Remember the Atari 2600?

I grew up with Medal Of Honor.
And the person responsible for this is my very own dad.
It was from the end of 1999, where I spent my childhood watching the man participate in World War 2 from our very own living room. I was always freaked out from the game itself, to be honest, the whole setting plus the eerie soundtrack just gave off that depressing aura, a bit much for a 9 year old girl at the time, don't you think? I never really understand how he finds it so entertaining, and not to mention, addictive. But it was his detox, his way of stress release, and it became a daily routine. The first thing he would do after coming home from work, was switch on the PS One, and I automatically knew it was time to sit behind him and observe this strange behaviour.

I followed my dad’s footsteps; not exactly a good or a bad thing, but it definitely made me more aware of the video game industry. I started playing a wide variety of games; from ones of the sports genre, driving simulations, RPG games, to a phase of the Rockstar games series, and ofcourse, the first person shooter genre. Despite all those hours gone and money spent on these videogames, I can proudly say I was never addicted to them.

That was a short history of my personal experiences with videogames. Dad, on the other hand, took a different approach. There were days where I would find myself cut off from chatting on the net, just to find my dad in the other room, using up all the internet playing COD online. Throughout the years, technology evolved and his relationship with videogames continues to blossom: I never wanted a Playstation 2 for my birthday. Nor a PSP, an Xbox 360, a Nintendo Wii and a new laptop with crazy specs designed especially to be a platform for PC gaming. What an excuse!

This sparks an interesting thought on how today’s advancing technology in videogames impact on our own psychology and perspective. Why do we always seem to feel the need to keep up to date and possess the latest, shiny new toy? Do they trigger some kind of nerve in our system? What is it about videogames, that it has the ability to affect our behaviour?

As we know it, technology is a major contributing factor to the development of videogames. This here shows just how much it has evolved over the years, and it is just amazing to think of how humans could use technology to invent something like this. But it is also interesting, how every step forward in gaming technology has the ability to shape our behaviour towards videogames.

I showed this to my dad last week.

Biggest mistake. Ever.