You may be wondering how these three things will come to pass. Well with the first item, it just so happens I know my track record with video games. Granted I have done really well over the last year with beaten to bought ratio; however, I know that unless a big jumps under my skin that I will probably fall into the same old habits of being really interested in a game before I have it in my possession only to lose interest shortly there after. Usually this is because I feel that games have become either to predictable or they are just a sequel that is just like the first only with a few added changes, and sometimes those changes are just features that should have been included the first go round. There have been very few games that have really perked up my "wow" senses; for instance, Bioshock: Infinite was a awesome game, I enjoyed the story, I cared about the characters, and It was long enough that I thought I got my moneys worth(but I am a little ticked that the game has gone super cheap less than a year after it's release). Now I did not play the first two (even though I own them..shocker I know) and there were many complaints that Infinite strayed from what was so original about the first Bioshock. I find it kind of odd that I was actually drawn into a game in its third iteration rather than as a new IP. Now that I think about it I wonder if my lack of finishing games comes from the fact that I play a MMO for 7 years straight after all there never was an ending so perhaps where it comes from.
Now on to the second point I brought up craving interaction with people while playing video games, but the problem is that the current standards that are "gaming community" and "interaction" are at an all time low in my opinion. When every other word revolves around key terms like, "gay" or "retard" it really makes online play undesirable and not something I look forward to doing. I played Battlefield 3 for quite a while and although I enjoyed the game the constant use of the terms I mentioned really made the game not fun, I could care less if I had a 1 to 8 kill/death ratio or that my squad was the worst on the server. But it was the continual bile and shit behavior that drove me from wanting to play online, which puts me in a loop of indecisiveness as to how I will once again find joy in online gaming. Do not mistake my last thought to be that I expect all players to act with the behavior of lets say a sir ....
but I don't expect every other comment to be about fucking my mother or raping *insert bodily object here* repeatedly. I started playing online when there was actually niceties thrown around like good round, nice shot,or even the occasional you got PWNT comment, but with the inclusion of online play into consoles and no longer an exclusive to the PC gaming market. The average age dropped, and so when mommy and daddy bought them their gaming box of choice (PS3 or xbox 360) the ability to hide in a bedroom and act like a fool was no longer supervised as much as activity on a computer might have been previously. So these reasons are why I no longer play online like I used to; although, I do long for those gaming sessions that lasted for 16 hours that were only interrupted by food and biological breaks. I fear those days of gaming are behind me and no I look only for the content within, and have been disappointed by the majority of games I have tried.
Now the final topic I want to touch upon is what I eluded to at the end of my last paragraph, disappointment. I recently purchased Grand Theft Auto 5 and while the game looks very nice and has great improvements from my favorite in the series, Vice City, it is not original at all. The story has been seen a hundred times before in cinema; however, I will say that instead of taking one cheesy action flick story line they decided to grab three and combine them for added affect. But I am disappointed with the end result of what it is, I am only 6-7 hours into the game and spend most of the time wandering around in vehicles just exploring and occasionally progressing the story line, but so far I would have to say I truly wasted $60. The other disappointment is coming from how gaming companies are treating their customers, there are 2 particular instances of this that I feel I have the right to complain about, and so I shall. First would be the release of DC universe online, a MMO that was released on PS3 and PC I originally ordered this game on PC and was really looking forward to it's interactivity with characters that we have all been aware of since our youth and it looked really good, but the company making the game did something that left a sour taste in its player base by releasing an incomplete and broken game. This was not the last of my issues with the game because it did get better. The game was patched and things seemed to be getting better and a co-worker said he was getting the game on the PS3 so I decided I would buy the game a second time, and all I can say is comparatively the PC version was a masterpiece compared to all the problems the PS3 version had, and after several months of playing I decided to call it quits, fast forward to one year after the release of the game and Sony makes the decision to go free to play with the game, and wow do I feel like I got duped on that purchase. Twice!
To make this even more interesting I went back to the game a few months ago and was actually banned for "hacking" well come to find out I actually had bad RAM that was causing false positives, but yet in their eyes I was just a hacker. I did get some good help with their tech support, but only after pleading my case until I got escalated up their support ladder. Needless to say the whole experience left a bitter taste in my mouth. So after the whole initial DCUO experience I purchased a game at the end of the year that looked promising as well it was Star Wars: The Old Republic. This game again looked promising and again another universe of characters I was familiar with and had great interest of getting involved in. Well that should have been my first warning sign that I should have seen. After purchasing the game (deluxe digital edition none the less which is a extra $20 dollars over the $60 they charged) less than one year later they went free to play, so twice in one year I feel like I got screwed by gaming companies who were to short sighted to look past the release window and actually look at the costs and potential profits (or lack of). Is this partially on me? Yes it is because I took the chance on games that were not proven in the marketplace, but also I feel like the gaming industry as a whole is only concerned with making money and no longer putting out a product that is of actual value to their most valuable asset, the customer.
So while this last topic may have seemed like a bitch and moan segment it was actually a way for me to convey the frustrations of a gamer that is lost, has been burned, and is looking for a place in these worlds that are created for exploration, yet seem to have more signs of detour posted than they do signs that proclaim "Stay awhile". One day I hope to be brought back into the gaming landscape in a capacity that engrosses me mentally, and brings me back into a community that is not solely populated by a bunch of douche nozzles.
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