Hi, my name is Nic Freda. I’m currently a 4th-year student in the College of IST. My academic area of focus is primarily on how technology can be used to improve and enhance lives – whether that’s in the consumer, medical, or developmental space. My professional experience spans a wide range of activities, but is generally centered on Program Management, Leadership, and Software Engineering projects. Throughout my whole life, I’ve been a gamer, though.
As a gamer, my natural attraction has been to Role-Playing Games. I grew up playing games around the turn of the 21st century when multiplayer was scarce if you weren’t at a friends’ house. As a result, games like Pokémon and Final Fantasy VII, IX, and X all became staples that I could play on my own. I poured a lot of time into those games because that was what those games were built to do. Admittedly, Pokémon didn’t have the depth that the other games did when it launched in the US in 1998, but by the time we reached the mid 2000’s, it wasn’t uncommon for me to be spending my limited gaming budget almost exclusively on (j)RPGs that could be played for more than 50 hours because that was important to me. These are games that let you get involved in a story and lose yourself as a character in a world where you get to be the hero. The emotional lift that comes from that can’t be understated, and it’s something that’s inherently appealing about a game genre.
With RPGs often comes a great deal of reading, which led me into the Visual Novel genre. For those not aware, this genre grew largely out of the text-based adventure and “choose-your-own-adventure” style mixed media works in earlier years. Although there haven’t been as many of these released in the United States, the success of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney in 2006 helped launch the genre domestically. The series as a whole, along with games like the Professor Layton series, Time Hollow, and Lux-Pain have helped introduce a genre where the gameplay isn’t action-focused but instead relies on the player to read and make decisions based on the story. This is another case of games that are often played alone, but that I played because they offered compelling narratives and fascinating characters. In addition to the characters, these are my “light game” of choice – something that I can play when I don’t want to worry about a high level of energy invested (like in a competitive FPS) and instead just want to enjoy the art or story.
The final genre that I find myself playing the most is the MOBA – the multiplayer online battle arena. This genre is massively popular around the world, with titles like Defense of the Ancients 2, League of Legends, and Heroes of the Storm all offering players the opportunity to play as characters locked in a tug-of-war battle. There’s not much explanation needed for a genre that’s so prevalent in gaming and popular culture, but these games are incredibly appealing to me because they require team coordination and a collaborative environment. When I was growing up, many of the games I played were single-player because the gaming space was often solitary. Today, gamers are connected more than ever, and so the opportunity to play with friends (and enemies) around the country and the world have caused me to spend a great deal of time enjoying this genre.
These three genres have all been influential in different parts of my life, but all for different reasons. RPGs gave me escapist worlds where I could be heroes and great experiences seeing a story unfold. Visual Novels are fun because they don’t require a massive time investment to get through a difficulty curve and often serve as an alternative to television or other short-attention-span media. Finally, MOBAs have brought me full circle – the game is no longer something to be played alone, but something that I can share with my friends and colleagues – a virtual space where teammates can battle together for a mutual goal. Gaming is a huge part of my life and will continue to be for the years to come. It’s important to remember that in the early 1990s, the First-Person Shooter genre didn’t exist – it wasn’t until the mid-2000s that the MOBA was created, and we don’t know what other great genres and games will be created in the future. Until then, I’ll continue to play on.