Video Game Malaise

Or more accurately in my case – the current lack of appreciation I have for pretty much all things “gaming”. It’s all a little disheartening but every single game I’ve loaded of late has been a twenty minute wonder leaving me with the vague feeling I should probably be doing something else.

Gaming slumps are to be expected but this’ll be the first one that’s spanned every platform and every genre, leaving me somewhat more directionally challenged than normal. So why the current indifference? There’s just no room to breathe, to appreciate… the endless procession of releases… the next big thing… it’s become a treadmill to feed us masses and we asked for it (and would probably bitch if it wasn’t so). Never being left to our own devices to want something for long, being served up the newest hype and industry gossip 24/7 and for me at least, it’s taken some of the magic out of my favourite hobby.

Time was I’d spend months waiting and waiting for something – devouring every morsel of information from the PC gaming publications and creating all the hype myself. I’d even prolong the excitement when I finally got the object of my desire by reading the (properly enclosed manual) from front to back. It was a little ritual perhaps; games were to be cherished because you couldn’t be sure when the next one you’d want to try would come along. I miss that… whether it was part of the magic or simply the result of self-denial.

Perhaps it’s just a sign of the times; an over-abundance of information is something we all live with via the Internet and not only does it become addictive but it makes things difficult to walk away from without feeling isolated or “out of the loop”. What will all those other people know that I don’t? What am I missing out on? Will “The Next Big Thing” (TM) pass me by?

So many friends and I have wound up with a stack of games that still haven’t been opened .. titles that have been picked up and we’ve meant to play but have since fallen by the wayside as newer, more desirable games have made it to their release date. Bitmob have even penned a little guide for tackling your “Pile of Shame” That’s tackling, people… it hardly sounds like the gaming fun I signed up for. When did this guilt about not playing all the games we’d like to become a thing?

I suspect there isn’t an answer. Maybe there isn’t even a problem. Maybe it’s just part and parcel of being an adult with disposable income and a full-time job that swallows up more time than should be allowed. The rose-tinted glasses of this hobby have been removed for us, by us. Instead of magical dates and flowers sent to our workplace we’ve somehow ended up with dirty socks everywhere and farting in bed.

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