I love video games. Not all video games, mind you; I have specific types I like. What I love is the interactivity of the art form. Yes, I consider video games an art form. Whether the game designers have created a story for me, or I create the story from playing, the adventure, to me, is as real as reading a book or watching a movie. The creativity of the games’ stories, concepts or graphics appeal to my artistic side, and the execution of the mechanics of the gameplay appeal to my technical/programmer side. What’s not to love?
Still the best game ever.
Once a game has its hooks in me it’s hard to pull away. I know because if I’m not careful they can consume my time and thought. These days as a husband and father, I purposely try to limit my screen time, for the health of all. I’m not always successful. There’s a twinge of selfishness that creeps up now and then, and I choose games over real life. But I’m much better at controlling that aspect of myself today than I was years ago.
The Atari 2600, Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) were the video game consoles that started it all for me. As a shy and quiet kid who didn’t play sports or go outside that much, video games were my form of adventure, competition, and yes, escape. Later I moved on to PC gaming, and because of its versatility it remains my favorite platform; I circled back to consoles with the Nintendo Gamecube and Nintendo Wii, and even dabbled in iOS games with my Apple iPod Touch, but I still remain a loyal PC gamer.
Was never caught up in the story more than FF2
My favorite types of games are simulation/city-building games (Dwarf Fortress, The Sims, SimCity, Banished), complex strategy war games, (Age of Empires, Civilization, Europa Universalis), open-ended role-playing games (Elder Scrolls), story-based role-playing games (Final Fantasy, Eschalon), Exploration/Puzzle games (Myst, Portal), Sandbox games (Terraria, Minecraft) and Action-Adventure games (The Legend of Zelda, Rogue Legacy). Those are all mostly single player games for a reason: not a big fan of multiplayer games, usually because I’m not good enough to go against people who play all day.
The city of Vivec, Morrowind
So many games, so little time, but I enjoy them when I can (key word enjoy, not conquer), but mostly try to keep my head above water so that I don’t miss real life at the same time.
As an artist/writer/gamer/programmer, it should come as no surprise that I want to create my own games. We’ll talk about that tomorrow.
So that’s another thing I’d rather be doing now, playing video games.
Rob Vitaro 