It’s hard for me to be objective on most things, and video games are probably the single area of life in which I find it most difficult to be objective. Where other kids spent a good deal of their childhood playing outside, learning instruments and playing sports, medical necessity confined most of my childhood to rooms with screens and books in them.
My first system was an N64, and while I was huddled in our garage-turned-basement, The Ocarina of Time served for me in the early 21st century the same purpose that The Odyssey or The Epic of Gilgamesh might have served for another sickly youth in another age. I lost myself in the strangely mute adventures of Link, trekking across the land of Hyrule to cleanse the second Eden of its unambiguously evil corruption.
Stemming from that transcendental experience, I became a lover of gaming. I grew up and grew out of the PS2 era, and gaming as an entertainment media has probably consumed more of my time and financial resources than any other single entertainment outlet in my life. However, having found time to think on deeper things between marathon sessions of Oblivion, I went to college and received a degree in Philosophy.
A better man would have likely forsaken the vain entertainment pursuits of the gaming culture I love, but my early fascination with gaming has made it flourish as one of my central habits. I love gaming culture, I love gamers, I love videogames and I love the lessons they teach.
I believe that games present a unique medium for immersive experience that is fundamentally original in the human experience. The people at companies like Bethesda, Bioware, Activision and Irrational Games are working in a medium which allows them to accomplish things that giants like James Joyce, Mary Shelley, Raphael, Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Bach, and Mozart could not achieve. Whether or not they actually manage to do that, and how often they do, are separate matters, but I believe the potential for videogames to present an immersive, holistic creative vision is both distinct from and potentially superior to other forms of narrative communication including but not limited to the novel, the song, the sculpture, the poem, the play, the painting, the parade, and the pomegranate.
Scratch that last one, nothing can beat a pomegranate.
All joking aside, I believe in games like a hopeful citizen of Gotham believes in Harvy Dent, and to that end, since the capacity to analyze, compartmentalize, deconstruct, and criticise is heralded by some as the central advantage of human thought, and since it is only by the process and proper mix of continual critique, relentless review, proper praise, and adamant admonition that a medium can come into the fullness of its potential, it is my intention in this series to do just that. I intend to evaluate and criticise every single piece of gaming that I can cover with as little compassion and as much insight as I can manage, because I believe that is the only way to properly go about real criticism.
If you love games like I do, I hope you’ll read and agree with me every once in a while and disagree with me where it is appropriate.
If you don’t love games, I hope that every once in a while you’ll check in and maybe get a piece of my perspective on why the videogame is such a powerful medium.
Whatever you do, I hope you’ll read and, if you enjoy, that you’ll share my articles with other like-minded persons and unlike-minded persons.
A small housekeeping matter: In this first week I will publish several articles to establish my perspective, and afterwards I will publish one article a week.
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