What Playing Video Games Has Taught Me

I'm sure you can tell just by looking at my blog what I do on a daily basis. Sometimes I craft, some times I cook, but most of the time I am playing video games. I have loved video games since the early nineties when I got my very first console; Sega Genesis.

Myself and my younger brother with our favorite gift of that year

 While I don't remember much of anything before high school, I do remember opening up the wrapping paper and freaking out because we had finally gotten a console gaming system. I also remember hooking it up for the first time and playing for exactly thirty minutes with my brother on the only game we both could play at the same time, Columns.

We also had Sonic, which was by far the best game I ever played and still to this day one of my favorites.

As I got older, my inner geek bloomed and blossomed, I branched out to different things. I discovered chatrooms in AOL and oddly named ones like "Vampire Tavern," "Lestat Estate," and my personal favorite "The Dark Corner." I was curious about what these rooms were about. At the time, I was very much in to vampires, so I entered one of these rooms and was blown away by what I saw. Dozens of people with odd screen names, my own not being so different from the list of oddities.

I didn't say anything, I just watched and read what was being said. It took a little while before I realized what was going on. THEY WERE ACTING! And they were acting well.

An example of what I saw was something like this:

::Elisa walks into the tavern with her cloak drawn tightly around her to block the chill of the cold night from her skin. Her eyes darted around the main rooms nervously before she made her to the counter.:: "Something warm to drink please, perhaps a mulled wine." ::She said this in a small voice, but the barkeep heard her and soon produced what she asked for.::

After a little while longer of just watching, I became enchanted to do my own my thing. Of course, I was classed as a "noob," but I was a fast learner and I had a vivid imagination that was waiting to be unleashed into this textual delight I had discovered.

Right there on the spot, I came up with a character name. Serena, she was human wanting to become a vampire and knew she was risking her life by being a tavern full of them. I entered and placed myself in full view for those around me to interact. Which they did, slowly though. Soon I was taken under someone's wing and taught the basics of what I would learn was Role Playing.

The representation of my very first character, Serena.

I was told that using double colons (::) meant that something was an action and that they should be used before and after to signify the start and end of that. Eventually, my action markers were replaced by an asterix (*), which I still use to this day when I role play. I also learned that using double parenthesis [((] meant that I am speaking out of character and I should have them at least before I says something OOC. Quotes were optional when my character was speaking.

It was a lot to take in at first, but soon I was love with a fantasy would that unfolded like a pop-up book in my head. I wrote stories, poems, long drawn up character biographies that gave life to a character in the same way a playwright breathes life into theirs. I became a role player. I dominated my life and to an extent it still does.

Over the years, I moved from playing in the AOL chats to playing Neverwinter Nights. I never looked back at my textual fantasies (which I later learned was a modified version of Vampire the Masquerade) and spread my wings into this new visual role playing game. At first I was very intimidated by everyone with super powers and lots of abilities. But again, I was a quicker learner and soon I was well on my way to playing this game with other people.

It was worlds created by people, normal everyday people, like me. People who had a passion for role play and wanted a magical world to come to life.

 

Not mine, but what I saw everyday

It was visually pleasing to have more than just a picture of my character. To run around, level up and make friends and the rules were about the same! It was in Neverwinter Nights that I learned a lot of things. People weren't so picky in the chatrooms, because so many people came and went. It was after several years of playing NWN that a friend of mine told me everything would be better if I started using capital letters. She explained that I didn't start written sentences with lower cases, then why should I in a game where people had to read what I was basically writing.

An example of how I used to type things:

*stood there without a care. her eyes watching waiting for something interesting to happen. she was a short elf with fiery red hair green eyes and a slender body. dressed in simple clothes that allowed her to move quickly.* 

How I learned to rewrite that with help from my friend:

*Lyssa stood there without a care, her eyes watching and waiting for something interesting to happen. She was tiny in comparison to her kin; with fiery red hair and green eyes. Lyssa's lithe body was covered with simple clothes, the sort of clothes that would make it easier for her to move rapidly.*

Can you see the difference? I know I can. It took years for me to grow into that paragraph and every day I am learning more ways to expand what I already know.

Role play has taught me more than any classroom could. I learned grammar, spelling, proper use of punctuation, how to expand my vocabulary by interacting with other people, and how to properly use homophone/graph/nyms. It has also boosted my reading skill.

Ex: Their, they're, there. To, too, two. Your and You're.

There isn't a day that goes by when I'm not RPing with my friends in Champions Online, The Secret World or World of Warcraft that I am not learning something. I often think that some of my friends are purposely trying to see if I am paying attention by using big words that I must look up.

It has taught me to reach outside my comfort zone and explore other words, figure out how to dig deeper into my imagination. Not that I haven't been doing that since I was a kid. My first bit of role play was playing house, school, doctor; you get the idea. Think about that, your imagination will love you. So will your inner child.

My Secret World Templar, Loren "Keepsie" Ketone

Zodi note: Several minutes later, I corrected everything I posted with another skill I learned while RPing; proofreading

List of things I learned while Role Playing

1. improved reading
2. grammar
3. proofreading
4. shift key for capitals
5. how to make websites using HTML
6. how to type better
7. correct use of periods, commas, semi-colons, and ellipsis
8. use of thesaurus and dictionary
9. how to describe in fuller and richer detail
10. real life comes first

This list extends beyond this, but these were the major things I learned.