The gaming progression
The world of gaming (the computer kind, not the kind that happens at Monte Casino) often baffles those that have not grown up playing games. Even those that have, of late, decided to buy a Wii and spend their evening bowling or playing tennis still struggle to see the attraction of the kind of games that more hardcore gamers play.
I need to state right now that I am as far from a hard-core gamer as you can get, in the ranks of gamers of course. However, I do appreciate the massive amounts of skill that go into being a halfway decent gamer.
I can remember playing Quake III with a friend of mine, who was half-decent, and getting my ass thoroughly kicked. OK I exaggerate when I say I was playing, I was running around in a random fashion shooting at shadows and getting shot up, blown up and dying in any number of creative ways. I think he was having fun but I definitely wasn’t. My idea of a fun gaming experience is typically finding a nice place in the grass to lie with a very big rifle and taking pot-shots at enemies with an intelligence that is more predictable than I would get from a human opponent.
Up until a few months ago I would have considered myself a dedicated PC-gaming adherent. Even though I own an X-Box I used it primarily as a DVD and media player, with only the occasional game of Viva Pinata with my kids.
Most of my gaming time was spent playing World of Warcraft, I joined guilds, watched the politics, saw guilds dissolve and new ones emerge in their place. I leveled my characters, ran dungeons, and occasionally raided. And then real life caught up with me. Actually I blame Blizzard’s introduction of the random dungeon finder tool for this. Suddenly it was possible to snatch a little gaming time in between other chores, but as anyone who plays WoW will know there is no such thing as a little gaming time. Thirty minutes turns into one hour. One hour turns into two and before you know you are wondering where the light went and why your coffee is cold and your girlfriend is not speaking to you.
So I cancelled my subscription, deleted the game files off my computer and said tot siens to my guild friends. I made vague promises about returning when Blizzard releases Cataclysm (the next expansion pack) and I might do that. But in reality I don’t have the crazy urge to visit Azeroth that I had a year ago.
So now it is just me and my X-Box. Being someone that has been brought up on keyboard-board based gaming (Tie Fighter was the first game I bought) the switch to a gamepad has been a little tough, but I reckon that I should be able to get the hang of it eventually. I am definitely a lot better than I was two months ago and am now working my way through the first iterations of all the games that have awesome sequels out. Assassin’s Creed (completed), Mass Effect (in progress), Bioshock (next on the list). I also have a one quarter completed game of Mirror’s Edge to finish off before I start looking for new challenges.
However, I do have a question for the X-Box gurus out there. What games, other than the one’s I have mentioned and their sequels would you suggest I invest in? And are there any fun, snowboarding games for the 360 that would be worth my time?
Video gaming << discussion
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