(Paper 1: WRA 491)
Technology has come to affect every part of my life, from how I get around to how I learn, and to how I have fun. When I was very young I had a love of cars that caused me to learn how to read "Mazda" and "Ford" before I could properly read. I used to ask my dad to explain to me how all sorts of things worked. It got so bad that he eventually bought the book How Things Work to help him explain things to me.
One of the things my father and I would do when I was very young was play Pac Man together on his Atari 2600. It was not something that occurred often but it was a fun thing that we did together. As I got older, I had dad teach me how to set up the Atari and play it without his help. You have to note that at this time I was not what you would call a Gamer. My friends and I still spent most of our time outside pushing toy dump trucks and riding bicycles. The "descent" into gaming would not happen for a bit longer.
My descent (or ascension depending on your opinion) into gaming began sometime during kindergarten. My mother and father left on a trip for their anniversary and left my sister and I in the custody of some of their friends. The couple already had three children of their own and they were much older than my sister and I. The eldest son also had a Nintendo Entertainment System(NES) complete with Super Mario Brothers. Since my sister and I didn't have anyone our age to play with and were stuck at this house, I found myself fighting boredom by playing NES.
I played for hours. Knowing that I had nothing better to do fueled a desire to keep going; to try and get further, try and beat my last score. Once in awhile I would come out of the basement and make human contact. We did fun things like swim or go for a ride in a boat. As best I can recall though, I spent most of that weekend making friends with the plumber.
After that event, I asked for a Nintendo of my own for Christmas. Christmas of 1987, I received my first video game console as a Christmas gift. I would not come to play it heavily until my following birthday where my parents got me the Legend of Zelda. This was the beginning of the downward spiral. Zelda was an incredibly addicting game. Unlike Mario or the Atari titles I played, Zelda challenged my mind. I was dropped in an expansive world with no instructions on where I should go aside from cryptic clues.
In no time my parents had to start putting 1 hour limits on my playing time, a rule I would break later by going over to other people's houses and playing their Nintendos. Still I played outside with my friends, though I had developed a dislike for team sports since all the people who played them struck me as jerks. This was probably because I had yet to develop a competitive attitude to speak of, but regardless, I developed a dislike for the activities that would only increase my gaming as time went on.
Christmas of 1991 my parents got me a Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and the following year a Sega Genesis. These two 16-bit systems would become my best friends during middle school, a tragic time where my inability to fit in with those who would be called my "peers," resulted in me coming home ready to break down and cry on a fairly regular basis. It was during this time that I went from a casual player of video games from a full out gamer. To survive, middle school life required at least one hour of Sonic the Hedgehog to get me through my homework. We also finally got a Pentium computer, a machine powerful enough to run games that were more complex and had better graphics than the ones on my 16-bit consoles at the time.
High school went much better for me, but by then gaming had become a part of who I was. By then I was on computer games as often as console games and my hobby had expanded into a full out obsession. I tracked news on video games, watched out for upcoming titles, read reviews on video games, and even had a subscription to Computer Gaming World. My friends and I started to have discussions and arguments about game play and game mechanics, discussions that would lead me to think critically about games in the ways I do today in college.
Aside from being my emotional escape during middle school and a topic of discussion among friends, video games actually provided me with a number of excellent opportunities to expand my knowledge. I learned how to keep a well-maintained computer out of direct interest of gaming with it. I learned how to put a computer together because I wanted to know how to upgrade components for gaming. I also know as much as I do about MS-Dos because I had to navigate it in order to play computer games pre-Windows 95.
One game especially though served to expand upon my gaming literacy, and that game is Starcraft. Blizzard Entertainment's Real Time Strategy(RTS) classic entered my life in 1998, not long after its release. Already a fan of the RTS-genre, I had been waiting eagerly for Blizzard's newest game for several years. When I learned of its release, I bought it as soon as I had the cash and prepared for a good time.
I enjoyed Starcraft almost instantly. The game's setting, which was in a science fiction universe instead of the popular Warcraft fantasy one, struck a cord with me and its plot was excellent and unpredictable. The story and game play execution of the plot set a standard that all RTS games are still judged by today. The multiplayer experience was also outstanding because it was the first RTS to have an online network owned and maintained by the company that made the game. This allowed those who purchased Starcraft to play online at no more cost than the game itself. Indeed, Blizzard's Battle.net, originally designed for their Diablo title, helped facilitate the massive online competitive following that Starcraft gained.
