On the Road to Rune

I was recently talking to my crew about my personal odyssey a.k.a playing video games. Interestingly, playing video games somehow allowed me to cross a generational divide. Suddenly, I knew about their world: multiplayer games, on-line chatting, user generated contact, a wired existence. I shared a similar experience with my son. We could look for Runescape images on-line, discuss how he performed a quest, or just laugh at how bad I am at the game. In short, we collaborated while playing Runescape, a pro-social aspect of gaming. I found it interesting that in the Peng article that those who were infrequent users as well as those who were heavy user also were incredibly social. My perception of gamers as reclusive nerds to a certain extent has been blown out of the water. Heck, I live with a gamer and I think he is pretty cool.

Tangentially, Ryan also failed to excel at his game, Halo. Consider a quote from his blog:

"I never became comfortable playing my game and it felt like my resistance was old and habitual. I remember not being allowed to sit down on the couch for long before my mother or father would demand I go outside and play. I enjoy physical activity and competition too much I guess. I feel like I am making a moral or ethical choice to eschew gaming because it is clear to me that I am gaining nothing when I play virtual games like Halo."

He and I both come from a athletic background. We both are competitive; we both found it hard to get motivated to play. I feel that same moral tug to condemn gaming out of kind, but I defer in that I really have gained something by playing. I have acquired a new language, a new media literacy that is essential in today's world. I said one of my goals for the class was to become more relevant. I feel like I have achieved that goal.