My Video Game Life

Eric Ibarra

Professor Reyes

English 100

25 Jan 2016

My Video Game Life

            Every since I could remember I’ve always been playing video games. I’ve played games on the old Nintendo 64 to the new consoles and computers games. I got a lot of hand me down games but I didn’t care as long as there were fun to play. When I was a kid, maybe around 9 years old, my brother gave me some of his old computer CD’s. Some of  them were games like plane simulator, Oregon Trail and some learning games. My favorite game was a math learning that taught how to do algebra and geometry in a fun manner. I would play that game for hours and hours not realizing that I was how much I was learning from it. That game helped me so much that even now I am good at math and I never get below an A in class.

            Another game I would play a lot was Pokémon Red Version. I played this game a lot because it was on the Game boy and I could take it where ever I went. This game was so fun that it made me want to watch the Pokémon anime series. Playing the game while watching the anime was something I did a lot. I loved to pretend that I was Ash Ketchum and that I wanted to “catch them all”. This game made me want to try and play other games that were based off of anime like the Naruto and Dragon Ball Z fighting games.

            I have played almost every genre of video games and I figured out that my favorite genre of video game is strategy. I learned this in middle school when played games on my GameCube. I would rent games from blockbuster to try all the games to see which ones I liked and the one I loved the most at the time was a game called Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. It was a turn based strategy game where you fought with solders that had different classes and weapons. The weapons had strengths and weaknesses so I had to strategize how you would use your solders to fight. This game showed me how fun strategy games and made me want to play more. I played all kinds of strategy games, even chess on the computer, they allowed me to put my knowledge to the test and figure out the best method to win the game. To this day I still love playing turn-based strategy games and working my mind to beat the game.

            When I got into high school my parents bought me an Xbox 360 for my birthday. The first game I got for it was Call of duty: Modern Warfare 2 which was a shooter game based on war. Though this wasn’t my first shooter game that I played it was the first game I could play online with other people. See I was always shy when I was around people and didn’t like to talk to people face to face when I was growing up. So playing this game online and have the ability to talk to people but not having to see them helped me. After playing it for a long time I got better at talking to people face to face and though I am still a little shy it is not as bad as it used to be.

            Toward the end of my high school years my sisters handed me down their computer and that was the start of my gaming life on the computer. I have played many game on the computer since getting it but the one that I like the most and still play to this day is game called League of Legends. It is a M.O.B.A., which means multiplayer online battle arena, that has all kinds of characters to play from and you battle in teams of 5 vs. 5. Though in this game you talk to people with your voice you can talk to them by typing. I have befriended people that are from a different state or country playing this game. It has also help me improve my reaction time and think on the spot.

Digital (Draft)

Rafael Magaña

Professor Amanda Reyes

English 100

23 January 2016

                                                               I: Loss

                      As a child, I was always fascinated with video games. I found comfort in knowing that I could come home and immerse myself in the worlds that were present in these games. At times, I often did it as an escape. When I was three years old, my father passed away and it visibly affected everybody in my family. For the next couple of years, my mother and sister were in a visible depression. I have no memory of my father. I can't even remember his voice, and I couldn't understand why he had been taken from me at such a young age. As a result, I often played games on the Super Nintendo that my father had bought for us before he passed away. I'd spend hours of my time playing Super Mario World with my sister and it definitely helped us through the time. Trust me, nothing was better than beating that game. I'll never forget beating it at 3AM with my sister. It's here where I believe my fascination with video games began. Around the age of 5, my mother bought me a Nintendo 64 for my birthday, and I couldn't have been happier.

                                                                  II: Courage

                      The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask was one of the first games I got for the system. The game had a very creepy atmosphere, with the protagonist, Link, having three days to save the world before a moon crashes down and destroys the planet, killing everyone and destroying everything around him. He embarks on this journey unknowingly, with him searching for a friend that left him without warning. It was a pretty dark premise for a Nintendo game, and I was even scared to play it. Despite my fear, I forced myself to play it. No matter where you were in the game world, you'd constantly see the threat of the looming moon growing ever so closely, with it donning a disturbing face. Majora's Mask often dealt with the theme of death, with many of the characters you meet in the game often are seen coping with a loss, and are either in denial or depressed. Despite me being unsettled by the atmosphere of the game, especially since I also was still coping with a loss of my own, I felt connected to the protagonist, Link. He was ten years old, and was faced with impossible odds, yet is determined to save his own life and the lives of those around him. Unfortunately, though he ends up saving the planet, he still does not find his friend, leaving their fate ambiguous. Although I was well aware he was fictional, I admired Link. How could he continue on so courageously despite him failing in finding his friend? In a way, he represented the type of person that I wanted to become. Link's courage helped me get the courage continue on myself, despite the fact I’ll never see my father again. If I had not played Majora's Mask, I feel as if the grieving process would have been prolonged and would have been even harder than it was on me. It, quite literally, changed my life for the better.

