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Veteran Member - Level 11
Many of you know that I am an avid fan of Star Wars. Even though it was decades ago, it seems like just yesterday when I was a little kid watching Empire Strikes Back, my favorite of the movies. I first saw it in the theater, but not your traditional brick & mortar type of theater. Back then the Drive-In was the big thing to do on the weekends and though we didn't get to go that often, my family was there for Empire Strikes Back, watching it on the big screen from the comfort (or discomfort depending on your perspective) of the family car. The movie was amazing, with the legendary Hoth battle featuring AT-ATs and harpoon equipped speeders, to Han Solo escaping the Imperial Navy by piloting the Millennium Falcon into an asteroid field.
Darth Vader: [interrupting] "Asteroids do not concern me, Admiral. I want that ship, not excuses."
If you watched the movie then you know how it ends (and shame on you if you haven't). The credits scroll, Luke Skywalker is the proud owner of a shiny new bionic hand and Han Solo is an ice cube in the cargo hold of Boba Fett's ship, Slave I.
I was upset (understandably) with the ending, but being so young I just accepted it as is...as truth. Kids generally don't think about questioning the outcome of a movie or cursing the person responsible, in this case George Lucas, for allowing this to happen; nor do they consider that a sequel will be made that answers all of the questions about the fate of their favorite characters whose lives have been suspended until the sequel is published. Certainly thoughts of protest or boycotting future episodes never even cross the mind of a child unhappy with the outcome of something they hold onto so dearly.
C-3PO: "Oh. They've encased him in Carbonite. He should be quite well protected. If he survived the freezing process, that is."
I left the Drive-In with my childhood hero's life hanging by a thread. That's just the way it was.
It's this same logic or line of reasoning that causes me to conclude...
I was a much better gamer when I was a kid.
Kids are undeniably strange little creatures. They can be loud and obnoxious to be around (when they're not yours of course) but they can also be fascinating little beings (or beans as I used to call them when I was one) that haven't been corrupted by adulthood. I look at little gamers now, I consider my own kids and I reflect on being a young gamer myself...and it seems to me they aren't guilty of a lot of the bad behaviors I've picked up over the years.
I'm always amazed when a little kid can sit down to play a game they've never played before and in no time and without instruction, figure out what to do. I've seen them in Wal-Mart and GameStop and witnessed it with my own. It's like some natural instinct internal to their very being guides them along and they are able to not only play the game, but play it well. What's just as fascinating is they can play a game for a few minutes, and put it down and walk away, never to return to find out what happens to the character or the story. They don't seem to be as consumed with greed or desire to get every achievement - it's almost as if they play simply to have fun. What a strange and bizarre concept that seems like now. I can remember at a very young age my son was able to beat me at Mario Kart...easily. It wasn't luck. It wasn't that I wasn't trying to win. I think what bothered me the most was that it seemed like he wasn't even trying that hard. He was just better than me. He wouldn't brag or laugh at me with each of his wins...he would just keep playing and having fun. But not me. No. I would get all mad that this little kid, something I helped create and bring into this world, which was now whipping the snot out of me on a game he had no business even playing. I would get so angry and competitive, it just wasn't healthy. I'd result to, "Oh...look, its bath time, or bedtime" excuses effectively parking him. Why couldn't I just have fun like he was?
Now that I'm an older gamer and been around for awhile, I compare my behavior as a supposed grown up to that demonstrated by far younger gamers.
What I've discovered is my skill (and even attitude to a certain degree) as a gamer diminishes the older I get. I suppose I could blame my worsening vision or slowing reflexes, but I don't know if it is as simple as that. The truth is I came from an era where games were notorious for being hard, devoid of the ability to save and brutal when it came to the amount of damage you could sustain. I could play, and beat, games like Raiders of the Lost Ark, Contra and Rush 'n Attack after playing and replaying the same levels hours on end until I finally mastered them.
And now I can't.
Now, I need frequent checkpoints, a robust save game feature and an abundant supply of extra lives if I want to have any chance of finishing a game. I get annoyed when a game detects I'm struggling in a certain part and suggests dumbing down the difficulty level to help get me through. I remember playing Super Mario Bros. and being able to do that trick where you keep bouncing off a turtle shell and after so many repetitions you start getting 1UPs, but last night playing Mario on the Wii U, I repeatedly injured poor little Luigi because I couldn't even jump on something as simple as a Koopa. True story. My son would gladly laugh and tell you, because he was right there next to me playing as Mario. I consider myself somewhat of a veteran with the shooters, but I play shooters with friendly fire disabled and unlimited respawns.
