January 27, 2011

• Imagination Seeds

  CMDR. Nova Shepard

  Computer Games are one of the best uses of time I’ve currently found and there are a few good reasons why:
  First of why do I play them. Well it’s not for achievements or points I don’t even usually end up finishing games all the way through instead I (and usually my brother) play games to enter different worlds and inhabit them for a while.

  Much like when your really into a film a good Game draws you in and takes on a life of it’s own especially if you play games with someone, for the most part I spent years simply watching my brother play games, but at no point did I feel like I wasn’t also playing them because together we could weave and create elaborate worlds based on the events or characters in the game, often these imagined worlds held more interest than the game it’s self.

  One of the best examples of this was with an old game called UFO enemy unknown or X-Com. This game is incredible it’s very big and complex with a fantastic story and huge potential for fun all the way through. The mechanics of the game puts you in charge of the X-Com planetary defence team who are fighting against a full on alien invasion, not only do you have to manage your base, research and interceptors but you also get to lead teams into battle against the alien hordes.

  We played it with my dad and all three of us would have four squad members each who we controlled while in mission. This alone was amazingly good fun but me and my brother also built characters for each of our squad mates and created elaborate stories for each one, favourites even had a continuation in a sort of afterlife is they died in the game.

  By far the power of games to enhance your imagination and show you worlds you can get totally engaged with is the best part, but they also offer some other interesting features such as after you’ve played them for sometime you begin to project your senses into them more and more. For example during FPS (first person shooter) games I can actually ‘feel’ when I am being shot including the direction, it’s the same with jump distance and level mapping, you build more and more game senses as you get better.

  The benefits of gaming are numerous too (of course there are downsides too but I’m pro games so screw them ) You gain better special awareness because you have to appraise and learn the extent of local areas quickly in games. You also can begin to look at the world like a game in the way that in digital worlds nothing is irrelevant, all items and events are planned and important to be aware of. Approaching the world like this makes you more attentive to detail and less aware of the possibility of failure, in games you have no choice but to succeed and this is true in the world too it’s just we sometimes get into the habit of thinking negatively or imagining that something is ‘impossible’ this is not the case for the hero of a computer game.

  They also help you deal with moral choices. Games like Baldurs Gate, Fallout and Mass Effect give you sometimes complex and troubling moral choices, personally I try to be as good as possible in games but some even deliver you both sides of an argument.
  This sort of thing and the abundance of puzzles in digital worlds also helps to get you thinking and interacting, rewarding methodical and careful approaches while also forcing you to think laterally.

  I am I admit addicted to games I even sometimes get a bit touchy when I’ve not played one for too long but apart from the pointlessly super violent and hero-less ugly ones in general I think that Computer Games offer worlds of experience that are much more interactive that other entertainments and if you spend sometime (especially with a friend or close relative) playing them you are given the opportunity to enjoy some wonderful and memorable adventures.

  {Right i’m off to play something

  (X3-Reunion)

  (Serious Sam 2)

  Morrowind (Enhanced with Diffuse Glow)

  • 3:58 pm
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