Thursday, January 20, 2011

52.3 Time Travel made possible! (via my game console)


It should go with out saying that I think the concept of time travel is pretty amazing. While I would be hard pressed to say my all time favorite film, My favorite trilogy of all time is Back to the Future. While I enjoy a lot of very different shows, my all time favorite (even though it first aired nearly 23 years ago.) is without a doubt Quantum Leap (Doctor Who has become a close second). All of these fictional universes explore my favorite question simply stated: What if time travel is possible.

Earlier today I was watching a popular youtuber (Hank Green) play Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood via videos he has posted of playing and commentating on the game, and I realized why I am 31 and I still enjoy video games as much if not more than I did when I was younger. A lot of games (the ones that interest me that is) make it possible to travel in time.

Games like the above mentioned Assassin's Creed series, Red Dead Redemption the Fable franchise and even the recent Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions allow me to experience the past and future I have seen portrayed in films and tv shows first hand. I am able to walk around and explore 15th Century Italy with Da Vinci, 12th Century England with kings, knights and wizards. I can be a cowboy in the Old West and see New York in the 1930's. As well as futures that I could only dream of, both post apocalyptic and technological utopias.

This simple idea really is the reason I enjoy games as much as I do. I have wanted to travel through time for as long as I can remember. I know it isn't likely, but I just get excited thinking about it. (there are three films I am excited to see this year purely because they deal with time travel in one shape or another.)

I know alot of gamers that play shooter/war games and while some of them share that tiny part of history or future that I enjoy I shy away from them because they focus more on the shooting then the exploring. That is not to say that they are better or worse in my opinion but the fact of the matter is, if I had traveled in time I wouldn't be very likely to jump hamfisted into a war situation if I could avoid it.

The games I enjoy and play over and over again, have stories but they are more or less open ended, allowing me to explore a world that thanks to ever progressing technology is as real and alive as the one I live in. I don't expect everyone to agree with or even understand this part of me. I just like to think that I'm not alone in my hope that time travel is possible.

Random Fact: Time is described as the fourth dimension. The other three dimensions are space, that is, upwards and downwards, front and back and left and right. We can travel through all the three other dimensions but traveling through the fourth dimension, time, is not yet possible.

2 comments:

Helen Brooks said...

Realy great blog love, well written. I agree - I love exploring new times and new spaces as well.

Unknown said...

Being a sci fi fanatic and aerospace person, i absolutely ADORE time travel. I think it is just so fantastic and so full of potential that it is so appealing. I wish i could say something other than i love it, like oh did you here in science blah blah biddy blah... but sadly i cannot. i make things fly not move through time :P


<3smk