Category Archives: Gaming

Musings on my everlasting quest to slog through my backlog.

Tech Envy

I have an interesting relationship with technology. It is a huge part of my day-to-day life, but at no time am I anywhere on the bleeding (let alone cutting) edge. My laptop is five years old, and I used my previous one for six years before upgrading (there was a three-year-old used desktop in there as well). I don’t have a smartphone, and I feel no need to upgrade my table to this year’s release. I didn’t get an HDTV until a few months ago. Until late 2010 my most powerful gaming console was a GameCube, and I didn’t pick that up until 2004 or 2005. I can’t bring myself to spend $60 on a video game on release day. I don’t have a Blu-ray player, and my primary camera (when I bother to take one anywhere) is a 3.1 megapixel point-and-shoot I got for my birthday before I left for France (again, around 2004). I have in the past described myself as “a technophile on a budget,” usually out of choice, sometimes out of necessity.

But none of that protects me from the dreaded scourge that is Tech Envy.

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The Curse of Bak’laag

I like video games.  I really enjoy playing them.  However, I have a lot of video games.

A lot.

There’s a website called The Backloggery that is designed to help you keep track of your video game collection, how many games you’ve beaten, and how many you’ve set aside uncompleted (or never had a chance to pick up at all).  According to my profile, I have over 400 games across various platforms I’ve bought, borrowed, or downloaded for free.  Of those, 63% are unfinished.  And of those unfinished games, half are games I haven’t even played one bit.

I could not buy another game and still be set for years.

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Taken for granted

I was re-reading this post from Twenty Sided and it got me thinking.  I’ve been playing video games for over 20 years, since I was probably about 5 or 6.  I have fond memories of playing Felix the Cat and Duck Hunt at an out-of-state cousin’s house (did you know that shooting ducks is really easy if you put the gun right up against the screen?).  My first console was a Super NES, which came bundled with Super Mario World.  My parents, in what I still think was a smart decision, limited my gaming sessions to 30 minutes so that it wouldn’t consume my life and eclipse my other pastimes, like reading, being kicked outside to play and reading under a tree, and trying in vain to read at the kitchen table.  But I digress.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that I grew up gaming, so I never really had to think about how to play; I was young enough that I soaked it up like a sponge and it became second nature.  I never had to deliberately put in the time to literally re-learn how to walk, how to jump, et cetera.  My hands slip just as easily into WASD format as they do into the home keys for typing.  Contrast this with my girlfriend, who didn’t really play games until we started gaming together with games like LEGO Star Wars.  I looked at the game and thought “Oh, this is a platformer, albeit in 3D.  Let’s go have fun!”  She, on the other hand, had to hike up the learning curve from the long way round.  She’s gotten (much) better since then, but I’m not sure gaming controls will ever be as second nature as they are for me.

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