Yeah, I'm a far worse gamer today than I was xx years ago (I refuse to tell you exactly how many years ago that was).
Unlike when I was a young gamer, I'm no longer able to play a game and walk away from it without finishing it and/or getting the achievements. I get so wrapped up with playing certain games on my backlog, I rush through them just to say I've played and finished them, but often wonder if I really and truly experienced them, much less enjoyed them. Sometimes I wish I was able to just play a game for a few minutes and run off to something else and not think twice about doing so. Now I get disappointed if I can't devote hours of time to play and will forgo playing at all if the conditions aren't favorable. The other night my son and I were discussing whether to play Minecraft or not, and the conversation went something like this...
"I can only play for about an hour...maybe an hour and half."
"An hour? We can't do anything in an hour. Might as well not even play."
"Yeah...maybe tomorrow then."
Don't even get me started on the bad attitude that often comes along with being an adult gamer. I don't know if you're guilty of it, but I know I have been (even though I try not to be). If you've ever watched kids play games together...if someone asks a question, or ask for help they are generally met with a quick and kind reply. Most kids seem eager to help, or at least excited to talk about something they know that nobody else knows. Oh, if this were true of adults wouldn't Call of Duty be a much better game.
The attitude doesn't end with my fellow gamers. I'm judgmental of developers and critical of games that aren't made the way I want them, so instead of being like the little kid who watched the ending to Empire Strikes Back and just accepting it, I grumble about how I would've done it or what I'd like to see in the sequel, long before anyone even mentions that a sequel is under development. Heck, sometimes it's so bad we question whether gamers are really gamers or if games are really games...instead of just enjoying them from an impartial perspective.
I wonder if the good old days of gaming were really the good old days of being young and carefree.
Well, I have to go...I think I hear some kids getting too close to my yard and I need to go run them off.
"Being young only lasts so long; you have your whole life to be an adult."
Cheers.
I agree Saint. I remember when I was young enough to play through a game, and not get fully worried over the metacritic score of a game, or if it is considered critically acclaimed. Some of my favorite games to this day aren't the most well-renowned games, but they are the ones that I had the most fun playing. I would say a downside to when I was younger though was my ability to get engrossed in a game. I can recall many sleepovers with friends where I would stay up way later than my friend, only to play his videogames that I didn't have. I got hooked on the Pokemon series when my friend brought a Game Boy Color with Pokemon Gold on it. We played through the first 5 gyms together in only 6 hours, and I hadn't played the series before at that point. I was hooked. I still feel bad for ignoring my friend that day.
It's interesting that you recall youth being able to walk away from games easily. I find that it's easier to do so now that I'm older. I guess it's just because I'm busier I guess....
In any case, great blog. Always a joy to read.
I'd kindly ask you not to use my picture without permission, Saint. ;)
I recall that as a kid, playing games felt a lot more...Natural. Instead of playing a game just to see what all the cool kids were talking about, you played simply because you wanted too. I also don't remember classifying games as "good or bad" like I do now. All I cared about was if I had fun, and more often than not, I did. I guess that's where a certain percent of nostalgia comes from.
I wonder if it has anything to do with us slowly being spoiled by games that have become more and more tailored to our liking. So many games offer customizable characters and story decisions these days, I'm curious if that has had any impact on how much we like or dislike any part of a game that we can't change to our liking.
Most games from my youth were extremely linear, and we just played and enjoyed them - or if we didn't enjoy them, we just moved on to the next one. We didn't have write-in campaigns and internet rage over a game's endings back then (or if we did, I was blissfully unaware of it.)
Man, I get smoked in Mario Cart all the time, but Smash Bros is even worse! I think I have MAYBE won a total of 10 SSBB matches in the 6 years the game has been out.
Up until a couple of years ago, we still had Drive ins in our area. I actually remember watching Starship Troopers there and The Perfect Storm and it stormed like crazy!
I think children are just less cynical, try as we may, we know things they don't, and often those things irritate us; whether justly or not...who knows.
The time thing really rings true as of late, where the kid can seem content jumping into a game for 15-30 minutes, I feel I need at least two hours to dedicate to a gaming session for it to get anywhere, especially with single player. I think it's because it takes me that long to figure out what to do!
My skill as a gamer has never been top notch, though my persistence has paid off time and time again. So maybe I was a better kid than a gamer?
Only having been a minor a few years ago myself, I may be hardly qualified to weigh in on a "back in my day" recap, but I would agree that games have, somehow, lost their same zest for me.
