I recently found myself saying to my flatmate that I
wouldn’t want to have time to play videogames when I’m 40, as by then I would
hopefully be too busy with my career and family. We had been discussing xbox at
the time. Not a console I’m into if I’m honest, I’ve always been a Nintendo man
through and through, but he put forward an argument made by Dara O’Briain. The
Irish comedian (who I actually think is hilarious and a genius), states proudly
that he is a gamer, and does a routine on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. He
discusses how he often has difficulty
with the game and finds it challenging, and also points out that games are the
only media you buy in which you have to have a certain amount of skill to gain
access to all the content. If you wanted to, you could skip through a book to
the very end in seconds just by flicking through the pages. With a videogame
however, you have to overcome certain challenges and obstacles in order to
achieve completion of the game (unless you cheat and use a cheat disc). With this
in mind, can we say that the idea of adults playing video games is similar in
concept to adults playing with toy dolls and other children’s playthings? I’m
about to eat my words and say that no, it is not.
Having recently graduated university, I’ve found myself
with a lot of free time on my hands. Applying for graduate jobs, schemes and
alike only takes up so much of the day, and a lot of people I tend to hang out
with travel in the summer or are busy for various reasons (I do have friends,
honest). So I find myself turning to the wii. Aha, I hear you xbox players
shaking your heads with a knowing chuckle in your throats already. The wii is
just for parties, they say. It’s not for serious hardcore gaming. Don’t be so
hasty. Admittedly, I’m a Nintendo man, having been there from the days of Goldeneye
and Mario kart 64, and so was a lot more willing than most to let Nintendo’s
compromise into the mainstream party feature slide. Let’s face it, the wii
definitely had that idea at its heart. Get more families into gaming, make it
more accessible for those who have never played videogames before. Of course,
this helped sales dramatically and in my opinion, was a good move. But people
seem to have labelled the wii like this, which I don’t like. The wii has many
hardcore and challenging gaming titles attached to it.
Recently, I’ve found myself addicted to two games in
particular on the wii. One of these is Resident Evil 4. I had had this game for
a while, my interest having been grabbed by the movie franchise of the same
name, but had never really had the chance to explore it. I was amazed at how
good it was. Not a masterpiece perhaps, but very intense and challenging. The
difficulty of the combat would make even a seasoned COD player think twice. The
other game is the latest Zelda title, Skyward Sword. Now, I’m a big fan of
Zelda. For those of you who don’t know, Zelda is a game franchise that has
existed almost since the birth of Nintendo, brainchild of Shigeru Miyamoto, the
man who created the famous Italian Plumber we all love to race in Mario Kart. It’s
an adventure game with a LOTR kind of feel to it, only a bit more upbeat and
with a bit more magic involved. However, I can tell you now that this game is
very challenging. It’s huge map is full of things to explore, and the main
quest is full of mental conundrums and challenging skill tests. In summary I
dare any xbox player to give such games on the wii a go before judging it.
This idea of difficulty brings me back to my main point.
It’s a lot easier to point to the members of older generations I know who have
tried gaming than to the ones I haven’t, and maybe time has a lot to do with
this. They are just too busy with families or work and so on to bother with
such a thing. But I can tell you now, gaming, whatever console you are on, has
its challenges and stimulation just like any other field of media. If I had to
compare it to any other form of media, I would actually compare it to reading a
book more so than watching a film. A movie is something you can just let wash
over you, while only paying attention half the time. Your DVD player or local
cinema is doing all the work. Books and games though, require at least a basic
level of concentration at all times. If you stop focusing on what the words in
a book are actually saying you may often find yourself confused as you read on,
having missed a plot twist or change in the story. With videogames, you find
yourself getting distracted and who knows, in about 5 seconds you may look back
at the screen to find your avatar having been blown to pieces by a grenade.
So, I have to admit gaming isn’t for everyone. But there
shouldn’t be an issue regarding age or maturity. If you’re not interested,
fine. Some people aren’t interested in reading books, which is also fine. But
what I will say to people who fit into one or both of those categories is this.
You are missing out.
