What is a gamer?
I am no longer a gamer. I used to define myself by either computer or video games. I used to think about video games all the time. I used to want to collect video games and computer games and peripherals and joysticks. Now, at 29 years old, I finally have come to the realization that I am no longer a gamer. Why? It’s not because I don’t like games anymore, or I don’t think they’re cool. The reason why I am no longer a gamer is because I keep getting my butt kicked in Heroes of Newerth and other games like Starcraft and Warcraft 3 and quite frankly games take too much time nowadays. Who has 80 hours to pound out an RPG anymore? That’s a donkey-load worth of time to grind out on a game. I don’t even want to think about how much time I spent playing Diablo 2 back in the day. If I had a nickel for every time I pked someone in hardcore mode I would probably be the “Nickel King.” Or maybe my clan leader would be the Nickel King and I would be the Nickel Knave or something.
I remember playing hours of Nintendo (NES) when I was a kid. I used to sit in my brothers room and play ZANAC and Strider for hours. When I got to the last stage in ZANAC these brains were there and I couldn’t figure out how to beat them. They were too strong. I decided that I wasn’t old enough to beat that game and so I shelved it for literally 13 years. I was like that with other games too. There was Alien Syndrome in the arcade and the game was really nasty gory alien imagery. I remember teenagers playing it when I was still in grade school. I was like, “I’m no way old enough to play that game.” I was almost self-censoring, there was a lot of organic semi-sexual imagery of guts and worms and orifices that was really intense for a 10 year old.
Playing games in the arcade with my brother was so great. I felt like I had a handful of coins and I could be entertained for hours. My brother would always come back and take some of my coins because I would be still playing Street Fighter II and others. I remember he said once, “You know you really shouldn’t beat the older people with the same move over and over again. They might get mad.” I took no heed. I thought I was the master. But now games have changed. There is this online/multiplayer fun factor that is tapped into for modern gaming. It does bring a level of excitement, but the overall gaming experience is just time consuming. I find myself feeling guilty after playing hours of Heroes of Newerth and thinking about how many blog articles I could have written in that time. Or how I could have typed up my book. It’s almost like challenge in games has been replaced by learning curve, specialization and time consumption. I miss the days of old Nintendo games where the game had relatively simple gameplay but the actual experience was intense and hard as diamond.
I guess it’s all a part of growing up. Some hobbies and lifestyles don’t survive into adulthood. It’s kind of like outgrowing old toys and finally not caring about any toys anymore. This may seem hypocritical but someone just messaged me on Facebook and he wants to play HoN and I said I’d play with him. Isn’t that funny? The difference between how I would play the game before this article and afterward is that now I won’t play the dumb game ’till my neck hurts! I saw this video about a girl who is angry about her boyfriend who played PS3 too much. Check it out!
-Tyler