I know that, for one, games only a decade ago were naturally a lot harder. No infinite lives, few if any in-game clues, on-line walkthroughs, or as generous of checkpoints existed, and I was a LOT more determined to finish a game just for its story. Now I find myself playing games just for the trophies and sometimes caring for little else. Some games have almost become chores to check off of a to-do-list, and that's pretty sad. Maybe games have just devolved into cash-cows with less thought put into their enjoyment, I don't know. All I know is that the first thing on my mind these days is $$$ and a sense of achievement in getting a game done; most of the time it's sheer enjoyment comes only second.
Your rightly point that little kids do just have more fun than older people, and that's probably because they want things to be fun. As an adult, you do become more pessimistic and pragmatic, always obsessed with merely getting things done. Kids just want a world where they can be free of that.
You're thoughts are quite insightful, Saint. I know I'm more inspired than ever to be a kid again. (like, back in 2009, lol). I don't want to make any progress in becoming Kranky Kong.
I have trouble with playing some games just for fun, whether it is playing for the story, or competing with my friend for trophies (we have had a little competition going ever since we both got our PS3's around the same time, early 2011). And while I like to beat games now, I used to play games until I got "stuck" and wasn't skilled enough or able to figure out how to progress, then I would just move on to another game, so I apparently did indeed play games for no other reason than fun (as dying or losing 10+ times in a row is my absolute least favorite thing to have to do in a game).
Am I still a kid? I'm only 16, so not an adult. When does one stop being a kid? Because I am not sure...
I would also like to say dads are kind of weird, and not just gamer dads (as my dad, quite a bit older than you, hasn't played video games since he played Pac Man a few times when he was younger), dads always seem like they have to be better than their kids at everything, and my dad is pretty good at that. Though he doesn't really do what I am especially good at, like drawing (well, he used to be and architect, and he was good at drawing stuff like that), or playing video games, he is generally better than me at everything, and it makes sense, he has much more experience with everything. I just find Dads desires to be better than their kids at everything to be weird. I guess they're trying to be good role-models?
Anyway, great post Saint, this is definitely true.
Wow Saint, you hit the proverbial nail on the head and your blog mirrors my own rambling reflections on my adult evolutionary phases as a gamer...though I've noticed more my evolution away from multiplayer due to my own elitist' attitudes and snobbery...Another note, your blog reminds me of a joke I heard actually...[random comedian I can't remember] "Remember when we were little and Nintendo was new? Somehow, we all knew to take the cartridge out and blow in it to make the thing work...there was no internet, no texting your buddy. We just figured it out on our own...and somehow, we ALL figured it out...{Dramatic pause} Kids nowadays are soft." Lol. Another phenomenal blog friend, as always.
I think you've come up with a very valid point, Saint. As adults we've come to expect things, and maybe that makes us too hard on games as a result. Some games used to be made in a way that we would sit and play for hours at a time. Adulthood just doesn't afford us that chance anymore so it leaves us a bit jaded. I see this all the time when I play multiplayer games because I just don't have the time commitment needed to learn maps and the little details that help you win. My daughter loves the Disney princess game on the Wii. It's an awful game and I'm sure if there were any reviews they weren't good. but that's because it was an adult perspective of a game for little girls. Her review would say the game is great because you get to dress up your princess and help Disney characters.
Great blog Saint! I have to say, I hadn't stopped to realize that my attitude towards completing games had changed since I was younger. I definitely have more of a completionist mindset now than when I was young. Heck, I'm pretty sure I played the original Legend of Zelda for years, starting when I was little, and yet, the first time I fully beat it was probably 3-4 years ago, on my Gamecube copy of The Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition. Now, I find that I can't even move on to games that I've been waiting to release (such as Ni No Kuni) when I'm in the middle of another game. I guess it's no wonder how we wind up with backlogs as we grow older, as our younger selves would probably just have moved on to another game that we were excited about. Anyways, thanks for great read!
Amazing post. I'm only 23 and I agree with you completely and love the stories. The only thing that differs for me when I was younger was the fact that I couldn't wait for the next installment of a game to come out. I was always wondering what happens to the characters next and where they will be going! I remember when Mario 64 came out and I eventually beat it. What the hell was next? I moped around for days because I wanted a new Mario to come out and distract me! Haha. I always have had the mind complex of winning a game and not accepting defeat. I'm still this way, but with what you said - a disconcerting attitude. I do get angry and frustrated but it's because I know things could have ended differently than what they did. Mario Kart for example; I can race through but if I hit and edge or if something random happens, I know it could have worked out differently and that's what gets me frustrated ha...
I still get engrossed in the games and play for hours on end, it's just the fact that there are not many people on at all times that I would care to play with. Multiplayer shooters are boring alone and if the people I am playing with are not that good I don't have as much fun because my team is getting worked (not me of course ;)). I wish there were more online co-op games such as Borderlands or some other MMORPG, for consoles, that I can take my time on and hang out.
