The end. The good and the bad.

It feels good to be done binging. While I did enjoy the experience, it definite interfered with my social life. Not to mention a few minor conflicts with my girlfriend who hates it when I play video games. Now that I am done with the binge I really look forward to having a free weekend before the fall semester starts and I am back to almost no free time.  To be more specific I hope to go camping this upcoming weekend if the weather decides to clear up. I would also like to spend some more time outdoors as I feel that we have had extremely nice weather for the past few days and I was stuck inside playing a bad video game. 

Not too much has stuck with me through the whole binge. I think that this is due to the rapid fire change in texts that we where binging on made it hard to retain information from the previous binges. One thing really did stick with me though. I know now that I HATE Lego video games. This is very important as I have never found a game that I truly hate maybe dislike or simply not worth my time but I truly cannot stand the game. I think this hate is due to me being forced to binge play the game. Being forced to play the game instead of setting  it aside for a rainy day increased my dislike of the game to full blown hate.

Legos and Hobbits

I'm quite the gamer. I spend most of my free time playing video games on my Xbox One or Nintendo 3DS. It's my favorite form of media, and some of my closest friends I've made through playing video games. I love all kinds of games, including the Lego games. So when I got the opportunity to play Lego Lord of the Rings for class, I was totally set.

That is, until I got a few hours into the game. The first few hours was all well and good. It was a pretty typical Lego game. My time was spent breaking everything in the game that was made of Legos and fighting Lego character enemies. Until it hit me that I wasn't really enjoying the game as much as I had with other Lego games. It took me a while to realize exactly why that was. I was already used to the repetitive levels and how you needed specific characters to get all the parts of the level done. Something else was off. After thinking about it, the problem was that I already knew the story. Lord of the Rings is a story almost everyone knows, and playing the game, especially in Lego form, was a tall order and this wasn't quite up to the standards I would expect from something with the words Lord of the Rings on it.

That being said, I'm honestly so glad this binge is over. I couldn't wait to get back to my Xbox and play Destiny with my friends. On top of that, I learned that gaming is just so much more fun when you're not required to do it.

It's Driving Me Psycho

Honestly I expected to enjoy this video game binge quite a bit, because normally I love gaming. Then again, I said that about books and TV shows as well, and by now I find it hard to look them in their proverbial eyes. I definitely binge on video games a whole lot (particularly when I’m supposed to be doing homework), but they’re almost always on either my PS2 or my roommate’s PS3. I haven’t binge-played games on my computer in a really long time, mostly because I have trouble bingeing on repetitive games like Age of Empires (the only game I really have for PC) because they lack a storyline. The games I play on consoles are usually thrilling action games like Mass Effect or Dragon Age—games that have really good storylines and action but very few puzzles or strategic aspects.

Bingeing on Psychonauts was pretty hard to do for four hours, mostly because I had to get used to all the different buttons on my computer since I usually just have to deal with four to eight buttons on a PlayStation controller and a couple of joysticks. Psychonauts also has a lot of strategy, and definitely a lot of running around without really knowing where you’re going or how to find what you need to find, which sometimes bores me. It's kind of on par with Legend of Zelda in the sense that it takes forever to figure out how to beat a certain boss or where to go next. I also keep having trouble getting my fingers to press the right buttons without taking my eyes away from the screen, which means then I miss what's happening, and by the time I look up again, sometimes I'm dead. There was one part I spent at least half an hour trying to get past because I couldn't make my character move the way I needed him to, either because I kept forgetting what each button meant or because the camera angle, which is controlled by the mouse, wasn't right.

Zombie Survival, A guide on Safety and Awareness

My experience of  Plants Vs Zombies was a complete and utter warfare against all evil. Despite losing half the time and having to repeat the same level, I really enjoyed the game, especially conversing with my group about of success. I feel, the game can be really addicting the first few levels as its easy for on to compete challenges.

The Higher levels you go up, the more challenging it gets because theirs harder Zombies. My main challenge I had playing the game was trying to control my anger towards not being able to compete specific levels. Eventually, As I completed a level not only did I feel relieved but a sense of accomplishment because I was able to complete something that I'd tried for multiple minutes. The feeling of success is like non-other, as I kept trying to beat more levels it just became a repeating cycle. 

My Binging experience has been extraordinary. Going into the class with low expectations turned into a great experience. I'm glad not only did I learn a lot about individuals and their experience, but also myself, and how I can adjust frustration in different occasions. 

