Old

All posts tagged Old

Is Gaming Too Corporate?

Posted by Karl Weller on December 21, 2023
Posted in: Feature. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

As we stagger towards the season of commercialised festivities, I dig deep into my cynical core to retrieve the childhood sense of joy I once associated with Christmas. Marred by decades of society abuse and attempt to revel in the subsequent culmination of the year, to remind myself that it’s always beneficial to evaluate your achievements over the past 12 months. To reflect on the positives, the negatives and the things that haven’t changed. But however mercurial the year has been, I can confidently say that 2023 might be the least amount of time that I’ve ever committed to gaming since I was a fetus. Much of this abstinence is self inflicted. With work being a perennial drain on my stamina. As well as the delightful tribulations of sharing your home with two like minded females. But some of my own diminished interest can be attributed to my emerging disillusionment of the industry and the “products” being developed.

This may come across as “old man yells at clouds” lamentation, but gaming really has changed. Graphics have improved. Gameplay is as fluid and engaging as it has ever been, arguably more so. Stories have become more sophisticated, cinematic as well as nuanced. Providing evocative narratives, traditionally reserved for television or movies. But despite the obvious reforms, there seems to be a recurring famine in regards to individuality. A lot of big budget games are seemingly developed by committees to adhere to popular criteria. Fashionable trends that are likely to generate lucrative profits, simply by reciprocating what properties that already saturate the market. Then there’s the industries obsession with propagating digital media, specifically the unwavering emphasis on streaming. A service as soulless as it is exploitive. Besides the inconsistency of many broadband services that prevents any reliability, streaming games are essentially modern day rentals. Charging consumers a subscription to borrow content they should really own. What’s most concerning is that people seem content with that?! Even digital purchases aren’t safe, as Sony’s recent licensing arrangements have proven.

Even the new PS5 Slim has a separate, detachable disc drive, that requires an initial internet validation to use. Now the cynical part of me, evidently a section that has steadily been growing, can’t help but wonder what is stopping the likes of Sony and Microsoft from making internet functionality a permanent feature for disc based games? Or more likely, omitting them altogether? Factor in the dubious business practices of these companies. With DLC. Online only games. Games released unfinished or littered with bugs. Games as a service. And really just games with no other purpose than to illicit a sustained, fiscal turnover. Then they are limiting consumer autonomy and monopolising our engagement. Perhaps the industry has always been this jaded. Or maybe I’m just getting old. But I can’t shake the feeling that the games industry is only going to get more manipulative.

Merry Christmas everyone!

The Real Truth About “Mature” Gaming.

Posted by Karl Weller on November 2, 2023
Posted in: Feature. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

It’s interesting how our preferences adapt as we get older. When you’re in your 20’s it’s all about socialising, late nights and alcohol induced comas. Well I imagine that’s what it was like. Replace “socialising” with barricading oneself in their room playing Dragon Quest and GTA, and you have some insight into my tragic Weekend sabbaticals. The same is true of the games we play. As an adult, much of my time is divided between work commitments and supporting my family, as well as the domestic responsibilities required when I’m not working. So very little time is reserved for the simple pleasures of gaming, beyond the fleeting evening excursions after the family has gone to sleep. So it’s important that you settle on a fitting game that will satisfy your needs, maximize your limited time and all without compromising your own requirements for rest.

Which is why I often find myself reverting back to the games that induce that reassuring comfort that appeases my restive mind. And I think my preferences as an adult really reflect where I am in my life. In my younger, less grey more viril days, I could roam the virtual, dragon infested pastures of “Generic Fantasy Named World” with impunity. Or survive in a nihilistic post apocalyptic environment, ravaged by humanity’s self-destructive hubris. Now, fatigued by a physically and mentally demanding job, exasperated by the added delight of children, much of my gaming habits are limited by the infrequency as well as limitations of afforded time. Many of my choices are motivated by the mitigation of the tension exerted by the day. It’s the games that seem to incorporate the mundane tasks that are some of the most effective.

Nothing promotes the alleviation of stress with such effortless speed as a game like “Power Wash Simulator”. There’s an inherent contentment from the completion of such mundane tasks. An almost meditative balm from the simple act of cleansing the encrusted dirt that has accumulated on the door frame of a house. It’s a similar sense of satisfaction I get from maintaining my island in “Animal Crossing”, that is perpetually beset by invasive weeds and stray branches. When a game devolves into nothing more than garden maintenance or spray washing a grubby patio, two domestic responsibilities I despise doing outside of virtual environments, I think you really have to begin questioning how you got to this stage in a hobby. But conversely feel encouraged that despite tastes, mood or age demographic, that there will almost certainly be a game to scratch that seemingly interminable itch. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a toilet to clean.

