Quarterlife Crisis of a Gamer
I used to be a decent-sized gamer. Just searching my Flickr for game or Nintendo shows collection images, photos from gaming events, the President of Nintendo of America playing Wii, and a number of hardware-related pron shots from my Canon A70 days. There wasn't a week that went by when I would scribble some notes for an article or editorial for N-Philes (or should I say Nerd Mentality? I'm still iffy on that name change). Lately, however, I've written more business plans than I have theories on the casual/core gamer war. I've read more book chapters (if not books) than bosses I've waggled my Wii Remote at. One day my mom (the avid reader in the family) and I were on a bus, me book in hand, and she proudly engaged with her Nintendo DSi XL. All I could think was, "when did this happen?"
While my bank account has enjoyed my recent and supposed natural avoidance of EB (or are they all Gamestops yet? I don't even know...) and Best Buy, I miss that feeling of opening a new game and proceeding through the first few levels. My poor Xbox probably needs to be properly de-dusted for fear turning it on will result in a red ring of death, quickly followed by a plume of smoke and flames that will set my television desk on fire. My Wii hasn't even been plugged in since it's last outing wherever it went. I can't even tell you where my DS is (though I need to find it before the next Professor Layton game comes out. September I think), and my PSP, or browser-when-my-netbook-is-too-far-away has been replaced by the iPod, which is a far better browser anyway.
Is it gaming itself that has changed? I have no real interest in internet gaming, which is pretty much all you can get from those fancy hi-def systems. Nintendo's innovation pretty much ended with the development of the Wii Remote (Mario Galaxy is the exception, but even there I have yet to collect all 120 stars, something I raced through in the much more lacklustre yet somehow much more addictive Super Mario Sunshine. I digress). Is it school that ate all my time, or work that ate all my other time? Was it the recent discovery that I enjoy non-fiction books that replaced the little moments where I'd otherwise be solving Scribblenauts puzzles?
Maybe all I need to do is finish the Metroid Prime Trilogy, or A Boy and his Blob, or Rhythm Heaven or RedSteel 2 or DeadRising (yes, the first one). Or maybe I need to start De Blob and MadWOrld and No More Heroes 2. Or play more Dr. Mario with my friends who recently discovered how awesome a game it is.
Photos: Cousin before playing Baseball, Lotso as Buzz Lightyear (yay Toy Story 3), Graffiti in Barrhaven (right near that Winners that had a carbon monoxide problem, and a couple of images from my recent visit to the Nepean Sportsplex.
Oh, and here's a video, taken with my terrible cell phone (I assure you it was awesome 3 years ago), of a prank that was well devised but poorly executed (and poorly recorded). And Watermelon tossing.
While my bank account has enjoyed my recent and supposed natural avoidance of EB (or are they all Gamestops yet? I don't even know...) and Best Buy, I miss that feeling of opening a new game and proceeding through the first few levels. My poor Xbox probably needs to be properly de-dusted for fear turning it on will result in a red ring of death, quickly followed by a plume of smoke and flames that will set my television desk on fire. My Wii hasn't even been plugged in since it's last outing wherever it went. I can't even tell you where my DS is (though I need to find it before the next Professor Layton game comes out. September I think), and my PSP, or browser-when-my-netbook-is-too-far-away has been replaced by the iPod, which is a far better browser anyway.
Is it gaming itself that has changed? I have no real interest in internet gaming, which is pretty much all you can get from those fancy hi-def systems. Nintendo's innovation pretty much ended with the development of the Wii Remote (Mario Galaxy is the exception, but even there I have yet to collect all 120 stars, something I raced through in the much more lacklustre yet somehow much more addictive Super Mario Sunshine. I digress). Is it school that ate all my time, or work that ate all my other time? Was it the recent discovery that I enjoy non-fiction books that replaced the little moments where I'd otherwise be solving Scribblenauts puzzles?
Maybe all I need to do is finish the Metroid Prime Trilogy, or A Boy and his Blob, or Rhythm Heaven or RedSteel 2 or DeadRising (yes, the first one). Or maybe I need to start De Blob and MadWOrld and No More Heroes 2. Or play more Dr. Mario with my friends who recently discovered how awesome a game it is.
Photos: Cousin before playing Baseball, Lotso as Buzz Lightyear (yay Toy Story 3), Graffiti in Barrhaven (right near that Winners that had a carbon monoxide problem, and a couple of images from my recent visit to the Nepean Sportsplex.
Oh, and here's a video, taken with my terrible cell phone (I assure you it was awesome 3 years ago), of a prank that was well devised but poorly executed (and poorly recorded). And Watermelon tossing.
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