First of all, why start this blog? Particularly as I've been writing a video games blgo on GiantBomb for what seems like an eternity? Well to lay it straight, on GiantBomb, soooooooo many times I make a blog post - puclish it to the forum - and get lots of folks whining about how it's more than two paragraphs and they can't be bothered to read it. So - I will write my thoughts on a topic here, then summarize on my GiantBomb Blog
That should keep the fickled 'GiantBomb Users' happy and allow me to ramble on in my usual way without people getting irrate at me.
Lately I've been complaining of losing my love of gaming a little. I've had a bit of a break from the hobby, been trying other things. I have discovered Lego Design by Me and constructed several large virtual Lego sets, one of which I even ordered and built... I'm writing about that experience on me Lego Design by Me Blog I've been getting more into the Star Wars Roleplaying Board a bit more and had some great fun doing collaborative writing.
There's always been something missing though. I like a game, I've always liked a game since I was six.
Sometimes it's surprising where you can find your enjoyment, but I had the most fun in recent memory gaming on Friday night. Wife had gone to bed tired, I cracked open a couple of beers and had a dig through my collection for something 'nostalgic' to play.
After some deliberation I blew the dust off my copy of Left 4 Dead 2 and threw it in the drive. I didn't really feel like a long game, so I decided to play a bit of scavenge. Scavenge is a versus mode whereby the two teams take it in turns to collect gas cans as the survivors - while the other team tries to stop them as the infected.
It's a manic game mode, but the game is so slick, despite being a bit long in the tooth it really embarresses Duke Nukem Forever, I think it embarresses many games for the sheer fun factor. I 100% had 100% of gaming joy back and genuinely could've stayed up all night if not for the fact that my wife would stop speaking to me.
On Saturday night I had another crack at Expert Realism, and got in a great team. We got through most of Dark Carnival, but I was running out of time. It was great fun again, but more time consuming, we had three restarts in the tunnel of love after each time the last man getting incapped at the point where you switch the roller coaster off.
It got me thinking anyway - why do we all plug away trying to buy the latest game and play it? Some of us don't I suppose, but part of being ' a gamer ' is about being up to date with current games and the direction the platform and technology is moving. You can watch 'The Blurb' on a Saturday night, Challenge TV if you like, a short programme made be Ginx, a Uk gaming based tv channel (To my friends at Ginx - I'm still with you in spirit, even if my participation is down at the moment - maybe this explains why?) but that only leaves you with the desire to 'try' more games? Buy the latest games?
It struck me, playing Left 4 Dead 2 multiplayer, that in some respects games are a bit like armchair sports. Most of us though, are essentially changing sport every six months or less! If you decided to play sports like people play games, you'd never really get anywhere with anything, 3 months you're playing football like a nutter, then rugby, six months later La Cross, then Tennis, Badminton, Squash, Cricket...
You'd get very good at playing general sports in general but you'd be a master of none - although very fit!
We don't do this as gamers though? Is it because Video Games don't have the depth? Is it because they are seen as a hobby which should involve constantly changing games?
As something of a psychological experiment I'm going to test this out. At the moment I expect to get around 3 gaming sessions per week in. I will always dedicate one of these sessions to Left 4 Dead versus Multiplayer. And report back on the experience. Friday night I think will be the night, and come what may - I will play Left 4 Dead 2 versus Multiplayer in some form or other EVERY Friday night, as if it was my regular chosen 'sport'. I used to Tae Kwon Do, even have a website about Taekwondo tul and I went once a week at least for years. I won't get fit playing Left 4 Dead 2, but will I be content to treat it like the regular sport and dedicate Friday nights session to it?
Time will tell, progress and thoughts will be posted here.
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