All posts by Logan Gorospe

Gaming

Finding value in video games

Have you ever found something so interesting that you decide to hold on to it for a very long time? This could be a sport that you love, a show that you frequently rewatch, or maybe even a toy you’ve had since you were a baby. These sentimental things can hold many different forms, but one form that stands out is video games.

Video games have been around since 1958, which was the year when Pong was released. It was a simple two-player game inspired by sports like tennis and ping pong. This simple game inspired people around the world to create similar games and show the world that technology could not only be used for work, but also for entertainment.

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Nowadays, video games have drastically improved since the late 50s. There are realistic graphics, virtual reality games, three-dimensional games, and so much more. Millions of people around the world get excited for new games to release. For instance, this year, Elden Ring was released, and it has already sold over 12 million copies since its release in February 2022.

Most games that are several decades old have died off and have incredibly small player bases; however, there are some games that seem to just never die. Games like Tetris, Minecraft, Super Smash Brothers Melee, and many more have withstood the test of time. These games still have massive fanbases despite being over a decade old. How did these games manage to stay relevant for so long?

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One reason is that these games have a lot of replayability. For an example of this point, I will use Minecraft. Minecraft has been around for a decade, and has managed to stay relevant for a long time. This is primarily thanks to the abundant amount of things you can do in the game. You can play survival mode with your friends, create enormous Redstone machines, build magnificent structures and houses, and so much more.

The insane amount of things you can do in Minecraft gives it a lot of replay value. People have made careers off of this game, and millions still play it and find new things to do. A game’s replay value is probably the most important part of a game’s survivability over a long time.

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Another reason is because of the competitiveness of some games. Super Smash Bros. Melee (or Melee for short) and have been around for over two decades because of the insane amount of competition it has. Thousands of people enter Melee tournaments to see if they have the skill to win it all.

Even though there have been newer installments in the Super Smash Bros. franchise, the Melee community is still one of the largest fighting game communities in the world. The competitiveness of video games plays a significant role in their popularity and motivates people to improve and keep playing.

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Tetris is a game that has been around for almost 40 years, and that reason is because of its replayability and competitiveness. All games must have a decent amount of replayability to stay relevant for multiple years, but Tetris is on a different level. The design of Tetris was basically made to be played anywhere at any time, and its gameplay is extremely addicting.

There are also many Tetris tournaments; there are online ones with people playing on more modern versions of the game, and there are tournaments that are played in person with the classic NES version. These tournaments gather hundreds to thousands of viewers, and many people enter them too.

The finals of the Classic Tetris World Championship, a tournament that uses the 1989 NES version of Tetris and has been running for 12 years.

There are many video games that have stuck with me for multiple years. Games like Tetris, Super Smash Bros, and Minecraft have played a large part in my life, and have brought thousands of hours of entertainment to me. These games have been around for so long because of the replay value and competitiveness, and both of those factors have kept millions of people engaged in decades-old games.

Logan Gorospe is a freshman member of The Quill.

Features, Gaming

How Wordle took over the World

Wordle is a highly addictive word puzzle game that has recently taken over the internet. It’s a game that tests your deductive reasoning and guessing skills to discover a mystery five-letter word. The word resets every day, giving players a reason to come back and play. This game seemingly popped out of nowhere, so how did it get so popular so fast?

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Wordle was made by Josh Wardle, a software engineer from Brooklyn. It was created initially as a game that he could play with his partner, and he would later share the game with his family through WhatsApp. His family would grow to love Wordle, and after seeing the game’s success through his family, he decided to release it to the public.

Wordle was released to the public in October 2021, and it wouldn’t gain much attention for a few months. It would start to become relevant in January 2022, when it would quickly start to gain popularity. Social media would give Wordle the attention it truly deserves, and it would begin to grow and be talked about on every corner of the internet.

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Many people found out about Wordle from the internet. Millions of people worldwide would share their thoughts on the game and make jokes and memes about it. Through this, people would discover Wordle and begin playing it. These people would also discuss Wordle online and spread it around even more.

Another major factor in Wordle’s success is the simplistic ad-free design of the website Wordle is on. Its design lets people enjoy the game without any large popups flashing in their faces, making the game easily playable and enjoyable for many people. The game was created with the intention of being for pure fun and no financial gain, and thanks to that, people would enjoy the game even more.

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The ease of sharing Wordle attempts also plays a role in Wordle’s popularity. A built-in share button appears on your screen after finishing the daily Wordle, and tapping it will allow you to copy a set of emojis that represent how your Wordle attempt went. People would use this to share their attempts with friends, family, and strangers on the internet. This ingenious idea would help Wordle’s popularity rise exponentially and be a critical factor in its fame.

