I really don't understand it myself, but this is my favorite action game and I'm sticking by it.
I don't really have time for video games. However, a couple years back, I was absolutely obsessed with online chess. This obsession was mostly based on skill and a good friend of mine who was also obsessed with the game. We had a running tally for how many games we won, and would play in person all the time. We were in a club, and I was in two for a while. I would probably still play all the time if I had any free time. I love having to use pieces strategically, and think in a weird way to make things work.
I wouldn't ask for anything. No offense, but I'm not a huge fan of getting gifts, as a matter of fact, last night was my 16th birthday party and it was one of the most awkward experiences of my life. I mean, I guess if I had to pick one, it'd be the new version of Kingdom Hearts that was most recently released for PlayStation 3, hands down. My brother and I played the original a lot when I was younger, and I think he'd appreciate the new version. I absolutely hate receiving gifts, so I would hope someone would kind of just give it to my brother so we could both play.
|
AuthorAccurate reflections of a high school student enrolled in their first Game Design class. Archives
December 2015
Categories
All
|