Writing for Nizulo

If you want to catch more of my writing head on over to nizulo.com and find me in the retro section. I'm majorly excited writing for the website, I hope you check it out! I'll remain active on my blog, don't worry.

Gaming as Escapism.

I'm doing a more serious piece over my usual light-hearted nostalgia trips. I'd recently thought about the idea of gaming as a form of escapism and began jotting down notes as they came to me which eventually turned into pages of intangible writing, so I apologise if this doesn't flow well, one of my main objectives is not to offend.

This did involve some form of reflection, I couldn't talk about this idea without using my own experiences and personality as a gamer. They are, after all, what I'm most familiar with. This mostly involved following my mood patterns in correlation with types of games I played and just how engaged with them I have been.

It's pretty common to, like myself, have games to play that promote or reflect a certain mood. I know I'm in a good mood when I'm playing Gitaroo Man, this I picked up on straight away, I'm always happy when playing it and that is evident in the fact that it's a fun, lighthearted game. Then I have my boredom games which are usually basic side-scrolling platformers like Super Mario World, Sonic and Zool. However, it's the kind of games I play when I feel sad that brought me onto this touchy subject.

They are always the long, dramatic, artsy, adventure games. Zelda, Ico, Shenmue (to name my most regular visits) which strangely enough are in my top 5 games. These aren't games I will sit down and play for an hour, these are games that I have been known to sit and spend days playing, taking my undivided attention and full concentration. Being engrossed is perhaps the correct term. Spending so much time on one game isn't uncommon and it certainly doesn't point to escapism, at least not as an individual reason. But when combined with the original emotion of choosing to play that game and the feelings the game promotes (or blocks out) I began to wonder if I use gaming as a form of escapism from difficult times in life and if that is why I have become so attached emotionally to these games, they are after all inanimate objects.

I'm painting this terrible picture of me being a recluse person that indulges in games too often but that's really not the case which also drags my argument against gaming being a form of escapism. Gaming is meant to be recreational, for the most part, so perhaps I turn to these games during depressing or anxious times merely for recreational purposes.

My problem with that argument (to debate fairly) is that I don't come away from it feeling any better afterwards but my mind is diverted away from any current issues in life during the game play. If I merely wanted to feel better and 'cheer myself up' then, logically, I would turn to a game such as Gitaroo Man that promotes a sense of recreation and fun but I don't.

The biggest finger of blame points to Massively Multi-Player Online RPG's (MMORPG) such as World of War Craft. Unfortunately I'll have to divert the attention away from me here, as I've never played them. These kinds of games often fall into a 'addiction debate'. I 100% believe that you cannot genuinely become addicted to a game (I might talk about that some other time), they can be described as addictive but biologically, no. These games often get the 'ultimate escapism' tag due to the nature of the games. You create your own character, almost a gaming extension of yourself, and interact with other real-life (well not REAL life) people. You can essentially be (or rather, pretend to be) anything or anyone you want and no one knows any better. You can become respected, feared and popular in this gaming world yet amount to little in reality.

In conclusion, I believe that rarely (and in times of trouble) I do use gaming as a form of escapism and yes, sometimes other gamers also use games for this purpose. Do I think it's unhealthy? No. I'm not going to be hard on myself because it's no different than other vices and escapist tendencies I think we can all have in hardship. Some people turn to the bottle, some people try to get out and about and some people use games to blot out and ignore what's going on around them.

Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick.

I sat playing Gitaroo Man, wondering what to write about next (I'm back in the swing of writing and doing it excessively). Then it hit me....I can write about rhythm games. I always dismissed it as a topic as I thought it lacked appeal, but as I recalled all the rhythm games I'd once played and loved, and those I continue to play I realised I had so much to talk about.

Like a lot of gamers my first experience with rhythm games was playing Parappa the Rapper, what a game. I exhausted the first stage on a demo disc so much I can still sing the song in my head. Mind you who can forget a Asian onion in a dojo teaching karate by singing "Kick, punch it's all in the mind!" I never really got a hang of it at that age. Parappa would just be going 'K-k-k-k-k-k-kick, p-p-p-p-p-punch' from the button bashing madness.

