Dear Firewatch,

As a teen, I always felt left out when all of my male cousins and my younger brother would gather in the loft playing video games until midnight during family reunions. I was the only girl who was interested in playing Call of Duty, but I never played because I sucked at it. It’s not that they didn’t let me play, whenever someone would hand me a controller I’d quickly grow frustrated over my lack of skill- whether it was Wii, Xbox or PlayStation. I’d lose interest quickly, pass the controller and bury myself at one end of the couch, watching everyone else play while I’d begrudgingly comment on what a useless form of entertainment video games were.

As a child, I didn’t always feel that way. I loved GBA games, I had a pink Gameboy Advanced and my brother had a blue one. I’d play Pokémon, or Spyro, and dozens of other relatively easily managed games. I loved video games as much as I loved reading or watching cartoons. But as I got older and everyone around me kept up with the latest consoles and games I didn’t. I lacked the patience to learn how to become good at more difficult games and I wrote it off as a waste of time instead of recognizing that it had to do with my own laziness. There are so many different types of games that I hadn’t stopped for a moment to explore. I just figured I was a girl and it was a totally fine excuse to use for ditching gaming- and I convinced myself it was even unfeminine. But honestly, it isn’t, I just needed to find a certain type of game that I liked.

Thanks to Firewatch I can finally appreciate video games again for what they are; finely crafted interactive games that take a lot of effort to create. It isn’t a waste of time it's an experience. Game creators don’t just slap their ideas together and produce them, it takes time and effort and entire teams of people to put out one game, let alone dozens.

Firewatch is a 2015 game that had the right pacing for me and it's storyboard unfolds like a novel, instantly peaking my interest. This is a game set in the wildness, played from a first person perspective as a character named Henry, who is in charge of watching out for fires that start on the campgrounds. The year is 1989, something I also love about it, it isn’t desperate for modernity, and drastic action, it’s contemporary, suspenseful and simple. This is why I was drawn to it. In fact, after seeing this game I’m less bitter and more open to playing all different types of video games. But I’m totally in love with this game.

Not only is the game interactive and the player get to choose their responses to other characters through dialogue, the visuals throughout this game are serene. The landscape is incredibly colorful and well crafted. The graphics includes scenes with trees, water, ridges, fires, skylines, and stars. Other than the graphics, this game also has an incredible score those zones in on every emotional nuance that the character experiences and it sets the tone for each and every situation. The score adds a dramatic, fearsome element when parts of the mystery are about to unfold. I highly recommend this game. It completely changed my attitude towards video games and I am willing to give them another go, despite my shoddy history with them. The storyboarding is what drew me in but I ended up staying with the game to the end because of it's graphics, the score, and the smartly placed use of suspense. This is absolutely the game for me and now instead of sitting on the couch and crossing my arms when anything about video games comes up, I have something to be passionate about.

Thanks to Firewatch I found a game I can connect with that has opened me to other games and has trained me to have a bit of patience waiting for the best part of a game to unfold. I can’t hide behind the false claim that “girls don’t play video games”, because this is blatantly untrue. I actually love video games and since Firewatch I’ve been playing all different kinds, since. I no longer roll my eyes when I’m around friends who want to blab about Legend of Zelda or Slender, or the latest Assassin's Creed. Gone are my days where I am an entertainment elitist and I refused to quality video games as a valid form of entertainment that takes time and energy to craft. I can say I finally appreciate video games again because I’ve found just the right one for me.

Thanks Firewatch.