Come Wit’ It: An Introduction

“Why Video Games?”

If you’re curious enough to read this book, that’s a question you might be asking yourself.

Why would two grown, college-educated men spend so much time and energy writing about video games?

First, because that’s what we do.

We play video games.

As two brothers growing up in the technology-saturated Pacific Northwest, it’s what we’ve done since we were just young boys. We enjoy playing games more than any other recreational pursuit. Always have.

Fine, you’re thinking. But why write a book about it?

Well, it’s like this. Video games are vying to become (if they haven’t become already) the dominant form of entertainment for people big and small. Consider this – in 2004 the Microsoft/Bungie game Halo 2 sold 2.4 million copies and earned up to $125 million US in its first 24 hours on store shelves, thus out-grossing the film Spider-Man 2 as the highest grossing release in entertainment history. When you consider that a movie experience is 2-3 hours, and most video games play out over 15-100 hours you have to see that video games have already supplanted books, TV, and movies in terms of overall time spent engaged and entertained.

The aforementioned other forms of popular entertainment and literature already have gobs of books out there, breaking down each genre, discussing the various forms of thematic and content analysis. Yet, when we (Jomo and Jelani) would visit our local bookstores¹, we would rarely find books talking about the things we were most often talking about – video games.

On a basic level, this book is an attempt to fill that gap.

Additionally, we feel that it’s necessary to speak up for the genre so that it can be viewed as a holistic art form.

As with any form of entertainment, there are certain video games out there that have become successful franchises by preying upon our society’s inclination toward depravity. In this world, the media ventures that feature large doses of sex, violence and evil tend to do well at the cash register. Video games are no exception to this trend. Yet, it seems that these negative cases tend to get all of the press. More and more politicians, journalists and parents are perpetuating a distorted image of video games as vicious mental traps, used exclusively to dehumanize its participants into immoral degenerates that will eventually lead to the downfall of society.

Being avid gamers ourselves, and knowing many upstanding citizens who are also gamers, we feel this characterization is false and misleading.

Furthermore, we believe there are many positive, unheralded aspects of playing video games that deserve to be trumpeted. There are valuable lessons to be learned while playing video games, lessons that can have unique applications in life.

Many of our generation are video gamers who have, either consciously or subconsciously, learned these lessons with great success. Many of these people spent their youth focusing their creativity on video games; years later, they continue with the same creativity and zeal in focusing their attention to the pursuit of their own professions, even though it may have nothing at all to do with video games.

Our response to this trend is to explain these principles as well as we can, with the hope that:

A) Non-gaming parents and teachers would mine this book for applicable truths with the goal of creating valuable interactions with their youth, thereby engaging them in a manner that is both relevant and interesting,

B) Kids who love video games would learn these same truths without having to be lectured by their parents and teachers, and

C) Successful adult gamers would recognize these same truths as ideas they’ve intuitively grasped for years, but never seen expressed like this. This would also have the added benefit of helping them defend video game culture to a non-gaming world.

For the gamers:

There will be parts of this book that might seem a little tiresome to you. Remember, this book is also written for those on the outside looking in, wanting to know more about video games and gaming culture. So we might discuss, in great detail, typical in-game scenarios and situations that you already know like the back of your hand. Some of the strategies we describe and recommend might already be second nature for you. If so, feel free to skip around and read only the parts that interest you.

At the same time, though, we believe that you’ll identify with a lot of the ideas that we present, being fellow gamers as well. It’s our hope that you’ll recognize in our stories elements from your own life and development. So don’t write us off just yet. If you get to the end and you still feel like reading this book was a waste of your time, then at least give it to your mother.

She’ll thank you for it, we promise.

For the non-gamers:

We recognize that a significant portion of the culture surrounding video games may a bit alien to you. We’re making the assumption that you’re reading this book because you want to know more about video games – or at least, why someone you love is into video games. In order to help you do this, here’s a brief definition of the terminology we’ll be using extensively. Anything not covered here will be included as an endnote.

