ON PLAYING PC/CONSOLE GAMES AND HAVING A LIFE

AS TIME GOES BY

OK, I'm a recovering video-game addict and die-hard fan, even into my forties.  I've been a game enthusiast ever since I first saw Pong by Atari in 1972 as a kid.  It grew into a full-fledged hobby by the time Zork rolled out as one of the first text-based adventure games in 1977 and was taken onto mainstream personal computers by Infocom in 1979. 

For a few years after that, it was easy (or so it seemed) to play games and live a normal life.  But then I grew up, and so did the PC and console video game industries.

Games have grown more mainstream than ever, with the video game (console, PC, hand-helds, and mobile), with the industry now generating revenues greater than Hollywood's box-office business.  Last year alone, the video game industry generated almost $25 billion in revenues.

Also, in recent years, there's been tremendous growth in:

1. the number of video game genres..
2. emergence of multiple consoles:  PlayStation2, XBox, GameCube, Nintendo.
3. and not to mention coming next generation consoles like XBOX 360 (pictured below), Playstation 3, etc.
4. new hand-helds that rival yesteryear's consoles, e.g., the Sony PSP-Playstation Portable (pictured below).
5. introduction of games for cell phones/PDAs/mobiles.
6. increasing mainstream popularity of online games, both here and abroad, that can be played by tens if not hundreds of thousands of players concurrently, e.g., the Sims
7. availability of multiple options to get games, whether it's buying them new or used, renting them, or subscribing to them online.
8. and finally, the explosion of titles on all of these platforms and online.

It's near on impossible to figure out how to stay on top of the best games, play them, and have a semblance of a normal life.

And despite this growth, the industry's marketing of games hasn't changed much.  The industry still packages and market games with their "hard-core", young, game audience in mind, a segment in general with more time and inclination to invest the folds of time required to squeeze every iota of enjoyment out of their expensive games and platforms.  I used to be one of these gaming purists as a kid, eschewing any kind of save, hint, and help systems to get through a game.  But times change, and so did I...

So now, from my perspective as an "older gamer", the game industry pays less attention to the needs and convenience of their increasing mainstream audience...people with families and other obligations, that just aren't going to take the time to sit through a day or more playing games.

Now, for you non-gamers, this may not make sense at first glance, but this is harder than it seems.  A game is not like a movie that can be consumed in 2-3 hours.  The average game, even at the "easy" setting can take 10 plus hours.

You also can't skim, or "speed-read" it like a book.

Your only option if you don't have the time to play most of the games then is to religiously read the detailed reviews and "walk-throughs" of the game available online.  This is what I resort to most of the time, with the exception of seminal game releases like Doom3, Half-Life2, or Halo2, where I just have to carve out the requisite time with my wife's indulgence.

There are ways to cope with all this...this post from To-Done, a site that provides "a regularly updated collection of thoughts, writings, tips, tricks and information on personal productivity, work/life balance and getting things done", tries to address this issue.

Titled "Quick Tips for Gamers", it offers some useful suggestions like:

• Set aside time to play.  Make a “play date” if you will.  This keeps you from just picking up a controller willy-nilly.
• Rent. I find that if I buy games I tend to want to make sure I get “the most” out of them, whatever that means. I feel almost guilty if I don’t play to the end. Kind of defeats the purpose.
• Play the “easy” version. This can be huge.  It’s usually just as fun, probably less frustrating, and it takes less time.
• Play when you know you’ll have to stop.  Like an hour before you’ve got to go somewhere.
• Don’t play at night after everyone has gone to bed. This is a hard one to do, as it’s the best time to just play, but if you’re like me, this can keep you up all night. I still do this, I just try and do it less often. I need my sleep to be productive.
• Don’t let yourself feel guilty for bailing out of online play. If you’re tired or have something to do, just buck up and bail. Keep in mind the folks on the other side of the lines are probably 16 years old, don’t work and have nothing better to do. (Actually, they probably aren’t 16, have a job, do have something better to do and are probably just like you, but if you pretend they aren’t, it’s easier to get away!)

I especially agree with playing the easy version.  I also use all the hints/walkthroughs I can find on the net. When you’re trying to play games and have a life, you’ve got to have some compromises, and I find that these don’t dilute the game “fun” for me as much as a hard-core gamer might think.

In fact, I think all game companies should include an “auto-play” feature (no kidding)...this would allow you to almost “watch” the game like a movie with the computer controlling the main character/s through all the levels of the game, in a quick play-through mode.  Also, sprawling, open-ended titles like Rockstar game's GrandTheft San-Andreas, lend themselves very well to this sort of scenario.

Even better would be the ability to run the "auto-play" and then revert to regular game play whenever a segment strikes your fancy.  Then go back into auto-play, to continue to zip through the game.  This way, you at least get some appreciation and enjoyment from all the hard work the authors of the game have put into it. 

Let's face it, most players are never going to get into the many special nooks and crannies game designers create for their hard-core fans with extra-special effects, or rewards.

Even if the industry doesn't go with the auto-play, at the very least, every game should  allow the player to save and re-load whenever they want in the game.  I know this is anathema to hard-core players, but real-world players just aren't going to re-play a sequence a dozen times to run through a particularly tough gauntlet between the scripted automatic quick-saves.

Auto-play and voluntary save-systems may seem like strange ideas, I know, but I think they would expand the appeal of games to mainstream audiences…those who would NEVER play a game, just because they think it’s too childish/geeky/silly/or just don’t get it.

With the average, PC or console game costing $5 million plus to develop and large production/programming teams, and the average title being priced at $40-60, the game industry needs to expand their audience to mainstream audiences faster than ever before.  In fact, the "block-buster" sequel productions now have budgets of $15 million plus. 

One way to go mainstream with video games has been to convert games into movies, but that's a once in a blue-moon occurrence given the economic realities of the two businesses as in the Tomb Raider series. 

Having said that, I am looking forward to seeing Doom-the movie this fall starring The Rock.  But I'd also like to play my copy of Doom3 as a movie on my PC.

Also games unlike movies, generally don't have as lucrative a "catalog" value.  I'm going to watch Casablanca a few more times in my life, and so most likely will my grand-kids (when they show up).  However, other than playing "pong" or "pac-man" for nostalgia value, I'm not going to play Half-Life 2, when I can be playing Half-Life 10 with the latest, whiz-bang effects on the most current hardware.

Thus it's more important than ever to maximise revenue on every title as early as possible.  Providing an "auto-play" feature may be a step in that direction...let us watch and play our video games like movies, especially as time goes by.