                                                            III: Present Day

                      My experience with Majora's Mask , and video games in general, has always been good. I've always considered them an escape from reality, and they're pretty much always there when I need to unwind or just have fun. In recent years, it's become possible to even play and speak with friends online, whether it be down the street, or half-way across the world, even making them a good social platform, with it continually becoming more and more advanced by the day. Majora's Mask's themes of loss and death really resonated with me as a child, and now that I'm older I can truly see the significance of the themes that it presented. The impact that it had on me truly changed my life, and it influenced my views on life. That can be said for video games as a whole, with titles such as Bioshock, The Last of Us, Silent Hill 2, Metal Gear Solid, among others, having some of the best stories I believe have ever been told. The medium is constantly evolving at a rapid rate, and I am excited to see where it'll be in a couple of years. Yet, I feel that no game will ever surpass Majora's Mask. It came along at a time in my life in which I felt sad, angry even, at the circumstances that I was presented with. It was a game that was hauntingly beautiful, and quite literally changed my life, and for that, I thank it.

digital autobiography draft #1

Luis Puquirre

English 100    

M/W

YouTube

The first time that I used YouTube was when I was 11 years old, I was in six grade. And the first assignment that I had to do in my history class, American history to be more exact, was the dead of Martin Luther king Jr, the instruction of the assignment were clear you can use the book for information or used YouTube to learn more of his assassination, the teacher posted a link that would give me information of the topic. This was the first time that I was going to use my computer for education and not for games. I tried to use the book for information but the information was the same that everybody knew of already and I want my project to unique. I got in my desktop computer and type U Tube, I thought it was spelled like that and either way if you google something, even if it is wrong, at the end it gives you the same answer.

The Martin Luther King Jr assignment I did I ace it with the information I found in YouTube not only information, but I found an old news broadcast were the news guy announce his dead I also learned how the black community felt and what happen next without King .I found videos that had happen years ago in one website I figured it out that in some point YouTube would take over history books, that YouTube can show you what had happen in history in ten or twenty minutes.

Discovering a website that can give you from historical videos to my favorite music videos was amazing! Even though YouTube started in 2005 at the time that I first used it was an amazing experience that I’m not going to forget for the rest of my life. A place where I can listen to music while doing my homework I used to open two tabs in my computer one for home work and the other one for YouTube. Every time that I was using the computer I did the same my parent’s believed that I was focusing in my homework but in reality I was listen and watching videos in YouTube every time they were not looking at my computer screen, I switch screens back in fort from my homework to YouTube. Until I got my first smart phone.

My Digital Life

 

             My relationship with technology started pretty early, I guess when I first learned what music was is when it started. Some of my favorite moments in childhood were just of me listening to music during a drive or the music that was being played in my neighborhood when I was a kid. Early on in learned that different  music meant different things. I knew music was for kids,what was for adults what my granny would listen to,and what was not cool. In my neighborhood loud and in your face music was the norm it signified your lifestyle, what kind of person you were . I was raised around mostly women, my mom, my aunties my granny, so I learned R&B music, the love songs Micheal Jackson,  soul music. And from my cousins I got rap. I got a glimpse of "gangster " lifestyle , I learned it was important to have money and women. 

            I never really questioned much at that young age. When I moved out of that neighborhood I was 8 years old. Up until about 8th grade all of the music I had claimed as my own were given to me. I had never chosen my own music to listen to it was all from the radio, or the CD's and tapes my parents had . When I first started collecting my own music ,everything was still from my friends, I needed their iTunes and their Internet to get music. They had decided for me what was cool. Ice Cube, Tupac, and Biggie Smalls began bumping through my earphones. Around the same time, I got more freedom in ,your style of dress,and sure enough I dressed like a 1990s Crip lol. 

