Affected / Effected - Editorials - The Armchair Empire

If you want to purchase any of the games written about in this article...

Newsletter

Be notified of site updates. Sign-up for the Newsletter sent out twice weekly.

Enter E-Mail Address Below:

Affected / Effected

I've been thinking about this for a long time now: the influence video games have on our thinking. More specifically, my thinking. I'll let the politicos, statisticians, and smarter minds debate such things as the effects of video game violence on young minds. I want to look at some examples of how my own thinking and perception of reality have been effected by video games.

smartie from giants

Smarties always needed some kind of help in Giants: Citizen Kabuto (left); Dead Rising traps photojournalist Frank West in the Willamette Mall that just happens to be awash in zombies. Hilarity, some cleavage, and gore ensue.

Giants: Citizen Kabuto

Developed by Planet Moon Studios and published by Interplay, Giants: Citizen made a trip to Hawaii particularly memorable. In fact, the game was the only thing I could really think of. We'd be lying on a beach under palm trees buffeted by ocean breezes and the only thing I could concentrate on was the bald and pasty white tourist a few meters away. "That Smartie is right out in the open!" I didn't even need 20/20 hindsight -- I knew this was weird.

Dead Rising

I've never been a frequent visitor to the mall. As a rule, I avoid the places as

Advertisement

much as possible, but recently I had to go. I was there for about five minutes before my heart started racing. I stumbled onto a bench and tried to calm myself down. Thinking I was having a heart attack sure didn't help bring any serenity.

After a couple of minutes I took a good look around me. The stony realization

Advertisement

creeped over me: this could be Willamette Mall.

Zombies could be around the next corner! I might have to use this bench as a weapon! My cell phone could ring and it would be Otis! What time is it? Get me outta here!

But with every paranoid delusion there's a silver lining: I wonder if Jessica is around here somewhere?

After I got my heartbeat under control I completed my business and quickly left the area.

Just About Any Driving Game

We've all been there. In some kind of driving situation we're presented with the chance to execute some stupid driving technique we think we "learned" from a driving game. I can't count the number of times I've thought, "I could do a handbrake turn and powerslide around this corner" even though I drive a mini-van.

How many of us have tried weaving through traffic? Driving on the sidewalk? How often have you grossly overestimated your driving ability because you mastered Gran Turismo? I'd say a fair amount. Thankfully, 99.9% of us never act on these lapses in judgment (or we're just very good at not being caught).

Stuntman Ignition features some whacked out driving stunts, but would any of us really try them outside the confines of our living rooms? (left); the starting screen of the original Kings Quest is branded into my memory. If it taught me anything it was that stealing was okay as long as it was for a good reason.

Adventure Games

Sierra's old axiom of "take anything that isn't nailed down and if it is nailed down, look for loose nails, or solve the nail-removing puzzle" has had a big influence on my life. Not only did adventure games turn me into a pack rat -- because you never know when a head of lettuce or a rusty knickknack will come in handy -- but the idea of picking up things that aren't my own and walking away with them nearly led my life down a dark path.

"I'm not stealing your garden equipment," I said as my neighbor slammed my head into the fence. "I'm just going to use it to trim our hedges!" Shoplifting was an ever-present temptation, too.

However, the silver lining is that when I worked in a large department store and when something went wrong -- like someone suffering from explosive bowels didn't make it to the bathroom in time -- I could assemble the necessary equipment to take care of the problem. I would walk around the store, collecting the various items -- always walking at constant pace -- so I could complete my quest: tidying up. Then I'd fill out of the paper work to write-off the items I'd pilfered off the shelves to finish the job.

Elite Beat Agents still enjoys a spot in my gaming rotation with no sign that it will be replaced by anything (left); The Gone Jackals are a heavy metal biker band producing music for a genre I never listen to, but for some reason I needed these tunes after playing Full Throttle.

Soundtracks

I realized that I was totally susceptible to game music when I ordered The Sierra Soundtrack Collection (1992). The CD consisted of "ramped-up" versions of several of the tunes from Sierra's adventure games including Kings Quest, Quest for Glory, and Police Quest. (The main composer on some of these themes has the tracks available on his site -- for free! -- can be found here.)

I would play hours and hours the "Jammin'" mode of the original ToeJam & Earl because I liked the music so much. I spent a good deal of time setting up my Genesis so I could record the music from Chuck Rock.

Currently, I'm compiling the tracklist from Elite Beat Agents. I envision myself one day learning the proper dance moves... but between the 16-bit era and present day, I spent almost two years trying to track down a copy of the Gone Jackals' Bone to Pick album and made every effort at recording tracks that I really like to tape so I could turn up the Space Quest theme really loud. (If you remember, several of the tracks from Bone to Pick were featured in the classic Full Trottle.) And in this day of easy downloaded MP3s of remixed music of classic game music -- djpretzel is awesome! -- I find myself regularly scouring the web for tunes that I can only half remember.

Music has a way of transporting me instantly to that time and place when I first heard that music. Sitting on the couch with my brother playing ToeJam & Earl, just never wanting the day to end; smiling goofily while playing through Elite Beat Agents because I enjoyed it so much.

I wish all games affected me so! (Well, I could do without the heart palpitations.)

So when the politicos, statisticians, and smarter minds start debating the effect video game violence has young minds, just remember that there's more to be affected than just a gamers tendency to violence -- yet to be definitively proven -- as my music collection can atest.

- Omni

(August 24, 2007)


PC \| Gamecube \| DS \| Wii \| PlayStation 2 \| PlayStation 3 \| PSP \| Xbox \| Xbox 360
News \| Reviews \| Previews \| Features \| Classics \| Goodies \| Anime \| Forums