That Girl from Derwent dwells on the value of religion this Christmas.
That Girl from Derwent has learned a few more things about prejudice since moving up North.
That Girl From Derwent reckons if you're going to be offensive, you should find a better reason.
That Girl from Derwent considers why it is that some words have wider implications than others.
There's something different about being a second year and living in a house. Something big. Something epic. Exciting. Awesome. Something that completely alters the university experience and the way you live. Things will never be the same again.
I am, of course, talking about having a games console in your front room.
Yes, seeing as we've now got a house, and the house has a telly, and the telly has a port for a SCART lead, and I'm now a second-year who doesn't have to worry about showing his more geeky side, I thought “why not dust off the old Wii, shove in a few games and hook it up in the house?” If anything else, it would get some use out of the bloody thing.
And I was right.
After a week, we've probably got a whole term's use out of it. On one of the first few days I had the bright idea to introduce my housemates to Super Mario Galaxy. One of them being a full-on geek who spent half of last year on Modern Warfare 2, and another having a surprisingly nerdy side despite being our college's Fresher of the Year, they lapped it up.
It has taken over our lives.
And I know what you're thinking: bad move.
You don't want to spend time at university playing games, do you? It is, after all, about socialising and doing things you've never done before - not sitting inside a house stomping on Goombas and swearing at the screen when they bite back. For entirely this reason I didn't bring a console to York last year and barely played a single game. And when considering whether to bring the Wii or not, I had worrying thoughts of one of my mates from back home who once told me he responded to an invitation to go out with: “go away, I'm playing Heavy Rain!”
Considering we spent the whole of last year complaining about how our fellow Alcuinites never left the flat, I was sure this wasn't going to happen to us. And it didn't. So our second Freshers’ Week was, for the most part, just as wild as the last one: going out almost every night, having massive memory gaps - the usual stuff.
And it's been brilliant, of course: and made even more so by the 120 stars you’ve just got to find some nights.
I’ve discovered that having a console doesn't stop you from socialising and going out any more than you do already. What it does do is give you something to do during those less exciting times. And all the more importantly, it gives you something to do with other people.
The three of us embarked on the epic quest to beat the game together, taking turns on a single file. And slowly, we got sucked in. I'd played and beaten it years ago, but playing it with them made it so new. As we switched turns, our complete piss-taking of each other's abilities gave way to encouragement as the challenges got harder. In-jokes galore sprung out of it (our favourite being a fleshed-out theory about Mario being a “violent motherfucker”, which we've probably thought more about than most of our English essays) and it's been amazing.
Instead of turning me into an anti-social loner, having a games console in the house has made me realise that the time you spend with people can be just as exciting when doing something low-key like jumping around as a fat Italian midget, as it can on the most expensive nights out. As important as it is to get out - and as vital I would say the big nights are to the university experience - sometimes you have to treasure the smaller moments too.
After all, there's something quite epic about going all-out for a Ziggy's night and coming back at five in the morning to drunkenly snag a couple of stars on one of those really difficult levels. It's like the outgoing and geeky sides of your personality have merged into one satisfying whole... and it's awesome!
I'm sure it's all well and good with a Wii, but with a 360 you just get that one housemate who plays Halo Reach all day by himself. It is entertaining to watch him run over other players while driving a ghost, but not hugely engaging. But then I'm not a fan of console FPSs. We do have a PS3 and a Wii too, but the Wii remains in my room and the PS3 sits under the TV gathering dust, as it has no games. Though we DID just get L4D2 for the 360 today...
It's not about the games console though is it? If I was an antisocial dick I could have easily just spent all day playing through Metroid or something on my own and not let my flatmates anywhere near it, but in the end it's far more satisfying playing something where you can have a laugh with mates. What console you use for it doesn't make a difference.
You must log in to submit a comment.
Report