• Controller: The controller is the thing you hold in your hand while you play the game. Most game consoles come standard with one or two controllers. If you remember the old Atari 2600 console, its controller consisted of a joystick and one button. Nowadays, controllers usually have several buttons, sometimes triggers, and one or two joysticks that you can move around with your thumb.
• Engine: The engine of a game is the technical framework of spatial engineering and structure that the game is designed upon. It has to do with the way characters move, the way environments are mapped, etc.
• Game: Unless specifically mentioned as otherwise, the word ‘game’ is always used in reference to video games. It might seem pretty exclusionary, but you’d be surprised at how little other types of games are being played in comparison to video games. (Also referred to as ‘titles,’ a term probably derived by the common practice in referring to rental units as titles in the home video market.)
• Gamer: Gamers are people who play video games. Sometimes the term is used to refer to video game enthusiasts, people who not only play the games but subscribe to the overall video game culture. They read the internet message boards, they buy the game’s official strategy guide (or write their own unofficial strategy guide, which may be just as good or better). They’ve been there, done that, bought the T-shirt.
• Modders/Mods: Modders are usually amateur (or, in some cases, professional) code technicians who will modify the game experience to their liking. Mods are the customized files that enable them to do so. Mods can be as basic as changing a character’s appearance, or as complex as changing the internal physics of the game. Mod is short for modify, or modification. There are also modders & mods on the hardware side of things. One great example of this is the team behind www.hardocp.com who built the world’s first water-cooled Xbox 360.

* * *

Is your head spinning from all the jargon yet?

If not, great. If so, take a little break, pop a couple aspirin if you need to, and join us when you’re ready.

Welcome to Our World

You’ll notice a few peculiarities to this book right away.

There are no chapters, only levels. Many video games are organized this way, into levels, or stages, or missions. And like video games, you might see themes and variations of themes repeated at various points. In later levels, we’ll often revisit some of the things we mention in previous levels.

Also, you’ll notice that after the title of each book’s level, there are a list of applicable game titles that fit into the principle we’ll be discussing. These titles are not absolute or exhaustive. With so many video games titles on the market every year, there’s no way to keep track of all of them. Some of the titles we may mention in the chapter, but most of them we won’t. We just provided a short list to get the ball rolling in your mind. If you’ve played any of those games, or if you know someone who has, then you might be able to get a tangible frame of reference for how these principles unfold in the gaming arena. We’ve also thrown in a few games from the “old school,” so that those brave souls who’ve been playing games long enough to remember them can laugh and reminisce like we did while doing our research.²

Even though this book is a collaboration by two people, all of the core ideas and principles were identified first by Jomo. The book was his idea, and he’s been a passionate gamer for a longer period of time. But most of the stories are told by Jelani. So if there is a portion of the book written in the first person, it’s probably him. He’s got more of a flair for the dramatic. But both of us will be chiming in from time to time, dropping in extra comments as footnotes. Again, this is what we do.

Finally, it’s not our goal to convert you into a lover of video games. Most gamers already know that they’re hopelessly addicted; they don’t need us to push them over the edge. Conversely, most non-gamers aren’t going to be convinced just by reading a book. But we do hope you get a greater understanding of why we like to play. And if you’re a non-gamer who, after reading this book, decides to learn how to play… so much the better.

Before we start, just imagine a bright green, glowing, button.

Looks weird, doesn’t it?

This is the ‘Start’ button.

No video game will start without someone pushing the start button.

If you’re ready to be that someone, then welcome to our world.

continue reading Come Wit’ It: Lessons Learned in the Video Game Arena

1. Yeah…we read too. Big shout out to Powell’s, Barnes & Nobles, and Amazon for the hookups. [↩]
2. “What’s that, honey? Playing games? No, no… we’re not just sitting around playing games. We’re, uh… conducting research.” [↩]

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