Video Games Live!!

Last night, I attended Video Games Live, a video game music performance. It was spectacular! If you get a chance to attend this event, do it. Totally go for it, as it was amazing. The lights, the music, the talent, the audience participation, everything was fantastic. This is what video games are about, the community coming together to experience some of the artistic talent and beauty inherent in creating a video game. This is the entertainment of the future.

I took my dad along. He enjoys video games. He's played the old arcade style stuff, like Centipede and Space Invaders, is strangly addicted to Bubble Bobble from way back when I had my original 8-bit Nintendo, and he loves my Wii. He and my mom bought a Wii of their own, in fact, just a couple weeks ago. Last night, he experienced a small slice of the local gaming community... and at first he wasn't so sure about the event.

If you try to talk to him about games like Final Fantasy, or Halo, or even World of Warcraft, you'll just get a big, blank stare. At least he is aware of WoW, since I play, but he has no real interest, at all, in any of these games. One day he might take a shot at some sports stuff, but it's a stretch. I can say, however, that last night opened his eyes a bit at the possiblities that video games bring these days.

On the drive home, he asked me about the music in the games, if what we heard was actually heard while you played. I told him, yes, of course. In WoW, the music plays in the background, unless you turn it off (something far too many people do right away... it's beautiful music that really sets a certain mood and should be expereienced at least once the way it was meant to). I honestly believe it's made him think about games as less of a "time-waster" or "for kids" and more as a true entertainment option that's as healthy and normal as watching tv or going to the movies.

I doubt he'll be running out to buy a Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 anytime soon, but at least he's more aware of the joy of gaming.

P.S. This event has opportunities to win stuff. One of those is a Guitar Hero competition, and I want to congratulate the winner last night. YOU GO GIRL! :D

That's right, the winner of the Guitar Hero competition, the one who beat the pants off every guy there, was a girl gamer. She got up on stage in the second half and played Aerosmith's "Sweet Emtion" on Expert mode. In order to win the prize, she had to get a score of 220,000.

She rocked out, earning over 250,000 points with a 96% accuracy! It was fun, I cheered and shouted, and loved the fact that last night, a girl proved we can game just a good, if not better, than the boys.