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HeadroomWhen video games became too real, they lost me. Date published: 12/29/2005
After last week's little hiatus, I was prepared to end the year with a few countdowns. Now that I am actually sitting down to write my last column of '05, I've had a little change of heart. I recently turned 18, and that has caused me to reminisce on the past a bit. Nothing too utterly serious, but at the same time not merely idle daydreams. I started at it! magazine back in my eighth-grade year, and now I am a senior. When I started writing, my territory was mostly video-game reviews. Video games used to be my thing; I used to love video games. For a while, I could tell you practically anything about the current video-game market. Times have changed, and so have the games. Aside from writing, there used to be three things I lived for: cartoons, comic books and video games. They were all wonderful escapes from reality. I have survived high school mostly because of these things. They provided me something that was mostly my own, seeing as how most high-schoolers don't, or wouldn't readily admit, being fanatic about any of them. I still fall asleep and wake up to Cartoon Network, last week I spent an exuberant amount of money on comic books--as a "Merry Christmas to me" sort of thing--and I still have four video-game systems in my house, though none of them have been used for a long time. What happened? Why can't I find an escape in video games anymore like I can in comic books and cartoons? I know why, and that is, perhaps, what bothers me the most. The problem is simple: Video games have become too real. I was always a die-hard Nintendo fan. To me, the Xbox was always better as a doorstop than as a game console. I left the PlayStation to my brother. However, in the new battle for the most realistic graphics, physics and player immersion, video games have lost their appeal. Why pay for reality when I can live it for free? Looking back on this month, which for me contained not only Christmas but, as I wrote previously, my birthday, this was the first year I didn't ask for anything video game-related. I asked for "Star Wars" and DVD boxed sets of cartoons, the "Fantastic Four" DVD and fantasy books like Neil Gaiman's "Anansi Boys," but no video games. It's not the games' fault, and it is not technology's fault for continuing to allow greater and greater levels of realism. The blame rests squarely on my shoulders. Or, I guess, more so in my mind and in my desire to not grow up. RYAN BROSMER is a senior
1. Be respectful. No personal attacks.
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