Friends Like These.

Posted by Karl Weller on November 28, 2019
Posted in: Feature. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

One of my best friends in school was a renowned bullshitter. He was notorious for fabricating some our years most incredulous, though mostly benign stories. For the purposes of discretion, the anonymity of any known acquaintances, and more specifically the identity of this pathological liar, I’ll refer to him as “Brian”. Brian was an amiable guy, not particularly bright nor an exceptionally charming in his demeanour, but harmless. Brian was one of the few people I knew that could engage in long, meandering conversations that were derived from a truth, yet completely distorted by lies. Tales embellished by details so absurd that substantiating the veracity of his claims was a largely a futile endeavour. Evidenced by other more credible testimony that conflicted with his own dubious assertions. He expressed these exaggerations with such a confident swagger and genuine sincerity that you could never bring yourself to question him. But beneath the eccentric declarations and masculine bravado was a sensitive kid that simply wanted to be liked. Desperate to be admired by his peers for who he was. I’d always admired certain qualities of his, especially his integrity as a friend. I recall not doing my science homework, an all too common occurance I’m ashamed to admit, resorting to desperately copying his homework almost word for word, with Brian being punished for replicating my homework! But he never confessed to it. Never ousted me as the forger, but merely laughed at the absurdity of it all.

Throughout school, along with a couple of other degenerates, we formed an unshakable bond, with Brian’s lies being the catalyst for our little school yard menagerie. Brian was essentially Bethesda, except I could rely on him on occasion. We’d listen to his frivolous anecdotes, comparing details and deriving any salient information from his overly rehearsed routines. Most infuriating about him was the way in which he could attract women. It was simply uncanny. Unfair even! He also possessed this uncanny aptitude for getting us into trouble. On more than one occasion I found myself in the middle of some sort of psychical altercation, simply because he couldn’t keep his mouth shut! And I am not a war like person. Yet despite his misguided efforts to solicit respect from his peers, our reliance on his unreliability was really the nucleus of our social group. We bonded over the absurdity of his declarations, waiting to discover what ludicrous situation he had found himself in when we weren’t around. He wasn’t always the easiest person to socialise with, and certainly didn’t help himself with his elaborate tales. But he enjoyed being around people, even if he didn’t always relish his own company.

Its true that you never have the same friends you had at school, though that’s probably a good thing. He annoyed me more than I’d care to mention, provoking the ire of many of my classmates. We drifted apart after school however, with his shenanigans a far less endearing gimmick when you’re in your 20’s. But even though school was over half my life ago I still treasure those times, even though one the most galling aspects of my friendship (the lies) is somehow my most treasured.

Being A 32 Year Old, 80 Year Old.

Posted by Karl Weller on April 11, 2019
Posted in: Feature. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

You’d think working with people considerably younger than yourself would impart some sort of tempered solidarity. That each individual, regardless of generational contrasts could learn something from one another’s life experiences. The startling realisation is however that I find the temerity of youth rather irritating. They say youth is wasted on the young, I’d say oxygen is. Perhaps that’s harsh, maybe even incentive. More indicative of experiencing the onset of psychological senility in my thirties. But I don’t care. Life moves by with a passive gesture of elapsed time with methodical ignorance to your existence, all surreptitiously mobilised without consent. Birthday’s used to be a great cause for celebration, now they pass by with shrug and curious mutterings of “what the hell happened?”. So associating professionally with people in their very early 20’s just accentuates the gulf in cultural influence between people separated by only a single decade.

The trouble with escalating age isn’t nursing a rescinding metabolism, getting old, grey and having to be careful not to sit on your own testicles, though I live in constant fear of that, it’s that everyone around you appears to be getting younger. They greet you with adolescent phrases, new and preferable ways to insult one’s mother and exchange seemingly hilarious cultural references that I’m only peripherally aware of. They regale you with explicit tales of their sordid weekends and late nights, looking at you incredulously when they enquire into your Saturday night activity and explain that you fell asleep on your sofa at half 9 playing Warframe. Now this type juvenile behaviour is something reflective of myself at their age. They are certainly familiar exchanges that I’d punctuate with profanities for irreverent emphasis. Yet I don’t remember being quite so ignorant. For example I often wear a T-shirt with the “Jaws” poster on the front. Now most people have some passing knowledge of the movie, even if they haven’t seen it. Baffling as that maybe the fact that most of these Philistines haven’t seen Jaws isn’t really the issue. The problem is when they comment on it in a vaguely complimentary, yet overtly patronising manner and utter the immortal excuse “its before my time”. It’s before my time too you snarky little troll!

