Weekend Reading: The First Game Love

Strange, but the love for video games doesn’t work like real life: it’s not the first ever game you fall in love with while playing it, nor the first loading screen on which you see the one you’ll always remember. Different reasons are involved, some of them stranger than the real thing. Just a random example (yeah, right!): for me, my first video game love was actually the first title I have managed to finish. And I still get the chills when thinking about it.

It was waaay back, sometime in 1992 or 1993 - I was still young and the previous games I had played (titles like Miner, Dizzy or Joust on my HC ’85 and Sokoban - a German title on my treasure, a 286 IBM computer) didn’t manage to put me under their spell. Probably I was too young to understand them: I remember they really bored me to death back then (I know, it’s a shame!). Still, one day, my dad brought me a game called Another World (or Out of this World, as some might recall it). And that game, that particular title, that masterpiece, is the one responsible for turning me into an addict: everything, anytime, for as long as possible. The first game I ever loved.

It was about a scientist whose lab was struck by lightning while he was working; he gets teleported into another dimension, another world - and the great adventure begins. I can still remember the panther you had to run away from, the cage you were trapped in at the beginning and your alien friend… Oh, sweet memories!

Unlike most of the games today, Another World didn’t have a tutorial. No text flashing on the screen, telling you to "press D to move right, click here to continue" and so on. It was like "Blam!" - the lightning strikes and you’re in a lake, trying to escape from some green things. Everything that follows happens so fast, the story unfolds in such a natural way that you simply start believing that you really are there. But that is not necessary the best thing about the game.



In Another World, you will have a friend. A person that keeps following you, a person that tries to escape just like you, another soul, another living being in the virtual world - helping you helping him, or just helping you because that's the way he is. In the end, the same person will save you after you’ll save it first from the wrath of the final boss, putting an end to an impressive story, a real life lesson.

And everything happens without 3D graphics, without voice acting or high def cutscenes. Actually, the game aims straight at the heart - it makes you love it and care for your scientist and his friend and, as I’ve said before, really manages to teleport you into the virtual world. And that is a game you will love (or, at least, would have loved), a game you will never forget because it makes you, as a youngster (I was still under 10), understand that friendship can exist between two living beings, no matter where they come from. And that is Another World: more than a "simple" game, if you take your time to analyze it, a tale about life, a metaphor, much more than "time wasting" as your parents and some scientists consider.

This game does what the entire gaming industry should do, it proves that you have to feel in order to say you’ve had a great experience. That love for video games is the one of the greatest things ever, as long as you’re playing quality video games and not turning it into fanaticism. Because fanaticism means violence and violence has nothing in common with love.

Probably the first reaction that you, my dear reader, will have, will be something like "LOL, what a looser!!!1" But just think about it for a minute: if you have ever considered yourself a gamer, if you have ever said that to love games, weren't your feelings similar to what I’ve just written? I’m sure they were and it doesn’t matter if the first game you loved was called Arkanoid, Diablo II, The Curse of Monkey Island or Final Fantasy XI – it doesn’t matter when you became a gamer or if you are a hardcore RTS fan or you love Cooking Mama because, in the end, it’s all about the feeling. So, go ahead and share your story with us! Post a comment below and let everybody know your memories about the first game you loved.


MORE RELATED ARTICLES: Weekend Reading: What PC Games We'll See in 2008 Weekend Reading: The Six Game Heroines You Love, but Would Hate in Real Life Weekend Reading: Mario and Sonic Redux Weekend Reading: Mario, Sonic & Co Should Retire from Games Weekend Reading: The World of Warcraft King and a Broom