Wordle’s popularity is primarily thanks to many varied factors, such as its spread on social media, its clever design, and its fun gameplay. Millions of people worldwide play Wordle every day, and it’s not hard to see why. These things helped Wordle spread around the internet and brought millions of people together, and that is how Wordle took over the world.

Logan Gorospe is a freshman member of The Quill.

Opinions

How the world is being destroyed by million dollar JPEGs

NFTs are being talked about on every corner of the internet. They are very controversial, and by searching them up on any social media platform, you can see millions of people mocking people that own them. If you don’t know, NFT stands for non-fungible token. That basically means that it is a unit of data that cannot be interchanged and stored on a blockchain, or a list of records connected together through cryptography. These NFTs usually take the form of images, videos, and other types of digital files.

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Many people see NFTs as worthless pictures and videos that only idiots would buy. People can simply screenshot or download any NFT they want, which is why people think they are worthless. The most popular NFTs are lazily made and very unpleasant to look at. Just search up any NFT from the CryptoPunk or the Bored Ape Yacht Club collections and ask yourself if any of them are worth thousands of real-life dollars. The general consensus is no, and that is why they are mocked on every corner of the internet.

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If NFTs were harmless, many people would simply ignore them. However, they pose a significant threat to the environment. According to Digiconomist, a single transaction with Ethereum (the currency used to purchase NFTs) releases 43 megatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually. This is close to the annual carbon dioxide emissions of the entire country of Finland. Carbon dioxide is one of the leading causes of global warming, a severe problem that can cause increased heat, higher sea levels, dirtier air, and more acidic oceans.

The exchanging of NFTs is a waste of money, time, and resources. They are slowly destroying the world through massive carbon emissions that rival entire countries, and they are helping the terrifying threat of global warming become worse. The more these worthless pieces of data grow in popularity, the more damage they will cause to the environment. That is how the world is being destroyed by NFTs.

Logan Gorospe is a freshman member of the The Quill

Gaming

Why is Tetris so addicting?

Tetris. It’s the iconic puzzle game that everyone has played at least once. It is currently the third best-selling game of all time, being beaten by Grand Theft Auto V and Minecraft. It is a remarkably diverse game, as there is a large community of casual and competitive players. The various versions of the game also contribute to its diversity since the community of classic Tetris on the NES is a lot different than the community of modern-day Tetris games such as TETR.IO. But how is this game still relevant after being released over 30 years ago?

“We have an inherent desire to create order out of chaos, and Tetris satisfies that desire on a very basic level while being easy to understand and quick to learn.”

— Alexey Pajitnov

The main goal of Tetris is to clear as many lines as you can to gain score. You clear a line by placing ten blocks, or tetrominoes, together in a row. A tetromino is made up of four squares, and they can take up various shapes. Clearing four lines with one tetromino is called a Tetris. This simple concept has been pushed to the extreme by the developers and players of the game. Modern-day Tetris has many mechanics and gimmicks that are much different than classic Tetris such as the Zone mechanic which is in Tetris Effect: Connected. This mechanic is pretty complex, but it is a time freeze mechanic. Check out the video below to see the Zone mechanic in action. All these things, from the community of the game to the developers creating new and interesting twists to Tetris all caused the game to not completely die out over the past generation that it has existed.

Example of the Tetris Effect Zone mechanic demonstrated by Tetris YouTuber, Wumbotize.

I’ve been playing Tetris for 6 years, and after all that time I have never been bored of it. Every time I open the game, I struggle to turn it off. The simple gameplay as caused millions of people to be completely addicted to this game, but why? What makes this game so addicting? According to Alexey Pajitnov, the creator of Tetris, on the official Tetris website, “Tetris is a very simple game, but it appeals to many players because it’s both visually and intellectually challenging. I think that’s what makes the game so addictive. We have an inherent desire to create order out of chaos, and Tetris satisfies that desire on a very basic level while being easy to understand and quick to learn.” The game is addicting to everyone because of how it pleases our desire to organize things that aren’t organized, and how the simple gameplay can be fun and challenging to all. The reason I am addicted to the game is because of how satisfying it is to make a giant tower of randomized blocks and destroy them right after. Everyone is different, and there could be other people that enjoy the game because of its challenging yet simplistic gameplay.

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Tetris has been able to stay relevant after three decades. This is because of its addicting gameplay that allows players to fulfill their inner desire to create order from chaos and its challenging yet simple gameplay. The developers of the game also contributed to its addiction factor, as they constantly add new and interesting twists to the already legendary game. All these things have kept the series alive and relevant and have made it even more addicting than it was before. Tetris will forever be known as one of the greatest games in history, and it’s all because of how addicting it is.

Logan Gorospe is a freshman member of The Quill