           Around the 10th grade I started going out on my own, traveling more throughout L.A . My older cousin became a big influence on my life. The popular rappers of that time were Lil Boosie- who had his own haircut named after him that I got- YG and other up tempo gangster rappers. I dressed like them talked like them. Luckily something opened my eyes and yet again around 11th grade

I was changing again. This time I wanted to be a person with "swag". It was no,longer cool to be "tough" I wanted to wear cargoes and hats and party. I didn't want to be dumb. It was cool to be smart and be a clown at the same time. To hang with drug dealers in the streets and read the newspaper before sleep. At the the same time, I pressured myself to be cool. I didn't want to fall behind on the best trending music. The FOMO got real.  This also happens to be when I first began to use social media. It's funny how that worked out. Mac Miller , Drake, Wiz Khalifa, and Biggie Dean were the names for me in that Era.  These were the artist I can say shaped me and my generation. Even now that I don't listen to hip hop in connection still listen to one of there songs.

          My final transformation happened during senior year of high school. I never felt more different and isolated in ,your life that year. No one in my social circles listened to anything I did. My life did a 180 and I was listening to the Beatles  the biggest thing that changed about me was my new found openness to the world I was more accepting of different music, views and culture. 

Internet Identity

Internet Identity

            I remember it clearly, one day into my early pre-teen years the cable man showed up and installed what he called dial-up Internet. He said it was something revolutionary but I had no idea what he was talking about nor did I know the impact this would have on my life. As a child struggling with to come to terms with my identity and with little to no role models I spent my days sulking. There was no drive or content just sulking. I did not know who I was and I had no one to guide me, that is until we got the Internet. Overnight I had been granted access to the world and all from the comfort of my desk. I used the Internet on a day-by-day basis to learn more and more. I frequented blogs, social media, music sites, fashion magazines and Google all to help me piece together my identity.

            A blog is defined as a regularly updated website, run by an individual or small group written in a conversational style but to me the meaning was simple a blog was a magazine. It was something to “flip” through until something grabbed your attention. Much like magazines, blogs gave me access to people’s personal lives and deepest thoughts. I was able to go through the thinking process that kids my age were going through without actually going through it. The bloggers shared the same fear and concerns as me and this was comforting. The bloggers though completely anonymous felt like brothers to me. I started to feel like I was not alone and it was one the pages of blog that I saw the word “gay” for the first time in my life.

            Today we have Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat but when I was a “rebellious teen” we had MySpace. MySpace was it. MySpace was where cool kids and outcasts alike could be cool. MySpace with its backgrounds, profile layouts and music player was the one social media site that allowed you to be you in every way possible. Sadly my MySpace was just as conservative and timid as I was. In stark contrast were all the random kids I “friended”. They owned who they were. They were upfront and unapologetic in all their posts. They did not care what you thought; instead they lived their lives how they wanted to live them. They were what I wanted to be.

            Music has always been around but because I was basically poor it did not become readily available to me until the Internet became readily available. Before the Internet I thought I did not like music because it had never called to me. Then I heard “Emotions” by Mariah Carey and my downward spiral began. “Honey”, “Vision of Love”, “Dreamlover”, “Hero” and “Fantasy” there was so much to love from this woman who sang with more emotion than I had experienced in my life. Shortly after I found Whitney Houston, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Cher, Britney Spears, Ciara, Destiny’s Child, Beyonce and Lady Gaga. They sang about love, loss, identity, friends, family and just having a good time. They did it all while being unapologetic and being themselves. They exuded confidence through their music so I listened religiously hoping some of it would rub off on me.

            I could not afford a magazine subscription so I had to find everything online. It was difficult but not impossible. My favorite fashion magazine by far was V magazine. It was fairly new to the magazine scene but to me everything about it was new. The first cover I experienced was Gwen Stefani’s fall 2004 cover. It was gorgeous. The lighting, the look, the clothes and the talent were all perfect. I had never before seen such confidence in a photo or so much expression through clothing. I also loved Vogue and Bazaar I would look for the ads in these two. I knew very well that the retailers paid so much money to advertise their even more expensive garments and this was part of the allure. The other part was the simple fact that the clothes were gorgeous; prints and designs I had never seen. Fashion magazines taught me how to express myself with clothes, a feat I thought was impossible.

            Lastly there was Google. I went about my day-to-day life with a small notepad always in my pocket. In it I would write down words, ideas and concepts I heard but did not know or understand. When I got home I would put it all into Google. Through this tedious process I learned most of what I know today. I learned about words, slang, historical events, people, cultures and sub-cultures. I loved Goggle because it taught me things I wasn’t taught in school. I loved expanding my knowledge even if it was just one word at a time.

