THUMBS ON FIRE

Gaming and Aging, or, How I Learned to Start Worrying about my Dumb Hobby

I’ve been playing video games all my life. I don’t remember when I started, I just know that really as far as I’ve had cognition I’ve had a Nintendo system. I think that as the story goes my Grandmother got my brother and me an NES for Christmas, an event which I feel my parent’s sorely resent, looking back.

I guess I’m the definitive “2nd Generation” of gamer; I may have missed the bad ol’ days, when the Atari 2600 was releasing games that I can appreciate for their historical value but really never want to play, but I’ve been around long enough to see games evolve into what they were today. From Super Mario Bros to Mass Effect 2, gaming’s grown up alongside me.

And for the longest time I feel like I’ve been growing out of video games, and as devastatingly lame as it is to say it, it’s gotten me worried. Does anyone else remember being of the single-digit and just being uncontrollably stoked at the idea of coming home from school to play in front of the TV for an afternoon? Even though most of the games I was playing at the time were undeniably shitty (case in point: my first favourite game was Yo! Noid, a game in which looking back I have no fucking clue what was going on) it was still fun just to magically make the pixels move on screen.

             I figured the only pictures that would coincide with this article would be illegal (read: frowned upon) usages of stock angry gamer photos

I can’t really do that anymore. If I game for longer than an hour or two a day I get incredibly antsy and need to do something else. Maybe with age I’m just becoming jaded, but I’m wondering if this is something that happens to all of us as we grow up. “Putting away our childish things” or some such adage. Even though “statistics” (and I put that in quotes because I have neither the time nor the patience to dig up and verify the proof of this statement) show that most gamers are in their mid-20’s to early-30’s.

It’s an empirical fact that the best games ever were the ones that you played when you were a kid. Case in point, the three best RPGs of all time are Earthbound, Final Fantasy 6, and Chrono Trigger. I don’t care what anyone says, those three are the heavenly triumvirate and no game produced today will ever reach that pinnacle in my mind.

             And here’s another stock photo of an angry gamer. I don’t whether it’s awesome or sad that it took my eight seconds to find dozens of these

So it begs the question: is gaming something that can only truly be enjoyed to its fullest extent by kids? Granted, that question becomes naive and borderline insane when you factor in how most relevant games these days are blood-soaked murder simulators meant for me and jaded ilk. That’s not to say I’m about to stop playing video games any time soon, but it’s just something that I’ve pondered as of late.

And I don’t think I’m the only one. Look at how insufferably cynical so many gamers have become, how if one were to look at any gaming forum, and you’ll find dozens if not hundreds of posts of people bitching about every aspect of every game, be it a five-star blockbuster or the latest movie tie-in game (I know, it’s the internet, and should therefore just be ignored off-hand, but my argument remains).

             Hey, look, a cartoon stock angry gamer picture

I’m no different, really. Case in point, I plan on finishing and reviewing Dragon Age 2 some time this week, but I’ll give you a quick preview: I kind of fuckin’ hate it. But it wasn’t until I started seriously deconstructing why I hated it that I realized that the me of ten years ago would have been endlessly excited to have played the very same game. And that caused me to, for some incredibly lame reason, worry. 

So am I just becoming another cynical adult, has my “palate” potentially developed over the years, or am I just slowly starting this downward spiral into eventually hating gaming? Most importantly, am I just fucking crazy, or does anyone else feel this way? 

Thumbin’ Through The Classics: Earthbound

It’s been waaaay too long since I’ve just sat down and written something about video games purely for the sake of writing about video games. So I’ve decided to rectify this horrible situation by starting a new feature, called Thumbin’ Through The Classics, where basically I mine the depths of my misspent childhood to discuss with you some of the best good-ol’ games history has to offer.

And of course, you always gotta start the show with a show-stopper, so let’s talk about Earthbound. Released in mid-1995 in North America (mid-1994 in Japan, under the name Mother 2) and developed by Hal Laboratories and Ape, Earthbound was an RPG that completely flipped the script on the genre. There were no wizards and warriors to be had here, and if memory serves you never once raided a stereotypical castle or dungeon. Hell, the main cast of characters weren’t even adults, but a group of kids barely out of elementary school.

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Sunday Musical Interlude - Jan. 30 2011

For this week I’m taking things in a very…different direction. I guess considering the amount of time I’ve sunk into Dead Space 2 the past few days I’m on something of a horror kick, and so what better way to celebrate video game music than by showing what could be one of the most odd, ominous, and generally disturbing sound tracks from the classic Super Nintendo era!

It’s the accompanying music to the final boss of Earthbound, an amazing and quirky RPG which just so happens to be one of my favourite games of all time. There’s something of a story behind this entire final scene, which seemingly fits the whole terrible feel of the music. As a child, Earthbound’s designer Shigesato Itoi accidently walked into an adult theatre, where he witnessed on-screen the apparent murder of a woman, which obviously left him traumatized.

Earthbound’s final battle is supposed to be a symbolic representation of that moment for Itoi, as it served as something of an inspiration for him to try and create that unsettling, horrific feeling he felt on that day. I gotta say, I think he did a pretty good job of conveying that emotion.