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Smash Rookie
Link to original post: [drupal=1378]Pilotwings: Food for Thought[/drupal]
Possibly the first video game that I ever played, and definitely the one that drew me into this hobby that has seemingly defined both my actions and my identity for two decades, was Pilotwings for the SNES. Looking back on the game now, the graphics are still pretty good, the controls are very responsive (as some of the aeronautical mini games require pin-point accuracy... or do you want to land your parachute off the bulls eye?), and the amount of mini-games and levels packed into this thing could probably produce decent sales if imported to the Nintendo DS and shipped as "Pilotwings Portable." But, as is the way with youth, none of those important gaming characteristics drove me to play Pilotwings for hours and hours. It was, in the end (or maybe the beginning...), the fact that my uncle Richard, role-model and favorite person in the world, bought it for me, and that I wanted to be good at it because he gave it to me.
Undoubtedly my uncle Richard knew he was giving me my first video game and console, but there was no way he could have expected it to snowball into a hobby that has probably cost me or my family over ten thousand dollars over the years. Sure, enjoyment is how you spend your time, and time is money, right. But he couldn't have known that because of the gift he gave me before I could even grasp the idea of giving without receiving, I would be playing Super Smash Bros. and Team Fortress 2 at an almost competitive level. He couldn't have known that his gift would shape what I spent my social hours talking about all throughout elementary, middle, and high school, what friends I made and how I made them, or the other innumerable ways that video games have shaped me.
Am I as big a fan of comics, both American and Japanese, because of my videogaming hobby? Did I choose an individually competitive sport, swimming, because of my competitive as opposed to co-operative nature, and do I owe that to performing Flawless Victories on my Sub Zero older brother with Scorpion until my fingers hurt? How different would I have been if I hadn't been introduced to Pilotwings when I was so young?
Maybe it didn't matter how or when I was introduced to video games; maybe I was always going to be a gamer and if my uncle didn't give me a game, I would play one at a friend's house. Or maybe if I hadn't practiced taking off and landing that 16-bit airplane over and over, I would have been a football playing, musically adept Business major.
I'll never know, and I guess the fun truth is that it doesn't matter. I saw my uncle Richard a few months ago at the Christmas family reunion, and we had a long, adult talk about our lives, his kids, and where I'm heading. We didn't even once mention video games, but I sort of wish I had thanked him for buying me that SNES. And maybe I will next time I see him.
Food for thought.
Possibly the first video game that I ever played, and definitely the one that drew me into this hobby that has seemingly defined both my actions and my identity for two decades, was Pilotwings for the SNES. Looking back on the game now, the graphics are still pretty good, the controls are very responsive (as some of the aeronautical mini games require pin-point accuracy... or do you want to land your parachute off the bulls eye?), and the amount of mini-games and levels packed into this thing could probably produce decent sales if imported to the Nintendo DS and shipped as "Pilotwings Portable." But, as is the way with youth, none of those important gaming characteristics drove me to play Pilotwings for hours and hours. It was, in the end (or maybe the beginning...), the fact that my uncle Richard, role-model and favorite person in the world, bought it for me, and that I wanted to be good at it because he gave it to me.
Undoubtedly my uncle Richard knew he was giving me my first video game and console, but there was no way he could have expected it to snowball into a hobby that has probably cost me or my family over ten thousand dollars over the years. Sure, enjoyment is how you spend your time, and time is money, right. But he couldn't have known that because of the gift he gave me before I could even grasp the idea of giving without receiving, I would be playing Super Smash Bros. and Team Fortress 2 at an almost competitive level. He couldn't have known that his gift would shape what I spent my social hours talking about all throughout elementary, middle, and high school, what friends I made and how I made them, or the other innumerable ways that video games have shaped me.
Am I as big a fan of comics, both American and Japanese, because of my videogaming hobby? Did I choose an individually competitive sport, swimming, because of my competitive as opposed to co-operative nature, and do I owe that to performing Flawless Victories on my Sub Zero older brother with Scorpion until my fingers hurt? How different would I have been if I hadn't been introduced to Pilotwings when I was so young?
Maybe it didn't matter how or when I was introduced to video games; maybe I was always going to be a gamer and if my uncle didn't give me a game, I would play one at a friend's house. Or maybe if I hadn't practiced taking off and landing that 16-bit airplane over and over, I would have been a football playing, musically adept Business major.
I'll never know, and I guess the fun truth is that it doesn't matter. I saw my uncle Richard a few months ago at the Christmas family reunion, and we had a long, adult talk about our lives, his kids, and where I'm heading. We didn't even once mention video games, but I sort of wish I had thanked him for buying me that SNES. And maybe I will next time I see him.
Food for thought.