Assignment #9

In a way I would say that yes I am a gamer. I’m not the kind of person who subscribes to gaming magazines and logs on to gaming sites to read the latest news, but I play my Xbox 360 and if I’m bored I play BrickBuster on my cell phone. Maybe in some people’s eyes I’m not a gamer, but I see a non-gamer as somebody who doesn’t use any form of electronic gaming.
I would say that I don’t necessarily fit the mold, because I am not an avid gamer. I only play my Xbox 360 occasionally and when I do play I am not playing for hours on end. I typically play sports games and once in a while I’ll play a War/Shooting game. I think that if I was an avid gamer I would have more of a selection with the games I would play and I would certainly play them more often, but I don’t have the time and I choose not to, because I believe there are more important things to be doing.
My favorite type of game would have to be the EA Sports NCAA Football and Madden NFL Football. Seeing that football is my favorite sport it is fitting that my favorite video games would involve football. Every year I buy the latest version, NCAA first then NFL. I like to play both of these, because to me it’s fun. I like playing with UB and the Buffalo Bills, because they are my favorite teams and I like to see how well I can do with playing with them. I also enjoy playing EA Sports NCAA March Madness, because next to football, college basketball is my other favorite sport. Occasionally I will play war related games, because I feel they are more challenging and I like to see if I can beat them, but other than that I like to stick to the football and basketball games.
When I play my games, I notice that for the college football there is product placement, but I feel that without it, the game wouldn’t seem as realistic. There are some places in the game where there are fake ads and to me it looks stupid, because they had to make up an ad to put on the game inside the stadium. I think that real ads make the game look better. The spikes the players use have Nike and Adidas logos on them and the football and jerseys have logos on them too. These things do not go unnoticed, because I am not even looking for them and I see them. I know in real life hockey there are ads on the boards and if a video game didn’t have them it would look kind of ridiculous. Advertisements are all over, so why wouldn’t they be in video games too? I think that the ratings system is a good idea, because it allows parents to see what a game consists of. I just don’t understand why everybody makes a big deal about it. If a parent has a problem with a video game then they should just not allow their child to play it. The video game companies can produce whatever video games they want. If there is a demand for violent video games then that’s what they are going to produce, because they want to make money. If these parents would just keep an eye on their child and restrict what games they play then it shouldn’t bother them. I believe they are just games, but at the same time I like them to be more realistic. I like seeing the ads in games, because that’s how it is in real life. I do not think I spend too much time gaming, because I know that there are more important things to be doing. I like to play when I have nothing else to do and when I want to play. I only play occasionally, so I don’t feel I spend all of my time playing games.