Buahaha!
Face my new doctoral powers of eternal and everlasting babblement as I
defeat all opposition in a wave of linguistic furiosity!
Other than gloating however I did have a serious point to this message,
which is a reflection on games and gaming in general as it relates to the
rest of life and activities.
Sinse I finished my phd almost exactly a month ago, I have played fewer
games over all, but those I have! played I've played far more intensively,
and actually far more effectively. I've spent a good few hours playing
smugglers 5 and have already started working out successive stratogies.
I've checked out super egghunt, (and it's now got an audiogames.net db
entry), I've reacquainted myself with a rather fun online game called
metroplexity, I've logued into Alteraeon for a big of monster bashing and
actually done fairly well.
I've played a couple mor eEamon deluxe adventures and written about them
too, and in fact found myself far less able to get lost.
I've also been having a good crack at the graphical semi adventure
platformer kirby superstar (released as kirby's funpack in the Uk). an
exceptional game, but one with far deeper requirements for strategic use of
abilities and actually as much exploration as metroid.
equally however there have been several days when I simply did not! feel
like playing games at all, preferring to read or indeed watch startrek (I'm
watching through next gen again at the moment).
Of course, I have not been utterly idle, I've started doing half an hour's
running and weights each day as well as a solid hour work on my voice in
preparation for taking a voice qualification later this year and applying to
Bermingham conservatoire, and have learnt several pretty tough peaces of
music, I'm also appearing in a local production of the Gilbert and sullivan
oppereta Iolanthe as Lord tolloller, (a wonderful ponce of an english
lord!).
What however the point of all this is, is that now that my time is pretty
much my own, I no longer feel quite as driven to spend time gaming as I did
previously and can take things far more at my own pace. This makes deeper,
more mentally stimulating games far more what I am looking for than simpler
action titles (indeed I don't think I've played any! action games this
month), or indeed straight up abstract game or puzzle titles good for a
quick blast.
By the same rather interesting tocan however, the worse! my mental state has
been in the past, the more I demanded abstraction in gaming. Not necessarily
complex story or plot, but simply mechanics that were utterly ceribral. I
once spent close to 36 hours playing smugglers 3 just as a pure avoidance
technique, ditto with numerically based card games like hearts or even
poker.
This however is utterly different to the spirit in which I've been playing
s5 this month, which is far more about the exploration of the full
experience and excitement at the plot and ethos as ell as engaging with the
games systems and mechanics.
So, what conclusion I am coming to is that when a person is busy with many
other matters, it is the quick fix, low consequence games, such as quick
pvp bashes or logic puzzles, not to mention action arcade titles that is the
thing, ---- probably why Iphone gaming has gone that way (after all, for the
business person waiting for a train having a quick smack of angry birds is
probably a good use of their Iphone), while for the hyper intravert it is
stratogy and deep logic.
When however a person has time on their hands, there is time for the full
exploration of a games entire elements and nature, mechanics, plot, world,
setting and genre.
One thing we have considdered on this list before is the fact that the
gaming industry will need to change it's stratogy to meet the access
requirements of older gamers in the next 10 or 20 years. However, it now
occurs to me there is another subgroup we haven't considdered, -----
retired people!
People who have the time, pace and thought to engage completely and fully
with a game. On this basis, it seems even more necessary that good quality,
in depth games be produced in an accessible form, sinse what could be
better for the newly retired sports fan than an indepth sports management
sim, or the newly retired sf fan (of which there are surprisingly many),
than an empire building game or sf rpg.
This is I believe why core exiles in particular has such a wide ange of
ages in it's players, indeed I know several are over 60, because the games
world and in depth mechanics are more than sufficient. However, in
accessible terms there still! isn't quite enough.
Perhaps this is something developers could considder. Instead of just!
writing an arcade racer, write a game with car customization and different
race types. Instead of just! writing a space invaders game, include player
statistics.
fortunately, a lot of developers do indeed seem to be thinking in tese
terms, however this is perhaps another reason which people may have not
considdered previously.
As for me, I fully intend to continue to enjoy myself! with any and all
games that come along, albeit I'll likely spend more time on them if they
have some depth.
beware the grue!
Dark.
---
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