I don't talk about some of the games I play, but more because hardly anyone else plays them more than being ashamed of playing them myself. Not exactly worth talking about being stuck on my latest mission on RUSE when most of my gaming buddies only care about the next Prestige star.
I do tend to shut off when certain games are mentioned though. The worst offenders are:
- World of Warcraft/Runescape. The kid across the road from me discovered these and went from a good kid to a total hermit. Even on my 21st birthday, he dropped by for about 30 seconds, said happy birthday, then left a perfectly good party with perfectly good beer and perfectly good women to go play Runescape. There's being into your games and there's flat out having nothing else in your life, you know? Play them by all means. Hell, I was into FFXI for a while. But do try to remember that there are ways of interacting with your fellow man besides clicking on them.
- Hardcore COD players. I love Black Ops, I play it quite frequently. But I recognise it for what it is. A game. The number of prestige stars you've acquired is not a mark of any sort of talent or manliness, it's simply a way of measuring how much time you're willing to sink into a game while your social life dissolves around you. So please, don't go on about your rank. It's just sad. It's a game. What are you bragging about, really? Numbers. Same goes for all you hardcore achievement whores out there. You think it truly impresses anyone? Do you get laid more often if you have a high gamerscore? No. So shut up.
- The Sims, and other 'life simulators'. To me video games are all about escapism. A way to break out of the doldroms of reality for an hour or so and do something you could never do. Save the world, fight an invading zombie hoards, race a flying car around at supersonic speeds, etc. Why would I try to escape reality by playing something that endeavours to mimmick it perfectly? They remind me of Big Brother, in which we sit in a house, watching people sitting in a house. A task that could just as easily be achieved with a mirror and save us the time and expense.
- Sports games, Guitar Hero/Rock Band, and others. Basically the same as The Sims, I don't honestly see the point in playing a game that mimmicks something you could be doing for real. I'm not as badly against them as The Sims because to be fair we can't all be rockers or pro athletes even if we were to practise forever, but come on. What's more enjoyable? A game of FIFA, or playing real football with your friends at the park? To me it's always the latter, but to each their own.
