Why We're Here

Welcome to our blog!

This is Melissa (also referred to as Mel), half of the two-person team who will be posting here. As I mentioned in our About Me section, we're here to take an in-depth look at Mass Effect 2 and Fallout 3. But why? What purpose could we have at studying video games? 

First of all, the latest and greatest technology has given us the opportunity to create insanely innovative and visually mesmerizing games. Even if you're not much of a gamer, it's hard to ignore how amazing technology is simply from viewing a trailer for a new game as a commercial. We've come a long way from Pong and pixels. Personally, I'm a huge fan of the ME franchise and I'm stoked for ME3 to be released next month. 

Let's take this one step further, though, and look beyond the graphics. If we can make games this visually realistic and fascinating, what else can we do with technology? Why do artists and programmers go to such great lengths to invent a fictional, three-dimensional world? Why do gamers such as myself feel so compelled and connected to these games? What's the deal with the stereotypes of female gamers? What do all of these things suggest about humanity - where we used to be and where we are today? In the next few weeks, Kelsey (the other half of the brainpower behind this blog) and I will attempt to answer these questions and many more as we explore the worlds of ME2 and F3. 

Here's the overview of our game plan. I will be playing Mass Effect 2, and Kelsey will be playing Fallout 3. Our levels of difficulty will be set one bar higher than we typically play. (For instance, I usually play on the Veteran setting with ME2, so this time I'll play on the Hardcore setting.) What's the point in a video game experiment without a challenge? Also, both of us will be playing as the "evil" character, making not-so-moral choices that result in a higher death count and a decidedly worse-off environment. The reason for this is because we tend to play as "good" characters, and we'd like to see how making uncomfortable choices affects not only the game itself, but us - the players. Other goals or things we may be taking note of as we play are as follows:

• visual aesthetics of the game (description of the environment)
• plot (what happens in the game, what actions our characters take)
• our reactions to each segment of gameplay
• time spent with each segment
• death count (including our own characters, should it come to that)
• critical reception of game (what others think of the game and how they reacted to the same/similar situations)

There's a good chance we'll cover a lot more than that. The sky is the limit. Feel free to give us suggestions or questions to answer and drop us comments on what we post. 

The title of this blog refers to three core concepts that relate to what we're searching for and will be investigating: humanity, video games and their technological advancements, and the world we live in with life as we know it. Hopefully, by the time we've finished our playthroughs and made our last posts, you and I both will have a better understanding of how these three things tie together. 

Two gamers, two games, one mission. 

~ Mel