(Female voice)
Sal is an average 23-year-old male who has a simple goal in life, to play video games and not get yelled at. This is his story.
(Super Mario Bros. music starts to play)
(Male voice)
My favorite video game ever is Paper Mario for the Nintendo 64. It is my favorite game of all time because it was the first Mario game where, that well that I ever played that had more of a story to it then just to save the princess. Sure the goal was to save Princess Peach from Bowser but it was told any much different way that made Mario seem more human because he wasn’t going at it alone. He had different party members that would help him along in battle and outside of battle to help him traverse the land, run errands, and talk to people all headed towards this ultimate final goal of saving Princess Peach.
(Music ends)
(Female voice. Reverberated and echoing)
Why would you want to sit down and play a boring video game anyway?
(Music starts up again)
(Male voice)
What I liked about it so much was every run of the game that you did could be entirely different because of the experience system and how you leveled up. Um so, the way the game made it feel as if it was a big adventure that you could play in many different ways with a lot of charm and charisma. There’s a couple different reasons why I play video games and it depends on what type of game that I’m playing. Am I playing a game like Paper Mario, to experience a story? Am I playing a game like League of Legends, to play on a competitive level or a semi competitive level? Am I trying to kill time and relax with something maybe like Animal Crossing for do I wanna think and play something like Pikmin an plan exactly how I’m going to tackle something? It really depends, just like any form of media, what I want to do.
(Music stops)
(Female voice. Reverberated and echoing)
Do you have any friends?
(Music begins)
(Male voice)
I made a lot of the friends that I have and truly felt like I fit in with a lot of people because I had something to talk about them. Because being a boy who doesn’t like, or follow sports, it became hard to talk to certain people just because of that. Not all of my friends live around me anymore and some of those friends which I may not have seen them in person in years I can still hop on a game and say, “Hey Bobby let’s play a game of League of Legends.” Which happen just last week I’m able to keep in touch with people because of our common interests and I’m able to be taken to these fantasy worlds that I enjoy because I play these games.
(Music stops)
(Female voice. Reverberated and echoing)
You are going to grow up a sociopathic emotionless shell.
(Music begins again)
(Male voice)
You fall in love with the characters in the story line and everything and if a character dies in the game, it is going to hurt you emotionally especially if you liked that character I mean it’s the same as like a book or a television show. If a character dies on a show or even you know your favorite character you’re going to feel hurt by that and you should feel hurt by that and I know that that that’s happened to me before.
(Music stops)
(Female voice. Reverberated and echoing)
Are you even using your brain during these games?
(Music begins)
(Male voice)
You’re controlling the destiny of your games. If you’re watching a television show, you’re just sitting there. You not interacting with the characters. With the video game you’re controlling the character. You insert yourself into the game. You are going on these grand adventures and you’re actively controlling them and you’re actively pursuing either an item or even just pursuing defeating an enemy. I mean with the game you’re putting yourself in that spot you have to think about oh I’m about to let’s say, go into a desert do I need to stock up on water do I need to stock up on food or supplies? Video games in general are the only medium that can deny you progress depending on how poorly you do. If you can’t make a certain jump, defeat a certain enemy, figure out a certain puzzle, you’re stuck there you can’t continue until you figure it out. And its that moment when you figure it out it leaves you with a sense of accomplishment that you were able to you to best to the game and you were able to overcome the difficulty that you had but the television show you’re just going to be watching you not going to be thinking as much about it as with that game where you’re going to be actively trying to outmaneuver somebody I mean you really have to think.
(Music ends)
(Female voice. Reverberated and echoing)
Video games are all the same.
(Music begins)
(Male voice)
Just like genres of books they were different genres of games. Anything that can be a book chances are is also a game. It’s just that it’s a different medium.
(Music stops)
(Female voice. Reverberated and echoing)
How can you find this fun?
(Music begins)
(Male voice)
I would like to stress the fact that video games while there relatively new considering they’ve only been around for maybe 30 or so years I would like to stress that they are a form of entertain. I know that my parents don’t see it the same way that I do in the slightest but to me playing a video game is makes you think more then if you’re watching TV.
(Music fades and stops)