A Massive Game Library, So Little Time

Man, I dont even remember what I wrote in that last blog post, but I'm positive it was not worth any time reading any of it.

But today, I'd like to express something that I feel would be universal to many who buy a mass amount of games and have no time for them. Its hard to try and keep up with all the latest titles that come out, along with games that passed by and your friend recommended it to you, or it was all the net rage and people on message boards agree in unison that everybody should own it. If you buy X certain game or you dont own this Y game you're labeled as some kind of horrible person. You were able to shell out all this cash for this one game, but you missed this really great one, and your mother hates you for it.

Its starting to become a tough industry for just anyone to come out with a great game for everyone to check out. They have to fight other publishers to attract consumers into buying their product. It may even be coming to a point where people feel as if the up and coming games dont match their expectations. Like Mario Kart for example, Mario Kart Wii did everything to try and make the game friendlier to a broader audience, which caused the developers to change the rules. But people still prefer just sticking with the Super NES or Nintendo 64 versions so the player can have something familiar to them. They may also be times where the developer changes the rules so much that they were better off owning the previous version. Not every person who played the original version of Team Fortress went over to Team Fortress 2. Some complaints that the game was made too simple, or they dont agree with other aspects of the game, such as the graphics, or the fact the game is constantly changing with the class updates. Some even feel that games lose all value once the next generation of consoles come up.

After a few years of being a console fanboy, I learned that any developer appreciates your business. You could probably imagine that I was heavily aligned with Nintendo. To see games on other platforms and not the console you chose is disappointing. But they probably had a better chance on that system (Like Klonoa 2 on Playstation 2) because of the wider install base that could see a home for a title thats already having a hard time standing out. They could probably had put Klonoa 2 on Gamecube, but could they afford it? All the advertising, development just to sell a measly 5,000 copies in the first month is not exactly breaking the bank.

Now that its been years later, I've been able to earn my own money, meaning I could buy anything I want when I want to. But now the industry is larger, maybe not neccesarily stronger. Theres still difficulty getting niche games to see a decent return. However I've noticed that indie developers have seen a significant rise with the arrival of digital distribution. But the real difficulty is that the amout of games coming out are starting to grow substantially. You may even find difficulty looking for a specific game due to low distribution. At worst, you'll have to spend double the amount of the actual MSRP in the aftermarkets such as eBay just to find a copy of the game.

A problem I have in keeping up with games is that I have to dedicate time to other things. In some cases, a 5 hour game may be just the right length to accomodate for a hectic life schedule. Or maybe the other thing taking up time is...other games. I dont expect to play a multitude of RPGs, especially if they tout that they last over 100 hours just to complete. RPGs are probably my worst genre. I mean, I recently picked up Persona 4, and I greatly look forward to it. But I'm only 13 hours into Persona 3, nowhere near the end. I could play both at the same time, but theres still other RPGs I have to play through. Like Skies of Arcadia. But with all games, sometimes I run across a point in the game where I just dont feel like getting past a certain part. Or scouring the game world to collect a handful of items that grant you the ability to move onto the next part of the game.

I dont think this post is quite going anywhere, but it does hurt when certain games arent successful on the market. Or even when you want to make room for games that fit into both your time and budget.  Everyone is bound to miss certain games. I'm trying to do my darndest at picking up some of the best games that dont receive the most attention. But if I miss a couple of things, dont blame me too much if I'm just waiting for a price drop down the line.

Man, I dont even remember what I wrote in that last blog post, but I'm positive it was not worth any time reading any of it.

But today, I'd like to express something that I feel would be universal to many who buy a mass amount of games and have no time for them. Its hard to try and keep up with all the latest titles that come out, along with games that passed by and your friend recommended it to you, or it was all the net rage and people on message boards agree in unison that everybody should own it. If you buy X certain game or you dont own this Y game you're labeled as some kind of horrible person. You were able to shell out all this cash for this one game, but you missed this really great one, and your mother hates you for it.

