Kent Vainio - Video Game Analyst

Hi reader! Thanks for coming to check out my bio page! My name is Kent Vainio and I’m an American-Finnish Londoner who is currently studying at Stanford University in California. I am planning to major in Computer Science with a minor in Japanese, and as you might have ascertained from that combination of subjects, I utterly adore technology, video games included.

I have been playing video games ever since I was very little, and since then have dabbled in almost every single game genre, from RPGs like Pokémon and Final Fantasy, to puzzle games like Professor Layton. I am the kind of person who has lots of different, constantly changing interests; however, video games have been one of the few stalwart passions that have never left me since my childhood years. I think this is because video games as a whole offer so many different types of experiences that one can really never get bored of them. As such, there are many different aspects of video game analysis that interest me, and I will go over just some of them in the following paragraphs.

The first real draw of gaming for me is the excitement and wonder at experiencing something completely original, and exploring diverse fantasy worlds. Video games truly have a limitless ability to transport our minds to other universes and to allow us to experience things we never would in real life. Being able to participate in interactive stories, rather than just being passive agents in them, is also something unique to video games as a medium, and something that sets their storytelling apart from all other entertainment forms. This interactive storytelling also fascinates me, and has ever since I played my first story-driven games as a young child.

They also provide us a safe playing ground to experience failure and develop persistence, such as in the Dark Souls trilogy, or ways to improve our real life problem-solving skills, such as in strategy RPGs like Final Fantasy Tactics. Games have formed a huge part of who I am today, and I am convinced that if they were able to have such a profound effect on me, they can definitely do the same for many others. That is why I love discussing games: to show people the amazing potential they hold to teach us all manner of different things.

Alongside my love of technology, I also have a deep fascination with the human mind and psychology. Through their imaginative world-building that allows us to experience pretty much anything that the human mind can conjure up, games provide a highly unique way for us to reflect on our own personalities and experiences, from participating in life-or-death escape games like Danganronpa, in which human nature is put under the magnifying glass, to MMORPGs like Final Fantasy XIV, where we can very literally choose another life in a virtual world.

Moreover, now that we are on the cusp of a virtual reality revolution with highly immersive VR on the horizon, gaming stands to play a much larger role in our everyday lives. It thus becomes ever more imperative to study games in an analytical light to understand the great benefits we can receive from them. I am fascinated to see what our interactive gaming experiences will look like in the years to come, and how gaming will play a part in the future of human society.

As an author on With a Terrible Fate, I wish to discuss all of these things and more, to demonstrate the incredible potential of video games to teach, to entertain, and to convey deep messages about human nature and society. Video games are a truly unique entertainment medium, and deserve to be given just as much attention and respect as any other traditional medium such as films or novels. I wish to push this case forward through my analysis of different games, and help everyone appreciate the true worth of video games of all types!

You can contact me at gengar888@gmail.com to ask any questions, give any advice/thoughts/criticism, or just say hi! I am happy to chat about games at any and all times!

I wish you much fun and excitement on your future video game adventures and I hope you enjoy my work!