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.
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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