World Maps

I'm still in the grips of another Middle West heat wave, kids. It's tough. 

Everyone here makes jokes about risking death by venturing out in the winter months when wind chill can get down to 40 below zero, but the secret about Minnesota is that the summer can be just as dangerous. Case in point - in search of a specific dinner ingredient last night, I braved the 110+ heat index for all of 20 minutes. Having not had dinner yet and slowly navigating the jungle-like conditions, I returned home with the elusive ingredient on the verge of fainting. I just needed something to munch on (keeping mind and body together) and a cool glass of water to lower the temp. But it reaffirmed the notion that, for long stretches of time here in MPLS, it's simply not safe to venture out. One of the best outlets I've found to combat these potential cabin-fever conditions is exploring in video games. Not all games provide it, but it is a motive that was instilled at an early age.

 Like many people in America my brothers and I subscribed to Nintendo Power when we were kids, not only for all the amazing secrets and game tips but for...wait for it...drumroll...a free game! We got our copy of Dragon Warrior in the mail and were promptly confused. Our experience with RPGs at that point was minimal. I don't think I even know how to read at that point, actually. But we had our resources (the mag) and a resourceful attitude (what else do you do on a dangerously cold snow-day?) so we set about making Dragon Warrior a worthy endeavor. Alright, mostly I just watched as my older brother played it with the neighbor kids, explaining the action to me very patiently. At some point the addictive nature of a solid RPG hooked its claws into both the older brother and the Summers kids across the street and the three older kids went about working their way through the rest of the Dragon Warrior catalogue on NES.

 For myriad reasons the second and third iterations never captured my imagination (except for the Phantom Ship which was amazing), even after I learned to read and played through the original. When the three older kids had played through Dragon Warrior Four, however, I was mystified. Here was a brightly colored, artfully plotted and constructed game with a massive world to explore. At the time there was nothing else like it. Being the conservative tacticians that they were, rather than save their game right before the final battles, they saved them in the final safe spot, allowing me to pick up the controller when they were all off watching a baseball game, so I could explore the world as it existed in the almost completed, fully unlocked state. Doing so triggered some nascent, developing corner of my mind that until that point had been slumbering. When it awoke it was like a white ball of burning curiosity, seeking info, from reading every line of text to exploring every nook and cranny.

 The world of Dragon Warrior Four was big, to the point of being navigated with either a ship or hot air balloon. I understood the basic mechanics from watching the others play it, so I knew about the chaptered structure, the overlapping plots and the wide cast of characters. I was curious, though, how it all fit together. Having a fully powered up cast of characters to explore with allowed me free reign over the game, granting near-instant gratification to my desire to see what lay around the corner. Sometimes it was amusing, like being able to run a shop in a certain village. Other times it was with great caution and trepidation as I wandered into the World Tree just to see where it could take me. I knew I shouldn't monkey around in end-game affairs but the temptation of hidden worlds was so tempting!

I know it seems really childish and foolish to speak of it in such reverent terms, but the experience did set into motion my love of playing with boundaries in games. I spent hours with my younger brother glitching and sequence breaking The Ocarina of Time. Goldeneye on the 64? I still dig up bugs and tricks on it, just to see if anything new was discovered, like the test level 'Citadel'. As games have evolved this sense of "Can I do this?" has changed with the design. I remember how exasperated the older brother was when I was playing some hunting game on our PS2 and kept trying to get the little guy to go into a cabin. 

"Man, it's a hunting game!" he insisted, frustrated at my nebbish, indoor-only attitude. 

"Dude, you're missing the point," I tried to explain. But he would have none of it. 

Games now reward that sense of rule-bending. They reward you for thinking outside of the box. Look at the driving concept behind of Dead Rising, where your entire experience in the game is predicated on dispatching zombies in the most creative, outside of the box conceivable. Modern classic Bioshock is nothing but a philosophical examination of choice and free will in gaming told through the eyes of an Ayn Rand-obsessed studio. Some of the most fun I've had in gaming comes from just dinking around in the environment. I remember bouts of insomnia combatted with tooling around in GTA: San Andreas just observing the generation and mechanics of the traffic around the city.

 Anyone who's met me will attest that I am not a big outdoorsman, camping and hiking and all that. I think the content to this site proves that well enough. But that doesn't mean I don't have an adventurous mind. Some of the brightest, most wonderful people I know demonstrate this just by engaging their mind, no matter where there life takes them. You don't have to work for NASA to exercise your mind. Find something that makes yours go, and keep at it. Dragon Warrior Four, of all things, helped me get my mind running. It doesn't have to be ultra-taxing - just try to have fun with your life, no matter the circumstances, and you'll be mentally engaged.