📙 Part 2: Describe a game you enjoyed playing when you were younger

This episode's vocabulary

Real-time (adj.) - communicated, shown, presented, etc. at the same time as events actually happen.

Strategy (noun) - a long-range plan for achieving something or reaching a goal, or the skill of making such plans.

Bog-standard (adj.) - completely ordinary, without anything special added.

Free-form (adj.) - not having or following a particular style or structure.

Sandbox game (noun) - a video game or part of a video game in which the player is not constrained to achieving specific goals and has a large degree of freedom to explore, interact with, or modify the game environment.

Fleet (noun) - a group of ships, or all of the ships in a country's navy.

To set up (phrasal verb) - to formally establish a new company, organization, system, way of working, etc.

Mode (noun) - a way of operating, living, or behaving.

Difficulty curve (noun) - the rate of difficulty.

Learning curve (noun) - the rate of someone's progress in learning a new skill.

To overrun (verb) - to defeat decisively and occupy the positions.

Novelty (noun) - the quality of being new and unusual.

Escapism (noun) - a way of avoiding an unpleasant or boring life, especially by thinking, reading, etc. about more exciting but impossible activities.

Nerdy (adj.) - extremely interested in one subject, especially computers, and knowing a lot of facts about it.

Questions and Answers

M: Rory, are you ready?

R: Yes, I'm ready.

M: Off you go.

R: I used to love playing video games when I was little. One particular one that stands out was called Imperium Galactica 2. It's a real-time strategy game set in space, and you have to run an interstellar empire on a quest to control the galaxy in some way, shape or form. It would probably be easier to mention when I didn't play it, to be honest. I got pretty obsessed, even though the mechanics were quite simple. I used to play before and after school and for big chunks of weekends when I was at home and had nothing better to do. Or even when I did, to be honest. It's just played with a, well, bog-standard keyboard and mouse, to be honest. Depending on whether or not you're playing online, or in the campaigns or just a free-form sandbox game, you have to work with different empires to build colonies on other planets, construct fleets and armies to defend them and set up trade networks to make money. It sounds simple, and it is in easy mode. But the difficulty curve, or the learning curve increases massively after that. And the computer used to overrun me on a regular basis. To be honest, it still does when I play it now because I'm completely out of practice. Initially, I think I had a lot of fun with it because of the novelty. It's not very often you get to play the role of a scientist, fleet and army commander, and explore. But it also gives some sense of escapism, especially on more boring days. Latterly, having played it for a while, it became part of the safety of routine. And now it's more about nostalgia. I was very surprised to find that it still works on more modern computers, to be honest. It was designed for Windows 98, or something like that, which came out a really long time ago. And now here we are about 20 years later. And it still works just fine. If I hadn't played this game, well, there were others available. But this one does seem to fit my personality quite well. It's actually been quite nice to look back on it. Or at least look back on that time.

M: And what about your friends? Do they enjoy this game?

R: No, no, my friends are decidedly less nerdy than I am.

Discussion

M: Thank you for your story, Rory, Rory story. So, dear listener, game you enjoyed playing when you were younger. Younger? When you were at school, before school, when you were a child, a very small child. And the story is in the past, so we use the past everywhere. Okay? Rory talked about a video game. Right, Rory?

R: Yes. Although I realized that you could talk about games like hide and seek or something like that.

M: Yeah, hide and seek, or what else? Like a board game. Monopoly or you enjoyed playing cards, or you enjoyed what?

R: I think card games and games in the playground are the biggest ones for kids. But increasingly, children are playing video games. So this one might be quite nice for those who do that instead.

M: Yeah, or maybe can I talk about like volleyball, for example, or football? It's a game.

R: It is. Well, it's more like they're sports as well as games.

M: Yeah. So, dear listener, if you can't find a game, you can talk about volleyball or ping pong, table tennis or football. So that will also do because it's kind of like a game. So we can say I used to love playing video games. I used to, but now I don't love playing them. So Rory is super busy with podcasts and teaching. So I used to, but not anymore. And one particular game that stands out. So I remember this particular game was called blah, blah, blah. So the game that I really enjoyed was called Imperium or something bla bla. What's the name again?

R: Imperium Galactica 2, it's not that hard.

M: So it's a real-time strategy game. So it's like a strategic game. It's a strategy and it is set in space. So where is it? Like in the... What do you see? Like the place of the game. It is set in space. Your game could be set in, I don't know, it's set in the countryside. It's set in the city. It's set in the mountains.

R: Or we talk about just playing games like hide and seek, it could be we played it in the playground, or we used to play it in the playground.

M: We used to play it outside. We used to play it in the playground next to my house. But Rory, like in Scotland, what do children usually do? Like outside. So do they play like hide and seek? Do they play some games with knives when they have to kind of like, they throw the knives and then...

R: Some games with knives?

M: Well, we played that. Yeah, you have to throw the knife and you throw it in a way that it should get stuck in the ground. And if you throw it nicely, and it gets stuck, then you cut your land. And this is like your piece. Yeah? But if you throw the knife and it just falls flat, it's not your land, so you don't own any more land.

