A few years ago, my mother purchased me the (then) new Zelda game for the Nintendo Wii: Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (SS). It also came with a special gold Wiimote (which I didn't actually get, but eh. I have the Zelda 3DS now, so it's all good.) However, I never made much progress in the game. I can't remember why, exactly. Maybe I got the game during college? I could check the receipt. Maybe I got distracted by Super Mario Galaxy 2 or Super Paper Mario? Either way, I never made progress in the game.
Until today. (Well, late night on the 25th/26th to be exact.) I had just finished showing my brother the Game Theory episodes about the Legend of Zelda. He had recently been playing Twilight Princess. I remembered Skyward Sword and the Wiimote upgrade/replacement it required. Why not play it? I mean, I just beat Link Between Worlds for the 2nd or 3rd time, and I didn't feel like starting into Wind Waker or Twilight Princess again. Link to the Past was out of the question because it was was too hard. However, I hadn't gotten anywhere in SS.
I have seen some stuff on the internet, too, saying it was a pretty bad Zelda game. I mean, nothing near Wand of Gamelon or Faces of Evil levels, but that's still not saying much. I also started into Four Swords Adventures, so I felt generous and curious. So I began playing!
How "not far" did I play? I hadn't even gotten the basic sword. Seeing the cave, rescuing Link's bird companion and transportation (a creature called a Loftwing), doing a race/capture activity and seeing Princess Zelda get lost were all quite new experiences for me.
By the way, I think this Zelda is a tease. And a meanie! She pushes Link off of high ledges twice. And the second time was after leaning in real close to Link. Like, personal bubble close. Like, close enough for Animated Series' Link's desired past-time close. Nope! She expects you to jump off a building and glide down with the parachute-like device she just gave you. Such a tease.
Anyway, she gets swept away by a tornado after asking you to fly with her. The following evening, your companion (Fi, the spirit of the Skyward Sword itself) leads you to the sword, to obtain it and a map to aid your quest to find Zelda. But not before leading you past a cute cat-thing which promptly attacks you. And does a whole heart each attack! And I wanted to carry it around during the daytime! For shame, little cat-thing, for shame.
At this point, you're given knight's clothes (which are the iconic green tunic and pants that allow Link to simultaneously stay true to his roots while also dressing decently.) Here's where I decided to quit for the night.
The flying mechanic is a little weird for me. I kept finding myself going down for whatever reason. Fortunately, the ceremony at the beginning is not as bad as the fancy-flying I thought it would have to be. I just had to chase down another bird guy!
Oh, and Groose is a jerk. Something like a cross between Guy Gardner of Green Lantern Corps and Gaston from Beauty and the Beast. He's a jerk, and he thinks the main character's girl should be with him, the coolest guy in town. Actually, at this point, he seems a lot like Gaston. Fi says he has a good heart, but I'm not so sure right now. He stole my bird! What a jerk.
Starting off, I kinda like it. Swinging/moving the remote to do precise sword slashes is nice. However, the flight mechanic requiring me to hold the Wiimote up got a little tiring on my arm. But now I'm suited up and ready to journey to the mysterious surface!
Tune in later! I may continue to write about this game! Or not!
Thursday, June 26, 2014
Sunday, June 15, 2014
Gaming/Psychology - The Dark Triad, or, Cool Jerks
(Part one of three in a series of articles on Zelda, psychology and literary criticism)
One of my favorite topics, besides music, literature and video games, is psychology. I almost majored in it in college. I got to learn about a variety of cool things, like different weird psychologists, attempt at self-monitored behavior modification, and learn about interesting mental disorders.
Generally speaking, the disorders that get all the attention are limited to a small percentage of the population. However, psychology also looks at personality traits and internal psyche. One of the most interesting topics I learned about in psychology was related to me, and the others at the presentations, by way of characters in popular culture. The topic was the "Dark Triad." The presenter was my friend Jacq Strowd, a psychology major and future criminologist. Who were these figures in popular culture?
James Bond, Loki and House. These characters may seem disparate at first. However, she showed that they all shared certain behavioral and psychological traits. The very traits that cause them, or at least James Bond, to be written about in several academic journals. No doubt, these very articles fueled the research behind Ms. Strowd's presentations. (Strowd 2014).
What is this "Dark Triad" about which these psychologists have been writing recently? It is a particular set of traits that represent some bad (read: cool) dudes. And some not so cool dudes. Let me explain: Dark Triad individuals use their talents, abilities, traits, etc... to manipulate others around them into doing their bidding. Loki is a particularly good example for this, as any of the Marvel movies in which he's featured depict this penchant for puppet-string-pulling. However, this is only one of three distinct traits that make up an individual of this nature.
In the introduction of their paper, "The antihero in popular culture: life history theory and
the dark triad personality traits," Peter Jonason et al. note that the three components of the Dark Triad (DT) personality are narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism (Jonason et al. 2012). Narcissism and Machiavellianism are both relatively self-explanatory. The DT personality seeks out his or her own good above that of others, and is willing to manipulate other people, things and situations to get what he or she wants. Psychopathy threw me off the first time I read about DT. However, that is simply "a particular constellation of antisocial behaviors and emotions, including shallow affect, low remorse, low fear, low empathy, egocentrism, exploitativeness, manipulativeness, impulsivity, aggression, and criminality" (Jonason et al. 2012). This trait is not only its own category, but a reinforcer for the previous two.
