I am the Hero

Courtesy of Super Smash Bros. Wikia

First, I know I promised a post within an hour, but as I began to write I started to see that I could not fit all that I want to say into one post, so I decided to write two and post them at around the same time.

Ever since I was a kid I've been playing video games, and they've been a big part of my life. As well as the lives of others. I still remember playing games like Mariokart 64, Super Smash Bros. Meelee, etc. as a kid. I've grown up with these consoles, these games, these adventures, and they've taken part in who I am, how I think, and what I want. I know some of you may be rolling your eyes right now thinking that what I'm saying is ridiculous, but hear me out... or read me out?

Courtesy of Exposed Gaming

My parents often confuse playing video games with mindlessly tapping random buttons on a controller and staring at a screen, when it's really the exact opposite. Video games aren't just an activity in which you move a character from one spot to another. You see, I play games to experience the story, not to waste time and brain cells. When I am looking at my games, trying to decide which I want to play at the moment, I don't see video games, I see adventures. Do I want to be stranded on a lost island trying to save a close friend from the Sun Queen Himiko (Tomb Raider), or do I want to find myself with superpowers and try to save the city of Seattle from a corrupt government organization (Infamous Second Son)? In these games I get to solve puzzles that no one has solved before, discover treasure and lost cities, save people, defeat evil, and that's just the beginning of it. I get to go on adventures that I'll never get to experience in my life, and all I gotta do is grab a controller and play.

Courtesy of ign

These adventures aren't just on a screen either. As you play you get to meet what people call "characters," but as you play you learn that they are more than that. You learn who these people are, you fall in love with them and you learn to hate others, all the while you develop friends and enemies. The narrative of the game is so immersive that you feel what your character feels, all things from pain and sadness to joy and triumph. When I'm sailing the seas of what is now the flooded land of Hyrule, I feel the calmness of the ocean and the ocean spray against my face (The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker), or when I'm sneaking my way through an abandoned subway in a post-apocalyptic world without being caught by monstrous Clickers (The Last of Us), I feel the intensity, the pressure, and the fear of the situation as if I am there myself. I'm never just picking up a controller, I'm picking up a suit, a power that none but I can hold, a tool that will aid my quest. In the end, I get to escape a world where nothing but bad news is aired on the news and I cannot do anything about it, and enter a world where I can change everything, where I can save everyone, a world where I am the hero.