In the after math of E3 and other trade shows, I’m kind of getting bored with this generation.
I’m growing tired of “hardcore” gamers bashing Wii for not having “hardcore” titles. And, I’m tired of Nintendo not making that argument invalid. I’m tired of the appeal to mom and gramma. I’m tired of first person shooters. I’m just kind of growing tired of the medium in it’s current form.
Some might suspect that I’m just “growing up”. But, I’ve never seen games as something I would eventually grow out of. And I don’t think I’m growing out of gaming. There’s a lot of people who will “grow out” of gaming. That’s the stereo typical male who’s only playing Madden, Halo, Guitar Hero and like games. For those people it’s not a hobby, it’s a way to pass the free time they have.
That isn’t to say I don’t play games for fun like they do. Games are intended to be a fun past time, and I play to have fun. I just think there comes a time when one makes the decision to make gaming something of a hobby to pursue. Gaming has a history, it has important figures who’ve served us games thought this history, and it has plenty of pieces of software and hardware to be admired.
Here’s a parallel situation. Everyone drives cars. There’s a small section of society that obsesses over cars. They are car enthusiasts. They follow the industry, know it’s history, and actively engage in activities related to cars (things like restoring old cars, having a car collection, and going to car shows). Cars are a hobby for some people. This is a commonly accepted hobby.
I don’t think popular culture has made space for the Video Game Hobbyist at this point. There are still to many negative conceptions that go with gaming yet for that to be accepted. Things like only males play video games, and that the only games being played are violent shooters and crappy movie tieins. We view games as the budding adult male’s play toys. This is a view which has shifted in the last decade from child’s toy to this new conception, probably because it’s yesterday’s kids that are today’s group of budding adults. I’m sure in five or ten years, when the group of male adults who stuck with gaming for twenty odd years decide that it’s their hobby now, it’ll be generally more accepted. And, if Wii can radically shift the intended audience for games and widen it considerably we can have an environment movie goers have now. Which I see as something basically everyone participates in in some way, everyone is a movie buff in someway. And there are ‘true’ movie enthusiasts that are like our car enthusiast pals from my prior example.
Basically the Gamer Enthusiest, who is ripe with trivial facts and/or options pertaining to various aspects of gaming, exist currently, but will be more acknowledged in the future.
I think it depends on what Wii can do. Gaming has to overcome that ‘these things are for dudes only’ label it’s currently drowning in. Of course, our car enthusiast friends are largely male. Still, I guess personally, I’d like to see the industry overcome that issue. That’s a whole other post though.
So what does the idea of an accepted gamer ethusiest have to do with this generation getting stale? Perhaps that because this generation is kind of getting stale, with it’s repeated trends (FPS online, sandbox gaming, etc) and, uh, not repeated trends (basically every audience expanding thing on Wii) gamers might be thinking about why the game at this point. What keeps us going? Notice the recent influx of classic revivals? People are reflecting on the history of gaming and starting to appreciate the last thirty odd years. Gamers are growing up, and some of them who are getting bored, instead of turning away from everything in general, are exploring the industry via it’s past.
Another way of putting it is to say that the gamer population is expanding due to a stagnant industry. Of course, with each generation there are those who feel gaming is getting stale. I’m sure some people felt this way last generation. Maybe it’s just me. I think a lot of gamers knew this generation would be a wired one. It has been, and I think that the community is breaking more so than before because of everything that has happened thus far.
I feel like I’ve babbled on too long, and taken this too seriously. I’m good now.
