The Triangle

Issue date: 7/3/09 Section: Ed-Op

Media Credit: Leonard Ortiz Orange County Register/MCT

As I write this, there are many issues going on in the world today. Economic woes, political woes, and all the celebrities that you like are dying off while the ones that you don't like continue to thrive and multiply like roaches. Fortunately, we're not going into anything serious or deep like that. We're going to talk about video games and why they are awesome - and also why they can be not so awesome. Just a disclaimer: you'll probably get more out of this if you are an actual gamer, seeing as how it was written by one. And when I say gamer I mean a gamer, not someone who just plays Wii Fit or "Rock Band" or "DDR," or even "Super Smash Bros." It's OK if you play those, but if you play only those, you aren't a gamer.

Gamers are the people who don't know their way around the place they live, but they have the layout of Paradise City memorized and know the subway system of Liberty City by heart. We may not know the exchange rate of dollars to euros, but that doesn't matter since we deal in gil and rupees. Basically if you have ever been shot, stabbed, thrown, sniped, stuck, ganked, assassinated, dominated, owned, pwned, poisoned, paralyzed, burned, frozen, silenced, feared, possessed, drowned, sapped, trapped, slowed, nerfed, buffed, electrocuted, run over, eaten or just driven into a guardrail by that jackass in 2nd place, you are a gamer.

This is my first time writing an Op-Ed piece so I did some research and apparently the term "Op-Ed" comes from the Latin phrase "opinious editus" which when translated, literally means "The opinion of Ed." So, I talked to my cousin Ed, who just so happens to work in the videogame industry.

Ed works for a company called Moberg Research. According to Ed, his job is to find out what makes a good game, and what will sell and make money. Apparently this involves playing a lot of "Counter-Strike: Source." I've never actually seen him do anything else. When I see him we are either having lunch or he's in "Office" charging up garage stairs with a shotgun. I asked Ed what he likes about video games and his reply was two words: "challenging entertainment."

To me this is a fairly accurate description of the gaming world, which contains dozens of sub genres such as first person shooters, racing games and role playing games. Playing a game is not like watching TV or a movie. It is an experience that you are a part of, that you allow yourself to become immersed in, in order to move things forward.

Continued...

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