Consumption Overload

A topic that has caught my eye lately is that of the oversaturation of the games industry with mediocre titles that seem to have all the hype in the world behind them, and the truly great games that seem to never catch a break.  I will admit that I’ve been one of the sorry suckers that have bought into the hype of games long before they are released.  What’s worse is that I realize what I’ve done.  I’ve spent $60 on games before and put in around 5 hours of actual gameplay.

One of my favorite genres of all time is Real Time Strategy.  I am not very good at these games by any stretch of the imagination, but I love the feeling I get from completing one of those long, grueling missions that last anywhere from a half-hour to an hour.  There is one problem with this. I can never complete those games for the life of me.

It always saddens me when I get a game that I think I love; eventually, I fall out of love, sell it off and then remember all the good times I had with it.  It’s like a really nerdy story arch of “The O.C.”  What begins as an awesome wedding and honeymoon, eventually breaks down into holding back lies.  I really want to say “You’re really not my kind of game,” but as the fates have it, I can’t bring myself to selling it.  I consider the fact that I’ve invested quite a bit into this game and I’ll get very little in return.  Once I do part ways with the game, I often find myself lusting for it in the wee hours of the night.

Then there are the games you keep around as trophys.  You tell the game how much you enjoy its company, but there’s no fooling it.  You really just have the game to keep around so that you can show it off to your friends and say, “See this! This is the status I have.  Bow before my trophy game.”  You really keep it around so that your friends can gawk at it which, in turn, strokes your own ego.

But you know as much as anyone that the fire has died out.

I have always wondered why I buy games, flip them and move on to the next.  I always get caught up in the hype and media attention.  I always feel the need for the latest game and even get tempted into buying games that my friends have.  Then there’s the chance that a game could take over my life and bring productivity to a grinding halt.  The problem is all too real, and frankly, I’m bloody uncomfortable with that fact.