People that wanna trivialize playing videogames say they are mindless, theres no substance as to say, playing football, or a connection to a good book. I have never bought into that narrow minded way of thinking. Some of my best memories are of being a kid and Mr Craig next door showing us how the art of subtlety in the game Metal Gear for the original NES. The ambiance of walking into any corner convenience store and hearing Donkey Kong, Defender, Galaga, Mr Do!, and of course, Pac-man and Ms. Pac-Man, somewhere in the store, being played by a 9 year old, a plumber, a fireman.. and the utter excitement of heading to a mall with a pocketful of quarters to play the very latest in digital entertainment. Or the first time I saw a trailer on a demo disc for a game called Gran Turismo. (The cultural influence on that game has company like Star Wars, Pokeon, Harry Potter, and I really doubt The Fast and Furious movies would be on the radar without it). I never had an original Xbox, I had a PS2, so I never really got a chance to really sink my teeth into RalliSport Challenge for Xbox. I played it a few times and thought it was pretty awesome though. I had the Colin Mcrae games for PS2, and PC. I really thought playing against your ghost and being able to SAVE that data, was very cool, and a useful tool for improving, focusing, learning about how to, where to, when to...in racing games, and certainly to real racing, its important, for obvious reasons. But what about less obvious reasons? What if someone ELSE raced against your saved laps? Without you physically there. Think about that for a second, in the history of man, you are able to interact, with a saved moment in time. A memory of what was, can now always be with you in a way that just a picture, a sound recording, a painting, a song can never really reach...the way this saved data can...and WILL, go on doing. There is something about this story that is so very human, and touching, but is ONLY possible through a series of ones and zeros. Moreso than music or just images.. you are interacting with a memory in a very visceral way. On the surface, youd think I posted this because of my well known adoration for rallying. But what strikes me here is that this unique to racing games. You cant really do this with a footbal game, an FPS, or MMO. It makes think how cool it would be to have a site saving racing ghosts, and have real professional racers set times so anyone could race against ghosts. But so anyone could save a time. A pro, a fan, a plumber, or a father...so one day when they are gone, you can relive a memory, a moment in time, ...saved data...., with a ghost.. polygon/2014/7/23/5929075/rallisport-challenge-ghost-son-races-father-xbox
Posted on: Mon, 28 Jul 2014 02:44:02 +0000
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