I also wish games were harder again like they used to be. I hate all the frequent auto-saves and the helpful hints that can't be turned off... Make us work for it those achievements, make us work for that save point. Call of Duty 2 was a good example of this for the 360 launch. AI keep coming until you hit the checkpoint on Veteran Difficulty and man were some parts difficult... I loved it. Now, levels are short, games are even shorter, and the amount of help the developers give us gamers is far too much...
I still consider myself to be young and carefree but with the knowledge of the potential gaming has!
Great topic and blog! And I thoroughly can appreciate your sentiments. I think what you were describing has to do with adults being more aware of the passing of time, and that awareness only becomes more profound as years pass. Children have little concept of time, or the limitations that it imposes.
You can see that kind of carefree nature even into the teen years when many young people do things that are unbelievably dangerous and reckless. But they do so because a certain part of them tends to believe that they are immune.
Everything becomes more important when you realize you only have so much time to do it. I hope I'm not being depressing. But I do believe that the beauty of children is that they can remind us of what is really important in life.
Ha! I love the Donkey Kong age progression...nice touch. :)
Since I don't feel like I was ever a particularly "skilled" gamer to begin with, I can't really say that my skills have diminished over time. I will agree with you about the overall lessening of my patience threshold, though—I too have come to crave checkpoints, frequent autosaves, etc. Great topic!
I sometimes miss the old days when nearly every game was a challenge just to finish. Games where practice, and patience was the key to beating them. I think that's one reason I like Dark Souls so much. It feels like a classic game designed for modern machines.
However, I also wonder if I'd feel the same way, after going back and playing them more often. Back then, much like you described with The Empire Strikes Back, I didn't really complain about game design. If something seemed cheap, or just too hard, I simply accepted that was the way it was.
I do the same thing you mentioned with minecraft on games. I find mostly in the work week not playing games because by the time I'm done work gym etc i only have an hour or 2 to play a game and I'm like what's the point lol. I try to get most my gaming in on the weekends. One big diffence I've found as I got older is if I'm not fully invests in a game It will take me much longer to finish or I won't finish at all. When I was younger I finished everything not sure if this is do to I don't like my time being wasted or perhaps I have a little more money now where I can get more games and cut my losses easier.
I cannot even remember a time when I was able to play games just for fun.
Maybe it's because I'm still only eighteen, but I actually have to both agree and disagree on this statement. The fact is, I still usually can figure out most games faster than most children and adult gamers I know. The same goes for my own friend who is a few years older than me. He figured out all the things going into Dragon's Dogma's combat with just a few minutes and on-screen prompts. When I usually see GI test chamber, I spend half the time going "no! Go back that way. Check the whole map for the health packs, stop shooting the necormorphs in the foot! Dodge to evade the chainsaw guys attacks in DmC!"
This isn't to say I haven't found myself sometimes a bit more easily disinterested or turned off to games. Back in the day, I sat through some incredibly crappy tie-in games (Avatar The Last Air Bender on PC, I'm looking at you) that I wouldn't even touch now. That said, I actually seem to try to find games that are even more complicated in the genres I do prefer because I already understand the fundamentals. It's why Uncharted does little for me while Dead Space and Warframe do. They take the basic formula and add further onto it. I may not be as good at strategy games as I used to (outside of Civ 3 anyway), but maybe that's not a bad thing so long as I'm still enjoying my games.
Those are my thoughts anyway.
Great blog! Now that I think about it, I don't play games for fun anymore. I just play to beat my friends. I wish I could go back to the days of not planning competitively for all of my Pokemon games. Those were the days...
On one hand, I can completely relate to the thought about not being able to just play for fun anymore. It's not impossible, but I usually have to accomplish something if I'm going to play - if not earning achievements, then at least leveling my character or... something; some type of progress needs to be made! HAHA! However... even when I was a kid, I was a completionist, at least on Super Nintendo. In the Donkey Kong Country games, I had to get every coin; in Super Mario World, I had to beat every level including the Star World; in Super Punch Out, I had to have a save file with an undefeated record.
On the other hand, I'm still not very critical when it comes to video games. I've been teased for giving out too many 9s & 10s. I'm not void of opinions though. For example, I HATED Metroid Other M; it's one of the few games this generation that I've given up on & didn't finish.
I've become a better gamer as I've become a teen. Both skill and attitude. Oh, and on my page is a design for a cobblestone generator that makes 2 stacks of cobble a minute. So much for you can't do anything in half an hour. You can try building it if you want.