Video Games, Mostly Of The Sports Variety, Have Taught Me Alot
Topic: What Sports Video Games Offer/The Knowledge A Video Game Can Teach
By: Ryan "I Just Made You Famous" Rage

Whenever something goes awry with teens these days, the usual suspects come into play. Music, television/movies, drugs, alcohol and video games are usual the ones most often brought up to explain why some teenager has just gone loco at his school or wherever it may be. What happened to the good old days when these bad seeds, who ruin the fun for others, had to face bear the brunt of the blame without being able to give the notion that, “Those [insert usual suspect] made me do it.” To them I say, “Poppycock.” I’m not trying to say that video games never have a bad effect on a person; I’ve smashed a few controllers over several interceptions in Madden and a couple over terrible one-touch football in Fifa. I just find it absolutely ludicrous that many tend to view video games and other things, such as television, music, etc. as the only culprits whenever someone with not enough sense goes out and does something stupid. (To the few that read, you’re probably wondering what this has to do with sports; I’ll get to that shortly.) Everyone seems to forget about those who do have sense and do not do those stupid acts. Does playing Grand Theft Auto make you a car jacking hooligan or does playing Zelda make you a sword wielding maniac? Not necessarily. In fact, video games, in my case, have been both beneficial and have improved my life. What have video games done for me? Well, they’ve made me a cool guy; Ok, maybe not. However, they have taught me a lot and a lot about my one true love. My one true love is not a woman, as sad as it sounds. This love that video games has taught me so much about is sports. Yes, video games have taught me about sports and lots about it.

One of the most influential sports games that has impacted my knowledge of a particular sport is Major League Baseball Featuring Ken Griffey, Jr. for the Nintendo 64. Where o where do I begin? Besides the endless hours of pleasure that it gave me, (no not a sexual type of pleasure. I did not have the rumble pack, which makes the controller shake ferociously.) the game taught me a lot about the sport itself. Let me take a trip down memory lane. Bottom of the ninth inning and down one run with a man on second, my hitter, Bobby Higginson, is up to the plate. The pitchers throws his pitch and “Wham”. It is laced into the centre-right gap; the ball takes one hop and over the fence. I, not knowing better, thought it was a homer run, as I had never seen such a play. I thought I had won the game; sadly, the game doesn’t cut to a scene of celebration that occurs at the end of a team’s win. I am back at the plate. I am holding my controller befuddled. That play that just occurred was a ‘ground-rule double’ and that’s how I learned about it. Another moment of learning through video games occurred in a bases loaded, zero-out situation as I was pitching. Talk about a sticky situation. To my luck, the batter at the plate strikes one of my pitches for an infield pop-fly. A voice then quickly says, “Infield fly” indicating that the ‘infield-fly rule’ was in effect. At this time, I had no clue what “infield fly” meant. I thought I had struck gold; I would let the ball drop and, hopefully, turn my first triple play. I let it drop, then threw to third then second and then first. I was baffled. I only recorded one out. Something clicked in my brain and I came to a conclusion about what “Infield fly” meant. On the plus side, I did get out of the inning unscathed. That game taught me a lot and much more than just those two stories, like the devastation of a Randy Johnson slider when your anticipating a heater or just how effective a Tim Wakefield knuckleball can be when it’s really working. However, no pitch, like Tim Wakefield’s knuckleball, can be that dominant. Can it? I rarely got more than five hits against the man and almost never got a run or two.

Another sports video game which has affected me immensely is Madden ’95 for the Super Nintendo. An oldie but a goody; it was the first sports video game that I ever played. At least that’s what I remember and it depends on whether you count pro wrestling games as sports games. (I like to think of pro wrestling as its own genre.) I learned about what a safety is in football; not the position safety but the scoring play. During a blowout throttling that I was giving the opposition, I was growing tired of my dominance. As I looked at the screen, I wondered, “What would happen if I went into my own end zone? Would I score some points for my side?” I didn’t know better; I did what I was contemplating. I ended up losing possession and giving the other team two points. I learned many things about the game, certain plays, and ‘what not. Of course, I learned about the I-formation and what it meant to do a wide receiver curl, but amongst that I furthered my vocabulary. When throwing a pass and the other team catches the ball instead of the intended receiver, I learned that play meant that I was intercepted. Whenever that play occurred or something in real life similar to that situation happens, I no longer say, “took-ed” or always say, “steal”. I, once in a while, crack out the mental thesaurus stored in my brain and say, “Interception”. One of these days when a friend’s plans are ruined when his girlfriend is whisked away by her friends, I’m going to say, “Intercepted.” I also learned the word encroachment. I came upon it when I was trying to gain an upper hand on the opposition as I played on the defensive side of the ball. I already knew about offsides, but I thought I’d give it a try. I wasn’t surprised by being penalized; however, I wasn’t called for ‘offsides’. I was called for encroachment. After a few other plays which involved either ‘encroachment’ or ‘offsides’, I was able to distinguish the difference. From that moment on, I knew the meaning of encroachment. I plan on using that word when someone is being too chummy with one of my “many” women. “Listen up, homie! I don’t like you encroaching on my woman!” Thank you, Madden ’95.

