Video Game Rhetoric

       During the years, people have considered video games a form of entertainment and for kids. There actually has been a very serious misconception of video games, that once you hit a certain age, it becomes sad that you play video games. While there are people who misrepresent the gaming industry, such as people who play 18 hours a day, the majority of people who regularly play games are not "nerds", or "kids playing in their parents basement", or any such ridiculous notions. I personally have been on both sides of the spectrum, as for a while in college I played as often as I could. My plans were going to class, and then going back to my dorm room and playing video games. While I did hang out with friends and go to parties, I played way too much. In one year of a game being out, I played over 700 hours of Battlefield 3. That is almost 30 days of playing one game. On the other hand, that is an example of moderation not being a factor. It was not the game that was making me play that much. I never learned about moderation growing up, as I played whenever I could, as I never had time to between school, helping out on the ranch, and not having a console nearby to play.As I grew older, I learned more moderation, and with that moderation I am able to analyze games better.
         As I want to focus on narrative and game design with my major, the ability to play a game and see it as I play, rather than binge on the game allows me to be able to see what the developer is doing. This opens up my eyes to the possibilities that games are not just forms of entertainment. They are to a certain degree. They are built to be played and thus, have fun playing them. On the other hand, the ability to convey a message through a certain medium is exactly what English for New Media is all about right? We are not just trying to put up classic authors famous stories on a website. We are trying to push the edges of the box, so that we can tell a story, as a lesson or a commentary on current events, in an interesting way. One of my favorite developers From Software does an amazing job with their narrative. The director leaves his world wide open, while establishing facts in between so that the fans can create their own theories. As long as it doesn't clash with facts laid down through items and the narrative, any theory is plausible. This causes people to critically think about the story and fill in their own. Most stories give the reader this sort of linear timeline and there is no way to deviate from it, such as Tolkien. I love the Lord of the Rings world and narrative but there is no wiggle room to have a person create their own ideas within it. I think that in order to push stories to  further limits, stories need to be pushing the idea of imagination. Less amounts of content while creating this rich narrative for the reader to create this world within their own mind. At least, that is from an English majors point of view who enjoys the past works, but doesn't think that focusing on the past is the best way to push our limits.