My Sordid Love Affair with Video Gaming

I was reminded of my track record with video games during a recent interview with Lyndsay from Dragon Chow Dice Bags.  I realized that after my last fling with CoD: Black Ops, I really hadn’t touched my PS3 and what’s worse?  My fellow Geekcentricity writer will be glad to know that I was gifted an Xbox 360 and it’s still in the EFFFING box.  Right over there…to the left of the couch…yeah, there it is…along with three games.

So let’s look at my proud lineage…

Photo: Wikia.com

My first big binge on gaming was one birthday when I got Batman: Return of the Joker for Nintendo.  Of course before this I had played lots of games and even back with my Atari, but this was the first time I sat in front of my tiny bedroom tv, which was black and white, and beat a game in three days.  My parents were so upset since back then those games were going for like $50…ahh, the ‘90’s…

Photo: Wikipedia.org

Next would have to be some role playing game…ah! Dragon Warrior.  That’s the one, I would just wander around and level up, never really doing the dungeons.  Of course there was Zelda too, but Dragon Warrior was my first big RPG I played.

Super Nintendo rolled around and then it was Super Mario 3, and Final Fantasy 3.  I loved me some flying dwarf airships.  Come to think of it maybe that’s where my fascination with steampunk developed…

That’s all good and well, but let’s be honest.  I was a kid, I had no job, and only marginally did my school work.  Wrapped up during those days was a lot of D&D, Magic the Gathering, and Hero’s Quest.  So even then I wasn’t constantly in front of a console.  So let’s fast-forward a bit to the college years.

Photo: Ocremix.org

Now the delicate balance of responsibility of a full time classical music program, a band, two job, and later a wife demanded much of my time and wouldn’t allow me to play too much.  But fear not!  Metal Gear Solid saved me from responsibility, and the entire line of Resident Evil.  Then my roommate brought his Nintendo back from holiday and it was back to old school gaming between classes.  Master Blaster, Metroid, Final Fantasy, and all the classics.

Photo: Gamespot.com

Marriage happened while I was still in college and our first Christmas my bride and I embarked on an epic three-day grind of Baulder’s Gate on our new and shiny Xbox.  If it weren’t for my parents calling and offering to bring lunch Christmas day we would have missed out on the entire food thing.  It was one o’clock and we hadn’t moved off the couch since somewhere around 7 am.  Soon after, we found the sequel Baulder’s Gate 2.  Rinse, wash, repeat…
Some time after the Baulder’s Gate incident, we separately went after Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, co-oped Dynasty Warriors 4 and 5, Lord of the Rings, and D&D Heroes.  And of course there were copious amounts of Halo and Red Faction 2 playing with the guys.  Thinking back, I’m not sure why we had the time…ahh college.

Photo: Game.co.uk

I switched it up to a PS3 recently and then came my long running love of CoD: Modern Warfare.  I jumped on the bandwagon a little late so I never prestiged but cut my teeth on MW before moving to Black Ops on its release date.  Dragon Age: Origins was another game I played through off and on between bouts of CoD.  And recently I was gifted Red Dead Redemption and I have been messing around with it a bit.

Some where along the lines, after I prestiged in Black Ops, but before finishing Dragon Age, I got bored with video games.  Even though I built a good community of players online and I do reasonably well for someone who doesn’t spend all day in front of a console, I found myself bored.  There certainly wasn’t a lack of challenge in the games.  And while I am pretty busy, I do have down time with nothing I have to do that I can spend playing.  So one day I began wondering what it was that was causing my on and off relationship with games.

There are two conclusions I came to.  First, I blame the development and my embracing of multi-media.  In general I find that I have a shorter attention span for things that don’t engage my creative nature.  Video gaming rarely does that for me.  I mean a lot of games tell a great story, better than most movies these days, but in general I am only participating marginally in the creative process of the game.  Basically my role is to unfold the story, not create it.  I enjoy creating the characters more than leveling them up in most games.  I can’t help but most days sit in front of my TV (thanks Brian for introducing me to the floor space directly in front of my TV), and feel like I’m wasting my time.  And that leads me to my next point.

Second, I have a number of hobbies, some I indulge in more frequently, others not so much.  In general though I’m a pretty active person in my schedule.  I train roughly six hours a day in Brazilian Jujitsu, I write almost everyday here and on my novel, and I have rehearsals every week.  So I find that in my spare time, which may be more than you’d think, I prefer to participate in activities that I’m able to be creative with and are social in nature.  This explains my recent discovery of board games, GMing RPGs, and joy of tabletop wargaming.  I get to indulge my creative nature while physically being with people.  Darren discusses in greater detail the social element of gaming here, so I won’t rehash it, but I am curious if anyone out there has also experienced this phenomenon.

Photo: Syntheicrocks.blogspot.com

Have you found yourself growing dissatisfied with a particular hobby or gaming experience recently and if so why?