July--Videogame Month!

So I like the idea of having monthly themes. In addition to us doing a film director each month starting in August, I want to start having a topic each month in which bloggers can post about. I was thinking specifically that we come up with our own lists about the topic, since we all know of my fondness for lists.

July will be videogame month. Sample list ideas (please feel free to come up with your own): top 10 (or 25 or 50 or 100 or whatever, ranked, non-ranked, w/ commentary or w/o) favorite/best videogames; favorite characters; favorite soundtracks; best games of each genre; best games on each system; best systems; favorite villains; favorite levels; favorite gaming experiences; best multiplayer games; best weapons; your greatest gaming achievements; best story; hottest character; etc., etc., etc.

I will do some lists shortly probably, although I do not have time at the moment. I also just want to play more videogames. I am the only 20-something guy who says he should play more videogames. Videogames just happen to be fairly low on my priority list--certainly below literature and playing guitar, as well as being below watching film and listening to music and working out--so it is hard to find time out of the day to play them. But it's something I miss: the simple thrill of getting that hard-to-nab Mario star that took you about 45 tries (and only would take Daniel 2); the feeling of awe and wonder you get after crawling through sewer drains and over dead scientist bodies and creeping away from a gigantic tentacle monster to finally reach the blinding sunlight that greets you in "Surface Tension" in the original Half-Life; mysteriously going from 5,000 coins in LEGO Indiana Jones to over six billion, neither Jake nor I knowing what the fuck just happened; endless, endless nights on Danel's pull-out sofa, going through every possible option in the arcade mode of Perfect Dark, forever trying in vain to outwit the the utilitarian PerfectSims and the more deceptive and creative DarkSims, poets of the ambush. I miss the first playthroughs of games that I didn't know at the time would change my life, but that have forever since haunted my mind with their memories: GoldenEye, Super Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie, Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Final Fantasy VII and X, Grand Theft Auto III (why do so many people hate this series now?), and so many others.

Videogames to me have perhaps the most potential of any artistic medium. They have the ability to immerse the audience like no other form of art. This has endless potential. Recently games have innovated beyond their traditional shoot-everything, collect-coins route, with games like Portal or Heavy Rain or others pushing boundaries. I think The Sims should be acknowledged as one of the most innovative games for its time, and this was a very early game to push the boundaries of what a game should be. The idea of controlling everyday people living their lives just like us is a fascinating one, and raises a lot of existential questions about our society and its need for escape and its capacity for voyeurism. Although I think it's true that videogames are far behind such artistic mediums as literature or now film (and TV is also catching up, with shows like The Wire or Breaking Bad or many others), we have to realize just how new the medium is. Film was not as far advanced this short into its history as videogames already are. All of these visual arts are very new things in comparison to literature, so it's not fair if we bemoan the fact that videogames haven't produced a Dante or a Shakespeare yet. They will. I think it is very pessimistic to say that videogames will always just be the domain of teenagers just trying to kill zombies after school given the great leaps and bounds that have been made in recent years towards more artistic games--there are too many for me to even begin to list here.

Anyways, I hope to see others writing on the subject and maybe we can all make lists of our favorite videogame stuff. And it's always fun to see commentary with lists, since I'd much rather read why someone likes something rather then just read a number and a name. This is a blog after all!

--Edward