My literacy skills expanded from my online experiences with Starcraft. The most obviously noticeable thing that Starcraft did for me was improve my reading and typing speeds. Due to the game's complex tactical nature, one finds oneself needing to convey to allies complex ideas like "There are red guys over there. Let's attack them before they build up a force." To type such a message in a game where seconds count can place most people at risk. For this reason, many players gave up communicating effectively with their allies at all or invented abbreviations. I, on the other hand, saw this as an opportunity to rapidly improve my typing speed so I could communicate my complex strategies to my allies. So while everyone else was typing out "OMG Z-man rush" as one message and then "send hlp plz thnx" as another, I was saying "You got it blue. Marines en route, ETA 25 seconds."
Online messages sent during a game of Starcraft only persist for a short while. Once typed messages disappear, the game lacks any sort of feature that records the message, so if you missed it, it's gone. The messages also seemed to have a standard persist time, regardless of their length, so longer messages required fast reading. This got even more complicated when multiple people were sending messages at once so I had to learn to read very quickly.
Starcraft also helped develop my writing techniques for the online presence. During the summer of 1999 I was the leader of a community of Starcraft players (or Clan) named the "Xel' Naga Mercenaries." In order to keep the clan together, I created a website dedicated to our group. Now, while the site was nothing that I would brag about by today's standards (Let's face it, we all made the mistake of using frames in the 90s), the site was the first time I tried to build a webpage I actually had content for. As the site's sole designer, maintainer, contact person and content author, I had to do all sorts of writing that I had not done before:
I can beat myself up over how much better built or designed I could do the site now, but the fact remains that doing that site was a huge learning experience about writing for the web. The experience I took away from the XNM site helped to mold me as a writer for the web for years to come. The site even helped me later in one of my classes in college where I analyzed all the old websites I made over time.
Now as an adult studying Professional Writing and technical communication, I enjoy applying the considerations I'm learning about writing and literacy to my favorite pastime. I like looking to see what innovations to human interactivity design are being used in games that then appear in everyday life. Take for example the "In-Game World Map" complete with current exact location and destination markers. Google Maps and GPS devices today perform a very similar feature.
Another thing that fascinates me about literacy and games is the way that limitations in communication technology have caused our language to wrap itself around the medium. Players of games have invented and borrowed all sorts of terms to describe actions in games, leading to new definitions and expansions on the English language. From complaining about "spawn campers" and "Leeroys" and people who "ninja loot the drop," the gaming community have invented a number of interesting terms to easier describe the complex occurrences during their games. Sometimes these terms become international as proof of my Singapore Starcraft buddies using the term "Newbie."
There is a realistic concern that could be formed however. This modification that the Internet and Internet gaming has caused to the English language is breaking down the structure of our language in some fundamental ways. There is a revolt against this among the mature members of the gaming community, best represented by Penny-Arcade's Mr. Period comics. Regardless, it seems like we are loosing the battle and it is probably only a matter of time before gaming words like "haxx0rz," "n00b," "raid," "lamer," and "1337" become actual dictionary recognized words. As I type this, Microsoft Word XP recognizes all of those terms as acceptable words of the English language. Thankfully "pwned" is not recognized yet. With any luck continuing advances in Voice-Over-IP technology and broadband will keep the butchering of the English language to the vocal front rather than the written one.
Video games are now just as much a part of our world as film and the effects it will have on our literacy will only continue. With millions of dollars going into the industry, new innovations in control and online play methods coming out, and the next generation of consoles on the horizon, the industry aims to invade the lives of more and more people. No longer the geek's pastime of my youth, you're no body if you don't know that 360 means the new X-box as opposed to how many degrees in a circle. I wait with eager anticipation to see just how profound of a mark Blizzard's newest soul-eater, World of Warcraft, will leave on the populous. I've already noticed its effects in my own life and the effects are both amazing and frightening all at once. For better or worse, the effects on our learning and literacy will no doubt be profound.
Starcraft is copyright Blizzard Entertainment 1998-2005. I do not take credit for the game or any of it's content. Images from Starcraft by Blizzard.