Friday Night Rambling: Sometimes I’m tired of every game

Friday Night Rambling: For what may or may not be a repeating section Chris will come here and ramble about games, the weather, DestinyQuest Infinite, and whatever else happens to come into his head.

Today: Tired of games.

Image by Trenttsd. Actually, that’s a pretty nice collection – Ed.

Do you ever get bored of your video game collection? I didn’t mean for it to happen, but every so often games stop being interesting. I’m trudging through the critically acclaimed Baldur’s Gate, perhaps the same way my characters do, clocking in the hours to meet my quota, using the time in between crossing long stretches of map to get up from my chair and refill the water filter in my kitchen.

I think the reason games are getting old to me is familiarity. Sure, I’ve never played Baldur’s Gate before, but I have played Baldur’s Gate 2, and I know what to expect: a few dialog trees, walking from place to place collecting items with backstories more interesting than mine so far, and behaving in a vaguely lawful good/chaotic jerk mage manner.

Most games start out as fresh ground. Even in sequels, the graphics are fresh and some of the scenery and dialogue is new. That’s why we buy them. At least, I think that’s why we buy them; since this is a Friday ramble I’m not going to try to figure it out at the moment.

As you get used to the game, you learn who all the characters are, what your abilities are, and how to beat the game. Raph Koster put it well in his Theory of Fun – swinging over the alligator is exciting the first time, but once you’ve done it 30 times even the alligator starts checking his watch and wondering when he can go to the bar.

I think the problem I’m experiencing, in my self-diagnosis, is a sort of meta-learning; I may not know how to beat *this* game, but I know how to beat this kind of game. I’ll probably have to find a hidden brick somewhere, or maybe find the right verb to match with the right noun, or maybe get the dumb AI to attack a chokehold. As someone said on Reddit, or RPS, or somewhere, eventually you start to think like the designers, to “see the Matrix,” and once you do, you can’t take the blue pill again.

Maybe that’s secretly why I started working on DestinyQuest Infinite. If I’m bored of all games, at least a game that’s a book would be different. I may start trying some new genres too.

Next week: Tired of books. Just kidding, probably.

Do you ever get tired of the games you play? Are there any games that “break the mold” and remind you to love games?

Chris

Chris is the CEO and lead developer at Adventure Cow.