Game Guided: The Lessons Video Games Have Taught Me

TI-84 of the Flies

I've been thinking a lot about how I received my particular skill set over the years lately.  I can trace the start of my programming ability back to freshman year of high school.  Math class required that we go out and purchase a $100 graphing calculator in order to survive the material.  At the time, I viewed this as a colossal waste of money.  I could buy TWO N64 games for that much money.  Instead I get to carry around this adding machine brick in my backpack.  A few weeks into the school year our social studies class was doing some research in the library.  I noticed my friend pounding away on his calculator.  "That must be a beast of a math problem you're working on", I said.  "No man, I'm playing pac-man on this", he replied.  And thats when it struck me.

YOU COULD PLAY VIDEO GAMES ON THE CALCULATOR

This was a huge revelation.  My buddy saw how awe-struck I was, so he pulled out his calculator to calculator cable and transferred his stash of games on to my previously useless TI-84 graphing calculator.  Bowling, Space Invaders, Tetris, Pacman.  It was like mid September Christmas.  After a couple days of blasting aliens and knocking down pins, I wanted to expand my library.  I turned to the trusty interwebs.  Much to my dismay, you needed to buy a cable to connect your calculator to your computer in order to easily transfer games from the Web.

(Sidenote:I eventually ordered said cable, and it was designed to plug into a PC's parallel port, and my computer didn't have one.  So I had to purchase an additional parallel-to-serial cable to make the connection.  Pre-USB era was indeed a dark and godless time in the realm of computing.)

Back to our regularly scheduled program.  In my quest for calc games, I stumbled upon "stick fighter" and the concept was so compelling (for some reason) that I absolutely had to have that game right that second.  So I downloaded the TI-84 emulator, downloaded stick fighter, and copied all of the code on to my calculator manually ROW BY ROW.  It took forever and the game ended up being super lame.  But I got my first exposure to programming and debugging, making sure my syntax was the exact same, adding a bracket if the program failed to run, etc.  That initial programming gave me the BASIC (pun intended) knowledge to make simple rudimentary programs.  Solve a complex system of equations on pen and paper? No thanks.  How about write 5 lines of code instead and use the saved time to boost my Tetris high score.

At the apex of my calculator programming days, I was struck down in my prime.  I was mashing goombas in English class when the teacher noticed and comfiscated my calculator.  He insisted that a solid understanding of the subtext in Lord of the Flies would benefit me much more than messing around on a calc.  He couldn't have been wronger.  Programming has been a pivotal part of my career and as you can see from my post, terrible grammar is only a minor inconvenience.  I write computer programming code in some way, shape, or form daily.  My conch blowing is infrequent at best.  I win.

I will close with the obligatory "stay in school".  Srsly.

Fighting the Undead with Vitamin C

I'm a little under the weather today.  Apparently, all snow has to be removed from sidewalks 24 hours after snowfall and we got an angry letter from the HOA-stapo.  So instead of electing to wait for the snow to melt and hope to avoid a court summons, I decided to shovel the walks in the dark last night.  It was freezing cold and now I have a bit of a head cold. 

In my sickness, I draw upon the wisdom of Dead Rising.  If you don't know, in Dead Rising you play the role of photo journalist Frank West as he strives to survive a zombie apocalypse.  Navigating through a mall packed with Zombies can be a bit hazardous to your health, so one of Frank's revitalizing energies of choice is orange juice.  Orange juice is plentiful in the game and got me out of several zombie related perils.  As it turns out, orange juice is also plentiful in real life and can get you out of a number of non-zombie related perils.

Benefits of orange juice:

-full of antioxidants

-boosts immune system

-prevents scurvy (and trust me, scurvy isn't as popular with the ladies as it once was)

-gives you the strength to lead the human resistance

So whether you're hacking your way through a sea of bloodthirsty undead or trying to push out the expense reports through furious fits of sneezing, bring a tall glass of OJ.  Humanity may depend on it.

 

Video Games: Not Even Once

I found an article that perfectly serves as the antithesis to my blog.

Propaganda

I came upon this article when searching for "benefits of video games" and I figure this one must have been miscategorized.  The authors blast video games with all the usual blame and stereotypes and even threw in some new ones.  I'm going to myth bust it.  Its my third favorite kind of busting after rhyme busting and ghost busting.

