A few decades ago the masses believed video games were a waste of time for lackadaisical youths to pacify themselves while ignoring their responsibilities as both kids and young adults. As more and more people started understanding the benefits of gaming so too did the perception of what a video game is and, most importantly, the benefits gaming can bestow on a person’s life changed.
Hi, my name is James Bullock and I am a gamer who has spent the better part of his existence testing the laws of physics, exploring the vastness of a world ruined, and been a champion inside various arenas courtesy of digitized worlds both driven by reality and created through pure unbelievable ingenuity unlike anything seen by human eyes. And as a gamer I’ve discovered something else video games provide: life lessons. Today I examine a game that showcases how someone could be destined for greatness, but needs that extra bit of help to get there, “Horizon Zero Dawn”.
Nature and Nurture
Aloy is just your typical kid at the start of “Horizon Zero Dawn”. She likes to jump, laugh, and practice combat techniques that will help her survive against mechanized beasts that resemble animals – you know, typical kid stuff. At a young age, Aloy – a member of the cold-natured, “All-Mother”-worshiping Nora tribe – is something of an outcast in regards to her own people even though she and her father-figure Rost seem to be just average, primitive people attempting to survive. It is through Aloy’s childish need to explore areas most adults would have the good sense not to traverse that she discovers a tool allowing young Aloy to scan objects including the metal monsters. This scanning tool known as a “Focus” encourages Aloy to figure out her past.
Rost, though fearful for his “daughter’s” future, refuses to hold her back from her journey for knowledge. Thus begins her training as Aloy can only venture out into the wilds with the permission of her clan by completing a challenging series of events known as “The Proving.” A training montage is all Aloy needs to succeed; putting her on a path to both discover who she is and avenge the death of Rost who sacrifices himself to save her from an unexpected onslaught by masked cultists.
Though Aloy’s revenge tale is a driving force in terms of her interactions with many humans along her journey, it is the need to know who she came from after her infant form was found behind a sealed door located inside the Nora’s scared mountain. Aloy’s first clue is a “Focus”-scanned recording showcasing a woman who, apparently, looks like an older version of herself (there aren’t any mirrors, so people have to tell Aloy she has similar features to this unidentified woman, right). As the story progresses so does Aloy’s intrigue and eventual enlightenment.
Before society returned to a more Neanderthal state, the planet once known as “Earth” was on the verge of technological breakthroughs unlike anything seen before and, of course, after considering the end result. Unfortunately the plans of mice & men results in the world being overrun by robotic monsters able to rip people apart as sources of energy. In an attempt to restore humanity, the woman Aloy looks like, Elisabet Sobeck, created an AI program that would make humanized clones after the robots were deactivated. This program, “GAIA”, is countered by a subsystem known as “HADES” that attempts to restore the most vicious machines. GAIA’s counter to HADES’ actions is cloning Sobeck herself; and thus Aloy is born.
Aloy is gifted with a leg up in the restored world as she has the innate knowledge and drive of her genetic predecessor. Yet, it’s her time being trained by Rost and pushing herself to become the strongest person she could be that allows her to find out the truth of her origin and, in turn, the biosphere they live in – a world that must be saved from obliteration again. While the debate of nature over nurture or vice versa will rage on, history proves both go hand-in-hand. Without the training and tutelage, Aloy and ambitious people like her will struggle to turn their potential into reality no matter how talented or courageous they are as a youth or an adult.
Have you learned any major life lessons from playing “Horizon Zero Dawn” or any video game for that matter? Leave them in the comments below and, as always, thanks for reading.