Daniel Zamora
In my life, there are many examples on how playing a certain game affected the way I think about the world around me. Many people, especially those that are genuinely interested in videogames, can usually come up with a story on how a certain game changed the way it made them feel, or affected them on levels that movies or television haven’t been able to. Indeed, some of the best games I’ve played are ones where I was able to develop the character over the course of the game, building a relationship to the game world through the avatar I portrayed on the screen. There are three memorable examples that I can remember from my childhood, my teenage years, and finally my adulthood. Starting off in my childhood, the first game I ever learned was to play a game that is centuries old and is still played by people of all ages and nationalities. Then, I’d like to move on to one of my favorite videogames that I played as a teenager, which was Mass Effect. Lastly, I will cover how a game that came out last year, Assassin’s Creed 2, changed the way I think about history in general. Most good games and videogames strive to make a connection with the player, and here are three good examples of how they have affected me and how I view the world around me.One of the first games I learned to play was the wonderful game of chess. Emerging during the late 15th century, the game has been argued by some as being the greatest game of all time. It’s a game of strategy; the only way to win is to put yourself in your opponents shoes and to try to come up with a rebuttal to every possible move he can make. When my grandfather first taught me to play the game, I saw it as boring and dated. As I grew older and learned how to play better, I realized the various lessons one can learn by playing chess. One of the more prominent lessons I learned was how to put myself in another person’s shoes. I believe that being able to see the world through the eyes of another person is an important quality to have these days, because then maybe we can learn how alike we all are in our thought processes. I also learned how to analyze the “battlefield” (as I liked to call it) so that it serves me better than my opponent. My brain was able to see every possible move my opponent would make, and I would have to come up with a suitable strategy to block his moves. Not only that, but you have to see the consequences a certain move would have and how it would affect the game in the long run. In other words, it’s not only about seeing your opponent’s moves before he makes them, but also seeing how he’s setting up his chain of pieces and how to counteract that. The most important lesson learned from chess would be to never give up. Even though things may look bleak, you should never quit until the game is finally over. Some of my best losses were the ones where I thought there was no chance I could lose, since I had control of the whole board. The problem is that if I became too comfortable and I lost focus, eventually losing because I stopped thinking of every possible move that my opponent could’ve made. Lesson learned: never give up until you win or lose.
The most enlightening game for me during my teenage years was the first Mass Effect (and in turn, Mass Effect 2 which just recently came out). The reason for this is that Mass Effect made me realize how small we really are. It’s hard for humans in general to see the world beyond themselves (remember how I said that putting yourself in other people’s shoes is important?), and a common consequence of seeing the world through a narrow point of view is that you don’t get to see the whole picture. We’ve been fighting each other as a species ever since the dawn of man, fighting for the resources and land on the planet claiming it for our country or religion. We live our whole lives on this planet, thinking that our lives are more important to others. When I first played Mass Effect, it made me realize how small the planet is to the whole galaxy. It’s not that I had never learned about how big the universe was, but I was never able to grasp it until I was able to fly from different parts of the galaxy, moving into a nebula, and then finally moving into a certain solar system. It made me think on how much is really out there, and taught me that we are just living on a small, pale blue dot in the expanse of everything. Suddenly, the problems in my life that I thought were such a big deal became negligible in the scope of things. I became humble that I was just a small piece of the puzzle, drawing comfort from the fact that there are so many other things I should be focusing on instead of still being hung up on the thought of an ex-girlfriend or having a petty argument with my parents.
My favorite game of 2009 had to be Assassin’s Creed 2. Despite the lack of variety in the missions of the first game, I was definitely looking forward on how they would build upon the problems of the first to make a better sequel. I was not disappointed. Not only did the game take place during the Renaissance (my favorite art period as an art history buff), but it taught me that things aren’t always as they seem. This game reignited my passion in the arts, and it got me interested in all the history that 15th century Italy had to offer. After finishing the game, it gave me a unique point of view that I never thought I would have learned from the game (spoiler alert ahead in case you haven’t played/ finished the game). As you find clues that unravel the secrets of the Knights Templar in the game, you start to build this kind of altered view of history based on a mysterious item introduced in the game as the gifts of Eden. Although I knew the game and it’s altered history was mostly fictional, it did show many figures in history in a light that many people don’t know about. For example, not many people know about Henry Ford’s anti-Semitism or Thomas Edison’s attempts to ruin the name of Nikola Tesla so that his idea of direct current would override the better alternate current. Even though it might be a stretch to say so, thinking about that made me think about how history is always in favor of the victor. In other words, United State’s history books hardly portray the points of views of the people we were fighting, only focusing on the history that they want to be pass down in history. I learned that things may not always be as they seem, and just because someone tells me this is what is right, I should always look into it myself to judge whether, based on my morals, an action is right or wrong.
Games have always had a special place in my heart, not only providing me with hours of entertainment but also weird life lessons I didn’t expect to learn along the way. Whether the lesson was to never give up, to see the world as a whole, or to not believe everything that people tell you, videogames and games have taught my valuable life lessons that I know I will carry for the rest of my life. The funny thing is that games can affect different people in a plethora of ways. Some people might play through Assassin’s Creed 2 and never get past the mindset of killing whatever moves in the game, but I think that’s an important aspect of playing a game. Everyone plays a game and gets a unique experience from it, good or bad. That’s what makes it fun, because you can always go up to your mates and debate on what you thought of the game. I just hope that everyone can at least find one valuable lesson learned from playing games, because there are so many to be found and learned.
