Experience in Playing Video Games

In art, we often explore visual aesthetics but also the personal, social, political, and economical narratives behind specific pieces made by artists. These are things that move us and engage us or bring us to feel what the artist felt.
In video games, we often consider the same things. There is nostalgia of games we grew up playing, people we played with or games we shared, games we saved up to buy, games we couldn’t beat or love to replay, or games/developers that we didn’t like as much as we thought we did.
Write one or two pages double-spaced about a memorable game experience or your relationship with various aspects of video games that is specific to you.
Here are a few things you can consider or include, but do not feel limited by this list.
These are prompts to get you thinking:
• Was there a game you loved to play as a kid? Do you still play it, why or why not?
• What single game or genres of games do you love and why?
• Games can be expensive or free. What do you look for in a game as a consumer?
• How would you describe game aesthetics/mechanics/design of a game you love?
• What kind of player do you like to be in both technique or personality- a martyr, altruistic, risk-taker, reserved, explorer, curious, aggressive, menacing, powerful, or a troll? 100%, speedrun, or something in the middle?
• Are you playing to win or to relax? To be immersed in a fictional world?
• This could be something recent or long ago, something that was favorable or unfavorable, something narrative or visual based. What drew you towards this video game or experience, and why is it an important memory?
• How have you felt when a game ended? Was it what you expected?
• Do you play with friends or alone? Online or offline?
If you have never played a video game in your whole life, please research/shop for a game that you *might* like to play and talk about how you picked it. Is it the way the cover art looks, the recommendation from a friend, or the story behind it? What prevents you from playing games? You can also watch videos of the game or look at images of gameplay and analyze the formal qualities of the game instead.
Please be specific and provide reasons and details that make your reflection story well-rounded and fully-developed. Try to write to the best of your ability with full sentences and thoughtful paragraph structures.