Guilty_AI
Member
This is something i've been pondering about while laying down in a sunday night. Theres a certain type of feeling i can't help but think missing in modern gaming.
Picture this: You're on your room. It's night, with only a dim yellow light illuminating the ambient. You pick up a case with a random game and go put it into your Playstation Saturn 64. You turn on the console, the splash screen appears acompanied by a short tune. And then you're thrown into a complately new world, separated from everything and everyone, maybe except a few noises from the streets outside or from the house inhabitants beyond your closed door. That game feels unique and precious, a brand new one from a dozen others in your collection. You remember how excited you were when you went to the store to buy it a few days ago, and how you probably wont be getting anything else for the foreseeable future, nor want to for all that you can think of right now is that game.
This probably didn't happen to you exactly like that, but you get the idea. Nowadays, regardless of where you play your games, the device likely is deeply connected to the internet. When you start your game, even a single player one with no mandatory internet connection, you can still receive messages from friends, get achievement notifications, or update prompts, constantly reminding you that that world is merely a part of a larger ecosystem. As you play, you may feel tempted to check new messages on your phone, or look up some guide online when you're feeling stuck. Heck, the game may even have some soft implementations of multiplayer, like scattered messages or scores. Because that experience isn't yours, its something millions of people also felt.
Then, when you exit the game, just a few button clicks away is a sea of completely new experiences, all easily and quickly accessible, at the touch of your fingertips, for a few bucks you probably wont miss. It should feel like a dream come true, but simultaneously also makes the world you were just in feel like less, more trivial, just another one in an ocean filled with vaguely similar ones.
To be clear, i dont dislike gaming today, nor do i doom and gloom about modern games, but i cant help but feel the way i engage with games shifted dramatically. I wonder if there is any way to re-enact that old feeling. Maybe wait for a holiday when i can be relatively free of worry, prepare some hot milk at night, turn off the internet in the entire house, then go play?
I'm not drunk.
Picture this: You're on your room. It's night, with only a dim yellow light illuminating the ambient. You pick up a case with a random game and go put it into your Playstation Saturn 64. You turn on the console, the splash screen appears acompanied by a short tune. And then you're thrown into a complately new world, separated from everything and everyone, maybe except a few noises from the streets outside or from the house inhabitants beyond your closed door. That game feels unique and precious, a brand new one from a dozen others in your collection. You remember how excited you were when you went to the store to buy it a few days ago, and how you probably wont be getting anything else for the foreseeable future, nor want to for all that you can think of right now is that game.
This probably didn't happen to you exactly like that, but you get the idea. Nowadays, regardless of where you play your games, the device likely is deeply connected to the internet. When you start your game, even a single player one with no mandatory internet connection, you can still receive messages from friends, get achievement notifications, or update prompts, constantly reminding you that that world is merely a part of a larger ecosystem. As you play, you may feel tempted to check new messages on your phone, or look up some guide online when you're feeling stuck. Heck, the game may even have some soft implementations of multiplayer, like scattered messages or scores. Because that experience isn't yours, its something millions of people also felt.
Then, when you exit the game, just a few button clicks away is a sea of completely new experiences, all easily and quickly accessible, at the touch of your fingertips, for a few bucks you probably wont miss. It should feel like a dream come true, but simultaneously also makes the world you were just in feel like less, more trivial, just another one in an ocean filled with vaguely similar ones.
To be clear, i dont dislike gaming today, nor do i doom and gloom about modern games, but i cant help but feel the way i engage with games shifted dramatically. I wonder if there is any way to re-enact that old feeling. Maybe wait for a holiday when i can be relatively free of worry, prepare some hot milk at night, turn off the internet in the entire house, then go play?
I'm not drunk.