R: That sounds extremely dangerous for children to be playing.

M: Yeah, with knives. So like, do Scottish children do something like that?

R: No, no, they don't. I think that's something a bit more... That's too hardcore.

M: What about something like games with running? Like you run around and you have to touch your partner and then the partner freezes?

R: Oh, like tig? Yes. We used to have that. Well, we used to play that.

M: What?

R: Tig. Or tag in American English.

M: Tag?

R: Yes.

M: Or the first word you said?

R: Tig.

M: Tig.

R: Yes.

M: Yeah, dear listener, if you're interested, Google what tig means. And you can talk about this game. Like a pretty common game, just running around. So in this video game, you have to control the galaxy. So you have to do this. You have to control, you have to drive this car, you have to win.

R: Well, I think that's true of just about every game.

M: I got pretty obsessed, which means that Rory got hooked on the game, he played and played nonstop, he got addicted to the game, I got pretty obsessed.

R: And you could say when you were younger, we were pretty obsessed about it. Or pretty obsessed with it.

M: The mechanics of the game were pretty simple. So the mechanics mean the rules, what you have to do.

R: How it works.

M: I used to play before and after school, or I used to play on the weekend, I had nothing better to do. So there was nothing for me to do. I just played this video game nonstop. And what equipment was used? I played with a bog standard keyboard, a bog standard? Meaning just a usual keyboard and a mouse. So nothing too fancy. Some gamers used fancy equipment, and some special computers, but Rory had a bog standard computer and a keyboard.

R: That's all we had back in those days.

M: What did you mean when you said it's a free-form sandbox game? Sandbox game?

R: Oh, free-form sandbox, that just means that you can do what you like, if it's a sandbox, it's like you can create or do whatever you want within the rules of the game.

M: So a free form, you're not restricted by certain rules. So you can just do whatever you like.

R: Yeah, you don't have to follow the main story, for example, you could do something else.

M: You can write your own story, and control the galaxy in space. Yeah, you have to work with different empires, you have to build colonies on other planets.

R: Although this is like topic-specific vocabulary for talking about space colonization, if we think about the things that would be useful for talking about a game, you have to do this, you have to do that. And you work with people on the game.

M: And usually the difficulty level increases, or the difficulty curve increases.

R: Or the learning curve.

M: The learning curve. Yeah. But here the difficulty level usually increases. So you start, it was very easy, but then it gets more and more difficult. So here you can see the difficulty curve increases massively after level two or, I don't know, after you start.

R: Well, this one came in like easy, medium and hard. And, well, normal, not medium. And the normal mode was just insane. So I just played it on easy.

M: You can say that initially, like at the beginning of this, I had a lot of fun with the game because of the novelty. Novelty? Because it was new for me. And it also gave me a sense of what?

R: Oh, escapism?

M: Escapism. Like escape.

R: Can you not guess what escapism means from the way that it's described or the way that it sounds?

M: Yeah, usually we want to escape from our problems.

R: Yeah, it's like a distraction from reality, usually an unpleasant reality, but it doesn't have to be.

M: On boring days it gave me a sense of escapism, so it could be said about any game. And then we can use the Present Perfect tense, like, having played it for a while, it became part of my life, part of my routine. So I played it for some time and then it became. So we use this perfect -ing form. Having played it, like after I had been playing it for a while, it became part of my routine. And now it's about nostalgia. So Rory thinks back on his past. Thinking, oh, when I was a child, I used to play this. And he feels some nostalgia.

R: But that's just looking back fondly on the past.

M: And we wrap it up with our third conditional, dear listener because the story was in the past. So if we imagine something that didn't happen, if I hadn't played this game, but Rory did play the game, I would have played some other games, for example. If I hadn't played this game, I would have played Monopoly, or I would have played some board games or cards, but he didn't. And this game seemed to fit my personality quite well. So it was suitable for my personality, for my likes, and dislikes, for my needs. So fit my personality, fit, fit, fit, yeah? Not fitted, fit.

R: Sometimes you say fitted.

M: Really? Fitted?

R: Yeah.

M: Oh, so it's like learnt, learned? Two forms?

R: Yeah, it's one of those.

M: Really? Oh... And then a nice sentence, it's actually been quite nice to look back on that time. So like telling the story. You are looking back on your past. Oh, it's like, it's nice to be back on those days now when you were a child playing nice games. But yeah, now you're preparing for IELTS and all this like, band nine and eight and seven. And just look at the examiners. You see what I'm doing now? I should be playing nice games, not sitting with you here.

R: We should all be playing video games.

M: Sweet.

R: Okay, dear listener, make sure you choose a game you can talk about. If you can't, you can just tell Rory's idea about Imperium Galactica 2.

R: Hey, you see? You got the name right in the end. Maybe you could do the same with my name?

M: Wait, wait. Rory Fergus Duncan-Goodwillie.

R: Yes. Oh my god. It's working.

M: Oh, you see? Yeah. After five years of working with you. I finally know your name. Wait, how old are you?

R: Nevermind. Let's wrap up. Bye!

M: Bye! We'll see you in part three, where we talk about games in general.

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