Overview
Continuation from the previous entry.
Things I Tried This Month
- Solved past Eiken Pre-1 exams with a friend.
- Shadowed English YouTube videos.
- I made a video of the above activities this month. It was really fun.
- Here’s the video I used as a model. It’s a video where Davi Vasc shares his thoughts on adults playing video games.
About the Content of the Shadowing Video
The model video was interesting in terms of content, so I decided to write a summary.
- There was a post on X like this ↓
- Adults who spend long hours playing video games are showing a form of depression.
- Think of 100 wonderful moments in life—none of them would involve video games, right?
- Davi, a game music composer, shared two main thoughts on this post:
- Rejection of such materialism.
- Support for adults engaging in childlike activities.
- Regarding 1:
- This way of thinking stems from materialism and a simplistic view of the world—the perspective that life is all about food, shelter, and things you can hold in your hands or that produce profit.
- But in reality, there is more than that. It's what art and video games bring to us.
- They inspire us with courage and a sense of adventure. This allows us to realize that we have the capacity to feel these emotions and apply them in real life.
- Conversely, they may depict tragic situations that encourage reflection and teach us what we can learn from them.
- Regarding 2:
- Art and video games do have a childlike aspect. That’s true.
- However, this very aspect is what makes art and video games wonderful.
- Adults should be mature and responsible. But at the same time, they should also embrace childlike values such as a sense of adventure and sincerity.
- In recent years, the most talented creators have been involved in the video game industry, making it an incredibly rich world for the current generation.
Here’s ↓ my own reflection. As someone who enjoys video games as a hobby, I found it an intriguing topic, so I decided to write about it.
- Davi Vasc's reflections are filled with hope and positivity, which is comforting.
- I feel like I didn’t capture it well in the summary above, but I really liked the part where he said, "Games show us what feelings like courage are like, so we can express them in the real world." Instead of just saying "apply in real life," he offers a high-resolution explanation of what it means to "apply," which I appreciate.
- However, to be honest, I don’t feel like I’ve directly learned how to overcome life’s challenges from games.
- It feels like he’s romanticizing games a bit too much—almost idealistic.
- Most of the time, what we’re thinking about while playing games is essentially how to efficiently tackle challenges. (Of course, this is just my personal take.)
- As for the original post's opinion that “there wouldn’t be any video games in 100 wonderful moments in life,” I think it’s just shallow thinking.
- In this case, video games are similar to reading books or lazily watching TV shows.
- In other words, "they’re not directly profitable, but they’re things that affect our lives in both tangible and intangible ways."
- So, some of those "100 wonderful moments in life" could very well have been born from experiences in video games.
- Multiple experiences in video games, reading, TV shows, and art contribute to our culture.
- This post is too focused on the results (what you gain from cultural experiences) and ignores what produces those results (the culture itself).
- That might be what Davi is referring to when he talks about a “simplistic view of the world.”
- By the way, Davi used the phrase “simplistic view.” When I looked it up, I found that “simplistic” has the nuance of “overly simplified.” Makes sense.
- That aside, the idea of “100 wonderful moments in life that include video games” is an interesting topic. Let’s consider if there are any video game-related moments in my own top 100.
- The first game I played on PlayStation 2, 'ICO', was amazing. I was deeply moved. The atmosphere and music of the old castle dominated my mental landscape for a while after playing. I even drew pictures of old castles and set my own stories in them... My love for “old castles” is almost certainly influenced by 'ICO'.
- The feeling of expanding my worldview by one dimension when I entered the world of online games through 'Mabinogi' was a significant event in my life. I’ve talked about it before ↓
- In 'Etrian Odyssey', I wrote a series of short stories. I enjoy writing stories, and that series allowed me to experience writing dialogue-driven narratives.
- Also, I’m a gamer who loves collecting trophies, and going through that process is simply accumulating success experiences. I believe it contributes to building my self-esteem.
- (In this case, “simple” is just "simple," not “simplistic”!)
- ... There are countless other examples. Other gaming experiences have certainly become part of my cultural education as well.
Reflections
- I finally started on the past exams. An old friend of mine is also interested in studying English, so we’ve been working on it together to rekindle our friendship.
- My average score on the past exams is around 70%... Hmm.
- Shadowing was fun this time too. Davi's original pace was way too fast for me, so I shadowed at about 90% speed.
- Doing that increased the time required by 11.1%, so that was tough in its own way...
