Concerning Video Games

I'm not a gamer. I just never really saw a point in sitting and staring at a screen for hours with a controller that didn't even have the full alphabet on it or at least a number pad.  These days I understand why people like it, but I've missed all those introductory years of getting used to using controllers and building those fine motor skills. So, those controllers are basically just a pain for my hand. I'd take a pen and paper or a keyboard that wasn't ergonomic any day.

Actually, I do take those every had so, there's no problem there.

However, I do like watching video games. It's like watching a movie, but your friend is participating in it while you offer or root for the other side if your friend recently pissed you off. It's the best of both worlds really. I get to watch TV like a normal person while my gamer friends get to play their video games like the weird people they are. If I get bored, I pull out a book and join a different reality.

Being in three at once is rather tough on the eyes though...

However, there are times when I do enjoy playing video games. I like the games where people fight each other like Mortal Kombat. I'm a regular button-masher so I never do well, but I have fun getting my ass kicked. I have more fun when I finally figure out what I'm doing and I suddenly surprise my friends by kicking their butts.  I used to have a bunch of fun with a Gameboy and SuperMarioBrothers and Pokemon when I was younger.

Then I sort of... stopped.

In the past four years, I've picked up Kingdom Hearts. My youngest cousin is to blame (that's my story and I'm sticking to it), she was playing it one day and for some reason I thought I'd try it and it was actually pretty fun.  She learned whole new curse words from me when I was fighting Cerberus.  It actually led to me getting a PS2 and the game itself. If I ever... finish it (you know when I'm not writing, finding a job, or throwing stuff at Goofy's head), she's offered to let me borrow the other ones.

Because that's the thing. I get the draw of video games. You get to be part of the story. You get to enter the sandbox and build castles there. I get it. I do.

I just prefer looking at pre-build sandcastles (books, TV shows, and movies) or making my own sandbox and building my own castle from my own sand (writing).

I'm not saying that I don't respect videogames or the worlds that the creators make. I think a majority of them are pure genius. Heck, I once spent a whole day reading about the plots to the Final Fantasy series. It wasn't because I want to play the games, I just wanted to know the story.  When I heard about Wreck It Ralph, it was the same thing!

I would never play that video game, but the story sounds amazing.

Skyrim was really fun to watch my friends play. Of course, I had a gamer friend who had to read all the books. So, sometimes we'd sit there... reading books... on the television. Yeah. Even I thought that was a little surreal. And I thought I had problems with reality what with my growing love of fanfiction which I can now carry... in my POCKET on my IPhone!

I also have the ebooks for classic literature on there... and manga... but that's because I like variety. And it makes me look like I'm not completely deranged (you guys already know I am deranged though).

But anyhow, I recognize and enjoy video games as a story-telling medium. I just do not enjoy playing them as much as most people, and I probably never will.  I do enjoy watching people play them. I love the way some of my friends light up when a new game comes out. It's really funny because I know I'm like that with certain books and movies (I squeed like a tween over The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey).

However, could you please, please not tell me to try this video game or that video game, because I startle easily and I don't always come back.

That or you could just talk to my youngest cousin and see how she convinced me to play Kingdom Hearts...