Gamer

Gamer

Let me clarify.  This is what I mean when I call myself a gamer, and the things I look for when playing games.  This isn't about a specific game, but it talks about where my love of games comes from and how it has evolved over the years.

I suppose I should start with my definition of gamer.  I think it should be used for anyone who plays video games and enjoys them on more than one level.  I think it should be applied to those who have experience on various gaming platforms, and looks at and enjoys games for aspects beyond the initial entertainment value.  So though I may not be a hardcore gamer, I am a gamer.

My experience with gaming goes way back (more years then I'd like to admit) to playing games on the atari.  Yeah, Battle Tanks, Asteroids, Pong, Space Invaders, Ms Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and Joust were all the games I cut my teeth on as a youngster.  However, the Atari was short lived as our dog found joysticks to be delicious and the machine kept breaking.  Later I evolved to Nintendo (owned) but played games on various consoles (rent-able from our local video store) such as Sega and Super Nintendo.  My parents didn't greatly believe in gaming so the Nintendo was the last system we would own for many years.  Eventually we were forced into the computer era where I found the old green apple computer games like Oregon Trail and Word Munchers (at school) but later at home had games like Doom, Heretic, Quake, Dark Forces, Wolfenstein, Duke Nukem, and Rebel Assault.  Still it wasn't until I was in junior high that I was really dragged into the world of gaming with the N64, Playstation, Sega Saturn, Game Cube, Xbox, and Dreamcast. Here I played countless hours of games with friends across all platforms.  Surprisingly I found that my favorite games where either the ones I could cheat on (laimlame, lamaxout for anyone that know what I mean, I learned cheat codes before I knew how to read!), or the ones that started to have story lines beyond screen shots.  Classic favorites of mine where Rebel Assault, Sonic, Donkey Kong Country, Rogue Squadron, Quake, Heretic, Crash Bandicoot, Dark Forces, Sky Fox, Prince of Persia, God of War, and WCW vs NWO. I played games on all consoles including computers and even had the opportunity to work on and sell many games and consoles through my job at a pawn shop.  So when I say I'm a gamer, and have been gaming for a while I mean it (almost 30 years), and I am also alluding to the fact that it is a diverse background.  Gaming has even lead to my wanting to take up art as a profession and a fascination with writing.  So much so, that I have managed to compile a list of requirements for games, that if met stay on my list of all time favorites.

So what are the top 5 things I look for in games, or what keeps me coming back.

1) Art - The concept art and final product of every game is the first thing that drew me to games and it is the area that I have pursued in my own life.  The creativity, the color scheme, the use of art, and the execution of the art in play.  Games that stand out in my mind artistically are the Prince of Persia trilogy for Playstation 2, God of War, Final Fantasy, and Super Mario Bros 2/3.  As high quality concept art wasn't really a thing until the 3D world build games.

2) Story - Surprisingly story didn't become important to me until relatively recently.  I think it first occurred to me when I was playing Prince of Persia, the one in the picture below (game 4 of my PoP experience, maybe 8 years ago?).  It was the first time I remember feeling ripped off because the story line was done poorly.  From then on Story had to be in every game, and if it sucked the game would quickly loose my attention.

I will say the first game I played where I was genuinely moved by the story line was Gears of War 2, and then the heart wrenching follow up Gears of War 3.  The first games to make me angry, sad, and happy for the characters.

3) Game mechanics/Game play - I hated games that only gave me limited number of lives.  I hated dying and having to start from the beginning, and I hated time limits.  I still do.  I don't mind a time challenge here and there, or dying and starting from a check point but dying and then the game is over enraged me. Not only that but if the game had flaws in its movement system or 3D mechanics, I felt the company owed me a new controller.  Pretty much every game on early systems where frustrating and probably the reason I wasn't big into gaming at that time.  The later use of memory cards helped with this, but its still an issue in some games today.  If I'm playing a 3rd person game, I better have use of the camera, or the camera better now screw up the direction I want my player to go.  I know in early Gears games, Prince of Persia games, and even God of War the camera could easily cause you to accidentally fall of a cliff or roll into a trap.  So the way the game plays and saves is important.

4) Length - Especially now, if I'm going to pay $30-$100 on a game, it better be worth my time, and I better not be able to beat it in one sitting.  If the campaign is 5 hours then the MP and DLC's better be free and frickin awesome.

5) Cost - Similar to length the cost better fit the game.  If you are going to charge me $75 to pre-order a game I better get more then just the game.  Early access, upgrades, skins, weapons, strategy guide, or something.  I'm probably one of the hardest gamers to please 1) because I'm broke, and 2)  because if I look at reviews, previews, game play, and aspects of the game and I don't like it, I'm not going to buy it just because I liked a previous game you put out.  Also, don't nickel and dime me with DLC's.  My favorite boasts for game purchases in the past are Borderlands the Handsome Jack collection which I bought for $2 on deals with Gold, and the Master Chief Collection, same situation and got all the DLC's for free with them.  If I have to pay over a $100 for all the content for a new game, guess what, I'm not buying it.

**Bonus**

6) Creativity - To often is a game watered down. The world is being threatened and you are the only one that can save it... Ok. Generic story lines are going to happen, but a generic story doesn't have to happen.  Gears of War is a good example.  Alien esk species is attacking and attempting to destroy the human race, except its humanities fault for destroying their homes and it just so happens that the planet also seems to be fighting these creatures as well as humans,  Or Titanfall 2.  Nothing overly special about that story line except the creativity in the game mechanics and how they are used to reinforce the story, jumping from ship to ship, the difference between having a jump pack and not, the difference between being in a Titan and not.  

So those are my top 5/6 requirements for games to have these days.  My personal game preferences change as far as first person, 3rd person, moba, or puzzle depending on my interest at the time.  Right now I'm into 1st person shooters, but who knows maybe when Gears 4 drops in price I'll be back to 3rd person shooters.