Video games aren’t just for kids anymore! Join Andrew and Morag for this chatterbox episode as they have a natural conversation about one of the biggest time sinks—video games.

Fun fact

Video games have come very far since they first appeared on the scene in the late 1950s, even incorporating artificial intelligence to simulate human-like intelligence and flexibility in non-player characters or avatars. For instance, through a combination of sensors and artificial intelligence, Milo, unveiled several years ago as a technology demo, is a character that can respond to questions and learn like a real child.

Expressions included in the learning materials

* A 180

* An RPG

* A time sink

* To be suckered into something

* To get your hands on somethin

Sample Dialogue

Andrew:

I’m doing pretty well. You know, I’m on vacation right now, so my life is pretty stress-free and relaxed, but what’s new with you?

Morag:

Not too much, except I have been engaging in some activities that run right along with our theme today of video games.

Andrew:

Oh, so does that mean you have been playing a lot of video games?

Morag:

 I have. I kinda got suckered in earlier in the month by a sale, and I bought The Sims 4. I don’t know if many of our listeners will have played The Sims games; they’ve sold extremely well, all of them, but, uh, they are a time sink.

Andrew:

Well, if you haven’t guessed by now, our topic for today is video games. So Morag and I are, I guess you could say, both gamers, but maybe with different levels of interest in video games. But we’re going to do a Chatterbox episode, where we have a natural conversation about video games and our experiences with them. And today, Morag, I want to start the episode by asking you about your first experiences with video games. How did you get into gaming?

Morag:

Well, it’s actually kind of funny. I wasn’t allowed to play games for a while, and it’s not by my parents. It’s just because I was a tomboy, and I hung out with boys, but they wouldn’t let me play games, usually, ’cause I was a girl.

Andrew:

Mmm, that is weird.

Morag:

I spent a lot of time watching boys play games, and I really wanted to play. Like, I spent hours watching my guy friends when I was a kid, playing, like, Duke Nukem 3D or Doom, or all of those shooters.

Andrew:

Wolfenstein 3D.

Morag:

Wolfenstein, yup. But I didn’t have any gaming capacity when I was a kid, and so I just watched other people, but was so interested in it that, as soon as I was able to play games for myself, I got really into it.

Andrew:

So what was the first game then that you were able to play?

Morag:

 I remember I talked my mom into renting an N64 with the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

Andrew:

 One of my favourite games ever.

Morag:

 It’s so good, right?

Andrew:

 It’s so good.

Morag:

But I never finished it when I was a kid because, um, I didn’t own the console. We just had to rent it, so I played the first bit of that game so many times, any time I rented it. But that was my first taste.

Audio/Learning Materials: Culips English Learning Podcast