First off, I just want to say (or write), that I absolutely love video games! Whether it is playing it, watching friends play, watching the professionals play, reading about it online, through magazines, listening to podcasts (and more recently videocasts - vidcasts??) and so on and so forth. However, I always seemed to hit a brick wall in terms of "skill" in most, if not all, of the video games that I have picked up and played in the past. No matter how much I played, or practised, or read up strategy guides and such, I just plain sucked.
As many ex-noobs may imagine, this lead to many a times where the rage monster (like the cookie monster, but way, way, WAY uglier. Not to mention the mess it leaves behind!) would be unleashed and its wrath would know no end and it'd be chaos in my computer/bed room... Or at least until my ma or pa came in and gave me the ol' LOOK. (You know what I mean. That expression on my father's face when he first saw me 'speaking' to my computer at 4 in the morning on a ventrilo server - oh boy... but that is for another time)
But I digress. Back to the point. What was it? Ah yes. I suck at games. Question is "Why?" (No trolls allowed. I know, I'm kind of feeding them) I mean, I look up strategies, video guides, pro game replays, etc, and of course practise when I can. Yet it only seems to take me so far?
So I thought I'd start this blog, mainly as a therapeutic exercise, to keep the woosah and the RM (see rage monster) within, but also wanted to sort of explore the different types of resources that are available for gamers today, compared to say, when I was 7 and my pa got me a second or third hand atari. For example, in singleplayer games, if you are 'stuck' on a particular level, all you have to do is simply open up your web browser, load up google and search "[game name] walkthough guide." Back then though, when I had my super high tech atari tuned masterfully onto a random, freed up UHF or VHF or whatever they're called frequency, the only guides or hints you could really get (especially at the age of 7) was from your friends or family or neighbours. I'm not too sure if gaming magazines were around then, which would have been quite amusing actually... "WOAH, check out the graphics on this screenshot man! It's got like TWENTY COLOURS! That's like TEN MORE than the first one!"
Ahem. So going back to my story (again), there was this game on that atari, I think it was called Kung Fu Master or something. Definitely had the word Kung Fu in it. It was a side scrolling beat 'em up, really really ancient stuff. Basically you can move forwards, backwards, crouch, punch and kick, while the "bad guys" came charging at you from both sides. As you could imagine, it wasn't that hard. Until I reached the first BOSS. Oh Em JEE. This guy did like the Chun-Li 100s & 1000s kick and this game didn't even have a BLOCK ability! (Btw, I'm pretty sure this was released before Street Fighter II) So naturally I got beaten to a pulp. Of course I kept going back and trying and trying... and trying and trying... eventually even trying different approaches. Maybe I can crouch and dodge the kicks and punch him in the hurt locker? Nope, I just got beaten while crouched. Maybe if I wait for the kicks to finish I can slip in a quick jab to the face? That's a negative, them kicks go for a looong time. Seeing as most of the kids at school were playing SEGA master system or the Nintendo Entertainment system, I had noone to ask for help! Eventually I just booted up RAMPAGE and ate people and cars and blew up cities, which kind of made me feel better.
This idea of all these resources being put out there, by fellow gamers, both hobbyists and ex-pros (retired due to real life commitments, or to start shoutcasting - which is like commentating for professional game braodcasts) is really exciting, and ever expanding, that I just wanted to write a bit about my thoughts on it from time to time.
Another thing I have been slowly uncovering from the internet and recently even at uni (forgot to mention, I'm studying to be a Primary school teacher), is the link between games and education. I think this could maybe get stretched to hobbies and education, but games moreso as I think this is a prime example of everyday technology being used for problem solving on multiple levels. (individual, collaborative and metacognitive)
Finally weaving in and out of these parts will be my own personal history of gaming, from throwing upright joysticks to throwing xbox360 gamepads, and the occasional mice and keyboards.
To finish off, if you are interested in some of the exciting stuff gaming can and is currently having with education, check out macICT, a department in my uni researching this kind of work, through their website.
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