by Magnum Apex » 24 Oct 2008 01:03
Hello everyone,
I'll start off with the language prerequisite. While I was born in the United States of America, I grew up in Venezuela, so English is my second language. However, I've been living in the United States for seven years now, so you're welcome to berate my English if isn't up to par with your standards.
Now that I'm done with my introduction, let's move on to the topic of this thread. Prepare for a long journey, or to be put to sleep.
Carlos. Meet Videogame.
My first memory of playing a videogame was when I got the Nintendo Entertainment System for Christmas at the age of 6 (or 5, as I'm not 100% sure). The console came with the videogame Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt / World Class Track Meet. It should come as no surprise that I was mesmerized by the entertainment value of Mario's adventure, and as some say, "I've been hooked ever since."
Before the Super Nintendo Entertainment System came along, I would play numerous games on the NES that would shape my interests for years to come. I was a big fan of beat-em-up games like the Double Dragon and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, as well as River City Ransom, Ninja Gaiden and Shadow of the Ninja. While I also played the Nintendo Trinity of Zelda, Metroid and Mario games, it was only the plumber's platforming adventures that captured my interest for any significant amount of time. I also played many games on the system thanks to the joy of renting, back when I could only keep the game for a couple of days before returning it.
Enter Arcades and 2D Fighting
At some point during my NES-playing days, I discovered the immense joy of arcade gaming. Arcades were a Prolific Fountain of Fun, delivering all the entertainment of most of the games I played at home with ten times the visual quality. Graphics were very important to me back then. Anything that looked prettier would immediately catch my attention. Thankfully, one of those things was Street Fighter II.
Street Fighter IIi introduced me to the Wonderful World of Fighting Videogames. I became hugely addicted to SFII. I memorized every single character's entire moveset. Whenever I was sitting alone in front of my TV, I would pick "Versus," and practice every character's moves. I would press every button in the controller, and try every motion of the d-pad on every character, when standing, crouching and jumping. I would stand on my feet, and physically emulate each move as much as I could. Thus, I learned the immense joy of discovering new moves on my own. A joy the great Internet, and growing up, have taken away from me.
My love for arcade gaming continued incessantly until somewhere around the introduction of the PlayStation. Before then, just like with the Street Fighter series, a similar love grew towards the Mortal Kombat franchise. Memorizing every special move, fatality and friendship was a mission I was happy to accomplish. Other games I liked to play ranged from the excellent Capcom fighting games based on Marvel characters (starting with X-Men), to Street Fighter: The Movie (yes, an unappreciated gem) and Killer Instinct. The latter planted the seeds for my desire to "make" these videogames I was so into. Back then, my childish understanding of the medium involved using a computer to make "awesome looking characters" that have "all these awesome moves," and that I would go to Japan to make it happen. You know, because "only the Japanese make videogames."
16-bit Consoles
At the same time, I played many action-oriented games on the SNES, a system I find to be the best right alongside the PlayStation and PlayStation 2. From great arcade ports like Mortal Kombat II and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles In Time to obscure games like Power Moves and Pit Fighter, the SNES stood as a great system to indulge my interests in action games. However, unlike several people I know, my SNES memories have nothing to do with RPGs outside of Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. This fact may be due to my inability to speak the English language at the time, as understanding the language used in an RPG is crucial to enjoying the game. At some point after owning an SNES, my parents bought me a Sega Genesis. I didn't use the system as much as Nintendo's machine, but I did enjoy it for a multitude of titles, such as Aladdin, X-Men, Captain America and The Avengers, Golden Axe, Tiny Toon Adventures and the Sonic series. I played several other games on the system as well, but most of them at friends' houses.
PC Gaming - When it felt special
During that time I also got into PC gaming, although the order of what games I was introduced to first is fuzzy, so please bear with me. While I tried games like Sim City and Mario Is Missing, I quickly lost interest in those type of games. Instead, I found the immense joy of CDs packed with over "600 games." It was fascinating to transition away from the diskette. Looking back, they're very cheap games, but at the time the variety and unique titles packed in a single disk was impressive. This is where my love for adventure games grew. I discovered a series of games called Hugo's House of Horrors, and I was impressed by the ability to type in whatever I wanted and see if Hugo would react to it. I liked how, whenever I cursed, he'd get angry at me. At the time I only knew some English words, but thankfully that was all I needed to move along the story. Other notable adventure games I played were The Dig and Beavis and Butt-head in Virtual Stupidity, with several other budget-looking ones which names I forget. Thanks to the multiple-game CDs, I discovered several action games, from obscure titles to Duke Nukem and Duke Nukem II. I also played random "games" like Spider-Man Cartoon Maker, which allowed the Player to create their own episode of the Spider-Man cartoon from the 90's by using a wealth of available art assets. I remember really liking it at the time.
Then I played Wolfestein 3-D, followed by Doom and Quake, and ending with the completely awesome Duke Nukem 3D. I won't get into the details here, as I'd probably sound like a broken record reciting how much those games meant to me, but let's just say the DN:3D was the highest point of my PC gaming hobby. I slowly started to drift away from PCs when Sony released the PlayStation, and with it opened my eyes to the potential of videogames as a medium that can stimulate a wide range of emotions on the Player.
The defining moment in My Videogame-Playing History
When the Sony PlayStation was announced, I was immediately interested in it. At the time I still had love for the arcades, and promises of console ports of some of my favorite arcade games of the time, such as Mortal Kombat 3 and WWF Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game made me really want the new console. It also helped, I'm not ashamed to admit, that it was from Sony. I can't remember at what point the company got its claws on me. The event probably took place somewhere in between my parents having a big, cool Sony Trinity TV and my having a smaller, shitty Panasonic TV.
