Analysis: The Play and Discard Culture

[Luis Magalhaes]

We have a pathological obsession with the new.

This is true for most people in regard to most things; from here come the trends: the teen vampire trend, the fashion trends, the anti-carb diet trends... We humans like new stuff, and we have a tendency to think new is better than old.

But tech enthusiasts have a particularly severe case of the "new" disease, and among them, video game enthusiasts are probably the worst offenders.

We are always looking to the next big thing; we play games while fantasying about the possible sequels; so much, that in fact, many games are already produced with sequels in mind. Every month, several "good" titles, titles that people have enjoyed and talked about months before release, are left discarded by the wayside, another footnote in the history of gaming.

Conversation about those games ceases one, two months after launch; interest vanishes. How many good games has a player missed, how many development lessons has a developer left unlearned, simply because that one-month-old game disappeared from the enthusiast consciousness, relegated to the back catalog of an online retailer with a 60% price cut?

Sure, most people in gaming will put their connoisseur hats for Deux Ex, Ocarina of Time, Final Fantasy VII, System Shock and another handful of high-profile classics - and even then I would argue that these pillars of our hobby are analysed and discussed far less than they should be. But this is not about those games.

Where are we talking about the otaku culture influences of No More Heroes? Why is not more virtual ink devoted to the lovely cultural awareness and intricacy of Shogun II?

Why is discussion about a title limited to a couple of months after it comes out, and - very rarely - years after the fact, when it becomes retro-chic?

I'm tired of feeling the pressure to ride the new wave, to write about the new. And this does not mean I only want to hear about retro. Rather, I want people - and gaming press - to be able to have a conversation about Assassin's Creed II. About Just Cause. About Crysis.

A video game, in most cases, even when it's not a very good one, is a wonderful construct with a lot of moving parts, and can be a joy to explore and talk about. I recently had a great time blitzing through notoriously weak Saturn action-RPG Virtual Hydlide, because I went into it with a particular perspective, and in doing so the game provided me with an experience that went beyond the mere act of playing it.

So, what do you think it would take for more games to be relevant for a longer period of time? Why are we so fixated on the new and so dismissive about the not-so-new (until it becomes vintage)?

(this was a cross-post from my Blog, Video Game Marmite [http://gamingmarmite.blogspot.com/]. Not a lot there yet, so don't visit it.)

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

Console gaming.

...what, you need more than that? Because that's the problem - the runaway success of the console market coupled with the relatively high price of video games and the ready availability of the secondary market unite to form a scenario wherein games are played once and then traded in. Sticking with older titles has been relegated to the domain of hobbyists or the PC crowd, where no such secondary market exists thanks to DRM - the mainstream console audience buys games, plays them once, and then trades them in.

As vilified as various publishers attempts to curb used games sales have been, that's the sort of change that may be needed to get folks to stick with games instead of immediately returning them, but it's a double-edged sword - the used games market exists in part because games are too damn expensive; abolishing the trade-in possibilities without a corresponding price drop may very well result in a scenario where people play the games they purchased for longer, but less games overall get purchased.

Now me, while I understand the underlying monetary reasons, the very idea of ever trading something in strikes me as fundamentally absurd; when my sister, gazing upon my very full bookshelves and ever-expanding book collection contained therein, suggested that I should consider joining a "book exchange" program, I gave her a look that ordinary folks would reserve for a genuine suggestion that you should perhaps "consider eating babies!". The argument that "Well then you'd have new, different books!" was met on entirely deaf ears when giving the ones I already have away was a key aspect of the arrangement; I'd find suggestions that I consider divesting myself of various titles from my video game collection every bit as troubling and baffling.

 

[Luis Magalhaes]

Console gaming.

Now me, while I understand the underlying monetary reasons, the very idea of ever trading something in strikes me as fundamentally absurd; when my sister, gazing upon my very full bookshelves and ever-expanding book collection contained therein, suggested that I should consider joining a "book exchange" program, I gave her a look that ordinary folks would reserve for a genuine suggestion that you should perhaps "consider eating babies!". The argument that "Well then you'd have new, different books!" was met on entirely deaf ears when giving the ones I already have away was a key aspect of the arrangement; I'd find suggestions that I consider divesting myself of various titles from my video game collection every bit as troubling and baffling.

I hear you, I have a stupid emotional attachment to even crap games, just because their on my shelf. We're addicted to stuff.

But I'm not so sure the console market is to blame. I think the problem is with the culture of the internet, of how it makes everything come and go that much faster. I know that as I spent less time on forums and on gaming websites, my play habits relaxed quite a bit, and I found myself enjoying one or two-year-old games much more often.

 

[proandi]

Hi

Great post, I'd have to agree that I was once totally against ever trading in my games and liked to keep them neat and tidy in their original boxes with the manuals. For my old games (N64 and prior) this is still true.

However as I've got older I've felt less attached to my games and happily trade them in for the latest title, more recently I traded in Dead Space 2 and Mortal Kombat weeks after purchase simply because I'd completed them and didn't see the need to have them anymore. It could be a cross between the fact I don't have as much time to play games as I once did and the fact that they just weren't as goods as I thought they would be but I'd like to think it's because I've evolved somewhat as a gamer. I enjoy a good single player game but once I'm done I've no intention of ever going back (and If I do I'll just buy it again/rent it) but I'm more of an online/multiplayer gamer. If I have a game that me and my friends will always play I wouldn't dream of getting rid of it, Call of Duty, Little Big Planet, Skate etc. So whereas my OCD state as a younger child of keeping everything pristine and never getting rid of even the most poor of games my habits have changed quite a lot.

 

[Jordi]

What would you want to see discussed about these old(er) games that hasn't already been said a million times?

I think that is the main issue. When something is not out yet, the possibilities for what it can be are virtually infinite. When a new piece of information becomes available, it narrows it down, but at the same time it sparks discussion about how to interpret it and how it will affect the new game, which we still don't really know. This discussion is interesting to us, because there are so many possibilities, and we can use it as a vessel to talk about how games should be in general. In these discussions older games are often referenced.

But when the game actually comes out. All information is there. The discussion potential is (almost) finite. People will start talking about the actual game. After a while, almost everything that can be said, has been said and we move on.

 

[Luis Magalhaes]

Perhaps. I would say that most games have a hidden richness to them. They are made of so many parts and by so many people that even mediocre games have interesting stories to be told, if you look hard enough.

The worst game I played in recent memory was Daggerdale, and still I can think of a couple of interesting things to say about that game.