Broken, Beaten, Scarred

     It's not been a very good several weeks. I won't get into the details, all I will say is that very bad things have happened recently. Christmas day was a welcome respite, a very nice respite, but the darkness has fallen again. Speaking of which, it's the time of year where it gets dark at 4 pm. LOVE that.>sarcasm<
      Depression, cold, darkness. It's at times like this that I'm glad I have videogames to play. To be able to be another person, in another world, for a little while. Of course one cannot truly be immersed in video games, to play for long hours at a time and truly lose sense of self. No matter how bad things get, I have to deal with the real world.
     I would like to believe that instead of binge drinking or taking several forms of drugs, my self medication is video games, as it probably is for many others. I fully believe that excessive game playing can be very detrimental, as bad as booze or drugs. If video games take over your life, then you are an addict and need help.
     Immersing yourself in a book or movie is a wonderful way to get away from how truly bad life can be. Videogames are special in that you can be the hero, perhaps even save the world. That can make anyone feel better, at least for little while.
     Plus, headshots can be so cathartic.
    
    By the way, the title refers to a Metallica song, which I believe is about no matter how much life beats you down, you won't give up without a fight.    

Keep it simple, stupid

In my day, games were simple. Simple graphics, simple gameplay. Of course, they had to be, by necessity. Back then video games were in their infancy (although some say they still are.) But for the most part, the games were still fun. Well, a lot were.


Nowadays, games have to contain everything but the kitchen sink. A playtime of at least 40 hours, multiplayer, achievements or trophies, voice acting, state of the art graphics and sound, and a novel length story. Granted, new games cost 60 dollars this generation, but back in the day Nintendo games could cost up to 40 dollars. That's just 20 dollars cheaper than games today, minus, well, just about everything the bloated games of today have.

It seems like gamers today, especially this generation, are asking for more, more, more in thier games. Enjoyment and fun have taken a back seat to how much is crammed into the game. Game reviewers are notorious for this, knocking a game if it doesn't have this, that, or the other damn thing.

Call me old-fashioned, but gamers today expect too much from their games. There is a difference between games that are simply bad and games that people hate because they don't have "robust" multiplayer. What matters is if a game is enjoyable to play, and people seem to be losing sight of this. I've seen games that were good but simple in concept lose to huge open world games where you can do 300 boring things. But hey, open world! So many inane things you can do!

Simple can be fun. Too bad so many people have forgotten this.