My name is Glenn... I’m 37 years old... And I am a gamer!
There, I’ve said it. I’ve proverbially stood up in the time honoured tradition of all antisocial addicts and proclaimed that I don’t conform to the normalities of society.
Ok, I admit gaming is not actually considered that bad, but on the whole it’s still seen, in the mainstream media at least, as an immature activity aimed at children. But yes, I am a grown man, and my favourite leisure activity is sitting in front of a television screen blasting away at alien/mutant/zombie/evil Genericstan baddies, or raiding long lost tombs with an anatomically impressive adventure archaeologist for fabled treasures, or racing around tracks at breakneck speeds in vehicles I would never have the opportunity of actually driving for real, or one of a multitude of activities available to me in games. And I dedicate vast amounts of my spare time doing it. I’ve even been known to arrange time off work to coincide with the release of a particularly anticipated game (hello Uncharted 3).
I’ve played video games since I was a child, starting on my friend’s Atari 2600, then getting my very own first gaming instrument; a Commodore 16, with its noisy little tape deck, screeching and squealing (the tape deck of course, not me (ok maybe sometimes me)) while I waited an unbelievably long time, watching the fit inducing multicoloured patterns flashing across my tiny television screen, for a game to load. And I carried on gaming, marvelling in excited awe at each technological step up, through the Commodore 64, Sega Master System, and finally the Mega Drive (and completely pointless Mega CD), at which point I stopped. I can only imagine, considering my age at the time, that it was my interest in girls that caused this cessation in gaming, although unfortunately, considering my lack of any success in my new found interest, I probably should’ve carried on gaming.
It wasn’t until the Playstation 2, which ironically was bought for me by my girlfriend, that I returned to the world of videogames. What had happened while I wasn’t looking was that gaming had grown up with me. No longer was gaming limited to the likes of the graphically inept Punchy, or Sonic the Hedgehog. Now I could carry out silent assassinations with a barcoded baldy man, or sneak through jungles avoiding detection whilst keeping up my stamina by catching and eating wild animals, or simply hijack vehicles, commit crimes and generally wreak havoc in an open world environment. As technology became more advanced, and the people playing games grew up to become game developers themselves, the games became more sophisticated, and so much better at story telling. The best case in point here would be the Uncharted games (one of my personal favourites), with the latest instalment; Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, being an exceptionally well told and superbly scripted example. This game, for me, was far better that most films I’ve seen.
Undoubtedly, game developers have learnt a lot from films, and in some cases, as mentioned above, the students have become the masters; I’ll never forget the emotion I felt at the point in Shadow of the Colossus when Agro, my trusted horse, fell down the ravine while saving my life, I genuinely felt loss, I put down my joypad and just stared at the screen for ages not wanting to go on, just hoping it was all a mistake and my heroic nag would suddenly reappear. When I finally picked up my pad again, it was with a very heavy heart and a reluctance to move on.
Another stand out moment in gaming for me is in Red Dead Redemption, at the point where you move from New Austin to Nuevo Paraiso, two distinct areas in the game. After battling to cross the river, you get on a horse (horses again) and just start riding into Nuevo Paraiso, at this point a song (Far Away by Jose Gonzalez) starts playing, and the atmosphere as you ride through the dusty landscape with this song playing is truly incredible.
I’m not saying that gaming doesn’t have its problems, my god it has its problems, anyone who’s played the online element of an 18 rated game only to be confronted by some squeaky voiced teenager having a hissy fit, or invested hours of their time into a game only for the bloody thing to crash and lose all their progress (I’m looking at you Fallout), knows that gaming isn’t always a bed of roses, but I’ll save that for a future blog. So I’ll end by saying I’m proud to stand up and announce:
My name’s Glenn... I’m 37 years old... And, I’m a gamer!
