lexcalibur's Blogs

Now from the title of this blog I hope people don't automatically assume that I mean videogames are for children, cause if they are I am very much a child. This blog is about coming to grips with the reality that as you get older things change, and you simply can't do the things you used to as a kid especially in relation to gaming habits.

This blog is very subjective so please don't take offence if I say something that's not in line with the way you live your life. It's purely my perspective.

I'm gonna start off by listing my gaming habits of my younger years. Most weekends I would rent out a game, I would play that game till at least 3 in the morning just to finish it or get my moneys worth. I used to play a greater assortment of games. I used to fully master every game I bought to the point where I could finish it with losing any lives. I used to play games that I loved for days on end. Since then things have changed dramatically.

Firstly hiring games. This is the thing that has probably changed the most since I was young. I used to be down at the video store every Friday night when I was a kid, standing there for a massive amount of time checking out the game covers for something to play. Now, I can't remember the last time I went into a video store. Every game I play these days is either bought or borrowed and the reason for this is two fold. One I have a full time job and can afford to buy any game I want, and two so do my mates so if there is something I want to play but haven't bought myself, I'll just borrow it. The down side to this is all the games I might be missing out on. My first ever blog was about the mystery being taken out of games with the increased media coverage games get these days. I never buy "Bad" games neither do my mates, and because of this the scope of my gaming tastes has narrowed.

All nighters...some of my fondest childhood memories consist of staying up all night to clock a game. I actually prided myself on being able to stay awake when everyone had gone to sleep (apart from one time where I literally fell to sleep with a controller in my hand...). These days I'm either too tired to stay up, or think there are other things I should be doing, like going out and socialising. I don't know if this is the same for everyone but as I have got older, it's been harder to find the will to stay up with the sole purpose of playing games. Also I don't hire games out anymore, so I know they'll always be there when I want to play them.

Now the next point of mastering games as opposed to finishing games. These days I play a game to finish it, I enjoy the experience while I play it, but when it's over I pretty much let it go. Back in my gaming prime, I knew everything about the games I owned. Alex the Kidd for example, I knew what boxes I had to hit in order to activate free lives, I knew how to maximse the amount of money I collected, I knew what enemies could be defeated or even what blocks could be split in half by punching the other side of the screen. Most of all, I knew none of this mattered because I could finish the game without dying. I just don't have the time to commit to this level of mastery in gaming anymore, other things always seem to get in the way, and it's a shame cause it used to be so fun for me.

Now finally the amount of time I commit to not only the games I love but gaming in general. Sad as it may sound I used to look forward to school holidays, not for the summer sun and days at the beach, but for the fact that I knew once the holidays hit I could spend a solid week in front of the TV maxing stats on FFVII. That's what I did, all day and late into the night, it was games all the time, and at the time it was awesome. Now however I find it hard to scrape more then three hours to play at any given time. This I put down to life, I have two mortgages, a full time job, play sports, go out for the occasional night on the town, and sadly all of these things pull me away from my beloved consoles.

The reason, I wrote this was to illustrate two points, firstly, I miss the good old days, long nights and hundreds of hours of fun. Secondly, things change, if you are at a stage where things have already changed for you, and you find it hard to commit time to games, you probably already know what I'm talking about. If you're still young, and are still up to your eyeballs in games, enjoy it. Don't let social pressures take you away too soon, you have your whole life to work and socialise, you might as well enjoy games as much as you can while you still have the time.