Portal is the greatest video game about my generation

It is as hard to picture Dennis Kucinich looking forward to a night of Modern Warfare 2 as it is to believe that Dick Cheney would get excited about that lost lamb that he found in Farmville. When looking for entertainment, a person gravitates towards something that reinforces their core beliefs. The message that a game is projecting appeals to some psychographics and not others. The characters who are portrayed as the heroes vs the villains and the methods by which they achieve their goals all factors in to a game's belief system.

Games can subtly incorporate these beliefs. For example, just about every Japanese role playing game is about the protection of the earth spirit. Over and over again players use spirits and rely on their natural environment to stand up to evil, super-corporations who are also war profiteers. This plot is especially relevant to a population whose Shinto-based culture is still recovering from its nationalistic past. Although Sid Meyer's Civilization allows players to play any number of strategies, including that of a genocidal general, a humble pacifist, or a raging colonialist, the most interesting strategy is one based on neighborly conciliation, slow nation building, and a heavy investment in science. And finally, there is Pac-man, which perfectly captured the GO-GO capitalism that the boomer generation fell hard for in the 80s. The game rewards players for efficiently consuming resources and taking stimulative pellets to confront the demons that haunt them.

Because I was born into the end of Generation-X, my deep seated-suspicion of genuine emotion and favortism towards a go-it-alone mentality makes it difficult for any game to affect me unless it is caked with irony. Portal would be a clear influence of my game-to-be. GLaDOS is gaming's greatest passive-aggressive parent who is distant (physically and mentally) from the main character. My theoretical game would incorporate this prominent authority-figure who would try to be your friend yet would ultimately let you down when you no longer listened to her. Also, there would be a healthy dose of popular culture references as my generation was partially raised by cable television. Games never seem to acknowledge the real world, something I hope someday to reconcile.