Sunday 24 May 2009

Lit Assignment T2W9

Q: "Teenagers should not be allowed to play online games." Comment.

A: I think that teenagers SHOULD be allowed to computer games, but not to excess.

Reason 1: Health.
Computer games allow us to have better hand-eye co-ordination, thus letting us improve in our lives. Research has shown that children who played computer games scored 38% higher in a test which they were supposed to press a button in accordance to what they saw on a screen, than children who did not play computer games. They were also 22% faster, showing that computer games improve our reaction time as well.

Reason 2: Economy.
If teenagers were not allowed to play computer games, the video game industry would drop sharply. Evidence: Go to any arcade (apart from Chinatown Arcade) and count how many youngsters are there as compared to older people. Chances are, the only people above thirty you will see there will be the owners or the employees of the arcade.
If no one (or almost no one) bought the games, the video game industry would fall sharply and there would be a loss of jobs globally. Without those jobs, the people would not be able to spend in basic necessities and in the worst case, it might lead to a global recession, if accompanied by a already-existing recession and a pandemic (H1N1) so there.

Two reasons are enough, for now. Of you want some more, just ask politely in the comments and I will update this post with another bunch of reasons, ranging from 1 more to 300 million.

Thank you for your kind attention. Accessories sold separately, batteries not included.

Saturday 9 May 2009

Are You Game? Literature Assignment.

A: When I was in Primary 4, I started playing a game called Maplestory. At that time, it seemed a very interesting game and as I had little homework it was a great way to spend my time.

I started by creating a Asiasoft Passport then registerd my account and downloaded the game. This took about three hours in total so I got very bored and so played for 5 hours in that boredom. I discovered a world of fantasy, adventure and stupid little snails that you can slaughter 3 in a second after about 4 hours.

I was a Warrior at that time, although I soon discovered that the Mage was better. With the warrior, I trained hard on the most profitable monsters at that time - Red snails! Yes they were WAYWAYWAY too easy but every six hundred or so they would drop an item which I could sell for ten thousand mesos (the currency in the game. ) That came to about 600s times 3 snails a second times 10 000 mesos - which was quite a lot. I scrimped and saved and finally I bought myself the best armor and weapons sold for my level.

After seven months or so, I discovered that a mage (aka magician ) a third my level could kill monsters twice as powerful and twice as fast! So I restarted and made a 'pure' mage, which was one that would spend a lot of time slowly getting exp and would cost about 6 000 000 mesos to get to level 30, because of the need to buy potions, equipment, armour, transport, 'mercenaries' for the party for easier experience and so on. But once it got to level 30, it would be leveling up at an incredible speed.

Of course I had to raise that 6 000 000 mesos. So I got all the spare cash that my warrior, now level 83, had and funded my mage. It was painfully slow and it cost 18 million mesos, not 6 000 000 but it was worth it. The mage's level increased by leaps and bounds and it passed the 2nd job requirement with ease and became a Ice - Lightning mage, and at level 39 could do damage which was eight times as much as my level 92 warrior, and attacked six times as fast, because the ice lightning mage had an attack which could attack up to 6 monsters at once.

By this time I was addicted but I didn't know it. I felt that I could stop playing for 8 hours a day.
I began neglecting my studies and my grades dropped.
I only realised this when all my subjects got a U grade at once.
I stopped playing games and studied hard and left my level 172 Ice Lightning guy alone in the computer for a long long while while I spent the next 6 months studying for my PSLE. In the end I managed to get to HCI and I tried playing again. But Maple had lost its fun as I had not been playing for 6 months and thus I had lost my experience and so I died for the first time in 264 levels. Imagine! A guy who beat the Zakum(A boss who takes 6 people to kill normally) by himself and one cleric and a tanker warrior to absorb damage, died at the hands of a stupid Jr Balrog! How embarrassing. Since, I have leveled up once but now, most of the time, my character is molding away slowly in some hard drive in Asiasoft, and is probably never coming out again.

(This story is based on a true story but some details have been changed to make the story more interesting. And don't ask me for the account name or the character name, im not telling you. )