Donutta's Blogs

Back in June, Greer McDonald posted a blog on Stuff about the cost of acting on the fear of missing out. In that case, she was talking about going out on the town and the fear of missing out on a good night (or some exciting gossip, it seems). However, I think that it's a subject that definitely relates to video games -- and I'm sure that many of you are as guilty of it as I am.

Today, Starcraft II launched. To say it is anticipated is a bit of an understatement. The original came out 12 years ago, still retails for $60 or so, and is a national sport in Korea. The tagline for the advertising campaign of the new one seems to be "Nuclear Launch Detected". It seems fitting.

South Korea didn't take kindly to their censored version.

As you would expect with such a launch, there has been lots of hype. Not so much here on NZGamer -- the land of the console gamer... ahem -- but definitely around the net. My Facebook feed has multiple posts from friends who are claiming they are calling in sick or just skipping uni in order to play it. Many went to the midnight launch at EB. So people I regularly see online aren't -- I know where they are, too. It's like Christmas, in a sense: everyone gets into it, and it takes hard work to avoid getting swept up in it.

So, likewise, I feel excited. I feel like I want it. Suddenly, despite the fact I've just moved and do not at all have the money for it -- and despite the fact I have multiple assignments and a WoW addiction, so not even the time for it -- I want to buy it.

Why? Because I fear missing out. I fear that I won't get to experience the launch day furor. I fear that I might miss out on experiencing an awesome game. I even fear that I will have missed out on JB HiFi's launch special, as Blizzard games are notorious for remaining at full price for years after their launch.

Most of them are silly concerns. Starcraft II will still be an amazing game a decade down the track, let alone 6 months. EB are the Briscoes of the gaming world and will probably have it on sale at Christmas. Heck, I probably should play through the original again to refresh my memory about the story, since single player will be my focus. (I'm terrible at RTS games. Heck, probably video games in general. I played the beta and got absolutely torn apart over and over again.)

She was human once, right?

There is, though, perhaps one real concern: fear of missing out on the community experience. It certainly happened to me with Uncharted 2. Everyone bought it at launch and raved about it. I held off because I thought I would wait for it to go cheap. One day I traded in some old games and had nothing else I wanted so I managed to get a special edition version that hadn't been sold. When I came to play it and talk about it, most people just didn't care any more. Welcome to last month.

I think it's not wanting to feel like the homeless tramp outside in the cold peering in through the window to Logan Brown that causes us to spend ridiculous amounts of money on video games. It's silly, too, because even when you do nothing all day (and I did, once), you just don't have the time to play every game that comes out. I still have a lot of unfinished games in my collection. One, I haven't even started at all. (Persona 4, actually. A great example of a game I bought because I was scared if I didn't right then, I would never get a chance to again.)

I bough this game over a year ago and still don't know what it's about.

There are other examples of it happening too, however. Rather than spending money, you are spending time. I log onto WoW nearly every day. Why? Simply because part of me feels that if I don't, I will be left behind. If I don't get those frost badges, I won't get the gear I need. If I don't get the gear I need, I might not get in the ICC run this week. If I don't get in the run, I might not get those sweet gloves that drop. It's all a fear of missing out.

RPGs are totally for losers, amirite? Shooters all the way. Oh... wait...

It's not just WoW. When MW2 first launched, I found myself playing it more than I actually wanted to. Why? Because it has a leveling system, and I was scared that if I wasn't playing enough, I would keep up with the people who were and I would get owned in every single multiplayer match because I had bung weapons and perks. (Turns out it didn't matter how much I played, because there are obviously people on it that play waaaaay too much.) Even if you take a Halo system, you fear that if you don't win enough, you will be in a division with fewer players and consequently have a ridiculously long time to find games. (Used to take me like 10 minutes per match.)

The fear of missing out in the gaming world, much like the party girl equivalent, is based on being left behind by your peers and not experiencing things in the same way they did.

The only way to get around it, as far as I can see, is to ask yourself what you are really missing out on. Did I truly miss out because I wasn't able to share the launch day love of Uncharted 2? Did I really miss out because I wasn't level 70 in MW2 (or is it just a sign of bad, bad game design)? Will I really miss out if I don't get those sweet gloves from ICC? The answer, really, is no. (Possibly yes to that last one, though. Shush!)

But they glow! GLOW!

Every day, we miss out on millions and millions of things. There just isn't enough time. We don't talk to every person, go to every party, watch every movie, read every book, listen to every song ever made. We let it go past us. But for some reason, a lot of gamers seem to think that they need to play every game that comes out, when it comes out -- and they are willing to spend a lot of money to do so, all because they have this notion that they are missing out. But if they stopped to think about it for one second, they would probably realize that the sun will still rise, the birds will still chirp, and that if it's a decent game, it will still be there for them in 6 months -- and likely cheaper too.

Except Starcraft II. DAMN YOU, BLIZZARD!

^{This blog post has been brought to you by the Starcraft II advert on the side of NZGamer, which has been causing me to think too much about video games and not enough about my NWEN302 assignment.}