InsaneBear

Feature: Metamorphosis of a gamer

Whether we like it or not, change is a part of life. We go through stages, phases, trends, and bends until we can’t recognize who we were when we started. And at the tender age of 20, I think I might be going through yet another transformation as a gamer. So this feature will be an examination of myself as a gamer. I’m not sure what I’ll find, but I think it’s something worth thinking about.

So last night I popped Modern Warfare 2 in for the first time in a few months and played a few hours of its highly-esteemed multiplayer. I eventually turned the console off with the realization that it simply wasn’t fun. And while I wasn’t exactly on fire after exiling myself from the online community for so long, my dissatisfaction stemmed from something else–it was pointless.

If you’ll allow me to elaborate, it felt like a pre-season football game. There’s no prize at the end of the round for finishing with the highest score. You just play for the sake of playing. While that sort of thing can be fun sometimes, I don’t go and start pick-up games of basketball with complete strangers. It’s playing with friends that gives meaningless games their fun. Considering I haven’t had a solid group of online friends since the days of Halo 2, it’s a wonder I’ve gone this long testing my reflexes against stoners and 10-year-olds in an endless game of death.

Over the past month or so I’ve taken stock of what types of games I enjoy most, and I’ve found that I’ve become more and more of a solitary gamer. The games that stick out in my memory are RPGs. The shooters I remember are the ones with good stories. And as I look at my game collection, I see that other genres are scarcely represented.

I don’t know, I’m probably rambling a lot here and it’s not very interesting to read. I still like shooters, but pretty much just for the campaigns. If I’m not progressing towards some satisfying end goal (like the climax of a narrative, for example) then I just can’t seem to care. High scores don’t matter to me anymore. I simply don’t view video games as games anymore. I play them for their interactive stories. The actual game part taken out of context is sort of pointless and boring to me now. But maybe that’s just because the gameplay I’ve been playing through lately is all predictable and similar.

See, I think expectations play a big role in the enjoyment of a game. I doubt it’s coincidence that my 2009 game of the year (Dragon Age: Origins) was one that I didn’t religiously follow leading up to its launch. In fact, I didn’t even get it at launch. I wasn’t going to buy it until I saw it a month later for $40. Then when I played it, it was all fresh and new and a pleasant surprise. I miss that feeling. I feel like there’s so much media coverage these days that you know exactly what to expect from every game you’re interested in. It sort of steals some of the magic of a new game. Personally, I’d recommend that you immediately stop following a game once you’ve decided that you’re definitely going to buy it. Sure, this might lead to some disappointing purchases, but it could also lead to some great surprises.

As for me, I can’t rightly stop following games if I’m supposed to be reporting that news to you guys. What I can do is branch out and diversify my gaming tastes. For starters, I’ve decided not to buy Battlefield: Bad Company 2. I’m sure it’ll be a fantastic game that’s just as good as the previews indicate, but it’s the orange to Modern Warfare 2‘s apple. They’re just too similar. I want a pineapple. So what I’m going to do is start buying some games that I usually wouldn’t buy. Instead of Bad Company 2, I think I’ll pick up Shadow Complex for $10. I’ve never played that type of game, or at least I haven’t in a long time. I’d like to try it out. I think I might also buy Just Cause 2. It has the same spirit as Grand Theft Auto III in my opinion, and that was a new genre for me when I bought it. I still think it’s the best game in the GTA series. And hell, maybe I’ll get really crazy and buy Final Fantasy XIII just so I can say I’ve finally played a Final Fantasy game. It doesn’t look stunningly awesome to me, but maybe that’s just the sort of attitude that will make it stunningly awesome for me.

I suppose the realization I’m coming to is that all the games I’ve been playing for the past several years are too similar. It makes the gameplay too predictable. And even if a game does something new for its genre, I know beforehand because of media coverage. I know exactly how every feature in the game works. This is probably why I gravitate towards a game’s story more than anything else these days–it’s the only thing that’s still fresh and new. If the game has a bad story but good gameplay (read: BioShock 2) then the only freshness the game has to offer tastes rather sour. If the story isn’t anything spectacular but the gameplay’s new and interesting (like Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts) then the game-world is still satisfying enough to justify biting in.

So I guess the only remedy for this is to branch out and experience gameplay that’s different from what I’m used to. Of course this doesn’t mean I’ll stop buying the genres I already like–I’ll just have to be more cautious when searching for games with good stories and new features. Ultimately, the most fun a game has to offer in my opinion is the exploration of a new world. New features are often a part of that new world. If the world and gameplay have been done before (as is the case with modern combat), then the only thing that can make a game interesting to me is a good story. So I’m going to go out of my way to spice things up and reinvigorate my gaming life. I’m sick of being a jaded old man. It’s time to try something new.

Author: Cody

Tags: Cody, diversification, feature, just cause 2, metamorphosis, modern warfare 2, video game genres, video game media