Its starting to become a tough industry for just anyone to come out with a great game for everyone to check out. They have to fight other publishers to attract consumers into buying their product. It may even be coming to a point where people feel as if the up and coming games dont match their expectations. Like Mario Kart for example, Mario Kart Wii did everything to try and make the game friendlier to a broader audience, which caused the developers to change the rules. But people still prefer just sticking with the Super NES or Nintendo 64 versions so the player can have something familiar to them. They may also be times where the developer changes the rules so much that they were better off owning the previous version. Not every person who played the original version of Team Fortress went over to Team Fortress 2. Some complaints that the game was made too simple, or they dont agree with other aspects of the game, such as the graphics, or the fact the game is constantly changing with the class updates. Some even feel that games lose all value once the next generation of consoles come up.

After a few years of being a console fanboy, I learned that any developer appreciates your business. You could probably imagine that I was heavily aligned with Nintendo. To see games on other platforms and not the console you chose is disappointing. But they probably had a better chance on that system (Like Klonoa 2 on Playstation 2) because of the wider install base that could see a home for a title thats already having a hard time standing out. They could probably had put Klonoa 2 on Gamecube, but could they afford it? All the advertising, development just to sell a measly 5,000 copies in the first month is not exactly breaking the bank.

Now that its been years later, I've been able to earn my own money, meaning I could buy anything I want when I want to. But now the industry is larger, maybe not neccesarily stronger. Theres still difficulty getting niche games to see a decent return. However I've noticed that indie developers have seen a significant rise with the arrival of digital distribution. But the real difficulty is that the amout of games coming out are starting to grow substantially. You may even find difficulty looking for a specific game due to low distribution. At worst, you'll have to spend double the amount of the actual MSRP in the aftermarkets such as eBay just to find a copy of the game.

A problem I have in keeping up with games is that I have to dedicate time to other things. In some cases, a 5 hour game may be just the right length to accomodate for a hectic life schedule. Or maybe the other thing taking up time is...other games. I dont expect to play a multitude of RPGs, especially if they tout that they last over 100 hours just to complete. RPGs are probably my worst genre. I mean, I recently picked up Persona 4, and I greatly look forward to it. But I'm only 13 hours into Persona 3, nowhere near the end. I could play both at the same time, but theres still other RPGs I have to play through. Like Skies of Arcadia. But with all games, sometimes I run across a point in the game where I just dont feel like getting past a certain part. Or scouring the game world to collect a handful of items that grant you the ability to move onto the next part of the game.

I dont think this post is quite going anywhere, but it does hurt when certain games arent successful on the market. Or even when you want to make room for games that fit into both your time and budget.  Everyone is bound to miss certain games. I'm trying to do my darndest at picking up some of the best games that dont receive the most attention. But if I miss a couple of things, dont blame me too much if I'm just waiting for a price drop down the line.

I don't know about you but I've never heard of anyone calling out someone just because they've never played X game.  Maybe online in forums but that's hardly a demographic to count on.

As far as your bit about having time to play games, there is nothing wrong taking a long time to beat an RPG.  I like long games like that because I feel like I can play a little bit at a time and slowly work my way through it.  It took me almost a year to beat Chrono Trigger.  I really enjoyed it that way.  Something I also like to do is play a couple of different styles of RPG at the same time.  Right now I'm playing a turn-based one (Persona 4), and action-y style one (Final Fantasy XII) and a "whatever-the-heck-you-wanna-call-it" (Fallout 3).  All are very long but because they all play differently, I feel like I'm doing something else instead of playing another rpg.

I don't really try to keep up with the "industry" anymore as far as obtaining and playing the newest thing.  It's impossible and ludicrous to do unless you do game reviews for a living.  There's plenty of amazing PS2, PS1, N64, DS, SNES, Genesis and PC games out there that are pretty cheap.  Yes, sometimes you have to look for them but not everything is impossible to find.