Hand-Eye Coordination

       It seems like a decent enough excuse, anyway.  I mean, you do need to build up that hand-eye coordination regardless of whatever you choose to go on to do.  Can you imagine a fry cook without this necessary skill?  And clearly all taxi drivers are well versed in many of the more high-speed driving games.
       Alright, so, seriously.  Games.  Yes.  They are my favorite medium.  A mix of movie, book and album, they can be everything from intense emotional experiences to a really bloody kick-ass shoot-em-up.  Unfortunately it's also "really mainstream" right now, so games are being treated like Hollywood movies, which really isn't a good thing in the current era of Hollywood crap.

all About the Ultra-Violence

        Duh.  People don't play games for fun.  It's all about learning how to be more violent and a general menace to society.  It's what TV says, and I know TV wouldn't lie to me.  TV is like a video game, without the interactive part.  But you can just move your thumbs and pretend like you're controlling them.  It's most fun during the news.
       Okay, so I think Jack Thompson is a fucking nutcase and anyone who singles out video games as causing anything specifically are really just looking for something to blame.  Can art/entertainment/media trigger something?  Yes.  In an already unstable individual.  It's something to look for.  It's not something to "protect us all from" by taking away a perfectly valid form of storytelling.

Games that Changed My Life

       Yeah, I know.  Some people just don't understand this.  Whether you view a video game as art, entertainment or a blatant waste of time, it's storytelling.  And I love a good story.

       It's a rather well-know quote from Steven Spielberg: "The medium will come of age when somebody confesses that they cried at Level 17."  How about crying when characters you're come to love or have been existing through for months dies?  Forget tears--what happens when these digital dolls give us joy for years to come just because, in our minds and hearts, they really existed if only for as long as we held the controller?  What of all of the godawful geeky jokes that have become part of our very culture?  These are things that have affected my life.

       The Legend of Zelda - I got a Nintendo for Christmas.  And this beautiful gold cartridge.  I was never the same.  It was kind of hit or miss at first, as I'd never played a game like Zelda before.  So I stopped playing for a while... and then I started having the dreams.  They continue, once in a while, to this day.
       The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - This is so important to me that it deserved a mention separate from the first game.  Ocarina continues to be my favorite of the series.  There is just something about this world, this 3-D Hyrule, that stays with me.  Of course, there's something to do with the hacking and beta community as well, but... sshhh.
       Final Fantasy VII - Yes, yes.  I am "one of those" (probably obviously, in some cases).  FFVII hit me hard.  It's just one of those stories with so many layers.  And, regardless of how many people look down upon the Compilation... well.  Let's just say I'm surprised to be satisfied.
       Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2 - I was initially only interested because Nomura was involved.  ...I was pleasantly surprised to have another full-blooded obsession.  Matters of the heart.  They are of great interest to me.  Heh.
       ICO and Shadow of the Colossus - Named here together because I played them back-to-back and I just can't quite fully separate them from one another.  I played Shadow of the Colossus first, which is... unique.  From that perspective, it also feels as though ICO is more... poignant.  The battle before the final battle sort of... brought both games together for me, cementing them as favorites.

Games I Just Damn well Like

       Super Mario Brothers - First game I ever played.  I sucked so hard.  Pretty soon I could finish it upside-down.  Yes, really.  Haven't tried it in years, unfortunately.  I still enjoy SMB, SMB3, Super Mario World and Yoshi's Island.  Touch Fuzzy, Get Dizzy!
        Road Rash - 3D and Jailbreak, all the way.  I must admit, I love Jailbreak for the taunts alone.  And the jumps make it so easy to glitch the game.  ...Which is not necessarily good, just fun.
       LOOM - CD ROM games count, too!  Way back when... I absolutely fell in love with LOOM.  When I found out it was supposed to be the first game in a trilogy that the LucasArts team simply "lost interest in"... I was more than a little pissed off.  I guess it's for the best, though.  Lucas went a little nuts there for a while.
       Devil May Cry - Let's see here.  A hot, over-confident half-devil with a hot twin brother, all you do is run around killing demons and scary things with a big-ass sword or two pistols (and some other random stuff in there, too).  Yes.  Oh it works off a lot of frustration.  I only own the first because I found the sequel lacking and I'm waiting to afford the third.
       Twisted Metal - Oh come on, it's awesome.  You're driving around a city in cars around Christmas, right?  Only these cars have guns and missiles!!!  And there's an evil sadistic clown in an ice cream truck!!!  DUDE!  I will admit to being one of the few who liked TM3... but I suspect that was only for Rob Zombie.  Enjoy the hell out of Black, too.  (The fact that that sequel was canned really pisses me off.)