Whats it suppoose to be excatly? I cant see it,lol

Video games have def changed me in multpile but good ways. Final Fantasy 9 for example got me through my darkest times in life. I would always go a play it when I felt sad, upset, or angry. It always in the end embedded the lessons it teaches you in me and while I occasionally do wonder off from it I still keep those lessons to my heart. They were the best I was taught, and by a video game no less ^_^

Sorry, posted link. Guess blip is not as Pixl friendly as Youtube.

And that's interesting about FFIX, what lessons was it teaching?

It taught about making big decsions, about how important life is and to live it to fullest, hell it taught that not matter what, your life has meaning. Heck if I would of asked what would Zidane do during some of my life decsions I think I would have choose differently. The games theme is about life and death which always involves some of the bigger lessons in life. If you get a chance, play this game. Its worth it.

Well, I'm not really one for JRPGs, but it sounds like a great story. Might have to watch an LP of it or something.

Your life has meaning no matter what is a great message.

I will say this about games and how they impact me. I can't afford to go to a therapist,but games do the job. Everyone needs a release of some kind. To blow off steam when you get pissed off at things in life. I can't get that from just watching football,though a lot of men do. I need it to be interactive,where I am involved in it. Games are written by people. And sometimes they can impact your life the same way a good book or film does. 

Agreed. I know what you mean about needing to be involved, and sometimes, like when I recently saw the new Star Trek movie, I think to myself "I needed that." And games can definitely have that impact and more. I haven't had one make me examine my philosophies or anything yet like certain books/movies have, but one certainly could.

I highly doubt that I would keep coming back to videogames if they did not have some sort of a positive effect on my life.

Well, I keep coming back to them simply because they are fun, and that in itself is a positive effect on my life, but I don't know that I can point to video games that got me through a rough patch or made me examine my philosophies. Either way, they can be art, but I'm curious what video games really get people to rank them as a favorite form of entertainment, or what games have the deepest impact on people. 

I like videogames because they are interactive, but in a different way than books are.  Books are brilliant because you have to use your imagination.  Sometimes I feel as though I need my hands to be busy, and videogames help with that a lot. 

I definitely think so too. I used to need to bounce a ball to not drive myself insane; luckily typing and playing games drives the people around me a bit less insane.

Diablo helped me a lot. I was going through a lot of depression at the time. I'd play that, and for some reason it'd take my mind off my troubles. Which is funny because that is one dark and depressing game lol. I mostly play games to escape. I'm sure there have been others, but I can't really think of any. I could probably say the same thing with certain movies.

Yeah, often just having the TV in the background takes my mind off things and somehow makes me more productive cause it'll drown out my negative thoughts and keep me going with my applications and such.

When I was at my previous park posting, I had a lot of anxiety issues going on due issues with my boss. I would come home after having had several anxiety attacks during the course of the day and play Flower. Between the visuals and the music and the gameplay style, I'd calm down enough to relax and even sleep, as my anxiety was also causing sleep issues.

I wish I had found that game myself, then. I probably could have stuck with the door-to-door thing if I had something to alleviate my anxiety.

Heck yes. If movies can be considered art, then so can video games. They employ artists, so why not? I would say that entertainment has impacted my life outside of just being entertainment, yeah. It does influence your mentality and attitude a bit, and sometimes has you see life a little differently.

That's what I think too, it's just that I can point to books and movies, even TV shows that have challenged or shaped my views in a significant way, but can't think of video games that did the same for me.

That's not to say they can't or won't, but I'm curious what experiences people have had with games that really gone beyond mere entertainment in that way. I might want to check some out.

Hey! PixlBit can handle Blip embeds! I've used it myself, for hosting replays of various PlayBits. Looking at the page source for your blog, I can't say for sure what went wrong, but I can say that the code you used trying to embed the video doesn't match blip's own embed code. Here's my recommendation: Rather than using the options inside the text formatter box, just copy and paste the embed code. Choose to preview the page once you've done that, and refresh the finished page once or twice. The system isn't perfect, but at that point, the video should be on the page and working.

I think. If you have an issue with that, let me know, and I'll look into it some more.

Yeah, I just clicked that piece of film icon in the blog editor and pasted the link in the dialog box that pops up. It showed a Flash video being there, but turned into a white blank when I posted the blog.

I'm trying with the blip embed code, and we'll see if I can refresh a few times to make it show.

Looks like the issue now is that you can't paste it as plain text. That's one big difference between blogs and articles. I'm not the brightest guy around, but maybe I'll figure out a work-around. Sorry it didn't work. :(

Problem solved. Take the link to the video from the embed code, it's in the former half of the code. Then when you plug in the video, make sure you choose it's an iframe type video. Boom!

I played Spec Ops the line thinking it was just a mindless shooter to waste up my free time, but was surprised with the story elements and would step away thinking about the politics and perspectives that soldiers might face. Not in a deep sort of way, but in some sort of way nonetheless. Also playing Heavy Rain and having everyone die and the bad guy get away pissed me off--most games have the good guy always win, but in real life they don't always. 

I only ever watched an LP of Heavy Rain with the good ending, but that's interesting cause what you just wrote illustrates the main point of differentiation discussed in the video I posted between games and other mediums: choice.

There have been a lot of characters from books, video games, and movies that have  made an impression on me and how I look at the world. Music too. For me this is what artistic expression is all about. Plus everybody gets something different, no two people are likely to interpret something in the same way.

In regards to FFIX each character was facing really the same question to some degree. What is the purpose of my life and how shou I live it? Vivi's delima was the most obvious, but Steiner questioned if his life was only to serve the pricess. Freya felt she was cursed to be alone although it was really her choice all along. There is some really deep shit going on, thats why it is my favorite of the PS1 Final Fantasies. 

Dang, another FFIX recommendation. They sell like a book with that game's story in it? lol

Not that I know of, not in english anyway, but I would not be supprised if there was a Japan only Manga of it floating around. That is a very cool idea though.

You got me curious so I googled it, there actually were manga and novel adaptions for Final Fantasy's 2,3, 11, and 12. The only thing I found for FF9 was a fan fiction prequel.

Well, maybe they'll make a decent fan fic at some point, or I can read one of the other ones. lol

Ironically certain games have impacted on my art quite significantly, the most adventourous projects I ve ever are works taking up to 2000 hrs of work based on the Legend of Zelda series!

That sounds quite awesome.

I still haven't watched the video, but I'll do it soon.

I think why I keep gaming to this day is because while movies and tv make you see and experience emotions and books make you release your imagination, games allow you to interact with an eviroment and have a sense of interaction. That, and they are just damm fun. As simple as that.

Off topic: are you following Doug's Avatar vlogs?

Same here and yes, I actually ran into this video only because I was following his Avatar vlogs. Can't wait until he gets to the movie and realizes why everyone was pissed.

I think if that Oculus Rift thing takes off people will become so immersed in games it will add to it. The emotional bond with characters will increase. If it seems like you're in the same room with them you then enter that world. Now that's art. 

I can't wait for Oculus Rift to be affordable.