Wikipedia Trail: From Recess to Grand Theft Auto IV

Recess (break)

This last week I chose to right a story about kids racing for a girl during their recess break at school so I decided to start my trail off here. I learned that the term "recess" is an American term and that in the UK and Ireland it is usually just called "break" or "break time". The main reason it became so popular for schools to do especially in the elementary level was because it helped developed kids socially. I also read that some schools are trying to eliminate this time period because they want to raise test scores but there is research that recess and/or P.E. actually raise test scores. One of the things that I loved to play during recess in elementary school was Four Square which is where my next place landed me. 

Four Square

I'm a big believer that you didn't have a true American childhood (especially if you were born in the 90s) if you didn't play four square. The page said that this game is dated back to the 50s. I even learned that there is a Men and Women's world championship each year for the game. Although there is technically a set of rules what I liked was how there were modifications to the game every where. For example I remember playing and yelling Cherry bomb where you basically slammed the ball as hard as you could and the other person had 10 seconds to get the ball and return it to the square. I also learned that the Guinness World record for playing is 34 hours.

Guinness World Records

Another great thing I remember from elementary school was reading the Guinness World Record books. I remember that they would always have crazy facts and bizarre pictures which were very entertaining. I also learned that the organization has a code of ethics where they won't allow certain things to be performed for the record and they have even removed past records due to ethical issues. I even learned that there is a record for the longest time spent playing Grand Theft Auto IV. 

Grand Theft Auto IV

As a child I always loved playing the Grand Theft Auto games. I wasn't allowed to play them for a long time due to all of the mature content in the game but once my parents let me have it, it became one of my favorite video games. I didn't play that many video games other than sports ones, but this is one that I did play that was a role game. I learned that this game at the time broke records for the fastest -selling entertainment product at the time. The game made $310 million the first day and $500 million in the first week in the US. This game is based in a made up city called Liberty City which has four Burroughs that resemble the four Burroughs of NYC. This game was one of my favorites growing up and I still think I would have a blast playing it even today. 

This is an image of the lettering used for the game which I found on Wikimedia Commons