Almost eight months ago I moved to Denver on the cusp of a whim to live with my two closest friends from high school. I considered my life in the city to be liminal -- a period in between a Master's degree and potentially a doctorate. A time and a place to reflect on my goals, to sample a larger dose of the work-a-day world. I had hit the "what-the-fuck-am-I-doing-with-myself" point in my life that completed my initiation into the 23 year-olds club. Of course, it's difficult sometimes to think about grad school since my roommates own a PlayStation 2 and a GameCube in addition to my Xbox and numerous PC games.

I'm a pretty avid gamer, but I wouldn't categorize myself as "hardcore." On average, I probably play around 10-20 hours a week, and I usually stick to PC games, though I do play a copious amount of Super Smash Bros. Melee on my roommate's Gamecube. Genre-wise, I'm a big fan of first-person shooters, role-playing games, and adventure games. I tend to stay away from simulations (too dull) and tactical shooters (too much planning), though I respect both genres. Fundamentally, I just like games with really good stories and good gameplay. Well, those and Civilization. I confess that I don't like massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) like Everquest and Star Wars: Galaxies, either, and I never use the multiplayer components of any of the shooters I get. I'm just not into online gaming. I really like immersing myself in a solid story, maintaining the illusion that I'm affecting the narrative myself. Multiplayer narratives just don't do it for me.

Though gaming is still largely the hobby of adolescent and twenty-something males, no one can deny that games have become a significant cultural force in American life. The Entertainment Software Association released figures that said that in 2002, 50% of Americans age six or older played video games, and that 39% of these gamers are women.

Their increasing ubiquity and influence on art and media has inspired more critical investigation. "Ludology," "Game Studies," or "Critical Studies in New Media" is something coming to a university near you, if it hasn't already. And why shouldn't it? The new millennium saw the video game industry surpass the film industry in sales. Film studies took on academic clout a generation ago, long after its beginnings at the turn of the twentieth century.

Nonetheless, I had to construct my own curriculum to study games. Within a Bachelor's and a Master's degree in the humanities I was able to investigate games, film, and performance. I wrote my undergraduate honors thesis on games with film noir themes. I've also been part of a research project called "How They Got Game: The History of Videogames and Interactive Simulations" throughout my latter years in school, and am continuing to work for the project on a limited basis.

Video games are coming under greater scrutiny due to their market dominance and propensity to bother a lot of parents with violent or explicit content; the public is demanding a more serious investigation of games, their content, and their impact, particularly on America's children. They're a new storytelling medium (though not exclusively), and along with other interactive media they have reshaped our thinking.

The Reflective Gamer is not going to be an esoteric ludic commentary only for game fanatics. And it's not a review column. I'll be examining video games and game culture with a curious eye and commenting on how games are changing many facets of American life: the way we think, human interaction, spending habits, how we consume and construct traditional media, narrative, and even familial relationships, to name a few.

Probably the most succinct way I can phrase my subject matter is "game-related issues."

None of us knows what the future of gaming is going to be, though many of us vividly imagine the possibilities. Virtual Reality. Three-dimensional interactive apparati. Olfactory emitters. eXistenZ. The Matrix. There have been several key revolutions in the gaming world -- Spacewar!, Doom, The Sims -- that have driven hardware production, inspired new genres, or exploded gaming's popularity, but whatever the next innovation in gaming might be, we can be sure of one thing.

The revolution will not be pixellated.

Gaming is only going to get more visually stunning, more exciting, more immersive, more pervasive, and more influential on contemporary modes of thought. Moreso than any traditional medium, games have imbued their subjects with increasing authorial power. Authorship is no longer reserved only for those who put games on disks. Whether you're a game designer, a game theorist, or just a gamer, it's likely that you have a lot to say about games. So let's get to addressing some game-related topics that interest us. I want to hear your comments, suggestions, complaints, and corrections. E-mail me at gbdmoxy@yahoo.com.

In the meantime, I'll be schooling my roommates in Super Smash Bros. Melee.

NOTE: Galen Davis is one of those smart video game guys that agreed to ditchy nerdy gamer narrative and write about them in a way that even us non-gamers like. Check back soon for his next installment of Reflective Gamer when we dive deeper into the world of video games.