Most kids in my generation would prefer the comfort of sitting behind the screen to talk to strangers rather than physically going up to someone and speaking to them. However, for me that is not the case. I could not imagine logging onto Facebook or Twitter and just randomly talking to someone I did not know. For me, those websites are reserved for people I already know. I may use them to become better friends with certain people, but I do not use them to make friends expressly. For example, I have a very good friend whom I met in geometry class during my freshman year. I can say, with confidence, that he and I would not be as good of friends now were it not for our online interactions. However, we had already known each other for quite some time before any of these interactions occurred. Also, one of my best friends and I are almost completely unable to talk online or via text message. One of us always feels like we are bothering the other, and it ends in some form of awkward comment. However, in person, the two of us can bounce ideas back and forth without it getting weird at all. The cold, hard middleman that is a screen is not the correct answer to making good friends. If I relied on online sources to make friends, I most likely would not have any. Besides, it is a lot more difficult to lie to someone when you are looking them in the eye than when you are talking to the idea of a person through a series of characters on a screen. Maybe it's just me, but I like to know who my friends are. I'm a lot more comfortable saying I can only have in-person conversations with the boy sitting next to me than that I can have hours of online conversation with someone who might not even be real. Maybe I'm crazy, but maybe the online communication system in general is.
A few years back, it was rumored that all of the Final Fantasy games would be compiled into one playable version on a newer system. While these rumors never held true, it was quite exciting to fans. Simply for the idea of being able to play levels from pre-1991 on seemed truly exciting. Therefore, that compilation is what I would most likely spend a long time in line for.
Games are definitely helpful in calming me down. When I was a freshman, my friends and I would play cards before school started every morning just to calm down. Now, it has become a go to for any time my best friend or I need to calm down. We play Egyptian Rat Screw, and hardly even focus on the game, but it helps get the anger and frustration out of a day where everything could have stayed upsetting. The game is calming, in this sense, but also stressful when playing with multiple relatively skilled players. My family also plays games every Sunday night, but those games make me very angry because they get overly competitive. I like a little competition, but there is no reason for a game to be taken so seriously. I think games could be very calming if they are played in a calm setting with little anger. After the competition becomes a huge factor, they stop being fun and start being taxing.
Firewalls, student WiFi, and access to a computer are becoming more and more relevant topics as the world advances into the digital age. Computers are no longer limited to just a handful of websites and word processing programs, and schools need to be aware of such things. While blocking sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other social media seems like the immediate solution, it actually isn't. In my Agriculture class, for example, my teacher has a Twitter account and posts pictures from both his own cell phone and ones students send in to the feed. This is only one example of how today's technology should be used without limitations in the classroom. My AP English teacher had us watch a video on YouTube last night, which is something students would want to do in study hall. If YouTube were blocked, that would have been an issue. Also, it is not access to the technology that prevents a student from being productive in class, it is the student themselves. I could easily open YouTube and tune out my teachers, but I don't. It's more of a matter of trusting the students than attempting to say certain websites are at fault. Also, those students who really want to be on blocked websites will find a way, whether it be using data on a cell phone or working around it. Thus, the liberty of fewer limitations should be given to students.
On gamespot.com, there are several forums that I could see myself potentially posting to or joining in, however, I think my biggest contribution would be toward the retro gaming forum. Most of the games I play are pretty old and might be considered dated compared to the stuff that has begun to come out these days. As I was looking through the posts, I saw one about Final Fantasy 7, which is actually one of my favorites. While I did not post today, as the comment was nearly a year old, I figured out that I probably could have answered the question easily. Within the other forums, questions were not as easy to answer and may have required some research in order for my contribution to be relevant. However, I could see myself answering questions about games for PlayStation 1 or even old arcade style games with very little difficulty. I strongly encourage looking at every forum before picking just one, and being certain to pick the ones that are just right for you. For instance, I have very limited experience with Xbox, so I would probably not choose that forum. Therefore, for the above reasons, I chose the retro games forum.
When asked about my favorite game, it always takes me a minute to answer. There are several games that I would call my favorite but at this very moment it seems only right to name a classic game. Honestly, I am becoming addicted to Space Invaders and I love the challenges presented by Pac Man, but Galaga still tops my list. I just love the little bit of a challenge it adds over Space Invaders while remaining truly classic. Maybe I'm just overly old school, but I think all the best games were first released before I was five years old and everything about the industry turned into capitalism. Please, feel free to tell me I am wrong about the best game out there. Just know I will always side with Galaga. My dad played it, my brother played it, and I am going to continue this trend for as long as I possibly can.
The PlayStation 3, refurbished from Game Stop is anywhere between $100-$140 and is a very appropriate system for a beginner. It allows for game-play, as well as many other features, and has anywhere from 40 GB to 160 GB of memory. It's a great system, and many of the games have been discounted due to the release of the PlayStation 4. These discounts would allow for the purchase of one or two new games or three or four older ones, maybe as many as six pre-owned or refurbished games. It certainly is a viable option to start gaming with on a $200 budget.
The information presented on the Info-Graphic was all centered around screen time and as an extent, device usage. In the year between quarter one of 2013 and quarter one of 2014, average screen time increased by twenty minutes daily. While that may not seem like very much time, it will eventually add up. Think about that 20 minutes like a slope in a linear equation. If it only increases by 20 minutes once, then the constant rate will be only 20 minutes greater than the regular number previously. However, Americans have a habit of becoming absorbed in things such as screens, and other than a small percentage of weight gain due to inactivity, there weren't very many noticeable changes or consequences. Naturally, this means Americans will keep pushing their screen time further, until it gets to the point where it is consuming all of their time. The screen time epidemic will continue to spread until all Americans are basically fat and lazy individuals relying on machinery to do everything for them and society will crumble.
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AuthorAccurate reflections of a high school student enrolled in their first Game Design class. Archives
December 2015
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