Journey.

I identify myself as being a casual gamer, so being assigned to play video games for a class was quite exciting. Although I don't have time to play video games as much as I'd like, I still dabble occasionally when I get the change. I prefer first person shooters (like the Borderlands series!), so playing Journey was a bit different from what I'd normally do.
Prior to playing, I read quite a few reviews on Journey. They all sounded very promising; the game got great reviews on nearly every forum. However, Journey did not live up to my expectations. Maybe I got sidetracked or a little lost along the way, but I did not enjoy my journey.One thing I found to be very frustrating about the game was the movements. As I said before, I am (somewhat) experienced when it comes to gaming. The character that you inhabit, a little robed cloth person known as The Traveler,  moves so slow it is infuriating. As a fairly impatient person, I was barely able to deal with this. I think that if your traveler moved just a little bit faster, the game's play time could be cut to maybe...30 minutes?Throughout the game, the Traveler must collect little tickets (think classic carnival games) in order to grow your scarf. The longer your scarf is, the more jumps you have. Each jump your character uses depletes your scarf. When you run out of scarf, you don't have any jumps. Again, this was a very frustrating aspect of the game, as you need to make the Traveler jump up and down quite frequently. If you screwed up, you wasted a jump. As I stated in the previously, the Traveler moves at approximately -2.5 mph. Navigating this world made me so annoyed I wanted to throw the controller at the screen.Okay, maybe I'm being a little unfair here. I get it, the point of the game is to move around, to explore, to enjoy your JOURNEY. However, it was hard for me to get past these initial frustrations and actually enjoy the game. When I was looking around and not fixated on cursing under my breath, I did get to enjoy some nice scenery. Some of the settings were absolutely beautiful...but I'm not quite sure it was worth the initial frustrations.Journey is a wordless narrative. You progress through the story without words or dialogue, only looking at scenery, ancient ruins, and some weird creepy dragon bug things? You occasionally encounter other players throughout your journey, but you are unable to communicate with them. You can make a "ring" noise at them to acknowledge their presence, but their identity is concealed. I didn't see much of a point to this aspect of the game. Although it was interesting to see other players randomly coming and going, no one really stuck around for my journey. They would move ahead, leaving me behind to rage at the controller.I'm glad I got to play a video game that I consider to be out of my comfort zone, but I don't think I would play Journey again. Many people raved online about how it was the "best game ever","5 stars", and "a true delight", but honestly I can't get past my initial frustrations with the game. One of the reviews that I read online claimed that the game simulated one's lifetime. The game starts out warm and easy, but as you progress things get a little challenging, until you hit the peak of the mountain and...die? I don't know. Your character never really dies, you do pass out at one point, but you are revived. ANYWAY....I could see some implications for using this in an ELA classroom. I guess you could connect Journey to some sort of coming of age tale or a traditional hero's journey. Its definitely not something that is going to offend parents; the game is pretty clean compared to a lot of other games that are on the market today. I'm not necessarily sure as to how I'd tie it in with a text, or even how I would be able to make it accessible for all students, but I can see why it was assigned in the course.