            I still remember it clearly, how one day one man walked into my house and installed a seemingly simple device onto our computer. He warned me that it was something revolutionary but I did not heed his warning. I wandered into the depths of the Internet and discovered more than I could have ever bargained for. I discovered good and bad alike, lies and truth alike. I discovered heroes and I discovered villains, but most importantly I discovered that there was more to me than I had ever imagined was possible. 

Technology

Jocelyn Beltran

English 100

M/W 5-7pm

Technology

    Growing up I don’t really remember technology having a big impact on me. Now-a-days, we see kids of all ages with tablets and cellphones, and are left to wonder if this is what the future holds. It wasn’t until I was in middle school that I started to get into using technology. I spent my childhood outdoors playing with my neighbors and friends building mud cakes or playing with rollie pollies, not in front of a computer screen. Its not that I didn’t have technology available to me, it’s just I never used it myself. I remember my older brother being glued to his computer and video games, and he hasn’t changed to this day. The one situation where I do recall using technology was watching Laker games with my uncle and cousins, not that I was ever into watching sports, I just watched it to hang out with them. Other than that, I only remember actually using technology as a resource until I was in middle school, and I had to turn to the internet for help on my homework because my mom wasn’t able to help. This was when I was introduced to a whole new world: the world wide web.

    Now that I’m older, I have the internet available to me at my fingertips. Ive grown accustomed to asking the internet for all my questions in life. From everything to help on my work, giving myself a self-diagnosis when I’m sick, to figuring out the title of the song that’s been stuck in my head for days. The internet also allows me to communicate with my friends when theyre not around, and be updated with what they are up to throughout the day, all through the use of social media. I am able to share my ideas, music, adventures, and things I find to be funny all with social media. This alone impacts my life because the little free time that I do have, I am able to easily communicate with friends or distant family at times where I am not able to see them in person.

    With such easy access to millions of web pages, I am able to research new topics and learn something new everyday. I can be informed on whats happening with the world around me, all with the click of a button.  The internet holds so much information, enough to keep you entertained for hours. I can say that now I tend to spend the majority of my free time online, and I don’t know what I would do without it. Ive gone days where I try to refrain myself from using the internet, and I feel like I am missing out on the world. The internet has become a part of my daily routine, and I realize the impact it had made on my everyday life.

digital autobiography

Carissa Ayala

English 100

M/W 5-7pm

Draft 1

            I have grown up with technology all around me. I can’t remember a time when there hasn’t been, because all my life I have been surrounded by it. Computers, internet, and cellphones have been around longer then I have, so all forms of digital technology have immensely impacted my life. I actually have no idea how I would have turned out if it were any different. I think the main forms of digital technology that has impacted me the most has been computers and the internet. From what I can remember my house has always had a computer with functioning internet. I can even remember back in those ancient times, when internet was dial up and the most dreadful noise played that let you know you were connecting to the internet and yelling through the house for everyone to get off the phone.

Something I don’t remember is who taught me how to use the computer; I couldn’t have been older than 4 when I learned. I also don’t remember how advanced I was at working the computer, but it must have been pretty advance because I know I helped teach my mom how to work it when she was taking computer classes. I know by the time I was 5 years old I could work it by myself. In my kindergarten class we had computers, I remember using them to take reading comprehension tests after we read our weekly books. At home I remember having a bunch of computer games. One was jukebox teaching the alphabet and how to spell, another was Freddy the Fish, and Putt-Putt, both I believe were also educational. Sometimes I would use my older sister’s game, it was called The Clue finder’s 3^rd Grade Adventures. Mind you I started borrowing her game since I was in kinder. I continued to get more tech-savvy as the time passed. I remember I got a leap frog reader and one of those fake laptops, which I actually can’t remember what it did. Then I started getting more computer games as gifts, like a strawberry shortcake one, they were fun but I liked the original ones that I played I would just replay them from the beginning. I think that the learning is what made them fun to me, that I had to solve the problems, because baking a cake is fun for a little bit but there’s no challenge to it.

Computer are what shaped my early childhood development. Kindergarten and first grade we used those multiple choice tests for our reading comprehension. In second and third we did the same but they were longer and we learned and had to fill out Scranton’s and run them through a little machine ourselves. In the fourth grade we learned how to use Microsoft Word so we could use them to write our essays. In the Fifth grade we learned how to use Power Point so we could do all our projects and presentations. And along the way I learned how to do everything else.