بازی های ویدیویی

Playing Video Games

Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 295: Playing Video Games.

This is English as a Second Language Podcast episode 295. I’m your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.

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This episode is called “Playing Video Games.” Let’s get started.

[start of story]

Achim: Check out this new game I just got!

Marcia: Let me see. Oh, it’s a fighting game. I’m not into those. I like roleplaying or simulation games a lot better.

Achim: This isn’t just a fighting game. You have to use strategy for each mission. Check out these amazing graphics!

Marcia: I can’t play that at my house. I have a different console.

Achim: Yes, you can. It’s multiplatform. Look at the box. It says that you can use a joystick as your navigation system or a keyboard and mouse.

Marcia: You know, right now I’m really into retro games.

Achim: You mean last year’s games?

Marcia: No, I mean really old school games, like the ones my parents used to play.

Achim: You mean like Pac-Man and Pong?!

Marcia: Yeah, exactly. They’re classic and a lot less violent.

Achim: Yeah, but they’re so boring you fall asleep playing them. You can’t call yourself a gamer if you play those kinds of games. Give me 3-D action and some blood and gore.

Marcia: You can have it. I’ll pass.

[end of story]

Our dialogue between Achim and Marcia begins by Achim saying, “Check out this new game I just got!” Achim is talking about a video game, something like Xbox or PlayStation Portable. I have to tell you that I don’t play video games, and I’ve never played with Xbox or any of the other video games that are popular now. I last played a video game, I think, in 1981 when I was just leaving high school. But, many people do play video games. Achim says, “Check out,” or look at, “this new game I got!” Marcia says, “Let me see. Oh, it’s a fighting game,” meaning it’s a game that is a competition between two or more people who are fighting each other, a rather violent game perhaps. Marcia says, “I’m not into those.” To be “into” means to like. So, she’s saying, “I don’t like fighting games. I like role-playing or simulation games better.” “Role (role) -playing (playing)” is when you imagine that you are another person, and you act as if you were another person. You use another person’s identity, you could say. That’s a general definition for “role-playing.” “Simulation” (simulation) is a game where players try to recreate the real world. It’s a game where you act as if you were in a real, you could say parallel, life. That’s a “simulation.” Achim says, “This isn’t just a fighting game. You have to use strategy for each mission.” “Strategy” is a careful or detailed plan for doing something. For example, you’d talk about strategy in a war: where you’re going to put your soldiers, how you’re going to use them. “Strategy” is any sort of plan to do something. It is often associated with a war or fighting in some ways, but doesn’t have to be.

A “mission” is an important, usually interesting or adventurous, job that you have to do. You may know the movie Mission Impossible – with my brother, Tom Cruise! Mission Impossible is about a man on a special secret government mission – a job, something he has to do. We often use that word “mission” in talking about secret government things that have to be done, often related to spying or war. Here, it just means what the person in your game has to do – what their task is, what their job is.

Achim says, “Check out these amazing graphics!” The “graphics” refer to the “animation,” or the designs and the drawings that are used in a computer game or, perhaps, a movie, or even a book. Someone who designs things that are related to pictures is called a “graphic designer.” Marcia says, “I can’t play that at my house. I have a different console” (console). A “console” is a small machine that you use to play video games, like an Xbox or PlayStation Portable. The word “console” and the word “mission” have additional meanings in English; take a look at our Learning Guide for some extra explanations of those words.

Achim says, “Yes, you can” – yes you can use it at your house. “It’s multiplatform.” “Multiplatform,” it can also be pronounced “mul-tee-platform,” is when you can use a game on more than one kind of system, or more than one kind of equipment.

“Look at the box,” Achim says. “It says that you can use a joystick as your navigation system or a keyboard and mouse.” A “joystick” (joystick – one word) is a small piece of equipment that has, usually, different buttons and a little stick that you can move something up or down with. Usually there are joysticks with a lot of video games, and that’s where you usually see the word “joystick.” A “navigation system” is something you use to move around in the video game.

Marcia says, “You know, right now I’m really into retro games.” “Retro” (retro) refers to older styles or fashions, usually from 10 years, or 20 years, or 30 years ago. When I was growing up in the 1970s, as a child, there were many movies and TV shows about the 1950s, movies like Grease and television shows like Happy Days, and they were about America in the 1950s. That was considered “retro,” it was from a previous time. Now, of course, you have “retro” meaning the 1980s or the 1990s.

Achim says, “You mean last year’s games?” And Marcia says, “No, I mean really old school games.” The expression “old school” is sometimes used in popular music to talk about traditional – not modern – music, maybe even “oldfashioned.” Something that isn’t popular right now; that would be “old school.” It’s an informal term, something that you might hear a teenager say.

Marcia says that she likes the games her parents used to play. Achim says, “You mean like Pac-Man and Pong?!” “Pac-Man” (Pac-Man) and “Pong” (Pong) were two video games popular in the 1970s, two of the earliest video games. When I was growing up, we had a Pong video game at home, and it basically was a ping-pong game. Pac-Man was very popular, also, when I was in high school.

Marcia says, “Yeah, exactly. They’re classic and a lot less violent” – a lot less fighting. Achim says, “Yeah, but they’re so boring you fall asleep playing them.” He says, “You can’t call yourself a gamer if you play those kinds of games.” A “gamer” is someone who plays a lot of video games and knows a lot about video games. I, for example, am definitely not a gamer; I don’t know anything! In fact, before preparing this episode, I didn’t even know what some of these words were!

Achim says, “Give me 3-D action and some blood and gore.” The expression here, “give me,” means this is what I like. “3-D,” or three-dimensional, “action and some blood and gore.” That’s a common expression, “blood and gore” (gore); it means blood that is part of some sort of violent behavior – some sort of fight: “The movie Braveheart is full of blood and gore.” This is different from Al Gore, the former Vice President of the United States, of course; he was in a different movie!

Marcia says, “You can have it” – you can enjoy those kinds of games, but “I’ll pass.” To “pass” here means to say no to something, to decide not to do something. If you say to me, “Jeff, would you like to play video games with me this afternoon?” I would probably say, “No thank you, I’ll pass. I don’t know anything about video games.” Now let’s listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.

[start of story]

Achim: Check out this new game I just got!

Marcia: Let me see. Oh, it’s a fighting game. I’m not into those. I like roleplaying or simulation games a lot better.

Achim: This isn’t just a fighting game. You have to use strategy for each mission. Check out these amazing graphics!

Marcia: I can’t play that at my house. I have a different console.

Achim: Yes, you can. It’s multiplatform. Look at the box. It says you can use a joystick as your navigation system or a keyboard and mouse.

Marcia: You know, right now I’m really into retro games.

Achim: You mean last year’s games?

Marcia: No, I mean really old school games, like the ones my parents used to play.

Achim: You mean like Pac-Man and Pong?!

Marcia: Yeah, exactly. They’re classic and a lot less violent.

Achim: Yeah, but they’re so boring you fall asleep playing them. You can’t call yourself a gamer if you play those kinds of games. Give me 3-D action and some blood and gore.

Marcia: You can have it. I’ll pass.

[end of story]

The script for this episode was written by Dr. Lucy Tse.

From Los Angeles, California, I’m Jeff McQuillan. Thanks for listening. We’ll see you next time on ESL Podcast.

English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr. Lucy Tse, hosted by Dr. Jeff McQuillan. This podcast is copyright 2007.