Britt5091 Origins: Out With the New, In With the Old?

Welcome to Britt5091: Origins, where I dig up old blog posts I used to write for IGN’s community under the username Britt5091. Some posts may make you giggle, some may make your eyes bleed, and some may make you stroke your beard in a pensive manner. All you need to know is that these posts, no matter how terrible some of them may be, ultimately lead to everything I do now.

Out With the New, In With the Old?

November 20th, 2009

Before you start throwing blonde jokes my way for getting that phrase wrong, let me assure you I meant it that way. ;)

Yet another wave of anticipated games will soon be hitting shelves. We’ve already got a taste with titles such as Uncharted 2, Borderlands, Dragon Age: Origins and the sequels to Modern Warfare, Left 4 Dead and Assassin’s Creed. And while I’m excited for the upcoming sequels to Mass Effect, Lost Planet and Bioshock, not to mention stand alones such as Dante’s Inferno, Bayonetta and Heavy Rain, I can’t but feel a little…stressed.

Sure, a little stress stems from knowing I will never have the allotted time I desire to sit down with the aforementioned titles. But the core of it truly comes from the 200+ games I have, sitting in what seems like an endless queue, boxed up. The majority of games in these storage boxes are RPGs ranging from the SNES to PlayStation 2. However there are others in there such as Perfect Dark, Killzone, Devil May Cry, God of War — all titles I wanted to get my hands dirty with but have never had the chance.

It aint rocket science! The fact of the matter is that I have too many games, all purchased with intentions of playing. How did I get myself into this mess?

About a year and a half ago, while I still lived 10 minutes away from work, I was able to come home and put a good couple hours into gaming a night. I was blowing through them like it was nothing. I began running out and went on a big ol’ EBay/garage sale binge and started purchasing games like hotcakes. Well, this past year I moved to Seattle and now have a horrendous hour and a half commute to work and hour and half commute to get home. And this commute, my friends, is where my ‘game time’ has gone to. Yeah, no bueno.

At any rate, I’m contemplating ignoring all future releases and concentrating on my enormous backlog. Sure I’ll be bummed that I’ll be missing out on promising sequels and new IPs, but at the same time I’ll be excited to FINALLY get my hands on some great titles.

Although I’m not sure what I’m going to do, this dilemma has me thinking. When I have so many games in my library that haven’t been touched, why do I keep purchasing newer titles and consoles?

There are the obvious reasons, such as the ability to play online and socialize with gamers thousands of miles away, and franchises in the realm of Final Fantasy and Zelda are reason enough to purchase a new console. However I DO know it’s not the jaw dropping graphics, for example, or this ‘breakthrough’ motion control mambo jambo that keeps me purchasing these new releases.

Because what were video games when I began playing? 8 and 16 bit graphics with simple controls and gameplay; not jaw dropping cut scenes, spectacular textures and online multiplayer.

Yes, we have adapted to these new (and mostly welcomed) improvements to the gaming world and have come to expect nothing less. And for some of our younger gamers, this generation is all they’ve known; which is why I can better understand their unwillingness to play older gen games. But I grew up on those games, and I’m beginning to find it ridiculous that they remained untouched. The older graphics and simplicity don’t bother me one bit; in fact I find it refreshing.

I would say that I’m merely trying to keep up in the world of videogames, that I feel obligated to play these new titles. But that statement wouldn’t be true. Watching this industry grow and advance fascinates me, so it would only seem obvious that I would be first in line to get my hands on the latest and greatest. It’s all out of pure curiosity.

What it boils down to is that it is MY choice to play the new releases and allow the oldies to collect dust. Maybe part of it has to do with my obsession with the ever changing industry, and one of the best ways to experience it first hand is to, well, go hands on. But what’s that saying? “To know where you’re going you have to know where you’ve been”?

So who the hell knows?

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Update – 7/2/2013

It’s too funny I’m reading this now — I just moved AGAIN, and AGAIN I have yet to unpack my older games. I WILL GET TO IT EVENTUALLY.

Actually… I should do that now. >_<