Video games over the years
By Tom Showell 8N
chool’ s out, you’ ve done your homework and you can relax. What do you do? Most would say something along the lines of‘ Xbox’ or‘ PS3’ where the main objective in most cases is to kill someone. If you don’ t like those shoot‘ em up games there isn’ t much of an option, apart from a few sports and racing games. This got me thinking, why can’ t we go back to the days when the objective of a game was to have a good time?
There once was a time, believe it or not, when games used simple technology and gave the same amount of fun as games do now without hassles like having to be online to have‘ the ultimate gaming experience’. Don’ t get me wrong, I enjoy Call of Duty or Fifa 13 as much as the next guy, but I can’ t help feeling that video games have lost some of their cerebral qualities.
This takes me back to my question.
When I think of‘ cerebral qualities’ the main game that springs to mind is Frogger where you have to get across a road and river to get to safety. Granted, it isn’ t very high tech but there is no doubt that it is a fun game that also comes with an addictive and intellectual quality to it.
Another great game that I know came across me when watching the TV show The Big Bang Theory in which one of the main characters, Sheldon, plays a text based computer game that uses‘ the most powerful graphics chip in the world, imagination!’ I soon after searched for a game similar to that and stumbled across Zork. I won’ t lie; I actually spent two to three hours playing it after admittedly getting stuck once or twice. Still, it was a great waste of my time.
I love my old PlayStation 2 but if you look at the games over the years you can see a theme building of pointless war, racing and sports games. In my opinion, the main cause of this‘ change in the wind’ was the decommissioning of traditional PlayStation 2 games as a result of the rise in popularity of PlayStation’ s arch rival: Xbox and the online gaming of Xbox Live.
One thing I can say is that you don’ t necessarily need online gaming and good graphics to have a good time. I was walking along a pier once, when I saw an arcade house. Being the person I am, I ran in. To my surprise, I saw a couple of people playing the game Pong. To be honest, they looked as if they were thoroughly enjoying it. The interesting part was that after they left, I started playing on it myself!
Personally I believe that video games have lost something vital, along with the meaning of the word‘ game’, turning them into a hot- headed race to be the best. I find that I don’ t need the latest technology to play a good game and I don’ t think others do either.
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