Gamer Soul Searching

I have been doing some Gamer Soul searching the past year or so. I’ve been having these moments of realization that my tastes are growing ever more complex. It all started with Halo Reach…

 

Halo Reach was played up to be the biggest and best game of the Xbox 360 and no one could live without it. It lived up to most of its hype, but fell short in one very important area: the gamers.

 

It would be irrational for me to say Halo Reach sucked and everyone hates it. That simply isn’t true. Halo Reach was a very well designed and delivered game. What fell short was the Halo fans loss of a few friends. First off, Master Chief was absent. Then we lost Bungie and their interaction with the Halo community. Here we are, one year later, and Reach has nestled into the ranks of hundreds of other games that had a shorter-than-commercially-expected lifespan with the masses. Yes, it’s still alive and played a lot.

 

Why am I bringing any of this up? This is when I started drifting away from my norm. I’m a man who hates change. When I find my comfort zone, I can dwell in it forever. My comfort zone in gaming was Halo for many years. So much, at one point, that I refused to play any other shooter on the market because I believed Halo dominated and it was the only thing worth my time. (Hell, I didn’t even start playing Borderlands until this year, 2011.)

 

I received a free game in early 2010. It sat on my shelf in it pretty Platinum Hits case, still wrapped in its factory plastic. It was another shooter. It was the only big competition to Halo on the Xbox 360. Everyone raved about this game. For months, it and I had a staring contest, daring each other to fold to our will. Finally, while anticipating Halo Reach, I open the plastic and put this “uber awesome shooter” game into my console. On June 5, 2010, I popped the achievement “Prison Breakout” and my life changed instantly.

 

Gears of War brought me into a whole new universe. And while I loved the first Gears, it was Gears 2 that set it as a corner stone of my gamer personality. Specifically: Horde. When playing Horde, I finally felt that closeness I’d been missing since late nights of capping flags on Avalanche Heavy.

 

A few other games in my library helped define my gaming soul. Adventure games strike a heartstring with me. The Fable Series, Darksiders, the Lego games.

Anyhow fast forward to now. I’m dwelling on my romp through Arkham City last night. I remember getting mad at these damn Augmented reality challenges that involved dive-bombing, then swooping through a tunnel. I’m thinking about the copy of Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood I ordered for my wife this morning, wondering if it will be here by the weekend. I’m texting my wife and asking if we are going to slay some zombies in Dead Rising 2: Off the Record tonight. In the midst of all this, I feel that dread of change gnawing at me. It has become especially strong since I started this entry.

 

The only real question I have is: why is it hitting me so hard? Why does it seem so important? Gaming is my hobby, and most of my free time is dedicated to getting lost in virtual worlds of wonder and mayhem.

 

I know that last statement raised a few eyebrows and someone has wondered, “Is he addicted to gaming?” To completely deny that would be a lie. I know I could live without gaming, but when you are well below the poverty line, you take what you can get. Plus, watching TV all the time makes me fall asleep.

 

All in all, I feel my gaming soul changing. Not bad, not good, just changing. I dread change.