Hobbies, we all look forward to indulging in them each weekend. I know people with a planter just outside of their front door who enjoy spending time gardening. Other friends are all about their cars; they take Saturday mornings to get in a wash and wash job. They spend Saturday afternoon looking for ways to afford the latest mod or under the hood upgrade. Those things seem boring to me. Those people should do those things though. They’re good at them.
I spend my weekend mornings playing video games. I probably should take a hint from their habits though and go with something else Saturday and Sunday. I’m not great at video games. I’m average.
I have depth perception issues, making first person shooters a bit difficult. A life spent catching on to most things quickly has left me at a bigger disadvantage than most. Cheap mechanics designed to prolong playtime bother me. Being an aspiring media critic has made me prone to seeing plot holes and tropes. I sometimes find myself afraid of online gaming culture, making any time in an Xbox Live party as awkward as meeting your date’s dad after realizing her mother was the older woman that hit on you at the local Kroger.
Look, I purchased an Xbox 360 to play Star Trek Legacy. It doesn’t get more average gamer than that. The game proved ridiculously boring. I left my console sitting on a shelf and abandoned my controller. I bet you and your friends purchased Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare because you wanted to see what big changes the futuristic military warfare motif would have on the series’ online multiplayer. I picked it up because it had a story and I’ve never seen Kevin Spacey not do a character ripped from Shakespearean literature justice.
Look, I purchased an Xbox 360 to play Star Trek Legacy. It doesn’t get more average gamer than that.
I’m not an amazing gamer. You can’t count on me to get a killstreak going in Halo 5. You’ll never see my gamertag in a video revealing some cool glitch that I found.
I make up for my poor gaming gifts with persistence. I learn patterns and keep trying until I can finish a game. I’ve mastered the ten-minute break. Sometimes, I have to put the controller down and make a cup of coffee. I’ve only ever not finished two or three games that I was genuinely interested in but couldn’t get the hang of. The first one was Crackdown 2. I stopped playing it after it stopped being interesting. The second was Remedy’s Quantum Break. I walked away from it this past Sunday morning
I have every intention to go back to the game.
I have every intention to go back to the game. I’m going back right after I finish writing this. Before I do though, I thought it might be prudent to put some things on paper.
Some “gamers” aren’t tolerant in the Interested-But-Not-Excessive crowd. Unless you have the most – or all – of the Achievements, your opinion doesn’t matter. Unless you skip an engagement party to get online and stream over Twitch at midnight, you’re aren’t good enough. Need a tutorial in a game? You must be a “newb.” That’s fine. I can accept that.
I play games casually. I like interactive stories that take me to different places. In saying this, I have no call-to-action. I don’t want games to get easier because I – and the vast majority of people that buy games – have a hard time finishing them. (Ask a game developer how many people that purchase a game actually finish it.)
I just wanted to reach out to the crowd that doesn’t read Reddit every day looking for mechanics changes and weapons balances.
I am you. The struggle is real. I get you.
