Tucson is a bigger deal than most people imagine. It’s been featured on television, in books, movies and just about any other form of entertainment, except for one: video games. So why haven’t any designers plopped their character into our fair city, at least for a visit? I don’t know. But they should and here’s why:

As a whole, Tucson has a lot of what makes a good backdrop for a story. It’s got the perfect mix of the metropolitan, small town and completely deserted desert feeling to supply a plotline with plenty of variety. Most cities have a mix of these things, but none like Tucson.

We’ve got scores of mountains and plenty of unique flora and fauna in the desert. We’ve got our historic downtown and a huge military base right nearby. We’ve even got a controversy that’s sent the rest of the country (and even other parts of the world) into a fury and we’re pretty close to the border, where plenty of conflict takes place. Then there’s the fact that Tucson is one of the hottest spots for astronomy and other space sciences. Most importantly, we have the UA itself.

Considering the diversity of the city, there is plenty of material to craft a unique story. Imagine some secret conspiracy having to do with SB 1070. Tie in some mad space research that’s taking place on the university campus. The aliens are real aliens! Then you have to go out and explore the vast desert landscape to find the base of operations and foil the plan before it can be completed.

All right, so that’s a pretty shoddy plot, but I threw it together in about 15 seconds. Give professionals a real amount of time to craft a story and they’ll have come up with something much more cohesive. The point is that plenty of genres and existing series would find a great home in Tucson.

If you take a good look at the UA’s campus from the eyes of a gamer, you’ll notice that there are plenty of places that would make great “”Call of Duty”” levels — Integrated Learning Center, anyone? The university might have some problems with being in a first-person shooter, but anyone who attends the UA and plays “”Modern Warfare”” would love nothing more than dispatching terrorists in their favorite spots around campus.

If “”Call of Duty”” isn’t your cup of tea, what about turning Tucson into one giant skate park? Franchises like “”Skate”” would have plenty of cool spots to tear up, and considering all their games tend to have a similar climate and environment, it could use a change of location.

Big cities and exotic destinations are tried and true, but we’ve all logged countless hours in New York and Los Angeles. I feel like I’ve seen so much of the Middle East that I’d never need to take a trip there. Same with China. And Russia.

The video game scene could use a few new locations with less renown but plenty of potential. So here’s to hoping all Tucsonans get a chance to see their city finally make its way into the gaming world.

— Jason Krell is a creative writing sophomore. He can be reached at arts@wildcat.arizona.edu