Video Games

I am a huge gamer. I game when ever I get the chance, usually all of my out of school time. Games are on the cutting edge of technology, in programming, grahpics, everything. They are a growing industry, one I see as possibly the largest ever at some point. People buy games like mad, sell them back for credit or cash. Fans cry out for sequals, rejoice when they are annonced, then retreat back into their holes when the sequal is cancelled and dreams are crushed.

I recently got my hands on oneof the newest games, Mass Effect 2. I've played it through once already, 24 hours clocked in on time spent playing it. I'm on my second playfuk, with all of the downloadble content that is free installed. I'm pretty sure I'll have at least two hours plus clocked in on this game. It's an RPG game, meaning even if I play it throught the whole way three or four times, theres always a different way for theg ame to end. As well, you can import your save from Mass Effect 2 to Mass Effect 3 when it comes out, which means your decisions in one game affect what happens in the other. If you own all three games, you can play for a total of 72 hours from one game to the next, importing your character each time, gainng bonuses for doing so, and changing the story in different and unexpected ways.

This is just one example of how far games have come. In the early days there was pong, now we have Halo. Before we had 8-bit Mario, now we have full fledged 3D adventures in space. The thing games are striving for is full virtual immersion, or at least thats what I think. A game where you can be surrounded by the scenery, and be the character. Like the holo0-deck in Star Trek. Games are looking more real all teh time, to the pint of looking almost ugle from being too real. Guns sound real, you hear the hearbeat speed up when injured. It gives a feeling of immersion. Even today, there are glasses you can strap on to give yourself and almost 3D feel through depth perception. Especially fun when falling from a 50 story building.

Games are wonderous inventions, perfect distractions, and they arn't going away. People think of gamers as socially deprived, or fat and greasy, but this is not true. Games have a strong sense of loyalty to one another, whether it be they jsut met online, or know each other in real life. When you become a gamer, and find a group to join, you really do feel a part of the communitty. The great thing is, if you find something new, or better, or a different group, no ones going to garber a grudge against, because theres always better and newer gasmes or programs comming out.