A while back, I met with
an old friend of mine. Being in college,
we both had our obligations, and countless projects mucking up our
schedules. But somehow, we’d managed to
hammer something out, and met one cool Friday afternoon. We talked about a lot of things – our
schedules, majors, teachers, our mutual disdain for Twilight…
“I’m just gonna throw
this out there,” I said with a laugh.
“Have you ever thought about taking up video games?”
"Also, try the dark arts! They're oodles of fun!"
She giggled and raised
her eyebrows. “You know, I actually have
played them a few times – I just wasn’t very good at them,” she answered. “I played that game Halo, but I couldn’t aim at anything so I just spent like five
minutes staring at the sky.”
I nodded in
appreciation; her aiming was better than mine, at least.
“To be fair, there are
a lot more games out there than shooters,” I offered. “You might like RPGs – role-playing
games. They’ve got good stories, and
they rely more on your head than your reaction time.” I nodded to myself, pleased; if there was
ever a genre that could suit her needs (a “brainy” genre, since she’d been
smarter than me since elementary school), that would be it. “If you ever get the chance, you should try
out the Persona series.”
“Oh, that’s great,” she
responded. “I do like driving games,” she added quickly, “but the fast ones are
really tough for me.”
“I know what you
mean.” I turned aside; what driving
games could I recommend? “Well, Burnout’s a good one…but it’s absurdly
fast. Like, zero to one eighty in about
five seconds. This one time, my brother
was playing online, and everybody was hitting top speed. So then they all have to make this
right-angle left turn, and EVERYONE crashes in the same spot at once!”
“Seriously?!” she said
with a laugh, half-shocked, half-delighted (she sounded a little too excited
about the idea of twisted metal). “You
know what? You should meet my boyfriend
sometime, he loves video games!”
“Oh ho, is that
right? Well maybe we can go head-to-head
someday!” I said boisterously.
We will engage in the venerable sport of horn-butting.
After that, we moved on
to a different subject – but, a few days later (when the hindsight/remorse can
really settle in), I wonder if I made the right choice. There I sat, a hardened, veteran gamer,
conversing with someone who could very easily jump into our favorite pastime
with a bit of prodding; did I steer her toward a hobby full of delight and
excitement, or merely shove her, inexperienced and innocent, into a sea of
soulless drivel?
Who knows? All things considered, she might not even
become a gamer. Her greatest experience
at the time had been the original Sims on
the PC, and she shamefully admitted that she’d spent hours playing around with
her virtual sea monkeys. And with a
college schedule, a boyfriend, and several other community activities going on
in her life, I doubt she’d have the time or drive to regularly slap down cash
for a fifty to sixty dollar video game – and that’s assuming she at least had a
system.
But suppose she had
decided to start gaming. Suppose she’d
turned to me in her time of need, a man of valor and passion she could
trust. What would I do then? How could I have explained to her, in the
breadth of a few quick quips, the necessities of the complete gaming
experience?
I started with Sonic the Hedgehog 2 when I was about
5. For her to understand and appreciate
games as I did, I’d have to track down a fully-functional Sega Genesis and pad
(mine might work), and have her
experience an age-old game that probably won’t have any of the significance it
had for me or other gaming vets. But as
a long-time player, I’m obligated to show her the path to glory, right? So did I do the right thing, or fail
miserably?
I suspect that the
average visitor of, say, Destructoid has a negative opinion of the casual gamer. Whether that opinion ranges from begrudging
indifference to plans of genocide varies from person to person; even so, I
think we can all agree on the fact that, given the chance, we’d want to show
new gamers that there are countless worlds outside of the assumed borders.
That doesn’t mean that
those games are necessarily bad. With Sonic the Hedgehog 2 long gone, and the
blue blur barely recovered from a tear-inducing slump, it’s a little unfair to
expect new gamers to hop in to our own preferred games. So games like Wii Sports, Guitar Hero and other simple titles (barring a 100% run
of “Through the Fire and Flames”) can be the gateway to something more. By the same token, a new gamer can start with
a simple game, and – with a new console in their living room – work their way
through the ranks of their system’s library.
