In my young and impressionable days, people told me that RPG video games were evil and would lead to demon possession. Good Christian kids don't play RPG's.
One day I house sat for some cousins and popped in a game I'd never heard of before, out of curiosity. Final Fantasy IV, featuring a blond spikey haired anime dude with a meat cleaver of a sword. I really enjoyed that game, though I had to move out long before I'd finished the game.
When I discovered the wonderful world of emulation, I downloaded gameboy color and pokemon blue. This was essentially the same idea, but cuter and simpler. I enjoyed this too, though it failed to keep my attention due to the lack of emotion-laced cutscenes.
Then I was introduced to Dragonball Z, a cartoon straight out of japan with more spikey haired characters featuring lots of bizarre alien types and cataclysmic battles on various planets resulting in explosions visibile throughout the galaxy.
If you're familiar with any of these, you know that one theme holds true in each. What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger.
In the case of dragonball, every battle you survive increases your fighting power. This is why every Super-sayan is itching for a fight. In the video games, surviving a fight and getting a few hits in results in racking up hit points, which can be used to increase stats like strength and stamina.
Which brings us to the second theme that runs through the RPG entertainment industry.... that of growth and evolution. In dragonball, you ascend. You power up to a stronger more intimidating form of your previous self, and then you kick Majin Buu's ass. In video games, you go up a level, learn new abilities, and possibly change forms.
I think that the reason I like this stuff is because of the growth. I recognize the fact that as we live we grow, and I like a game that emulates that concept, however outrageous the expression of that concept is. I like being able to "teach" my characters to do different things, and I like it that they become stronger as they defeat different enemies.
I guess you could call it character development. And I find it encouraging because I hope that my character is developing too. Even though I'll probably never cut down any fiends with a sword that weighs more than me, or karate chop a gigantic life sucking pink alien from a distant planet, things that I go through on a day to day basis are still making me stronger. And though I'm sure I'll never power up to the second ascension of a super-sayan, and my hair won't grow long and turn blonde and my muscles won't expand and the veins in my neck won't bulge out, there might be a day when I no longer recognize the human that I am today.
So now I've been playing Final Fantasy X and I got my biggest dude up to 4000 Hit Points, with stats over 40. Awesome.
I just had a breezer on an empty stomach, though I had a headache to begin with. Needless to say, I'm not feeling well. So I'm gonna go to bed now and fall asleep to Romeo Must Die. Sweet dreams to me.
One day I house sat for some cousins and popped in a game I'd never heard of before, out of curiosity. Final Fantasy IV, featuring a blond spikey haired anime dude with a meat cleaver of a sword. I really enjoyed that game, though I had to move out long before I'd finished the game.
When I discovered the wonderful world of emulation, I downloaded gameboy color and pokemon blue. This was essentially the same idea, but cuter and simpler. I enjoyed this too, though it failed to keep my attention due to the lack of emotion-laced cutscenes.
Then I was introduced to Dragonball Z, a cartoon straight out of japan with more spikey haired characters featuring lots of bizarre alien types and cataclysmic battles on various planets resulting in explosions visibile throughout the galaxy.
If you're familiar with any of these, you know that one theme holds true in each. What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger.
In the case of dragonball, every battle you survive increases your fighting power. This is why every Super-sayan is itching for a fight. In the video games, surviving a fight and getting a few hits in results in racking up hit points, which can be used to increase stats like strength and stamina.
Which brings us to the second theme that runs through the RPG entertainment industry.... that of growth and evolution. In dragonball, you ascend. You power up to a stronger more intimidating form of your previous self, and then you kick Majin Buu's ass. In video games, you go up a level, learn new abilities, and possibly change forms.
I think that the reason I like this stuff is because of the growth. I recognize the fact that as we live we grow, and I like a game that emulates that concept, however outrageous the expression of that concept is. I like being able to "teach" my characters to do different things, and I like it that they become stronger as they defeat different enemies.
I guess you could call it character development. And I find it encouraging because I hope that my character is developing too. Even though I'll probably never cut down any fiends with a sword that weighs more than me, or karate chop a gigantic life sucking pink alien from a distant planet, things that I go through on a day to day basis are still making me stronger. And though I'm sure I'll never power up to the second ascension of a super-sayan, and my hair won't grow long and turn blonde and my muscles won't expand and the veins in my neck won't bulge out, there might be a day when I no longer recognize the human that I am today.
So now I've been playing Final Fantasy X and I got my biggest dude up to 4000 Hit Points, with stats over 40. Awesome.
I just had a breezer on an empty stomach, though I had a headache to begin with. Needless to say, I'm not feeling well. So I'm gonna go to bed now and fall asleep to Romeo Must Die. Sweet dreams to me.
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