On Time, Games, and Time Again.
There was a time I would have marathon sessions playing games, days on end. At family gatherings, I would hide in my room and play and only come down when my parents were screaming at me to greet my relatives. Those times are gone, and these days it's rare that I can squeeze more than two hours of non stop gaming in a day. This article by Clive Thompson on Wired News inspired me to write about my own experiences and frustrations as an older, employed gamer.
Thompson describes an abyss between today's gamers, those of the "hardcore" bunch who spend hours upon hours gamin and finding hidden easter eggs along the way, and "softcore old folks like me who have to juggle time between a job, family, friends and loved ones, and other forms of entertainment like sports, cinema, or even reading a good old fashioned book (or even nurturing aspirations of designing indie games). Hardcore gamers relish epic 100 hour long games that they can brag about when they finish them, and softcore folks just want something they can finish in the spare time that they have.
I fall into the latter category of course, and I've decided to vent out my frustrations about certain "features" in games that piss me off. First off, the "grading" system, most commonly found in Hideo Kojima games like "Z.O.E." for the PS2. Finishing a game is an investment of my time, no matter how long or short it is, so I don't want to be rewarded with a grade of "C" on "normal" mode after finishing a game, because I wasn't able to save enough lives, and other transparent metrics that were never announced at the beginning of the game. If you're going to grade me, then at the very least inform me about what you'll be grading me on. Is it the time taken to finish the game, the accuracy in killing enemies, or the number of secret areas I found? Don't fucking reward me with a C after I finish your game, and don't keep the "best" endings for when I finish the game with a grade of "A" because I spent valuable time on this game, and I deserve something in return.
The same goes for games that have "multiple endings" but require you to find character A to unlock side quest B in order to receive item C that unlocks secret treausure D that gives you the ultimate secret ending, because the other endings are all crappy. Or games like Max Payne 2 that require you to finish the game on super crazy extra hard mode, in order to see the real ending. What a cop out. Difficulty settings should just be abolished. I hate playing a game in normal mode with the thought that I'm not good enough to finish it on "hard" nagging me every now and then. Just set the difficulty to a certain level. If I can beat it, I can beat it. If not, then hey, I'm just not good enough.
Going back to time, I've discovered that I'm loving games with "mission" based gameplay. IE, finish one mission, then save. Finish another mission, then save. This way, I can get bite sized amounts of game time like this morning when I finished a mission in Front Mission 4 before trooping off to work. It gives me a sense of accomplishment in knowing that I'm one step closer to finishing the game. This is opposed to games like say, Resident Evil, where you need to spend an extended amount of time before ever actually feeling like you achieved something, enough at least to save your game.
But enough about games, and more on time. For real this time. I've discovered that commuting forces me to find ways to keep myself busy and maximize my time. When I get home there's the allure of the consoles or the PC or TV to keep me sated, but while I'm on the go I get to read again. Just yesterday and this morning, I was able to devour half of The Economist (I'll give it back joey, I swear) while walking to and from the MRT and LRT stations and am now incredibly up to date with the goings on in Europe and the Middle East. I still can't discuss it with anyone but hey, at least I'm aware what's going on in the world. When I have enough money to buy a decent mp3 player or a "Walkman" phone, I'll start listening to podcasts again, which is the lazy way of keeping up to date.
Now it's time to get back to work, since I've slacked off enough already.
Thompson describes an abyss between today's gamers, those of the "hardcore" bunch who spend hours upon hours gamin and finding hidden easter eggs along the way, and "softcore old folks like me who have to juggle time between a job, family, friends and loved ones, and other forms of entertainment like sports, cinema, or even reading a good old fashioned book (or even nurturing aspirations of designing indie games). Hardcore gamers relish epic 100 hour long games that they can brag about when they finish them, and softcore folks just want something they can finish in the spare time that they have.
I fall into the latter category of course, and I've decided to vent out my frustrations about certain "features" in games that piss me off. First off, the "grading" system, most commonly found in Hideo Kojima games like "Z.O.E." for the PS2. Finishing a game is an investment of my time, no matter how long or short it is, so I don't want to be rewarded with a grade of "C" on "normal" mode after finishing a game, because I wasn't able to save enough lives, and other transparent metrics that were never announced at the beginning of the game. If you're going to grade me, then at the very least inform me about what you'll be grading me on. Is it the time taken to finish the game, the accuracy in killing enemies, or the number of secret areas I found? Don't fucking reward me with a C after I finish your game, and don't keep the "best" endings for when I finish the game with a grade of "A" because I spent valuable time on this game, and I deserve something in return.
The same goes for games that have "multiple endings" but require you to find character A to unlock side quest B in order to receive item C that unlocks secret treausure D that gives you the ultimate secret ending, because the other endings are all crappy. Or games like Max Payne 2 that require you to finish the game on super crazy extra hard mode, in order to see the real ending. What a cop out. Difficulty settings should just be abolished. I hate playing a game in normal mode with the thought that I'm not good enough to finish it on "hard" nagging me every now and then. Just set the difficulty to a certain level. If I can beat it, I can beat it. If not, then hey, I'm just not good enough.
Going back to time, I've discovered that I'm loving games with "mission" based gameplay. IE, finish one mission, then save. Finish another mission, then save. This way, I can get bite sized amounts of game time like this morning when I finished a mission in Front Mission 4 before trooping off to work. It gives me a sense of accomplishment in knowing that I'm one step closer to finishing the game. This is opposed to games like say, Resident Evil, where you need to spend an extended amount of time before ever actually feeling like you achieved something, enough at least to save your game.
But enough about games, and more on time. For real this time. I've discovered that commuting forces me to find ways to keep myself busy and maximize my time. When I get home there's the allure of the consoles or the PC or TV to keep me sated, but while I'm on the go I get to read again. Just yesterday and this morning, I was able to devour half of The Economist (I'll give it back joey, I swear) while walking to and from the MRT and LRT stations and am now incredibly up to date with the goings on in Europe and the Middle East. I still can't discuss it with anyone but hey, at least I'm aware what's going on in the world. When I have enough money to buy a decent mp3 player or a "Walkman" phone, I'll start listening to podcasts again, which is the lazy way of keeping up to date.
Now it's time to get back to work, since I've slacked off enough already.