Now you might be saying, "That's nice. You know a gal who likes Loki and psychology. Dark Triad? That's nice. But this article was billed as 'Gaming/psychology.' Where's the 'gaming' part, huh?"
Well, that brings me to the point of all of this. After her second presentation, a particularly meaningful senior presentation, I asked Jacq about instances of the Dark Triad in women. She informed me that it was more common in men than in women. Or was it that she hadn't found many examples? Either way, some of the articles I've read seem to point that way, especially on the psychopathy category. It was only a few weeks later, while playing through one of my new favorite video games, that I stumbled upon a game-changing character.
The game was The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. The character, Princess Hilda.
However, before I get to that fascinating hypothesis, I'd like to take a little look at psychology and literary criticism. After all, how can I point out whether or not Hilda is a Dark Triad without exploring a text, the text here being a phenomenal Zelda game? I should mention, that despite numerous times of frustration, I found A Link Between Worlds to be my new favorite Zelda game. Anyway! I want to talk a bit about how psychoanalysis got involved in the world of literature. Because this will be heavily literature-based, it will be on one of my other blogs.
However, that's an article for another blog, and another time!
Tune Log in next week for the continuation:
Psychology and Literature, or, When Disciplines Mix
Or, skip ahead if you just can't wait/don't care about literary criticism!
The Legend of Hilda: The Dark Triad
----------------
Works Cited:
Jacqueline Strowd (2014). Senior Seminar Honors Presentation. Senior Seminar 2014. Erskine College.
Jonason, P. K., Webster, G. D., Schmitt, D. P., Li, N. P., & Crysel, L. (2012). The antihero in popular culture: Life history theory and the dark triad personality traits. Review Of General Psychology, 16(2), 192-199. doi:10.1037/a0027914
One of my favorite topics, besides music, literature and video games, is psychology. I almost majored in it in college. I got to learn about a variety of cool things, like different weird psychologists, attempt at self-monitored behavior modification, and learn about interesting mental disorders.
Generally speaking, the disorders that get all the attention are limited to a small percentage of the population. However, psychology also looks at personality traits and internal psyche. One of the most interesting topics I learned about in psychology was related to me, and the others at the presentations, by way of characters in popular culture. The topic was the "Dark Triad." The presenter was my friend Jacq Strowd, a psychology major and future criminologist. Who were these figures in popular culture?
James Bond, Loki and House. These characters may seem disparate at first. However, she showed that they all shared certain behavioral and psychological traits. The very traits that cause them, or at least James Bond, to be written about in several academic journals. No doubt, these very articles fueled the research behind Ms. Strowd's presentations. (Strowd 2014).
What is this "Dark Triad" about which these psychologists have been writing recently? It is a particular set of traits that represent some bad (read: cool) dudes. And some not so cool dudes. Let me explain: Dark Triad individuals use their talents, abilities, traits, etc... to manipulate others around them into doing their bidding. Loki is a particularly good example for this, as any of the Marvel movies in which he's featured depict this penchant for puppet-string-pulling. However, this is only one of three distinct traits that make up an individual of this nature.
In the introduction of their paper, "The antihero in popular culture: life history theory and
the dark triad personality traits," Peter Jonason et al. note that the three components of the Dark Triad (DT) personality are narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism (Jonason et al. 2012). Narcissism and Machiavellianism are both relatively self-explanatory. The DT personality seeks out his or her own good above that of others, and is willing to manipulate other people, things and situations to get what he or she wants. Psychopathy threw me off the first time I read about DT. However, that is simply "a particular constellation of antisocial behaviors and emotions, including shallow affect, low remorse, low fear, low empathy, egocentrism, exploitativeness, manipulativeness, impulsivity, aggression, and criminality" (Jonason et al. 2012). This trait is not only its own category, but a reinforcer for the previous two.
Now you might be saying, "That's nice. You know a gal who likes Loki and psychology. Dark Triad? That's nice. But this article was billed as 'Gaming/psychology.' Where's the 'gaming' part, huh?"
Well, that brings me to the point of all of this. After her second presentation, a particularly meaningful senior presentation, I asked Jacq about instances of the Dark Triad in women. She informed me that it was more common in men than in women. Or was it that she hadn't found many examples? Either way, some of the articles I've read seem to point that way, especially on the psychopathy category. It was only a few weeks later, while playing through one of my new favorite video games, that I stumbled upon a game-changing character.
The game was The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. The character, Princess Hilda.
However, before I get to that fascinating hypothesis, I'd like to take a little look at psychology and literary criticism. After all, how can I point out whether or not Hilda is a Dark Triad without exploring a text, the text here being a phenomenal Zelda game? I should mention, that despite numerous times of frustration, I found A Link Between Worlds to be my new favorite Zelda game. Anyway! I want to talk a bit about how psychoanalysis got involved in the world of literature. Because this will be heavily literature-based, it will be on one of my other blogs.
However, that's an article for another blog, and another time!
Psychology and Literature, or, When Disciplines Mix
Or, skip ahead if you just can't wait/don't care about literary criticism!
The Legend of Hilda: The Dark Triad
----------------
Works Cited:
Jacqueline Strowd (2014). Senior Seminar Honors Presentation. Senior Seminar 2014. Erskine College.
Jonason, P. K., Webster, G. D., Schmitt, D. P., Li, N. P., & Crysel, L. (2012). The antihero in popular culture: Life history theory and the dark triad personality traits. Review Of General Psychology, 16(2), 192-199. doi:10.1037/a0027914
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