My Second Player

Playing video games is too often associated with loneliness. In all fairness, I understand where the idea comes from. I’ve already talked about how gaming is a solo experience and this is the image most people will have. But it can also bring people together by creating a shared experience. Unfortunately, it is not always easy for people to understand this type of connection, especially if they do not play video games themselves.

The irony of is, I owe one of the strongest relationships in my life to this supposedly antisocial pastime. My sister is just about as obsessed with gaming as I am. She may not be crazy enough to write a blog series about the subject, but she plays her fair share. For years her and I did not have much to talk about, but that changed when we became obsessed with a game called Fallout 3.

On the surface this is not a game that should be bringing people together. Its story is set in an alternate timeline where the world was destroyed in a nuclear war and hundreds of years later civilization has just about crumbled. The player must find a way to survive in the hostile wasteland while avoiding the horrible monsters that call it home. This should not be a premise that strengthens bonds; not just because it is incredibly bleak but also because there no multiplayer. For some reason people love this series, myself – and more importantly my sister – included.

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I got the game for Christmas and played it for hours at a time and yet my sister always seemed to be ahead of me. I would go off and complete a well-hidden side-quest and then run upstairs to brag, only to find out she had completed the quest weeks ago. She just has an easier time with this type of game, but I’m not writing this to whine about my own lack of skill. Before this point in our lives my sister and I did not share a lot of common ground. It’s not that we weren’t close, we just did not seem to have much to talk about. Now we talk all the time and not just about video games either. This is what non-gamers tend to misunderstand. Gaming may be a solo experience, but it can also be the starting point for a powerful friendship.     

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Matthew Versace

Matthew is a mild-mannered, Ottawa-born male. As you may have guessed he spends a lot of time playing video games. When he is not doing that he likes to read and write. He is a full-time student in the Algonquin College Professional Writing program.    

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To Catch 'em All

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When I was a kid I witnessed something huge, something that managed to define a generation of children and make a permanent change to pop culture. I am, of course, referring to the international phenomenon known as Pokémon.

It is easy to forget what a big deal this franchise was when it first came out. Granted, it is still unbelievably popular and marketable but it is no longer the all-consuming entity it was twenty years ago. When the Pokémon games first came out it became unavoidable. Kids couldn’t stop talking about it and their parents had to either find a way to drown it all out or embrace it full force. There was a Pokémon anime, Pokémon movies, Pokémon toys, Pokémon bed sheets, and let’s not forget the all-important Pokémon underwear. I think I even saw Pokémon coasters at one point. It is enough to drive you crazy when you think about how strange the basic premise is, yet this humble video game managed to take over the world and for about a year or so it looked like it would never disappear.

In the middle of all this was me, possibly the last kid in my school to find out about Pokémon. There was no build up, one day I got to school and literally everybody was talking about this weird Japanese cartoon where people catch animals in balls and make them fight. I had to see what they were talking about; otherwise I would have been the only one who was left out. Soon, I was right there with the rest of them, catching strange monsters and then bragging about it to my friends.

I guess every generation of kids has its own version of the Pokémon craze, but this particular generation can boast something no other generation really can. We never really outgrew it. Pokémon is still popular with kids, but the honest truth is that the franchise makes its real money off adult fans that still play the games. When I was a child it was more than a game, it was an invitation to be part of a greater community of fans and all these years later it is still bringing people together. All someone has to do is admit to being a fan of Pokémon and that creates an instant connection brought about through a shared experience. A connection that no other medium could have provided.

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Matthew Versace

Matthew is a mild-mannered, Ottawa-born male. As you may have guessed he spends a lot of time playing video games. When he is not doing that he likes to read and write. He is a full-time student in the Algonquin College Professional Writing program. 

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The Adventure Begins

I’ve heard it all before. Video games rot your brain, they make kids violent, they will turn you into an antisocial. This negativity has been surrounding video games for over thirty years, but it has become especially noticeable over the past decade. I will be the first to admit that spending too much time indoors staring at a television screen is never a good thing, but I’ve been playing video games for most of my life. Not only have I turned out fine – more or less - but I also think the experience has made me a better person.

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Most gamers start out when they are young, about seven or eight years old and in some cases even younger. I’m no social scientist, but I don’t need to be one to tell you that anything that takes up a large part of a child’s life will play a large part in determining what kind of person that child grows up to be. There is a stigma that suggests any kid who plays video games will have no friends. But in my own experience the opposite turned out to be true.

I remember when I was in third grade my mother bought me a game as a reward for having a good report card. The game was Paper Mario and I spent the whole summer trying to beat it. If I had been an adult when I first played the game I probably would have beaten it in a few days, but to a little kid the simplest things can be a challenge so I felt a real sense of accomplishment as I progressed. By the time I was finished I knew the game inside and out. This is where things changed.

A good friend of mine had bought the game a few months after I had, and he wanted advice. So, every Wednesday I would go over to his house after school and help him beat a section of the game. This turned a single-player game into a shared experience and a simple video game turned into an adventure. I’m a quiet person, so the sense of empowerment I got from becoming this friend’s coach was a totally new feeling. The game made a strong friendship even stronger and actually helped me become more social. This is why I feel most of the stigma surrounding video gaming is unfair, so with this blog I will do my best to overturn that view.

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Matthew Versace

Matthew is a mild-mannered, Ottawa-born male. As you may have guessed he spends a lot of time playing video games. When he is not doing that he likes to read and write. He is a full-time student in the Algonquin College Professional Writing program.  

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