Why Game?

I really should stop talking to my mother before doing these posts. It has an annoying tendency to put me in a bad mood.


Anyway, teenage angst aside, I do actually have some stuff to talk about. It's nothing deep but neither am I, quite frankly. I'm deeper than some people but I'm hardly Shakespeare. Of course, it's a well-established fact that 1000 monkeys could write his plays, so maybe that's not the best comparison to draw.

I've found myself playing relatively few video games recently. I'm not entirely sure why, since I have just set up a new TV in my room and connected all my consoles to it. I have games that I keep meaning to play, as highlighted by Sam's disbelief that I still haven't got round to picking up my DS and finishing (his copy of) Pheonix Wright, which I've been on the last level of for months. My current justification is that Erin's playing it.

Maybe it's a lack of good games, as often happens in the summer. It's partly a build-up for the Christmas season but the old E3 has also been blamed, since developers and publishers preferred to focus on creating demos and trailers rather than working on the game proper. Maybe it's just a bit of a shift in lifestyle as I find myself spending more time browsing the web (often game sites, it has to be said) and (trying to) write and I find myself unwilling to go and play video games, a symptom probably more to do with general apathy than anything else.

I suspect it might have something to do with the fact that, for the past couple of years, I've been getting steadily more and more into gaming news. It probably started not long before Sam and I started doing the VersusCOM podcast (soon to be brought back from the dead) and got steadily worse since then. Being tuned into the hype train can really ruin a good gaming experience. Skeptical though I may be, it's easy to be disappointed by overly hyped games. It's also difficult to get excited about what's in the disc slot now, when the Next Big Thing^TM is supposedly just round the corner. Unless it's delayed.

That said, it's things like this that remind me why I'm a gamer. It's the latest release list from Nintendo and reading it warms my heart and hurts my wallet. Metroid Prime 3, Super Mario Galaxy, Super Paper Mario... games that I've been looking forward to for months, even years, are finally within my grasp and I can imagine sitting down and playing them when I get home from school, racing to complete them before my friends.

When I scrolled to the bottom of the list and saw the tentatively titled "Advance Wars 2" listed for DS, I couldn't help but break into a smile. I wasn't just thinking of the possibility of new games, I was reminded of old ones. Months spent playing a single game of Advance Wars at break times with three friends. Doing the same with the second one. That thrill of finding out about the series prior to that on the Famicom and old Game Boy as my interest grew.

Because gaming is a fascinating hobby and a very social one, from my perspective. Sure, I may not be into LAN parties and online gaming (I'm rather proud of eschewing WoW, actually) but there's something about doing multiplayer and discussing plotlines with friends and rivals. I suspect now, writing this as I think, that I've fallen out of my gaming habit over the summer because I've had no one to play with. I love a good single player game with a good plot, but part of the appreciation of that experience has to do with talking about it and examining it. I haven't been able to do that during the holidays.

So, looking over this list and thinking about going back to school, I've begun to realise just what a huge part video games play in my life. And, I hope, what a huge part they will continue to play.


That, ladies and gentlemen, is what TWToday is about, when I do it well. Starting with an idea, running with it, writing it down and coming to a conclusion. Now, tomorrow I just need to get the damned tutorial mode of Mario Strikers Charged finished...