The ART of Gaming and How It's Not Always a Waste of Time BONUS: Creativity
Written By: Gen Nguyen | Read full profile
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Recently, Okra and I (but mostly Okra) have been playing Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons and we’ve been trying to make our island 5 stars. But why does this matter or have anything to do with enhancing skills like I mentioned previously? Well, one objective of the game is to design the island so that you and other players would want to actually visit. In order to be a 5 star island, you need to build and to build you need creativity. And no, I’m not talking about building houses (although can build and customize your house too). Let me explain.
In the game, you can build up terrain and design it however you like. It’s like someone gave you a blank canvas and told you to draw whatever you like, giving you a ton of brushes, colors, stencils, etc. and full control. But now you’re just sitting there thinking “what do I like” and “what do I do.” Oh and you only get one canvas. So, you’re sitting there having an existential crisis at the moment. Not you? Okay, maybe that’s just me.
Have you seen 5 star islands? They’re AMAZING. Somehow, I (and by I, I mean Okra) have to design something comparable. So recently we (mostly Okra) have been trying to think of creative ways to showcase our island and make it look YouTube worthy. Do we want an outdoor cafe or maybe a zen area? Are we gonna have a garden full of black roses so we can breed a gold rose? Where do we want to put it on our island? How do you wanna fence in Rodney? With actual fences or building a waterfall around him? So many questions. So many decisions. It’s making my head hurt.
To really want a good-looking, YouTube worthy island, it takes a lot of creativity and mental power (and money but that’s besides the point). And it’s not the only game that boosts creativity either. Minecraft and Terraria are similar games that help. Like, have you seen UC Blockley in Minecraft? Or Zoom University? Pretty legit.
Research shows that video games help increase creativity.
If you still don’t believe me even after reading part 1, 2, and 3, then you’re in some kind of denial and need to play games a little more.
*edit : We finally got a 5 star island. If you want a tour of our island let us know and we’ll make a video!
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