Here We Go...

Today, I got a certain distant neighbor (a former MAS accountant) for his views on computer and console games. Well, to begin with he told me that games were good as it entertains its user without going through moral problems but has its fare share of bad points as it can be a distraction towards studies as well as increased peer pressure (interesting answer). Peer pressure gives a person his bragging right’s over his friends while wasting his time to be good at it, but it also provides socializing (meeting new people) through online gaming. So, does he respect these kinds of games? Well, he certainly does. Why? Because of its technological advances that gives an improved initiative for the computer industry to improve it’s self to support the latest requirements of this games, as well as providing entertainment options to flight companies such as MAS to provide entertainments to its potential customers through an otherwise very tiring journey.

Slightly Out of Focus

Asking people on their mindset towards games is starting to take its toll over me since I am a guy who gets bored very fast if the same thing is being repeated all over again everywhere I go. So, for this post I would like to talk about an experience I call, an uncle turns hardcore gamer experience that I went through during my one year stay in Malacca with him and his family.

During my first few weeks in Malacca, I was really missing home in Malacca as I wasn’t really close to anyone in Malacca (not even my uncle). In order to divert my mind to something that interest me (yes, this was the time when I got a brand new laptop as everyone knows why, “Morrowind”). Whereas, my uncle is a family man for whom his family and work life comes as the most important agenda in his life. I played that particular game with full concentration day in day out. This situation made my uncle curious to find out as to why I was playing a game so attentively. So, one night he called me to come and talk with him in the living room. He told me he wanted to find out first hand, what really attracted me towards a mere computer game. So, I told him to try playing the game. I thought him all the game moves possible and how the game world works. He tried playing the Morrowind. To my surprise, he got addicted with it just like me.

In fact, he completely became a hardcore Morrowind gamer after that day. The only thing he did was playing Morrowind without looking at the time, forgetting his wife, child and work. His timing was in disarray. Till one day (according to my aunty) they had a fight. I don’t really know what happen that particular night, as I wasn’t there, but my uncle just stopped playing Morrowind. I don't know whether this was my mistake or it wasn’t, but the one thing I do hope is my aunty forgiving me on this experience she had to go through. Even then, I still do think if my uncle wants to be a professional gamer, he has the capability to be right up there among the best.

Placing the Obivious on the Presepective

As the world of games reach new heights in the entertainment industries all over the world, creating revenues as well as work space for millions of people all over the world, we are also expected to change our perspectives on games. This post is actually a follow on to my last post. In my last post, I caught up with a doctor from Malacca to share his views on games to me, but for this post, I asked a Multimedia University Malacca campus student (Martin@SBK, dude, I promised your name will be on my post, so here it is) to share his views on games. The reason was simple, does age barrier affect the mindset of people in the same area.

As expected, he started out with a usual answer on his views towards games (as all teenagers do) where games are for relaxing mind an helping one to think creatively (outside the box) because in games, a gamer can go through many different types of experiences through various games as well as experiencing a game first hand through the developers point of view.

As for me, the most interesting part of our conversation was when he stretched out that, without games, human won’t be as productive as they are now. The productive alone caught my eyes as I wondered what could have promoted him to use such a word to describe games. So, I asked him to elaborate on the meaning behind it. He gave me an example of an RTS (Real Time Strategy) game-play, where a gamer has to take his own time to think of different strategies to win the game (in simple terms, working the shit out of your brains).

We moved on to another question. Would he allow his child to play games? For me personally, this was probably the most surprising answer of them all, depends on how old they are. His children are only allowed to play games once they are in high school, until then, he will choose the games that he thinks they should play because he thinks that an exposure to the wrong games at a tender age might cost disciplinary problems in our community (and according current standards of computer and console games which is violence, the answer is most likely to be a no). After comparing the two people of different age group (adult and teenager), I can only come to one conclusion, the obvious has been placed in a new perspective.

