Welcome to today's post on the A-to-Z Blogging Challenge. My challenge, as I have chosen to accept it, is thus: I have asked on my Facebook and Twitter accounts for people to contribute random words beginning with today's letter. From Random.org, I have selected one of these words, and will below challenge myself to connect said word to writing.
For the letter X, I received 19 suggestions. Random.org selected number 10: Xbox.
Xbox
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| Pong (courtesy of Wiki Commons) |
Video games have come a long way since the days of Atari. Pong and Space Invaders are so basic for today's kids that they won't even play them.
Sure, maybe it's the graphics, or the fact that it's boring to move the joystick left and right and left and right trying to bounce a tiny ball. But to me, the real reason kids today like the more modern video games is because of the stories.
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| Super Mario Bros (from Wiki Commons) |
Yup, I said it. Video games have stories, too. Sometimes they're no more complicated than Super Mario Bro's—save the princess!—and sometimes, they are. There are side missions to find the key you need to open the door to the next submission, all so you can save the overly busty girl from being killed by zombies before the zombie master blows up the island. There are the main villains, their lackies (sub-villains?), and all the minions your little heart desires to stomp or shoot or whatever method you choose to get them out of your way.
Admittedly, we don't have an Xbox. We have a Wii. But as I asked for suggestions from the population at large—and today is X, not W :) —I gotta use what I can, right?
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| Resident Evil 4 (from Wiki Commons) |
Granted, the stories in today's video games aren't exactly complex. Little character development goes on. The stories don't vary much, in that they're usually a journey story with a goal of treasure or redemption or saving humanity at the end. But as video game technology advances, so do the stories. And while I love playing Super Mario Galaxy, the "story" is more a throwback tribute to the original Mario games while raising the skill level—jump on some mushrooms, save the princess from crazy Bowser. I much prefer watching my husband play (because it's too scary for me) Resident Evil. Yeah, there's a lot of zombie destruction, but the story's kind of interesting.
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| Mario Kart (from Wiki Commons) |
Of course, my favorite video game is Mario Kart. No story there. Just win the race. But I've always been more a puzzle game person myself. It helps that I can play online against my friends and cousins all over the world. (If you ever want to play, just let me know :)
Have you ever considered the stories in video games? Do you play video games?
