the best of what's around...

I remember it very well.

I was 5, and sick. I can’t recall if it was the chicken pox or the flu, but whatever it was was bad enough to keep me out of school for a week. I was sitting in the living room with Mom watching something on TV when my Dad walked in the front door carrying a brand new Nintendo Entertainment System.

Life hasn’t been the same since :)

I know, for some, video games don’t make a whole lot of sense. You pay $60, play it for maybe a couple of weeks or so, then you’re done with it. They have the stigma of being overly-violent, sexualized, and even, at times, racial-stereotype-pushing (see Gears of War 2 and Resident Evil 5) time wasters.

It’s completely different to me, though.

When you read a book or watch TV/a movie, you are passively interacting with the medium (more so for TV and movies than a book). With games, however, you are actively engaging the world that the game presents to you. Everything from spatial navigation to problem solving is present in a well-made game. They can force a player to develop a complex strategy to progress through the game (see: real-time strategy games), test a player’s reflexes (see Quake and Halo), or simply present them with a complex puzzle, such as Tetris.

With all of that being said, where a video game grabs me the most is in its storyline and presentation. A game like Halo has a voice cast, cinematic presentation, art direction, and musical score to rival that of a typical Hollywood summer blockbuster.

And Halo is not the only one like this.

Almost any game from the Final Fantasy series and Metal Gear Solid series share these same traits. Bioshock is another, more recent game that toes the line between video game and film. It certainly is one of the foremost games that actually makes the player think about various social and governmental philosophies, because the work and ideas of writer Ayn Rand were one of the game’s primary influences.

Today, games have progressed from the simple run and jump formula of Super Mario Bros. and Metroid to the deep, thoughtful, high grade production values of games such as Bioshock and Metal Gear Solid 4. They provide a rich and rewarding experience that not only presents you with an engaging environment to explore and interact with, but also allows you to connect to a character and story on an interactive level that only a video game can provide.

I enjoy reading, playing/listening to music, camping/backpacking, as well as watching movies and television, but games are probably my favorite (certainly most-enduring) past time.

What is your favorite/longest-enduring past time?