The Undefined Destiny

Today has been a very uneventful day (I would rather call it a disaster as I had to finish all my credit calling people and asking them on their views on games) for the games foundation assignment as almost all the people I had zeroed in to call today on their opinion towards games had been either busy or unavailable. But on the brighter side of the day I was chatting with one of my dad’s old friend (between, this guy is a doctor in Malacca’s Pantai Hospital), and he had some pretty interesting views to voice out on this particular topic on gaming and it’s effects on the world currently.

According to him, when it comes down to games, he personally thinks it is very important in the growth of a particular individual mentally and mankind as a hold.

1. coordination of different part of the human body – most common example has been the hand and eye coordination.

2. enhance one’s decision power – there are many part of the game where a gamer has to decide their next move in a split second, and this strength will enhance their ability to decide in real life.

3. improves creativity and imagination – games have always been a virtual world where a gamer can do many things which can’t be really done logically in the real world, and this helps a particular character to think outside their own surroundings to come up with something different and profitable in the future.

4. improves individual self belief – gaming has become professional in most of the first world countries (countries such as United Kingdom and the US), gaming has brought a sense of pride and the feelings of actually achieving something in life, such as winning a console game soccer tournament when a person could not really play soccer.

5. economical growth – gaming market has also proved to be one of the most respected, anticipated and financially stable market in some countries.

After listening a very boring but knowledgeable lecture from a doctor, I asked him my last question, will he allow his kids to play games. To my surprise, his answer was no. After all the things this man explained to me with every detail he could possibly have given, why did he say no? Well, his answer was simple, if I allow my child to play computer games, they will waste their time on it rather then having healthy activities such as sports or having a social rapport and interaction with the community which is more important to be a better person in life (in short I would say waste of time rather then giving me an interview).

Actually we had a longer conversation, but then my laptop crashed and my yahoo archive was not activated (I just reformatted my laptop on Friday night) and I too kind of forgot many details of the conversation and the rest I have put in my own word (PS: sorry if there are any mistakes and sorry again for losing many important details).

The Elder Scrolls IV : Oblivion

There has only been one game in my life that i have ever played more then once after finishing the whole story line, and that is Morrowind (for me, by far the best RPG game ever), the third series of the Elder Scrolls. This game stands by itself in my life because this was the game why i spent RM5000 on a new laptop so that i could play it on a high performance machine. Around a few months back, when Bethesda announced of the fourth edition to the Elder Scroll series, Oblivion, the only thing that came into my mind was a new desktop, just 4 this game.

The Elder Scrolls IV : Oblivion begin's with the death of the rulling king without having a proper heir. Since there is no succesor to the throne, the ancient curse beseiged upon the elder scroll realm could not be averted. An ancient curese which holds the Oblivion will break through unless a king is on the throne. Oblivion is a parallel dimension of fire, brimstone and some very angry demons, in short hell. The barrier between this two realm has been opened. You are the chosen one to help close this barrier by finding the legitimate heir to the throne and restore hime to power.

Addition to The Elder Scrolls IV : Oblivion from it's previous series->

• a new game engine called havok physics - this engine has the capability to bring voices to every characters (NPC's) in the game world.
• tactical consequences - one such example is the persistence of arrows, where by gamers could stick an arrow through creatures and later pluck it out from the dead creature once the battle is over.
• added realism to npc's - every character has it's own voicework and walks along a scripted paths that can interdict at any point of time, and also eyes that tracks down on every movement while interacting with the gamer.
• combat - combat system is now ruled by actual physics based on gamers stats.
• graphics - photo realistic graphics.

The best is for the last, this game like it's award winning predecessor, Morrowind allows you to explore the main quest whilst playing or gamers could abondon the main quest entirely in order to gain name and fame in the Elder Scroll world. From all that I have read and herd of this game, good or bad, one thing is for sure come June (when the game will be released) rest assured, big amount of cash will be ready to buy a new desktop with the very best tecnology available in the market at that point of time just for this game. I think I wont regret it, just as i wasn't in the year 2002 when The Elder Scrolls III : Morrowind was released. Till then, i'll be waiting for any updates to this game from Bethesda Softworks. Adios.