Next, for me, came Samba De Amigo on the Dreamcast, the first rhythm game I played with an instrument control (maracas!). Again, I wasn't the greatest at it, but it was novel that the game included recognisable songs to play a long with (much to the misfortune of others who may have heard me singing along).

My next experience of rhythm based games came from the good old dance mat. I'm not ashamed to say I spent many days with friends as a 12/13 year old at the arcade wasting oodles of money playing on these things. We eventually bought our own, but the experience doesn't compare to sticking 50p on the machine screen to say 'my turn next, bitch' and publicly humiliating yourself stomping around like a lunatic. Shamefully, I'd even mastered playing the Dance Stage games with the PlayStation controller.

The next game is a wonderful title that I still play regularly, everyone has that game that they just play senselessly without any aim just because it's, well, fun! Gitaroo Man, like Parappa, uses the control for the game play. The game implemented the analog stick to follow a line as well as using the rhythm prompts to play your Gitaroo. Now, if I told you I played a game where I had to do battle with a devil in a nappy, a troop of electronic flying saucers, a reggae robot shark and a disco bee/man hybrid, you'd probably think I was mentally ill. But this is the genuine quirkiness and fabulous imagination that Gitaroo Man encompasses. A cutesy Japanese-Esq love story incorporates nicely into the game play and I challenge everyone to give it a chance.

From here it rapidly escalated into games that used instrument style controls and this style of game continues to be highly popular. From Donkey Konga to Guitar Hero and even implementing an entire band. I can't say I play these games very much, I did get unreasonably good at Guitar Hero at one point about 6 years ago but, honestly, they aren't something I'd go out of my way to play now.

I have checked out rhythm based games I missed out on a long the way. Namely Vib Ribbon, which is an incredibly unique game. What made it most enjoyable is that once the game loads you can insert your own CD and it will create levels according to the music you are playing.

And there I was thinking I'd have nothing to talk about, how wrong I was. Rhythm games are lots of fun, but there are some genuine gaming gems hiding in this genre that people should not miss!

Why QTE's are ruining my gaming.

Ah, the quick time event (QTE, to you and me), forever ruining cut scenes for no good reason. Because just when I'm getting into an intense cinematic scene, I want to be rudely interrupted by giant flashing A's and X's and RT's on the screen because, of course, in order to dodge this bullet or jump across a building I need to insanely tap buttons and wiggle my analog stick. For those of you who still aren't quite sure what I mean by QTE here is an example.

I first remember seeing the QTE in Shenmue and it didn't particularly bother me, it was quite novel, I'd never seen it before (yes, I know they appeared in games before this, but they were majorly dire games or lesser known). In fact, I quite enjoyed the QTE's in Shenmue, mostly because I was very young and it required a lot less gaming skill than actually controlling the character.

I never really saw a lot of it again until Resident Evil 4 (not to the extent that the QTE is a big feature). Again, not exactly the most bothersome thing, slightly annoying that at times I would just go right ahead and get my head chainsawed off by a man with a sack on his head simply because I hadn't managed to press X+Y quick enough on the game cube pad, but hey, it wasn't too interrupting and sometimes a little fun.

Fast forward to the past few years and a vast amount of games use QTE's in the cut scenes (now it's in the cut scenes that REALLY bother me), some games in nearly every scene. It's excessive and serves no purpose what-so-ever except to rage gamers worldwide. Developers want to 'engage' players with the cut scene? No! You're distracting me, because instead of watching the cut scene I'm too busy looking for the prompt and circling my analog so hard I'm out of breath. The worst bit is, I love setting my controller down during a cut scene and having a watch, it gives me a chance to drink my coffee or have a snack without the silence of the pause screen.

I only need to use one game (series) to prove that you don't need QTE's to keep viewers engaged in a cut scene, Metal Gear! People were happy sit through up to half an hour of cut scene mid-game without a giant flashing 'PRESS ME, PRESS ME, OR DIE'

QTE's are rarely pleasing and few games pass them off well (notably God of War and Mass Effect 2/3) where you don't fail or die, just because you've turned your head during a prompt to answer the person in the kitchen shouting 'WANT A CUPPA?'.