Too Sheltered to Know
Growing up I did not find video games as interesting as some other kids did. I grew up the youngest of 10 children and moved to America when I was 4 years old from Syria, so playing video games was not the main objective for my youth. I spent most of my time watching television and learning the American language and found no real interest in video games so my parents never bought me any. When we moved to America it was 5 of my siblings and I living together with my parents in a four bedroom home. I remember my brothers getting a Sega Dreamcast that I used once or twice to play a fighting game that I don’t even remember the name of. I was not allowed to have friends over or go to friends’ homes until late high school and playing alone was not fun since my siblings never wanted to play with me.
One day, however, I was able to experience this world of gaming with a solo handheld device that I received on my 9th birthday in the year 2000. I was introduced to the world of Pokémon at an early age watching it as one of my first favorite English speaking cartoons. My cousin and I have the same birthday two year apart and were celebrating it at the park when it came time for presents. I uncovered my first gaming device, a teal blue Game Boy Color with the Pokémon Yellow Version to go along with it.
This mode of entertainment was new to me and I was quickly emerging myself into it. The following week after receiving my Game Boy were just mind melting, eye sticking, and no looking away weeks spent playing until I beat the game. I remember getting my first Game Boy color and my cousin being mad that I got blue since his “red” Game Boy looked pink. I also remember being so eager to play it, but couldn't in the car ride home because it was too dark and this Gameboy did not have a backlit screen to allow for playing in the dark.
Things took a shift once I had acquired my license at the age of 16 and was finally able to experience the freedoms of going out with friends which allowed me to leave the house. Being able to go to friends’ houses meant that I could now try out all the games that I had never gotten to play. However, when I did start to play them I was the worst player because I was years behind in experience compared to all my friends. Even if it was a new game that just came out, previous knowledge and skills obtained by similar games that my friends played in the past transferred over to these new games leaving me unable to truly play well. This skill that my friends had in their shooting games and role playing games never really fascinated me on being a skill that I wanted to acquire. The only game that I found myself really enjoying was Super Smash Brothers because it had the Pikachu character from my Pokémon game on my Game Boy that I was already familiar with, so I got a quick grasp on its moves and really got into the game. That relation that I had between the two games allowed for my interest to grow with Super Smash Brothers up until today during my college years at UCSD. I find myself often playing Super Smash Brothers at my buddies’ homes even though I am still fairly bad at the game myself. My friends with years of experience, both on GameCube and Nintendo versions of the game, mastered blocking and quick dodge defensive moves while I don’t use those methods and just purely play offense. I know if I want to win more and take less damage I should learn how to play more defensively, but I think my goal is more to participate than to win so I never really care to take on new tricks like that when I don’t see them being too necessary.
I found that “interest-driven practices such as gaming are not age specific” (197) because the only two real games I played growing up are still games that I would love to play anytime now. I remember slightly playing some online games but was never too into any specific games so I would only play for like a few minutes and get bored quickly and find something else to do.
My main playing has never been competitive and more recreational with my games but now as an adult playing these games with fellow students at school, it is becoming more of a competitive state since we play so often and our skills are progressing (well at least mine since I didn’t have much to begin with like everyone else)! I remember first playing Super Smash Brothers at my cousin’s house since I never had my own consoles.
I was dazzled by the games graphics and player choices / stage choices even though I didn’t know many of the players nor could I really identity which stage goes with what player. I still loved everything about the game, from its graphics and music to its easy play and customization in controllers to give everyone a familiar grip onto the game.
Being so unfamiliar with these games growing up made me focus more on other characteristics of the games when I play them now. I tend to listen in on the songs of the games a lot of the times and enjoy their consistent repetition that keeps the players focused in. Then with their position based cycles of transitioning music that take players from one level objective to another in both sound and game play. These attributes of media in gaming evolve the players into other modes of media as well. For me it was music and playing violin for 6 years. Starting in middle school I would often try and cover some little tunes I heard in the games (specifically those that were in my Pokémon Yellow Version, and Pokémon Sapphire that I got a few years later with my new Game Boy advanced SP which had the backlight for gaming in the dark).
Today I have been getting into music production with a program called Ableton.
Playing Pokémon as a kid and listening in on their soundtracks and transitioning music that they apply when going into battles or healing your Pokémon at the Poke-Center, really influenced the first sounds I found myself making on the software. All my friends would describe my music as “Video Game’y” with its 8 bit sounds and repetitive structures with various effects not found in commercial music. Part of my education today deals with knowing how to use sound in film and one mode of sound is the music I create myself, this influence left by the one video game that I played as a kid really took effect on my production of music. Realizing that I have been making this music that sounds somewhat “video game’y” left me thinking about incorporating it more into all the music I make as somewhat of a signature that ties in my limited knowledge of video games and possibly creating something one day that could be used in a video game.
