I realized I’m as old as the video game industry. The first game, Pong, was created 30 years ago, though I didn’t play that while sucking on my thumbs, I remember great things from my childhood, most of them from playing games. Funny thing is I didnt remember much about primary school, I didnt remember my neighbours, I only vaguely remembered family trips to the US and England, my memory of piano and taekwando lessons are as blurry as swamp water, but I remember games. I remember my first computer, an apple 2E, its 16 color EGA monitor and was considered a technical marvel of the time. I remember playing Mario Brothers and didn’t sleep for the whole night. I remember my first adventure game, King’s Quest 2, and trying to type in bad words, and the program recognized most of them. I remember my first RPG, Ultima 4, I still remember how the townfolks respond when I ask them to join my party. I remember the pixel layouts of towns better than my own backyard, I remember learning virtues through gaming, I was trying to become the avatar, and back then the word had less meaning than it had now… discounting religious indians. I remember buying prophylactic in the convenient store in the adult-themed game Leisure Suit Larry, and how embarrasing it was when the store clerk repeated the size and texture of my choice, and all these customers suddenly turned their heads. That was before I even knew what comdoms were…, okay maybe I did…, perhaps not the word, and definitly not at the age of using one. I was so excited about games back then, there was always something new, every week there was a new idea…, that was the golden age of gaming. Games have become more mainstream now, but I feel less excited about them, perhaps I’ve grown out of it, but perhaps, it has grown beyond me….

Back then there were a lot of game designers that were my heroes…, you can see their art, their ideas, the things they want to convey in their game, because back then in the 80s, one person wrote his own game. Richard Garriot, aka Lord Bristish, wrote his first Ultima and sold it in a ziplock bag, he was one of those heroes. I wondered if I would have been a video game designer, I certinaly had tales I want to tell, and I could have told them in games. But the game industry in the 80s, and early 90s, is not the game industry it is now. Now all the new ideas, if not been used up, are buried. People want cool graphics, and corportaion spurns out sequels, games of movies you already watched, old rehashed ideas…, you name it…, games cost millions to make now, and who wants to waste it on a new idea that the public mass may not accept? And really, the more people involved in the making of a game, well, the longer it takes, which is a given, it takes 2 years to come out with something new, and well the most serious thing is that well, the voice of the designer is really covered with all the rest of the bull shit that is the game. Back then, take 1 look at a game you’ll know it is a Sierra adventure designed by Roberta Williams, or Jane Jansen, or a lucasart game, a Tim Schafer funny game, Will Wright’s game that revolves around choices…, all this, within minutes, or seconds, without looking at the credits, because the style of the designer has been conveyed to us, the players. Nowadays, can you really tell one FPS shooter from another? Sure Hideo Kojima can still have his voice and make his next metal gear but how many recognized designer are that can have their budget to make their own game? What happened to the regular folks who have an idea?

I dont remember anything being innovative in the last 5 years. Perhaps with the exception of Katamari Darmacy, Ico / Shadow of Colossus, and maybe Killer 7, which managed something so psychologically different than anything else, I remember getting addicted to a little game on my PSP called Exit, which involves escaping with these people in dire situations, and blended great classics like Lemmings and Prince of Persia…. I remember Metroid which took the formula to 3D so well that and it reminded me of System Shock, sure Metal Gear 3 told a great story, Final Fantasy 10 had a great plot twist and a heart-wrenchingly emotional ending…, they are stories that with probably stay in my head for the rest of my life, because they are even better stories than some books and movies.., but when games become such a multimedia experience, and the story is so good, with the top-notch voice acting and direction, well when u read the book, you want to flip to the next page.., the gameplay is getting in the way…, who really cares about the sneaking in metal gear? I just want to see what happens next.., the combat gets tiresome and really get in the way of the cutscenes in Final Fantasy… well, they are games, and the gameplay is definitely getting in the way. That doesnt stop me from playing them, because I want to know what happened to Snake, because I want to know who the Patriots are, but who cares about gameplay, and that something is missing…, something that is so raw and addictive, like castlevania, the simple jumping and whiping monsters, I played the first one in the late 80s, and I still want to play that on the DS now, because it is godly, it is what games are about. I boot up Gradius Collection on my PSP and Capcom Classics, those are games, great games, games that I will never forget about. Kids nowadays, are they better gamer than we were when we were young? We used to be able to jump the cliff at the last pixel, and there was just enough distance to cross…, I remember Saint Seiya.., the frustration, the fun, the fulfillment…, kids now, they are spoiled by gorgeous graphics and 3D games.., and what happened to imagaination, I used to be able to boot up a text adventure, and then I imagine myself somewhere else, somewhere more beautiful than real life, something that cannot be rendered with raw processing CPU power. MMORPGs? Are they even games, they are just glorified internet chat rooms.., what happened to plot, what happened to gameplay, and what happened to companies which used to make good games and now become the company which the support the one game they hustle income monthly to those who become addicted it. The next generation of games? I think there is no next generation, we will continue looking back at how great games once were, while the new games look so photorealisticly real life that, well, you dont know whether you are playing a game, or you are in real life, but everything great about games that once were, will be gone. Retro will be the only next biggest thing, we want to play the classics again, maybe online, on our 600 dollar cell processing machine, and we will play them on our handhelds, and our cell phones, and reminiscent about the good old days.

The current most enjoyable thing: Maybe sipping on ice coffee, munching on potato chips, and reading the next great Escapist article. What could beat that? Maybe playing Cobra Mission on the Wii ……