MYTH:

"True to video game effectiveness as a teaching tool, kids take the amount of violence in video games (and other media) as representative of the amount of violence in the real world, leading to the belief that the world is a dark and hostile place. This can make children both more afraid of the world and less empathetic toward the suffering of others."

BUSTED!: 

-I don't really think there is that big of a descrepancy between the two.  There is a lot of violence in the world today with both wars abroad and crimes close to home.  The world isn't exactly rainbows and puppies.  I also don't believe this would make children afraid of the world at all.  Most games you are a one man army taking on legions of baddies and there is no cower and run button (except for Feral Druids I guess).  And less empathetic? Almost every game I've played has a protagonist whose main motivation is trying to end the suffering of others.  Final Fantasy 7, Oddworld, Bioshock, Black and White, and of course FIFA soccer all focus heavily on being compassionate towards others.  Even really violent games like Grand Theft Auto 4 have a protagonist that battles with taking lives and feels great remorse for his sins.  I don't think video games make children less empathetic to suffering any more so than the evening news.  "Man shot dead, next story".  Now THATS compassion.

MYTH:

"Reviews have shown that the statistical relationship between violent video games and aggression is about as strong as the link between smoking cigarettes and lung cancer."

BUSTED!:

-I'm a statistician and one thing that is pounded into our brains during schooling is that correlation does not imply causation.  First of all, even if there is a correlation between violent video games and aggression, that doesn't mean video games are the cause of aggression.  In fact I think the opposite is more likely, that aggressive people play violent video games.  I'm pretty sure aggression predates gaming.  Wasn't there a couple of wars before PONG?  One of my favorite misused correlation examples is the correlation between ice cream sales and drownings (they correlate because they both go up in summer months).  Next time I'm at Dairy Queen I will ask the closest parent why they are trying to send their child to Davy Jones' Locker.  ARRR!

MYTH:

"Excessive video game use can be related to obesity (by way of less exercise)"

SORT OF BUSTED!:

-It is true I suppose.  But what are the odds that after a child is denied Xbox that he is going to start running laps around the track?  How much more likely is it that he'll just soak in TV instead?

Here is a handy conversion chart:

Calories burned during gaming = calories burned watching TV = calories burned doing homework = calories burned reading stupid blogs about video games (except this one, reading my blog makes you a huge hit with the ladies or fellas)

MYTH:

"Excessive video game use can be related.....social isolation"

BUSTED!:

-There was a time I would have agreed with this.  But technology has advanced so much with multiplayer and the online communtiy that this isn't even remotely true anymore.  Many a time an old SNES system has been a college dorm ice breaker.  Friendships can be forged between strangers through online games and MMORPG's.  And of course, my favorite past time, LAN parties.  I miss the days when we would link up the xboxes and have 16 man frag fests.  Games are becoming more and more dependent on teamwork and if you can't play nicely with others, you'll be stuck by yourself writing blogs.  That's true social isolation.

MYTH:

""Excessive video game use can be related.....difficulty with reading or other skills that require time to master."
 

UBER MEGA BUSTED!:

-This was the comment that sent me into full on nerd rage.  That statement isn't remotely true.  It is a flat out lie.  I have a story to prove it.  I had a friend in high school.  He was a really hard worker.  In fact during summers he would build trails with me from 7 in the morning to 4 at night and then go to a second job and wash dishes until 11.  However, he wasn't particularly smart.  It turned out that he had troubles learning because he had dyslexia.  My friends and I got bit by the MMORPG bug and all started subscribing to EverQuest.  In EQ, you would have to communicate with other players exclusively through typing and reading text chat.  Because the game forced you to read in order to play effectively, EverQuest actually helped my friend overcome dyslexia.  I think thats pretty incredible.  The most ironic thing is that he said that he felt if he didn't learn how to read, he would feel left out when we played the game ("social isolation" if you will).

The other example I offer is from my own experience.  One of the first games I ever played was a game called Number Animals on DOS.  It was basically just math problems poised by giraffes and when you got the answer right, "Pop goes the weasel" would blast through the computer speakers in glorious 8-bit sound.  The game didn't just teach me math though.  I had to learn rudimentary DOS commands to GET to the game.  Before the age of 5 I already knew cd, dir, paths, file extensions, and all that good stuff.  Fast forward 20 years and I have my Bachelor's Degree in Mathematics in a career where I write computer code daily.  I'd say there is a correlation, but:

1.  It would hurt an earlier point that I made

2. I fear I will drown in a tub of choclate ice cream.

Zen and the Art of Go-kart Maintenance

This is probably my all time favorite pie graph of all time (from xkcd):

So true...

