Video Games as Art – Tattoos

This week in blogging I’d like to focus on video games as more than just a game, but as art. People all over the world go to different lengths to create an artistic representation of games. Today the focus will be on video game tattoos in honor of receiving my first game based tattoo this past Monday.

This is my Organization XIII tattoo based of the video game, Kingdom Hearts (pardon my odd posture. It’s hard to take a photograph of your own ankle!).

Here are some other popular gaming tattoos…

So what do people think about the concept of video game tattoo? Some people think it’s lame. Some people think it’s awesome. People who find the idea of gaming tattoos to be ridiculous are usually not gamers themselves. They might not play video games at all, and think it’s “geeky”.  But what about that person’s tattoo of say, a unicorn? As with all tattoos it is up to the person getting it. What does it mean to them? To me, my tattoo is a representation of one of my favorite games. And there is a more personal underlying meaning behind why I favor the characters in the game. If someone wants to know, they should just ask me and I would happily tell the story.

WhatCulture! did a piece on the art of video gaming in tattoo form. They said in their article, “…each tattoo shows the players love for gaming and demonstrates the mediums power to communicate as an art form.”

Kotaku.com offers a few tips on committing to video game based tattoo:

1. Make sure the art is exactly what you want so that you’re favorite character isn’t inaccurately depicted.
2. Try it out first. There is such a thing as temporary inkjet tattoo paper so that you can make your own tattoos at home!
3. As with all tattoos, go somewhere that you trust. You don’t want your Mario tattoo to look like a stick figure mess.
4. It IS a tattoo and it is going to be there forever. Make SURE it’s what you want to see when you’re 50 years old. Personally I look forward to seeing my XIII tattoo when I’m old and have grandkids.

Extra Life gives lives to those who need it

Gamers will be happy to know that they can help the people around them by doing what they do best- playing video games. “Play Games. Heal Kids.” That is the tag like for Extra Life a website that every year in October hosts an event where people pledge to play games for 24 hours straight and others donate money during that time. Extra Life has raised money for 170 different children’s hospitals and in total has raised $440,000. Earlier this month, Xbox 360 held an event called Gaming and Giving for Good on Xbox Live to help raise money for Extra Life as well.

This year’s Extra Life event will be held on Saturday, October 15th beginning at 9 a.m. To register for the event is simple. You can register for free by signing up under the Extra Life Classic and your goal will be to raise $100. You must enter in your PSN, or Xbox LIVE Gamertag in order to participate. Participants will then be asked to recruit 4 sponsors who will donate $1 an hour during the marathon ($24 total). Participants will also be given a link to a page where they can ask for donations and a goal tracker will be displayed showing how much they’ve raised.

This year I will be trying my hand at raising money for this charity event. It only makes sense, right? The most I’ve played in a day was 15 hours. Can I make it to 24? If you’d like to help please visit my page to donate! I will be helping raise money for University Health Systems of Eastern Carolina. The gaming begins October 15th!!!

Kingdom Hearts – A Quick Review

In 2002, the world of gaming was introduced to an all-new video game series the would capture the hearts of many. That game was Kingdom Hearts. It was marked to be new and innovative because the video game developer and publisher Square Enix paired up the characters of the ever popular characters from the Final Fantasy games, our favorite Disney characters that we know and love, as well as original characters of their own. It was new, it was refreshing, it was something we hadn’t seen before.

Kingdom Hearts is the story of a young boy named Sora who was chosen to wield the Keyblade to fight evil. The evil are called the Heartless and they are led by a man named Ansem. Ansem released the Heartless across the many different Disney worlds. Sora, paired with Donald and Goofy who he meets along the way, must fight against this power and save the worlds from being corrupted, and find his friends, Riku and Kairi.

The game features many recognizable characters which makes it even more enjoyable to play. Sora will meet characters such as Donald, Goofy, Mickey, Aladdin, Ariel, Simba, and more from the Disney movies, along with characters such as Tifa, Cloud, and Sephiroth  from the Final Fantasy series. Sora will even travel to different Disney worlds such as Halloween Town from The Nightmare Before Christmas, and into Monstro’s belly from Pinocchio.

So you might be thinking, “How serious can I take a game that has Disney characters in it? Won’t that make it all safe and childish?” I don’t blame you for thinking that, but it in fact doesn’t. All these characters can fight alongside you and send you out on dangerous missions to complete. It is so much fun to get chase after the bad guys while on a magic carpet ride. Disney made a good call in pairing up with Square Enix.

The games are of the RPG genre. Players will get to choose which attacks they want Sora to use, and will get to make other decisions such as where to go and what to say. At first the fighting style seemed slightly confusing because players can change keyblades, gain the ability to perform different magic, use potions and ethers, and summon other characters to help fight during battle. But it is actually quick to learn and players can use shortcuts for the different spells and items. Players will gain other abilities such as different fighting abilities. There is also a section of the game devoted to the Gummi Ship. It is what Sora and his friends will use to travel from world to world. While on the Gummi Ship players must fight against Heartless who try to stop them from getting through. Players can also customize their Gummi Ship to look and function different ways by collecting gummi blocks. In my opinion, don’t waste time on it. You can get through the level and the game with the Gummi Ship you’ve been given.

Overall, the story, characters, design, colors, everything is just amazing about this game series. As you progress to other games their will be a more developed plotline, more characters, and more fighting styles. They are super fun and extensive plays. I would highly recommend it to anyone who likes RPGs. Actually you don’t even have to like RPGs to play this game. I played it based on the sole fact that I’m a HUGE Disney fan. So there are so many different reasons to play these games. Check it out because there are other games such as Kingdom Hearts 2, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, and Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep as well as the many others that are to be developed and released.