Game Over

Sample Consumer-Classification Essay

Note to reader: This draft is re-printed here with the author's permission. These student drafts are provided for a couple of reasons: first, to give you a taste of the variety of topics and approaches students have taken, and second, to provide instructors with readings that might be used in class discussions and activities. These samples are not perfect and represent final grades from across the grade scale (A through F), so please be forgiving, understanding, and respectful if you find errors or problems.

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Tyler Thygerson

Prof. Mike Peterson

Eng 2010-02

21 June 2016

Game Over

Modern culture has changed what is considered the norm for daily entertainment in people’s lives. It has changed since the days of the radio to allow anyone to listen to music; to the creation of new sports and rules that made sports for what they are today; to the creation of filming and recording, to allow stories to be imagined and recorded for all to see; and finally to the new culture transition of video games, which has made one of its most prominent standings in history. Video games are now accepted worldwide as a daily form of entertainment. Plus, there are multiple ways to play a video game. Yet, there are many who would dare to say that there only is one way to play games, and it is the only true way to play the game. Granted, some of the medians that people use to play video games are considered the most popular due to the competitiveness of today’s world, along with being some of the most historic means of how video games even came about.

Many of these gamers think they know what is the best. They will criticize and provoke others to demote the validity of any other form to play the game, if it is not their accustomed way to play. Nevertheless, my purpose is to stop those who are bias and who favor only one select form of playing a game, as there are multiple ways to “play the game.” As many would classify and argue for themselves, I will present a few different classifications, such as The Computer Expert, The Console Fanboy, The Geek, and The Non-gamer, and convince each of these classifications how they should broaden their views and accept each other as fellow gamers.

The Computer Expert (aka. The PC-Gamer)

Yes, we know quite a few of these guys,—or at least people who claim they are computer experts—and they consider themselves to know everything and anything about the PC. They boast and brag about how it is the best compared to anything else. This is very much alike with their video game tastes as well. The PC-gamer considers the PC to be the only true way to play any kind of video game, due to the historical fact that video games started with a PC. From the PC, video games began to move on to different forms of gaming, such as consoles, arcades, phones, and tablets, hence many will argue that the computer is the original way to do anything.

Many of these PC-gamers pride themselves in having the best graphics, the fastest computers, and being the most competitive community in the world, which may have been true a decade ago; However, they cannot accept the fact that “gaming” is becoming much more popular through video-game consoles and portable devices alike, than the PC itself. Also, the community no longer is the biggest in the world. Millions play video games by other means, than the PC, which makes the legitimate case that the PC is not the only way to “play the game.” If you are a PC gamer, just know that you do not always need a mouse and a keyboard with the fastest and greatest computer on the earth to enjoy a video game. Anything as simple as Flappy Bird has had more than a million hits, and brings entertainment to many other people than just you, the PC-gamer.

The Console Fanboy

If you classify yourself as a fanboy, then that can only mean one of two things: pro-PS4 or pro-Xbox. Obviously, there can be fanboys for many other consoles and video games; yet, these two gaming communities tend to fight and criticize each other the most compared to the rest. Usually, these fanboys come to be as they play only one video game console over another. Throughout the past decade, these two video game consoles, the Xbox and the PS4, have obtained the biggest reputation for all video games. All new games and advertising are either for one of these two gaming consoles. Along with that, almost all of the most popular games are made for both consoles. Nevertheless, these two can never stop fighting and arguing, companies and fans alike, to determine who is better. Most of the time, the reason these fanboys ever came to be is because they either owned only a Sony product (PS4, PS3, or PS2) or a Microsoft product (Xbox One, Xbox 360, or Xbox).

The thing that these fanboys need to realize is, a video game is a video game. I personally have owned both a PS4 and an Xbox 360, and to tell you the main difference between the two is literally just the online gaming community, and the color-scheme. Obviously, some specs on each console is a little better than the other; but my point is that I have come to love games for both the PS4 and the Xbox. They both offer amazing games, that if you, the fanboy, stay with just one console, you are missing on all the other games that the other console offers. Plus, the biggest and most popular games are made available to any gaming platform, which really stops one console from being better than the other. So instead of worrying if you are pro-PS4, pro-Xbox, or pro-anything, just realize that there isn’t just one way to “play the game,” and enjoy that time to “play the game” on whatever it may be.

The Geek

Unfortunately, anyone who plays video games and is open and honest about it, usually receives criticism in modern society as being called a geek. Also unfortunate, most of these people are considered geeks due to how excited they may become over any game, E3 event, or Comic-con that comes around. I have to sympathize a little with the geek, because I absolutely love games and cherish them as much as any other geek does. The problem is not with the geeks who are proud and happy to admit their love for technology. It is the ones who will not admit their true love for games and keep it hidden to others.

These hidden-gamers or closet-geeks—as coming out the closet is a big term for relatively anything these days—for one reason or another are afraid to show themselves as true geeks, either because of friends, family, or peers who have expressed negative views upon video games. Yet, we all know who they are, especially when they come around to our own house, yelling and tossing their arms in the air with excitement as they hear that we have Call of Duty or Battlefield. If you are or act like this around games, even though you will not admit that you love these video games, you truly are a geek. Just admit it and accept games for what they are. You will be surprised to know how many of your friends and peers will support you for making that choice to be open, and they will most likely help you to come and appreciate even more games, than you can imagine. As these closet-geeks come out, it only brings more ingenuity and ideas to the video game world as they can help to create extraordinary games that many may come to appreciate. So, these words go to all geeks and closet-geeks alike, “play the game” so that we can continue our own heritage and culture among many of the other cultures in the world today. Let the video games unite us, no matter what we play or who we are.

The Non-Gamer

The non-gamer usually tends to be those who cannot support or tolerate video games to any degree or level. Now, for all of those who oppose video games and see them as a waste of time, or effort, or energy, realize that video games are now considered one of the top forms of daily entertainment in the world along with movies and television series! Gaming is so big, that there are professional world league competitions in video games, just like any kind of sport that may be thought of. Also note, it is not wrong to have an interest or a hobby in video games, such as few non-gamers would like to claim. There are plenty of hobbies that are seemingly weird,—such as crocodile hunting, mud baths, or even playing dead (definitely weird but it is a true thing)—yet, non-gamers accept them. I would urge you non-gamers to just stop complaining about video games and to actually try playing a video game. It is like food, if you never try a piece of cake, how will you ever know if it is good or bad? The same goes for video games. So just “play the game,” seriously. There are games made up of anything and can be anything, so you are bound to find something that you may like. If it is to hard to start with a hardcore game on a console or on the computer, than go basic. Try Angry Birds on a Tablet or even on a phone. It’s still a video game, yet it is simple and easy to learn.

Conclusion

Video games are made to entertain and to bring joy to those who are willing to appreciate it. There are no “true” video games because anything that is playable on an electronic device technically is considered a video game. So yes, any game that is an app on the phone is still considered a video game. Honestly, there are some video games that are favored over others, but that does not discredit the other video games in any way. The most important thing of my whole argument is that it does not matter how you play the game. Whether it be by the PC, or an Xbox, or a PS4, or a Nintendo DS, or whatever, we should all unite, geeks and non-geeks alike, to appreciate video games for what they are. We should recognize that everyone has their own personal tastes and favorites as well, so whatever video game someone loves does not mean in any justification that he or she is wrong. We should embrace each other as gamers alike and just “play the game” to enjoy it for what it is. There is no need to criticize each other on how or what to play our games with, and if it right or wrong. So game on, until it is game over.