A hero is a human being or a major fictional character who, against all odds, combats adversity by deeds of strength, courage, or ingenuity. Unlike other previously only gender-specific words, hero is now commonly used to describe any gender, although hero only seems to apply to girls. A hero makes an extraordinary impact on our minds for good reasons: he fulfills our wish to feel that we are in control of the world and have power to solve problems; he gives us a sense of hero-worship; he is the one we look up to as an example to follow in our own lives. However, heroes have a lot of competition from other people in our society, specifically other men. As a result, heroes’ life is filled with perils, tragedy, heartache, pain, triumphs, and even triumph (if they win).
This definition has been around since the start of time, so maybe it’s time we put a definition in stone. A hero must have certain qualities. They must be: self-reliant, independent, courageous, self-aware, and honest. These are not traits that we wish for ourselves, but rather the attributes that define the very best heroes. Here are some of the most defining characteristics of a heroic person:
Most importantly, every one of us has at least one role model. Every child learns who his or her heroes are from what their parents do. So our first step toward developing our own heroic qualities is to identify our role models. Role models are usually people in our society who are remembered and revered because they exhibited qualities that we wish we had. Think of all the school heroes your parents remember, chances are those are the ones you will look up to someday.
Children learn what is right and wrong from the people they admire the most. If they see a villain, they will most likely be inspired to act against him. If they see a teacher being wrong, they will be inspired to do the same thing. Role models in our daily life need to be people who treat us well, people who are kind and thoughtful, people who are there to encourage us when we need help, and people who are generous with their time and treasure their friendship more than anything else in life.
There are also literary heroes. Read any of literature and you will see that many times great characters are portrayed as writers. Some of these characters are the next step in development of the author. Some are the result of coincidence. One thing that most people agree on is that real life heroes never let a crisis go by without a fight. Even if it means hurting themselves, real life heroes continue on to complete the mission.
So, if we take these two basic pieces of information, we can understand why RTS games can be a great way to help young people become better and more heroic. Playing a role model provides us with a chance to be like that hero in our minds while we are growing up. It’s a great way to learn how to deal with both failure and success as an adult. With role models, we get a chance to see what it’s like to be a hero from the perspective of another person. We can become better individuals by playing a role model, even if the game we are playing doesn’t really have a lot of heroics in it.