Pong? Zork? Donkey Kong? Zelda? Doom? Sonic? Super Mario 64? Half Life? Road Rash? StarCraft? Halo? Batman: Arkham City? The Last Of Us?
The above list is subjective and is intended to represent the timeline of video gaming. From its crude monochromatic beginnings in the 1970s with Pong, all the way up to present day with the near cinema like experience of Naughty Dog’s – The Last Of Us.
It is also chronicles the highlights of my personal journey and videogame playing career – if such a thing exists! Your video game timeline will most certainly be different and probably start a lot further down the videogaming timeline than mine. Any gamer worth his salt will be able to look at someone else’s timeline and be able to get a pretty solid bead on when they started gaming and what types of games they like to play.
I’ve been invited aboard the team here at COG to contribute as a writer and thought an introduction article would be a good place to start before diving in to cover the regular stuff. This post is meant to provide context as to where my articles/reviews etc are coming from. It is also meant to give readers of this site a heads up that an alternative viewpoint is available and while I’ll try to write articles that appeal to the broadest reading base possible, it is unavoidable I’ll be coming from a time and place from before many of you.
In plain English, my posts will be from an old fart’s perspective. You know – those damned baby boomers who make up the biggest demographic of the population and tend to be technophobes and know very little about gaming! But I think you would be surprised how many of us are out there that do game. And how many of us have been gaming since it all started when we were gobsmacked by being able to twist a dial on a gamepad and send a white square back and forth across a TV screen. We all thought this was the next big thing. It was. But we had no idea of exactly how big it was going to become.
My timeline is also meant to capture how my – and possibly yours – gaming tastes change. There are several factors at play here. Fatigue from playing a certain game genre, time available to plays games, slowing down of reflexes and ability to process new types of game play. Games that I use to love playing when I was younger no longer interest or exceed my ability to play them enjoyably.
The best example that ties all of those factors together for me is multiplayer shooters. The most involved I ever got was playing co-op Doom with my cousin. We had a blast working through the levels of that game together. But that was way before the multiplayer shooters became the norm on the XBox 360 and when I tried a couple of online matches….. well, it was game over dude. I’m still curious enough to try the alpha of the newest mp shooter like Destiny but I never will be able to be a positively contributing member of a team.
Major bummer but like Dirty Harry says, “Man’s gotta know his limitations.”
Over time my tastes have shifted to more story driven games be it the Dreamfall games or the Uncharted series or Heavy Rain or Beyond Two Souls or The Last Of Us. Games with characters that I can build emotional connections to are the ones that interest me more. Or games that simulate a real life event like racing sims for example. iRacing, Game Stock Car Extreme, the rFactor games, and Assetto Corsa give my Logitech G27 wheel and pedal setup a constant workout.
Don’t me wrong – I love playing other types of games that are quick play in nature such as you find on the handhelds – not a big tablet game fan though – such as the PS Vita. There are a lot of fun games to be found there such as TxK, JetPack Joyride, Lumines – though those can turn into long sessions, and other unique Indie games.
So, where do your gaming interests lie? And where in the gaming timeline does your journey start from? I have a theory that the younger you are, the more likely you are to be interested in multiplayer shooters than older players. Does that theory hold water?
Other things that would be great to find out from readers – has starting a family cut down and/or changed your gaming choices? Do you find yourself starting to move away from a certain type of gaming? And why? Sound off in the comments!
These are exciting times. The technology has reached a point where the interactivity of video games can now be combined with storytelling and emotional engagement that used to be the sole domain of movies. And just over the horizon looms the advent of virtual reality via the Oculus Rift and Morpheus. Virtual realities here we come!
I am looking forward to posting further articles here and sharing ideas with you.
May the Gaming Gods grant you extra lives!
Lou Systma aka OldDarth
BTW – does anyone remember pinball? Real pinball… none of this Zen Pinball business!