Another instance of such negligent ignorance occurred during one of the many frivolous lunchtime discussions held in the break room. I had made an oblique reference to the movie “Hot Fuzz”, when talking about a series of suspected assaults in the area, with one incident sadly resulting in a fatality. A colleague of mine analysed the incident declaring it a callous and shameful murder. Well he said that it was “naughty”, but you know, same difference. To which I replied “Perhaps he just tripped and fell on his own shears?”. Silence. Not. A. Word. No indication that anyone had the slightest notion of what I was blithering on about. Even tumbleweed would have blown in the opposite direction to avoid such a catastrophic use of Hot Fuzz. And I know it wasn’t because they had found my snide joke offensive, because the previous days discussion concerned whether or not Michael Jackson had “reduced the size of his penis when his skin was dyed white?!”.

I might be overreacting when I say that if you haven’t watched Jaws or Hot Fuzz, then frankly the future isn’t worth fighting for. It’s not because I’m old and grumpy. It’s not! I’m not the problem, you are! And you smell, like a poo. Any poo. Like a wet dog poo that doesn’t respect the butt-hole it’s just been discharged from! Now pull your trousers up above your butt crack and learn that there was a time before your conception. And for god sake stop saying “Fam”. I don’t know what that is?!

Does The Games Industry Hate Older Gamers?

Posted by Karl Weller on January 4, 2019
Posted in: Feature. Tagged: , , , , , , , . 7 Comments

There’s a divide. A clear yet subtle disparity between young and old gamer’s. There’s certainly an indication that expectations are sharply distinctive between generations. The difference between gamer’s is the same as the difference between the movies “Alien” and “Aliens”; marginal, yet distinct. What’s also telling is the number of people who will comprehend that reference and those that won’t understand the significance of the plural. There’s invariably the same enthusiasm, similar passions, just a variable interpretation of what constitutes as reasonable doubt and deceitful. Youth tolerate certain grievances that someone like me would never condone. It’s a very broad generalised sentiment that may not accurately reflect your own personal experience, but it’s hard to deny that some established practices are deemed acceptable and even normal.

Games released unfinished, teething with crippling bugs, inflated pre-order incentives, premium currency, and everyone’s favourite legalised thievery, Loot Box’s. Of course these are also the kind of practices that have occurred incrementally over many years, simmering gradually to condition us to odious stench of corruption without it seeming alarming. It defies belief that such practices are tolerated in an industry that once flourished because of innovation not despite it. Commerce over craft is the encouraged method for game development. Hell, many supposed AAA games aren’t even released fully functional! If a game I purchased didn’t work I’d demand my money back, not passively defend the ignorant exercise as a necessary part of game development. The worst part, the thing that really rile’s me is the blatant lies emitted by devs/publishers, most notably the fallacious assertion that not only do we not play single player games anymore, but also don’t trade games.

The systemic dissolve of the second-hand market instigated by publishers that want more control over their revenue is not something I’d consider a positive step for the industry, let alone consumers. The aggressive defamation of single player experiences simply because publishers can’t monetise them infuriates me! They use their significant influence to flat-out lie about how people don’t want single player games to justify the inclusion of their sloppy, content starved multiplayer games. What I hate most is that people accept it. Just watch idly, complicit in their deceptive labour and casually say that it will get sorted “later”. As if that’s an acceptable alternative. So how does this translate into some perceived hostility towards older gamer’s? Well, we tend to be more casual, and casual players don’t tend to spend as much.

We have jobs, bills, domestic responsibilities, things to moan at, awkward joints, and quite honestly we require more sleep. There’s a necessitating incentive from brief, easily accomplished objectives in games that at my age and social standing is not only appealing but required. Life simply doesn’t permit the time to engage in an extended play-through that can’t be paused and potentially left absent for a period of time. Companies that can’t exploit you regularly and aggressively aren’t much interested in you. And ironically enough I’m not all that interested in them.