I am being yelled at by some 13-year-old kid. “SHOOT!! SHOOT!! BUILD!!! WHY ARE YOU JUST STANDING IN THE OPEN?!!” Learning how to play games can be very difficult especially when you don’t know how to say the name. LIKE, what is a Fortnight? On top of having no clue how to move in the game, this little kid is telling you for 45 minutes you suck at the game. Although, one of the greatest feelings in the world is winning your first match after starting from literal scratch, especially beating my little brother. Life seems complete and all the hard work pays off.
Video games have taken over the life of children and adults all across the globe. Gamers make more money in a day than someone with a lifelong career. Personally, I have never understood the hype of video games and why people enjoy playing them. My Communications class challenged me to branch out and see if I'm good at more than just sports games, but they forgot to mention how hard it was going to actually be. Hence, the help of my wonderful brother.
Sports games like Madden and MLB The Show were the only games I even attempted to play. I never tried to play any other type of game. They looked very hard and they didn’t seem to be very interesting, but in order for me to complete the request made from my classmates I had to find games that I could play.
After searching online and bugging every random stranger on the street I finally came to a conclusion on what games I needed to play: Fortnite, Call of Duty, and Saints Row. A lot of the people I talked to just shouted out a bunch of random games for me to play but a few of them had comments on why they play those games and what they get from them.
I remember one day I was sitting in the Cafe with my friends Landon and Justus. I was already scared to ask people what games I should play. I assumed a lot of them wouldn't even answer my question. I got a lot of positive feedback and it made me start to feel like this journey wouldn't be for nothing, even from an old buddy of mine Evan Murphy. In fact, he was the one who suggested I play Fortnite.
Now that I had the games I was going to play, I had to learn how to play them. but trust me on this--I couldn’t teach myself. I honestly didn't think I did bad the first time I played Fortnite. My little brother would disagree.
The dynamic of this game is crazy and watching people play this professionally on YouTube made me want to learn every aspect of it so that I’d be good at it too. Streamers like Ninja and Tim the Tatman were who really made me want to play the game.
From building, to shooting, and finding loot this game is crazy and fast paced just because it is scattered across the map and you never know what you are going to find. But, the path was not easy at all and it definitely took time and work. It took me 2-3 hours just to get the hang of what I was doing. I would stay up all hours of the night and watch YouTubers, along with the help of TikTok. The real struggle was managing so many things at once, and basically you have to be perfect and craft every aspect of the game for it to be a good time.
In the beginning I wanted to just quit and say this wasn't worth it because the game did not seem fun. But, I had to complete the task I had at hand and I wanted to give it my best shot. Before I knew it, I won my first real match.
Sweat fell down my face, my tongue dry to the touch, all noise and commotion was blocked out. I checked my phone and I had been trying to find a match for 2 hours. 2 HOURS!!!!! My head and eyes hurt with pain and all I wanted to do was quit. It was the feeling of winning my first match that made all the hard work pay off. But, the addiction was only beginning.
Believe it or not, my fraternity brothers were just like me and I made them fall in love with the game too. Now, I see why 99% of the people I asked for games to play told me Fortnite.
We played almost every night while eating whatever frozen food we could find, staying up knowing that we had class in the morning.
The second game I needed to try was Call of Duty. But honestly this game was hard and very complicated. I had no idea what was going on and honestly I think I had watched every YouTube video possible and I was still dying every time.
On top of learning how to play the actual game, there were about 20 different styles and modes I could use and every single one of those took its own time getting used to. In order for me to perfect this game I needed to get some serious help from a professional. Who else to turn to? My little brother Kody, of course.
We basically started from scratch and in each phase I had to learn more and more. The hardest part of this all had to be the multitasking it took to play Call of Duty, and understanding the concept of each mode I played. Call of Duty is not for the impatient or the weak minded because the amount of frustration I faced in just one week is more than some people get in their lifetime.
Actually, my first time playing the mode “Team Deathmatch,” was very frustrating because along with having to win my team a round I had to also focus on being the best player and having the most kills. Trying to manage all three was just mind boggling. It was so demanding that I had to take my headset off.
I will be honest this game got to be one of my top 3 games to play. You have to play hard to win but once you learn everything the game just comes naturally. Plus, the game offers more ways to play than the other 2 games. Matter of fact, I have played Call of Duty every day since I made the purchase.
My brother was very harsh to me in the beginning of all this, mostly because he had waited his entire life to teach me how to play the exact games I called him stupid for playing. But once I learned how to play, he knew we were equal and it made our time playing together fun.
The last game on my journey of branching out was Saints Row 3. I only needed to call for help one more time, from only one kid--Kody. Honestly, this game was mostly campaigns or what people call story modes. Most of these had a storyline that I had to follow in order to complete the game. You travel and try to fight other games and take over the map which didn't seem like a whole lot to me. It was kinda boring, if you ask me!
It was probably the easiest game out of the three to learn how to play. Because I had never played it before, I found myself lost on what I was actually doing, trying to find a purpose for the game. The one thing I loved was how diverse and how easy it was to branch out. You can use different guns and people to complete the missions. Also, missions aren't as easy as you think so you get addicted to trying to beat them.
From the modes, side quests, and weapons, Saints Row is an all around good game once you learn how to play. I basically just ran around and figured it out on my own. The controls were very simple and there were easy ways to beat my way through a mission. The game seems to seem go on repeat once you learn the concept. I was just confused by the story and it didn't help that every time I accidentally shot someone, people in the game tried killing me until I died. I would recommend it with people who have a bit of imagination.
So, now here I am at the end of my journey, at a loss for words. I went from only playing sports games to now learning how to play games out of my comfort zone. I can respect someone who does this for a living, or people who do this for fun and as a hobby. My views have been completely flipped upside down and I honestly think I will play the games more than I do my regulars like MLB or Madden.
I have decided to buy more games to play and learn, like “Uncharted and Fallout 3 and 4. There is a lot more to video games than sports. They’re more than just something to do when you're bored, just like my brother has told me this entire time. Who would have thought Kody was right this whole time? Turns out that being yelled at by a 13 year old really wasn’t that bad after all.