What it's like to play video games for the first time as an adult

[ríomhaire]

The PlayStation 3’s blue X button is in a different place than the Xbox 360’s blue X button—madness

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/09/100809fa_fact_baker?currentPage=all


I'm sure most of the people who frequent this board have been playing video games since they were kids (except for Stern, as his childhood games would have been powered by pneumatics and steam) and have done it to the point that using a controller and it's seventeen buttons and two analogue sticks feels pretty damn natural to us. We forget how much of a complicated endeavour it actually is. So here's a New Yorker article about playing games (mostly of the killy-killy variety) for the first time as an adult.


It's fairly long and mostly just a log of what games he played and a few thoughts about each one with a pretty neutral tone but it's pretty interesting none the less.

 

[Vegeta897]

(except for Stern, as his childhood games would have been powered by pneumatics and steam)

??

 

[Stigmata]

Here’s what it’s about. It’s about killing, and it’s about dying. Also, it’s about collecting firearms. And it’s modern warfare, which means it’s set in places like Afghanistan. As in Halo, you are a gun who moves—in fact, you are many guns, because with a touch of your Y button you can switch from one gun to another. But this game has a much crisper, brighter look than the murky Halo, and the graphics engine is better

I don't know about that, Jim...

 

[MuToiD_MaN]

Of all the things that Halo is, "not bright and colorful" is not one of them, but that's neither here nor there.

 

[ríomhaire]

Of all the things that Halo is, "not bright and colorful" is not one of them, but that's neither here nor there.

He was specifically playing ODST. I haven't played that one but from the screenshots I saw of it it looked like the least bright and colourful part of the series (and 2 and 3 were a bit less colourful than 1 anyway).

 

[morgs]

I'm sure most of the people who frequent this board have been playing video games since they were kids (except for Stern, as his childhood games would have been powered by pneumatics and steam)

I guffaw'd

 

[Adabiviak]

I certainly take my WASD muscle memory for granted - I recall the first video game muscle memory I developed was using both hands (two fingers each) to play Cosmic Cruncher on the Commodore 64. It took a while, but once you make the step away from 'thinking' about the button presses, and can focus entirely on the game, it's wonderful. I cut my WASD chops on Chex Quest in the late '90s.

There are also some tactics that are somewhat inherent to all first-person shooters that I think we (as gamers) take for granted. I watch my nephew make these horrible decisions in the game (and get frustrated, wondering why he died, etc.), and it reminds me of this. Make sure your weapons are reloaded before stepping into a firefight, select the proper range of weapon for the type of fight, watch ammunition levels when selecting a weapon, even monitoring your health/shields while in a fight is something that seems obvious, but isn't for some people. I imagine that if I didn't have these skills, stepping into a modern FPS would be very humbling.

 

[ríomhaire]

Well some of those issues are solved for modern FPSs. Regenerating health and only allowing two weapons really cuts down on the management side of the games and lets you focus only on the shooty parts.