This entry could also be entitled "How I became the Gwas of VideoGames." I generally try to avoid "in" references but in this instance using Gwas' name seemed appropriate.urbating the retarded egos of the next generation.

Let me first say that Gwas (Greg) is a good friend. All insults are tongue in cheek and this is all really just a healthy dose of friendly razzing. Gwas, being a film geek, tends to be highly critical of movies. In my mind it seems like he just picks the ones with the biggest list of pre-production woes. Starving director? Check. $10 dollar budget? Check. Languaged in Arabic, subtitled in German, translated to English then re-released in the original language with subtitles written by an coked out art student in NYC? Check.

The movies he seems to enjoy generally appeal to a more critical audience(read: artsy). This is in complete opposition to my own tastes. I am perfectly happy seeing a trite popcorn movie made for the general audience.

I mention the story of how Gwas and I differ in movies to provide juxtaposition to the following story: When it comes to gaming I am like Gwas. I want something new that is artfully done and strokes my ego a bit. Unfortunately these days I am the minority. Increasingly the games I enjoy are falling in to the niche market. Niche games don't make the same amount of money as pop. games but I would contend they have better staying power (assuming anyone actually plays them.)

A recent article from the New York Times discussed the idea of gaming as an increasingly popular medium. You need only look at World of Warcraft and Guitar Hero to see how viral gaming has become. What does this mean?

As a gamer I've seen an increasing trend in video game mechanic simplicity. No longer is the gamer given 3 lives and expected to complete the entire game. Now we're given numerous save points, huge health bars, simplistic enemies, and fuck simple tasks. All of these things added, I would imagine, to appeal to a larger audience. But at what cost? Where is the fun? How much fucking hand holding do the console kiddies need? Maybe the next generation console should wipe their asses too.

My point is that games are getting easy as fuck, most likely as an attempt to appeal to a larger audience. Now I understand the desire to make money. What I don't understand is the exclusion of really hardcore difficulties. Why is hardcore what easy used to be back in the day? It feels like we're fucking mast

Ugh.
vid


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