Time to dive deep. I'll try to keep this starter post brief (I failed) to see if it stirs up any dialog.
IntroThese are just the ramblings of a long-time gamer. Things I've noticed through the years and how things seem to have changed as I've gotten older. For context: like most other gamers, I've been gaming from a young age, now 36, and with 30 years of experience with a controller/keyboard in my hands, the experience has changed. I still very much enjoy gaming and don't see myself ever giving it up as a hobby.
Desensitized to the good and the badWhat dictates a good game from a bad game? Sure there are glaringly obvious issues between a 5/10 game and a 9/10 game, but what about everything in between? Everything that I play lands between a 6 and an 8 if I were the reviewer. Every game I play is fine/good, because they all belong to genres or series I already know and enjoy. I don’t often give up on a game once I start it, even if I do think it’s not up to par. I paid for it in some way or another, so I need to get something out of it, I tell myself. On the other hand, I don’t think I’d ever give a game a perfect 10/10. Can a game ever truly be perfect?
I used to know what my top 10 game list looked like (no judging): Suikoden II, Legend of Mana, Xenosaga III, Mario RPG, a Final Fantasy or Might & Magic or two). I used to post it in all of the forums I followed where that kind of topic was started and I used to be proud of it. Now, I’d like to say my top 10 looks mostly the same, and I’m not sure any game that I’ve played in the last 10-15 years would have a spot on it. I call it the ‘back in my day’ effect.
At the same time, I’m not so sure some of those games in my top 10 deserve to still be there. Would I enjoy them as much if I went back and played them today? Have they aged well enough? How do I compare new gen games to the nostalgic games I grew up with? Surely some of my more recent favorites like Dark Souls, Fallout 3, or Dead Space should be on there. Maybe games that I’ve dumped countless hours into with friends and family like Rocket League, Overwatch, WoW, and FFXIV. These games just seem too different to compare to
my top 10.
Does good vs bad truly matter? We all like what we like. I will call every Zelda game a 7-8 every time, even though it scores a 9.5+ every time. I will find more enjoyment out of that lesser known game off the shelf that critics wouldn’t even give a 7.
My ultimate point is that the lines are blurred now. I’m sure dilution has something to do with it. When you’ve played 20 games it’s easy to pick out your favorite. When you’ve played 2000 games, it’s harder to be certain.
Forgetful of past experiencesAs I play more and more games and get older, I feel like the experiences either aren’t as memorable, or I just have a harder time remembering them. I’m a big keeper of data. I track every game I beat, when I beat it, how long it took, if I hit any milestones in the game like a platinum trophy, etc. etc. Still, as I look back on even games I beat last year, I find myself having difficulty coming up with a few short sentences to describe what occurred in that game. Character or location names of an RPG I played a year ago? forget about it! A friend or family member will bring up a game they're currently playing that I played a year or a few years back and I’ll be hard-pressed to carry on a conversation about it. Possible medical issues aside, I think there are other factors that play a role.
First, gaming in many ways is an escape from everyday stress and commitments. A way to unwind. It’s the few hours of the day when I can try to turn my brain off. This makes sense to me why games often don’t stick firmly in my mind for long periods of time. While I’m gaming, I’m in a ‘let’s not absorb anymore data’ state of mind.
However, taking a brain break to game isn’t exactly 100% true in my household either. It’s more like, ‘this kid has homework or a general question’,’ this kid needs to do this chore’, ‘I need to do x, y, and z before this time’, ‘dinner needs to be made’, ‘the dog needs out’. The point is, my brain is focused on so many other things even when I am gaming, so how can it fully absorb the experience?
My mind has seemed to make the change that gaming experiences belong in the short-term memory category and not the long-term, probably due to level of actual importance to my life.
Other musings of a near middle-aged gamerMy children (ages 14, 10, and 8) are getting real close, and in some cases
ARE better than me at certain games. Watching the cat-like reflexes of my children playing something like Fortnite is astounding. Someone can get the jump on them and they’ll build and/or turn around and take that person down first. I’m the guy that gets a jump on someone and that someone turns around and downs me first. As a father and gamer I am obviously proud of their ability, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t do anything to my psyche as a barely-competitive gamer myself. The loss of reflexes as we age is well documented, but you really get to see it first-hand when you have kids. For now, I'm not ready to concede my title!
I’m curious to see how my generation and the one before mine looks as we step into our senior years. Gaming is way more mainstream and widely accepted now. As we get older, will nursing homes now be filled with game consoles to appease the old gamers (not just Nintendo Wii's)? Will old folks be calling up their friends and grandkids to get in some online matches before an early bedtime? I sure hope so!
Lastly, as in all things, time is finite and the show must come to an end. Being that I track the games I beat and how much time I spend gaming, it's real easy to average this data to the average lifespan. While it's a bit morbid to think about, I have a fairly accurate calculation of how many games I have left to play and beat in my lifetime. Has anyone found themselves curious and done anything similar? All I can say is that, I wish the number remaining were bigger.
If you made it to the end, thanks for reading the ramblings of a not-so-old gamer.
