Cool, calm, and collected
One of the guys in the band in which I play is sort of a casual hardcore gamer–that is, he plays “hardcore” games, but it is not a dominant form of entertainment for him, he does not follow video game news, and he probably doesn’t fight to the proverbial death on the internet in passionate support of a particular console. He’s up on the big console games, but probably not as much on those that don’t hit the top 10; he’s played StarCraft, but doesn’t generally play a lot of PC games.
In other words, he’s pretty similar in his gaming habits to what I imagine the vast majority of the game-buying public is like. As he does not eat, sleep, and breathe this wacky form of entertainment, he is not quite as indoctrinated with all of the fairly ridiculous conventions that most of us take for granted every time we pick up a controller.
He’s played God of War, for example, and he really enjoyed it, like most who played it have. His one negative comment, though, I felt bore repeating. In God of War, you pick up all sorts of mystical objects that help you with various stats and abilities–orbs, eyes, feathers, and probably some other crap. This is of course par for the course in video games, doubly so in third-person action/adventure games.
My bandmate’s reaction? “God of War, it’s good, but man, that Kratos–he collects the most weird-ass stupid shit.”
Sure, we’ve all had that revelation at one time or another, usually at least half-jokingly, but there was a genuine earnest bemusement in the statement on the part of my bandmate that actually made me stop and consider his observation for a moment. We DO collect a lot of weird-ass stupid shit.
I did some testing on Double Fine’s Psychonauts (for which I was given an enigmatic “special thanks“), and I remember actually having a similar reaction on my first day. I really think Psychonauts is mechanically very solid, with a great feel to the movement and jumping that along with the astonishing art direction makes the game fun simply to explore, but even in its final form all of the crazy collection business is a bit overwhelming. It was even more baffling in early 2004, believe me (the game ended up releasing in mid-2005).
Still, my assessment was about the implementation of the collection. I wasn’t actually incredulous at the mere idea of collecting floating cards which some unseen kleptomaniac has deposited around the grounds of my psychic summer camp, I just thought it could have been streamlined.
Similarly, in the various God of War discussions with hardcore gamers in which I have participated or which I have read, I have never seen anyone scoff at the idea of a Spartan god-killer traipsing around opening boxes in the hope to find an old feather. Like the ever-present, awkwardly-placed hand in a first-person shooter, or the remarkable ability of the remaining ammunition in a discarded clip to instantly recycle itself, we’ve long since stopped noticing.
It makes me wonder how many video game conventions like these–now so ubiquitous as to be totally transparent to those familiar with the medium–will fall away over the coming years.
The idea of point scores in a single-player game is at this point all but extinct (at least in any meaningful way), once a staple. The permanently-centered reticule is still overwhelmingly popular but starting to be chipped away by the more naturalistic iron sight. Who knows how games will play ten, twenty, fifty years from now?
Where am I going with this? Nowhere, really. But to be honest, I am getting pretty tired of collecting shit.
Tags: casual gamers, game conventions, god of war, hardcore gamers, item collection
April 5th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Perhaps they should make a game where you start out with a bunch of shit and the goal is to hide all the crap in various crates and what not, so some poor video game soul has to come and find it all. :)
Collecting things in video games has gotten tiresome over the years. I grow tired of the games where I have to collect 100% of the items to get some special ending or some special achievement.
Having games with items has been burned into our brains over the years that I can’t think of any recent games where you don’t collect something. Can you think of something where there wasn’t some type of collecting? Perhaps we should all go back to pong. :)
April 8th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Collecting items has never been a big draw for me in games. I’ll collect a powerup or whatever if it’s in my path or easy to get to in a couple minutes but I’m perfectly OK with games that don’t have any at all.
April 16th, 2008 at 6:18 am
I agree. I *DESPISE* collecting stuff. I’m glad someone is echoing my sentiments.
In fact, if a game has any “collectibles” or “unlockables” to be grabbed, I’m inclined to like it a lot less.
April 24th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
There is something very ‘gotta catch em all’ about collecting stuff. Even though I don’t have time to do the collecting minigame, I still feel a draw to it.