There we sit, huddled together on a dorm room floor.  The go-kart engines rev in anticipation of a green light speed boost.  We're off.  I skillfully slip and swerve through through the course, dodging banana peels and upside down question mark boxes like a sweet ninja.  I fly by competitors like a man possessed as I take the lead.  Lap 1, Lap 2, Final Lap.  I manage to survive through lighting bolts, red turtle shells, and the incessant smack talk of my peers.  First place is mine as my cart makes the final turn.  As I speed down the home stretch I triumphantly hoist my controller over my head and then.....

Blue Shell

There is no greater buzz kill in the video game world than the Mario Kart blue shell. Upon activation, the blue shell tears through the race track until it reaches its first place target and annihilates it.  There is nothing you can do.  It is going to hit you.  You are just going to have to live with it.  And when it does it will be more sobering than drinking black coffee while taking a cold shower.

I was rendered unemployed twice this year.  My former employers gave me the blue shell treatment and showed me the door.  At first I was a ball of bad emotions.  I felt panicked about my finances, angry at my former employer, and hopeless about finding a new job.  I was blue shell shocked.  Luckily, after a couple weeks of diligent craigslist surfing and resume spamming, I landed on my feet.  The problem was my feet weren't firmly planted.  My new employer definitely put me in the role of the unaware new guy and I frequently had no idea how to do things, where stuff was, or what was expected of me.  After only 2 and half months, blue shell strikes again.  This unemployment was even harder for me.  I started to think maybe it wasn't the economy, maybe I just suck at life.  Yet, despite all the bad vibes and bitter taste left in my mouth, I kept on keeping on.  And it paid off.  Now I'm in a great position that I have the right skills for.  I work for a great company with a great cause.  I have a terrific boss, terrific co-workers, great pay, and great benefits.  The only remotely bad thing about the new position is that it is a 25 mile drive from my house.  Luckily, the interstates are relatively free of banana peels and upside down question boxes.

The lesson is that bad things happen in mario kart and in life.  Some of them are beyond your control and outright unavoidable.  The important thing is to keep calm and keep driving towards the finish.  And when life throws you blue turtle shells, make.....ummm......blue turtle soup?

Underachiever's Guide to Achievements

 

The introduction of achievements had a strange effect on me.  At first blush, I thought they were just goofy pop ups that interrupted my gameplay.  I didn't care about my gamerscore or fully "completing" a game at all.  After a while though, I was on achievements like a fat kid on a cupcake (read as: myself on a cupcake).  Suddenly every trivial task was semi-rewarded and acknowledged.  Before long I was going out of my way to do menial tasks just to get my fix.  Xbox somehow turned me into an overachiever.

Advice to Parents/Spouses/Significant Others of gamers:

If you want to see a dent in that tedious to-do list, trick your gaming loved one into chores using the same system.  If I saw that blessed little gray dialog box every time I did laundry, mowed the lawn, or washed the dishes, our house would be immaculate. Achievements make us feel like we've done something impressive, even though we didn't really want to do it in the first place.

(P.S. Please don't forward this post to my wife.  I enjoy weekend loafing)

The Mission

Hello World,

My name is James and I'm addicted to video games.  I have been a gamer my entire life and I don't intend to quit.  From lowly beginnings blowing dust out of Duck Hunt cartridge to disassembling my Xbox 360 with hopes of banishing the Red Ring of Death back to hell where it belongs, I've spent a lot of time playing games I love.  Contrary to what the media would have you believe, I'm not a serial murder or isolated socially-awkward weirdo (just a regular weirdo).  I have a steady job, good friends, a wonderful wife and a pretty sweet life all around.  I go outside, shower, go to bed at a reasonable hour, and can carry on a conversation with a female with limited fainting.  What's wrong with me?

It's nothing new that video games get the short end of the stick in art mediums.  While movies and music have lavish awards ceremonies and public adoration, video games usually only make news when they are the scapegoat of a crime or are selling a bunch of copies.  But I am living proof that you can do a LOT of gaming and come out perfectly well adjusted.  With this blog I intend to go one step further and say video games have instilled some life long lessons and made me a better person, even if after all these years I still frag like a nub.

Love,

Gamer James