GreyHorace
Member
What are things that were featured in videogames that you developed an appreciation for? To be specific, these are elements that are not unique to gaming such as gameplay, graphics, design, etc. Rather these are elements that can found in other media that you developed a renewed liking for after being featured in a videogame. It could a genre of fiction, a historical period, a lost way of life, etc.
Being a guy with a pretty unexciting life, I'm thankful of some things that an escapist medium like videogames has allowed me to experience and appreciate at my leisure. Things like:
The Western (Red Dead Redemption 1 & 2) - It's not like I was unfamiliar with the genre. My dad is a big fan of the old John Ford westerns along with the Sergio Leone Dollars trilogy, and I'd watched movies like Unforgiven and liked them. But the genre never really clicked with me until I played the first Red Dead game. Suddenly I could immerse myself in that setting and at least get an inkling of what being a cowboy at the turn of century would have felt like. And the sequel even made things better that I sought out Rockstar Games' biggest inspiration for their take on the genre, Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch (by far the best Western movie I've ever seen).
Poland, Slavic fantasy and folklore (The Witcher series) - For many of us gamers, fantasy is a bunch of elements cribbed from Dungeons and Dragons and the works of JRR Tolkien. And Poland was that country the Nazis first invaded in World War 2. How sweet it was when CD Projekt Red came out with The Witcher games and showed the world that Poland could offer entertainment that other countries and cultures could appreciate (the popularity of The Witcher Netflix series should be an indicator). And through their adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski's books we got a glimpse of the kind of fantasy inspired by Slavic folklore that we don't often see.
The Renaissance (Assassin's Creed 2 and Brotherhood) - As far as I was concerned, this era of history was a time when a bunch of ninja turles lived and created some of the most famous works of art in world. But when AC2 put us in the shoes of Ezio Auditore, we got to see what an intriguing and dangerous place Renaissance Italy really was. Hanging out with bros like Leonardo Da Vinci while fighting off a corrupt church led by the Pope himself, Rodrigo Borgia. I won't claim that the AC games are true to historical fact, but they're proof that learning history doesn't have to be boring.
The Golden Age of Piracy (Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag) - Like the Renaissance example above, most of what we know of piracy in the Carribbean probably comes from a bunch of Disney movies starring Johnny Depp. Black Flag places you in that era in the shoes of Edward Kenway, who captains his own ship and crew while interacting with some of the more famous buncaneers of note like Edward "Blackbeard" Teach, Charles Vane, "Calico" Jack Rackham and Barthlomew "Bart" Roberts. Sailing the high seas, plundering ships and singing sea shanties. Black Flag is everything you wanted in a game being a pirate.
World War 2 tactial warfare (Brothers in Arms series) - Most FPS games like Call of Duty and Medal of Honor set in WW2 have in the role of a lone soldier gunning down multiple dirty Nazis. Brothers in Arms disabuses you of that notion, placing you in command of a paratrooper company and commanding them through some harrowing real life combat encounters during the Allied Invasion. Learn to command your troops to lay down covering fire while you and the rest of the squad flank the enemy, just like the soldiers who fought this war for real did. The makers of the game said they wanted gamers to experience the hell of war that the soldiers faced and how they achieved victory through some quick tactical thinking. I'd say mission accomplished.
Scale (Dragon's Dogma) - Giant enemies in RPGs are not uncommon. But Dragon's Dogma was the first game where I felt the enormity of the monster I was trying to kill. You weren't stuck at the ground level hacking away at it's knees. At times you had to climb the behemoth itself in order to defeat it, which made every victory earned and satisfying. I wish more games took this approach.
So those are things I learned to appreciate because of videogames. What's yours GAF?
Being a guy with a pretty unexciting life, I'm thankful of some things that an escapist medium like videogames has allowed me to experience and appreciate at my leisure. Things like:
The Western (Red Dead Redemption 1 & 2) - It's not like I was unfamiliar with the genre. My dad is a big fan of the old John Ford westerns along with the Sergio Leone Dollars trilogy, and I'd watched movies like Unforgiven and liked them. But the genre never really clicked with me until I played the first Red Dead game. Suddenly I could immerse myself in that setting and at least get an inkling of what being a cowboy at the turn of century would have felt like. And the sequel even made things better that I sought out Rockstar Games' biggest inspiration for their take on the genre, Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch (by far the best Western movie I've ever seen).
Poland, Slavic fantasy and folklore (The Witcher series) - For many of us gamers, fantasy is a bunch of elements cribbed from Dungeons and Dragons and the works of JRR Tolkien. And Poland was that country the Nazis first invaded in World War 2. How sweet it was when CD Projekt Red came out with The Witcher games and showed the world that Poland could offer entertainment that other countries and cultures could appreciate (the popularity of The Witcher Netflix series should be an indicator). And through their adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski's books we got a glimpse of the kind of fantasy inspired by Slavic folklore that we don't often see.
The Renaissance (Assassin's Creed 2 and Brotherhood) - As far as I was concerned, this era of history was a time when a bunch of ninja turles lived and created some of the most famous works of art in world. But when AC2 put us in the shoes of Ezio Auditore, we got to see what an intriguing and dangerous place Renaissance Italy really was. Hanging out with bros like Leonardo Da Vinci while fighting off a corrupt church led by the Pope himself, Rodrigo Borgia. I won't claim that the AC games are true to historical fact, but they're proof that learning history doesn't have to be boring.
The Golden Age of Piracy (Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag) - Like the Renaissance example above, most of what we know of piracy in the Carribbean probably comes from a bunch of Disney movies starring Johnny Depp. Black Flag places you in that era in the shoes of Edward Kenway, who captains his own ship and crew while interacting with some of the more famous buncaneers of note like Edward "Blackbeard" Teach, Charles Vane, "Calico" Jack Rackham and Barthlomew "Bart" Roberts. Sailing the high seas, plundering ships and singing sea shanties. Black Flag is everything you wanted in a game being a pirate.
World War 2 tactial warfare (Brothers in Arms series) - Most FPS games like Call of Duty and Medal of Honor set in WW2 have in the role of a lone soldier gunning down multiple dirty Nazis. Brothers in Arms disabuses you of that notion, placing you in command of a paratrooper company and commanding them through some harrowing real life combat encounters during the Allied Invasion. Learn to command your troops to lay down covering fire while you and the rest of the squad flank the enemy, just like the soldiers who fought this war for real did. The makers of the game said they wanted gamers to experience the hell of war that the soldiers faced and how they achieved victory through some quick tactical thinking. I'd say mission accomplished.
Scale (Dragon's Dogma) - Giant enemies in RPGs are not uncommon. But Dragon's Dogma was the first game where I felt the enormity of the monster I was trying to kill. You weren't stuck at the ground level hacking away at it's knees. At times you had to climb the behemoth itself in order to defeat it, which made every victory earned and satisfying. I wish more games took this approach.
So those are things I learned to appreciate because of videogames. What's yours GAF?