Hand to Eye: Video Games and Me

The cute lil' graphic on the blog reminds me of how much time in my life I've played and enjoyed computer video games. This weekend, as part of Nissa Fest, I found the Playstation that the nephews leave up at the lakehouse, for the lone under 10 guest to the festivities to play with. There was a Jedi game in the console, and we ended up playing for a while.

It reminded me of my days playing games. I got my first one when I was probably about 12 or 13. It was an Atari-- the really cool game system of the time. I used to play Pitfall, and all the other big games of the time. They were, if you can recall the period, sort of boring games. After mastering the art of Pitfall, I used to, for fun, drop the little guy into the water for the alligators to eat. Mwah ha ha!

I've spent many a night playing some stupid game and thinking "okay, it's late and I'm tired, but just let me get this last level and I'll go to sleep" only to realize on the "next" level that I really wanted to play to see how this one turned out.

When I finished my BA degree, for a couple of months, Andrew was in Italy & I was stuck in a friend's teeny-tiny apartment where the couple downstairs would alternate very noisy sex with very noisy fighting/arguments (and one time, combined the two in the space of about 10 minutes). My main amusement was playing this long puzzle-based game called Roger Wilco. And eating Pepperidge farm cookies and drinking tea. I also sent out rounds of my poetry to various small journal poetry presses (they were all eventually rejected, causing me to pretty much stop sending out my poetry).

I have had some addictive periods to The Sims;* I even wrote a paper for a conference about feeling like "GOD" to the little computer people. I am actively avoiding buying the new version of the Sims because I know how much time that will suck out of my life. I played a really long game called The Longest Journey a while back and love it; the story-line was great and the graphics pretty fab. It didn't do very well, apparently, in the US since our video game market is apparently driven by teenaged boys and first-person shooter games and/or games where you can get points if you run over a "ho" in your stolen car. I myself like the long role-playing puzzle solving games (combine this chewed piece of gum with this bandaid and save the world). But apparently that's not the norm.

I have really good hand-eye coordination. I can master many video games much more rapidly than the average 10 year old (as evidenced by the fact that I was whipping little 9 year old "J"'s butt within two game plays of the Jedi game). I have avoided almost un-avoidable car accidents in the past without even really having to think about it-- just react and drive and think later. I wonder if it has anything at all to do with my adventures in jungle vine-swinging, dropping Pitfall guy into the swamp to be eaten by gators. It may just.

My hubby, who is really great at pool (billiards too) says that being able to play those games is a sign of a "wasted youth." Yes, I agree. So is being great at video games. But I tell ya, if there ever comes a day when the plot of the Last Starfighter comes true, me and the nerds of America will be holed up in some dark room, eating Twinkies and chee-tos and saving the universe. Just keep it dim in there, please, and stock up on the pizza. It's for the good of humanity, after all.

*That is the Kim Sim from my game playing days....