Zombies, Zombies, Zombies, to all my Plants Vs. Zombies (PVZ) comrades, do not let the Zombies attack your emotions. Making sure you plant all the sunflowers to give you life is the key survival to you're safety and your accomplishments to advance. Stay safe while playing and be aware of the casualties that may occur while playing. Warning, Warning, Warning!

Binges: Two Down, One to Go. 

When I enrolled in the class “The Binge”, I knew I would have interesting and new experiences when binging on multimedia for several days in a row! Although I hadn’t ever binged on books, tv, or video games to the extent that was required for the class, I did have experience binging… on two of the three multimedia forms.  Reading has always been an activity I enjoy, and although I read for pleasure less often than I did when I was younger, it is still a positive experience for me.  Similarly, I enjoy watching television, and often “binge” watch series during school breaks… so with both of these entertainment forms I had an idea of what to expect…

However when it came to my video game binge, I was clueless. Not only did I have little experience binging on video games, I had little experience playing video games, period!  I was in the dark, and anything could be at the other end of the tunnel. When I was younger, I played games like Wii Sports, Cooking Mama, and Dance, Dance Revolution, hardly the highly marketed popular sort of games most think of when they hear the term "video game". 

I purposely chose the game Psychonauts hoping it would have an interesting gameplay and not be too violent.  I hoped I could enjoy a game whose goal was not just to kill others, but gain skills or complete challenges of some other sort. 

The caption in this graphic makes a pretty bold claim, and I have to admit I thought I would really like the game!  There were different challenges to complete in order to master certain skills, and they were not very violent!  When I completed a challenge, the reward was very satisfying and motivated me to keep playing.  However, it reached a point where the challenges became too difficult.  I simply could not beat them!  This led to a decrease in my motivation and desire to play the game. Psychonauts is a clever game, and had the challenges not been so impossible, I may have continued playing after the binge. 

Pokemon Newbie

I did it. It’s official. I have officially experienced bingeing on a video game. I mean really bingeing. The type of bingeing where the only thing that pulled me away was the bathroom. The type of bingeing where I completely lost track of the time and had no idea how long I had been playing. The type of bingeing that no matter what I told myself to do instead, or how many time limits I gave myself, I just couldn’t pull away. 

There I was, at 5:30am with my bum stuck to my bed and my eyes glued to the computer screen in disbelief that I had really sat there for those seemingly quick five hours. As soon as I took a nice big stretch after being hunched over and tense for so long, I finally shut my computer and called it a night. The next morning when I woke up, I played again. 

Pokemon Glazed. That's my new obsession. 

Before this binge session, I had never played any Pokemon Games. I could identify Pikachu, but that's where my knowledge on this topic stopped. Now, not only do I know several different Pokemon, but I also know how to battle them and how to strategically accomplish each task within the game. When I first started playing, I was shocked at how much I did not understand. I understood the basic goals of the game, but it took longer to strategize and win a battle without fainting two times first.

Once I started catching all types of Pokemon and increasing their levels, I quickly became addicted. I think this is because of the level of challenge within the game, not too easy, not too hard. Because I am competitive and was determined to accomplish each task or battle, I became immersed with the game. Just about every time I considered taking a break due to frustration, I ended up figuring it out. This, of course, pulled me right back in. By the second day of the binge, all I wanted to do was play Pokemon Glazed. Since then, I am still playing and am determined to finish the game. 

PsychoNOTs

My experience with video games has been minimal if not nonexistent in my twenty-one years. I was not ready for the gaming binge let alone the game that I had chosen for myself, Psychonauts. It's a game about a psychic boy named Raz who crashes into a camp without permission and must master the Psychonaut training before his father comes to pick him up. To master these elements you must go through the professor's mental obstacle courses that consisted of different levels that ultimately help you learn new abilities and gain merit badges. I thought it was an overall well directed game, with its graphics and narrative arch, which kept me engaged for the first day and a half. I had trouble using the controls with my fingers and mouse, and trying to get through the obstacle courses, which were frustrating. During many of the group sessions there were spontaneous outcries when someone died, or when they could not get to the correct place on the map. I watched other less intense games that were played and came to the conclusion that Psychonauts just is not for me to binge on. I will probably continue playing it interspersedly, but as for bingeing on it, this game might not be the best choice for me to play.