a look into gaming:

I had the idea for this blog talking to someone recently about Zelda. He mentioned how it was strange that although the original Zelda games look so rudimentary they are in fact very complex and served almost as a rite of passage for boys (and girls) his age to defeat. We talked about how kids these days have it easy. The internet is brimming with cheat codes, game f'.a.q's, and people chatting about strategies and ways to make game-play less challenging.

This struck a chord with me. Because, you see, I am a Mass Communications major and oddly enough I hate the internet.

I do, however, love gaming. I remember watching my older brother and my dad play those more difficult Zelda's. I remember throwing mini-fits when I couldn't master the game like they could. Now, as I watch my nephew Google cheats, I can't help but cringe.

I wanted to dedicate this blog to, as the blog title itself suggests, the way that the internet has changed gaming. For better or for worse, the way that video games are played has been forever altered. I wanted to really dive into that. And as much as I despise the world wide web (and as open as I am about it), I am determined to leave as much bias behind me as humanly possible before I hit "publish post". I want to shell out information without any slant. It is my goal to simply reflect on the state of affairs in the video game world today and compare it to the yesterdays some of us remember.

Each week, I'd like to research different aspects of this change; from the availability of cheat codes, to how video games have become more social, to online RPG's.

By the end of these sixteen posts, I hope to be somewhat of an expert in this area. It is my hope that the readers of this blog come away with that same accomplishment.

photo credit: http://media.photobucket.com/image/zelda/Ultima011/Decorated%20images/1290831063619356291.jpg?o=24