Word of mouth and advertisements would probably put games like Halo and Call of Duty at the forefront; ideally, the rush of combat would be
enough to capture their hearts and minds.
And inspire her to put on a hundred pounds of muscle.
But what about the
skill gap? As a complete noob in the
shooter genre, I can sympathize with not wanting to get headshot every five
seconds. But scoring a kill, or being on
the winning team, or capturing a waypoint can deliver a thrill that we’ve been
experiencing for years; taking a few headshots here and there is a small price
to pay for that excitement. And if they
play regularly, there’s no telling how good they can get – just last night, I
scored my first five-kill streak against my brother and a friend, both of which
are much better shots than me. And my
single-digit kill count rises to the double digits – twelve, on average –
regularly. A month from now, who knows
what I’ll be able to do?
It’s not like those are
the only games out there, either.
Developers are doing their best to accommodate inexperienced newcomers,
too – laugh and scorn them if you will, but it’s something that I support. Prince
of Persia, Soulcalibur 5, Ninja Gaiden 2, Gears of War 3, Devil May Cry 4, Street Fighter 4 – all of these
have mentioned efforts to make jumping in to the game easier than ever, while
offering higher difficulties for us old men of gaming. The old saying “easy to learn, hard to
master” is in full effect here.
The problem, then, is
the cost. Fifty to sixty dollars new,
and anywhere from a cool twenty to forty used.
A new system, which could set a newcomer back two hundred dollars. Pads, Wii remotes, and/or nunchucks that
could cost as much as a new game (and buying a cheaper, unofficial product
opens the gates on poor quality).
Buying a Guitar Hero set for the first time,
which could burn a wallet to ashes. We
may be – grudgingly – willing to put up with it, but a new gamer may find the
prices unappealing. And with good reason:
why should he buy a game and all the fixings when a friend could do the same,
and all he has to do is pop in from time to time to play? It’s only compounded when the age of the
player shifts; depending on his or her access to their favorite retailer (or
funds, or obligations), getting around to picking up a new game and slapping
down the cash may not exactly be second nature.
And what would the neighbors say, seeing Mary Jefferson launching a
tactical nuke to end the match?
There’s not much that can
be done about that, I’m afraid – but if it’s cost we’re talking about, there
are a few solutions. True, an Xbox 360
or a Wii may cost a pretty penny, but going for last-gen games is probably
considerably cheaper. My GameStop of
choice has used GameCubes and PS2s at a highly discounted price, and the PS2
still has a bit of life left in it. And
the games? Massive libraries, some of
which go as low as five bucks. Six
games for the price of one!
Enough savings to give you a heart attack!
Some may say that time
is a major factor in a gaming schedule, but whether that holds up is up for
debate. Sure, games – RPGs, especially –
take some time to finish, but there’s no rule saying that it has to be handled
all at once. Chipping away at the thick
hide of a game is just as viable as a forty-hour marathon run; also, if a
gamer’s committed to finishing what he’s started, then he will. A good game is like a good book: it pulls you
in, and you don’t want to let go.
All right, it may be
easy to jump on the casual bandwagon, but a new gamer can always find something
that strikes his fancy if he’s willing to look for it. Ever heard of a little thing called the
internet? A quick Google search here, a
gaming site uncovered there, and voila!
That bargain bin stuffed to the breaking point with cases suddenly
becomes a treasure trove of classics! Even
so, word of mouth speaks for itself; that’s why it’s our job, we veteran gamers
who know the trade inside and out, to show our friends and family the right
path. We owe it to others to show the
world the exciting worlds that lie on our favorite discs; we’d be betraying the
past, present, and future if we didn’t.
I’m not saying that we
need to kidnap our friends and force games down their throat. All I ask is that, as a collective,
well-informed audience, we offer our services as needed. We should do what we can, to the best of our
ability, to open minds. If we’re not
part of the solution, we’re a part of the problem.
Hmmm. Maybe I should send a certain someone an
email…
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