Homogeneous Gaming

When I was a kid everyone had a gaming console of some kind. Some (like me) had quite a few. Most everyone had at least an original Nintendo. This was a great time to be a kid gamer. Every time you went to a friend’s house to play it was not just an opportunity to gain social experience points in life but a chance to play their collection of games.

One of the benefits of the super popularity that was the original Nintendo was that everyone seemed to have one. Everyone also acquired a bunch of games too. This meant that after Peter’s younger brother whipped me in the eye with his controller after I trounced in Street Fighter 2 that we could move onto other unique games. Unique to me because he had them and I didn’t.

You see back then everyone seemingly had 10-15 games. Out of those you could expect to share five similar games with a friend. The rest would be unique to that individual. If they had crappy games I probably wouldn’t get along with them. But part of the joy (for me) of gaining social experience points was the different games everyone seemed to have. Since I lived and breathed gaming as a kid those unique and interesting games were a big draw for me as a kid (not the only one, I’m not that weird). One friend would have Off Road Racing, another Galaxy 5000, another Kings Knights, another Battletoads, another Final Fantasy, another Crystalis. I literally can go on and on and on. We’d do kids things but we’d also play games. I’d put some games in a plastic bag, hop on my scooter and scoot over to Peter or Aarons house for an afternoon of playing in someone else’s gameland.

I wonder if I have lost that though.

Here is a list of games I own for the 360 -

Assassins Creed 2
Bioshock
Bioshock 2
Blue Dragon
Borderlands
Call of Duty 4
Call of Duty World at War
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2
Call of Duty Black OPs
Dragons Age
Dragons Age 2
Fable 2
Fable 3
Fallout 3
Gears of War 2
Guitar Hero 2
Guitar Hero 3
Halo 3
The Last Remnant
Left 4 Dead
Mass Effect
Mass Effect 2
The Orange Box
Red Dead Redemption
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2
LA Noire
Portal 2
Assassins Creed Brotherhood
Battlefield Bad Company 2

Now look at your list of games. How many do we share in common? Among my friends, our game libraries are extremely similar. While it seemed that when I was a kid, my friends and I shared about 1 in 3 of the same games nowadays its more like 8 out of 10.

The benefit of my friends and I having the same games is obvious – online multiplayer. Most nights we hop on play a few rounds of whatever and have a good time. This is great. It reminds me of my younger days, grinding out social experience points by playing together and forming memories.

The drawback is that we all have to have a copy of the game. And games aren’t cheap. So we end up having less diverse libraries than we did a long time ago. Less individual gaming memories. We take less risks with our games. If a game looks promising but didn’t score 90 on metacritic and is coming out at the same time as a the next FPS murder simulator that everyone is playing I most likely will pass on it. Even though the game itself might be vastly enjoyable if not perfect.

Don’t take this the wrong way. I am not some old fart saying get off my internet lawn you rascals. Not at all. I think overall gaming is vastly superior now than it was when I was a kid. I am just worried that along the way we may have lost something we didn’t even know we had, diversity.

Previously on Lance’s Musings….
Oh What The Hell Is This Crap?
Intervention Con Panel
Bored.
Bazingas
They Came At Us From Behind!
We Need A Jaws
The Kim Bauer Annoyance
N4G Sucks. Accept it.