NBA Shootout ’98 for the Playstation was a terrible game. Bad controls, bad graphics, and bad entertainment value. However, it still managed to teach me several valuable nuggets about the NBA and its rules. Rule number one that it taught me, ‘back court violation’ aka ‘over and back’. This happens when an offensive team crosses the half court line into the front court and then goes back into the back court. It’s a shame that I learned this in a tight game when I was trying to run down the clock. Rule number two that it taught me, the ‘five second in-bound’ rule. As I tried to shave seconds off of the clock, in yet another close game, I violated the five second in-bound rule with about 2 minutes and 30 seconds left. I was livid, to say the least. I could go on and on about the rules that I learned about, which oddly seem to occur at the most inopportune times, but they all seem to follow the same plot from beginning to end. I’m in a tight situation in a tight game…I use a strategy that is the product of my “ingenuity”…turns out my strategy wasn’t so ingenious and it fails miserably…I learn something new and add another line to the book of knowledge that is my brain. Besides, I’ve proven the gist of my point; I learned a lot about basketball from this video game. Too bad the game sucked. Why’d they have to make performing a slam dunk so hard? I could never do one.

The next game that taught me a lot about sports and one sport in particular is NHL ’98 for the Playstation. From the first moment I first played it, I knew I was in love. Peter Forsberg graced the cover of this; like him, it was amazing. The one-timer was virtually unstoppable and I’d never seen bone crunching hits like this in a video game before. I wasn’t too familiar with the players, since I wasn’t a complete sports nut at this time; this game did familiarize me with them. It taught me a lot about many players; Adam Oates was a really great passer, Chris Chelios was a dominant defenseman for the Chicago Blackhawks and the list goes on and on. Not only did it teach me about which players were good and who were better, it taught me the rules. ‘Icing’ was a rule that I had no previous knowledge of. ‘Offside’ was another rule that I had no previous knowledge of; when I learned about it and after numerous infractions that I’d commit, I turned that rule off in the ‘Options’ menu. It’s not like I cherry-picked in the offensive zone; I just had no patience waiting for my players to get onside. I also learned about the ‘two-line pass offside’ rule; I thought it served no good, so I turned that rule off in the game. You’re probably thinking, “This guy is a cheat” or “What a cheap player!” To you I say, “I’m just playing the cards that the game dealt me. If the game makes it possible to do certain things then I will utilize the tools that are at my disposal.” How else could I have beaten Street Fighter II: The World Warrior for The Super Nintendo? I put the difficulty setting to its lowest level, after trying endlessly to defeat the game on its normal setting. It sure sounds like I’ve nullified a lot of rules, or at least most of them, in the game or any other video games. I do make sure to keep one rule; the rule being “I always win.”

Where would I be without Mario Tennis? I’d be without a ton of knowledge that pertains to the sport that is tennis. I’m not the biggest fan of tennis but Super Mario seems to make everything more fun and this video game was no exception, for me. Running away from ghosts with your life on the line? Super Mario makes that terrifying activity fun. Swimming away from killer fishes? Mario makes that hardly enjoyable activity into a joyous occasion. Mario made a sport that I hardly enjoyed or respected into a sport that I enjoy and now respect. I learned what made this game so great. The intense rallies and the hitting of an ace that screams, “In your face!” I learned a lot about the rules of tennis from this game. I learned what “15-love” meant, although I don’t know why that term was coined. I learned what the term ‘advantage’ meant in tennis and a whole lot of other interesting bits. This game, like many other video games, served as one which provided a learning experience.

Video games don’t always create negative effects and most of the time they don’t. All this negativity that is bestowed upon them is often unwarranted. Look at what video games have done for myself; they are a drop of the water that has carved the grand canyon that is me. Depending on whether you see that as a positive or a negative, that’s your call. However, video games always have something great to offer. In my case, they’ve taught me a lot about the sports that I mentioned before and others that I haven’t discussed, such as rugby and soccer. I won’t go into “How Ea Sports Rugby taught me certain rules” or “How Fifa ’98 taught me certain rules.” Video games somehow get a fairly bad rap. It’s not like gamers are rotting away their minds. Whether it be Grand Theft Auto or Brunswick Circuit Pro Bowling , they are all intended to be fun and a lesson or two can be learned from them. Most of all, people need to be more responsible and people need to quit placing blame on video games, television, etc. because of some dummy acting out in a stupid/idiotic manner.