The number of games I have in my collection is sometimes overwhelming. Sadly, that doesn't stop me from buying a game I want even though there's a good chance I won't play it right away. When I turn on any of my consoles or handhelds, I sit looking at the UI while I contemplate which game I should play.
About an hour ago, I turned on my PS3 to play The Last of Us. I managed to play two multiplayer matches and then I chose to quit playing. Is it because I am getting older? Is it because I am losing interest in video games? Is there not enough time in my life for video games?
Here are my answers to those questions: Yes, I am getting older. No, I am not losing interest in video games. In fact, I am discovering new interests with video games. There is enough time to play games. I may not play them nearly as much as I used to as a teenager, but there is time.
As I write, I think I am beginning to understand why this gaming slump is happening. The overall reason is this: I am not playing video games the way I used to as a teenager. During my pre-teen and teenage years, I shifted over to the PlayStation brand. Games like the Final Fantasy series and Metal Gear series really caught my attention, and I first experienced them on a PlayStation. When we got a PlayStation 2, I played Gran Turismo for the first time and owned my first Naughty Dog game (Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy). I began having new experiences on the PS2 that I didn't think were possible while playing on the original PlayStation.
To get to my point, I was playing games to play games. Things really changed a little after my family got a PS3. We got our PS3 a year after it was released. At the time, there weren't Trophies. I didn't even know what Trophies were until I got Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. I managed to get Platinum Trophies on Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and LittleBigPlanet. I've actually gotten the Platinum Trophy twice on Uncharted: Drake's Fortune because I began using a new PSN name.
Trophies, to a certain degree, began to be an obsession for me. My focus shifted from playing games to obtaining Trophies. I have mentioned through various posts of the small competition a friend and I have about Platinum Trophies. That hasn't help with the obsession I found myself trapped in.
More often than not, I encounter a situation in which I look at how long it would take to Platinum a game prior to buying the game. Not only that, but I can't justify myself playing a game from yesteryear because they don't have Trophies. That makes writing reviews hard when I don't make an effort to play a game from the past. In fact, even wanting to write reviews for the games I have has been contributing to my gaming slump.
In reality, Trophies don't really matter. I made the unfortunate conclusion that they did, but they really don't. I will still want to increase the number of Platinums I have in my Trophy list, but I will do a better job of not making it a priority. After all, I am a gamer. I play games to play games. Trophies (or Achievements for that matter) are just a nice appendage to the world of gaming. I'm glad I took the time to write this.
I don't expect my focus to instantaneously shift back to the way it originally was when I first started gaming, but I will make it a goal. I will continue to obtain Trophies and I will continue to write about games, but I will remember what my focus: playing games to play games. "Let's play a game."
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