At any rate, back when "bits" meant "better" in terms of consoles, I wasn't persuaded by the 64-bit superpowers of the upcoming Nintendo 64. Yes, I wanted that too, but I wanted a PS more. The Sega Saturn was also interesting (any console was), but I still wanted a PS more. Then, on one Christmas, I finally got my wish. I was the proud owner a PlayStation, with the two games I mentioned earlier, as well as a PlayStation Picks disc, which included demos of Battle Arena Toshinden, Jumping Flash and Wipeout.
If you think this post is already long, you should see how far I can go by just talking about the Sony PlayStation. I won't go into that much detail, but if you've read this far, thank you. I won't go into excruciating depth about my reunion with RPGs thanks to the fantastic Final Fantasy VII, which introduced me and kept me as a fan of the genre (like many others); or about how Bushido Blade stripped fighting games to its essence to deliver the closest thing a videogame running on a 32-bit system can get to a simulation of sword fighting; or how comic-book-based videogames took their first major step with Neversoft's Spider-Man in providing a sense of "I AM the superhero;" or how Mega Man was brought back successfully in action/adventure/RPG hybrid form that still begs for a trilogy as Mega Man Legends 3.
However, I will talk a little more about Metal Gear Solid.
I won't make claims about its political views, or how many checks does it get right from the Correct Way To Tell A Story Checklist. Metal Gear Solid is not My Most Important Videogame because of its views or "mature" themes, but because the whole of everything it did resulted in a videogame that touched me, grabbed me, and made me care more than any other game I had ever played. With all my gaming experience in consoles, arcades and PC, I had never been more humbled than when I played MGS. I was fascinated by my ability to sneak around without being detected, knowing full well that while the game may encourage me to sneak, I am not forced to. I can be a silent assassin that snaps every soldier's neck on my path to Metal Gear, or the Rambo that shoots his way past everything, or the professional that doesn't kill unless he has to. These characters, talking to me in their 2D spires, are more alive and real than the millions of NPCs and heroes I've met in the past. The boss battles were intense and felt personal. I wasn't trying to get to the "next level." I was trying to beat the living shit out of psychopath that carelessly manipulated my companion into attacking me, violating her thoughts; I was a man fighting a battle of honor against someone that, at any other time, would've been a friend I greatly respected. I was man tortured with thirst for revenge. I was also many other things while playing MGS, but these statements aren't meant to make something out of nothing. I didn't sit back and try to sensationalize the effects of the game as I was playing. No, these were feelings that the game brought out of me that I did not expect, and feelings like these were ones that were felt again in most occasions from playing subsequent entries in the series. MGS opened my eyes to the potential of videogames as a strong inducer of emotion and deep thought. Videogames have the power to positively motivate people outside the realm of videogames, be it by emoting a hunger and thirst for knowledge, or a directive to improve one self in all possible directions.
But I digress. I'll try my best to wrap it up.
Videogames After Metal Gear Solid
I eventually purchased an N64 about a year after the system came out, and was treated to very few, but very memorable game experiences. Super Mario 64 was one of the few games that really made me stare at it and think, "Wow, I can't wait to find out how that plays like." The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time instantly became one of my favorite games ever, and the reason I ever cared about Zelda at all. Both Goldeneye and Perfect Dark brought back the excitement I had playing PC FPS games, along with an objective system that made shooting bad guys only part of the fun.
The next generation of consoles arrived, and with it, a brief exposure to an excellent arcade port of Marvel vs. Capcom, an enjoyable 3D Sonic game, Resident Evil: Code Veronica and one of my favorite games, Shenmue. However, with the incoming release of the PlayStation 2, my Dreamcast was all but forgotten. I got the PS2 shortly after launch, and SSX was addictive enough to keep me playing until Zone of the Enders, the excellent Final Fantasy X, Devil May Cry, Onimusha, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, and Grand Theft Auto III came out. The latter was the next big "wow" moment I rarely felt from videogames, as playing the game made me feel like Truman Burbank in The Truman Show. Someone must have been picking at my brain as I was growing up. They found what one videogame I'd like to see be made, and made it for me. One where the Player could "go anywhere" and "do anything" in a living, breathing, modern city. Shenmue gave me a taste of this dream of mine, but GTAIII gave me the fucking genie bottle.
I'm sorry. I was wrong. I'm fairly certain my text would be longer if I were to talk about the PS2 and all my game experiences on it. The system has too many games I really like, and too many games on it I still want to play. Okami was the evolution and revolution people tired of Zelda games needed. God of War brought out of me the same feeling of explosive masculinity and "machismo" that only a movie like Gladiator was able to replicate. Shadow of Destiny was a reminder that the adventure genre wasn't dead, and that it could continue to live on in consoles. Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance and Mortal Kombat: Deception successfully came out of the pits of dead franchises Tomb Raider had long fallen into, and succeeded in bringing it remade for the newest generation, something Street Fighter IV is just now doing. MGS3 took us back to an entirely different setting from other MGS games and forced us to use game-interrupting menus regularly, and still managed to be the Best Game On PlayStation 2. The End is the best boss battle ever. I should probably stop now.
Despite loving my PS2, I couldn't ignore the GameCube or Xbox. I got my GCN when Super Mario Sunshine came out, and was shocked at how little I cared for it when I started playing it. How, unlike every other major Mario platformer, this one didn't do anything short of amaze me? A disappointment by any significant measure. And while The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker was a step up from the disappointing Majora's Mask (oh, yes), I began to realize Nintendo's time as the developer of genre-defining games was over. Thankfully, Retro Studios' Metroid Prime carried the torch, and became the game that made me care about Samus (I missed Super Metroid while growing up, but I played it later). Third parties stepped up with two different, amazing horror games with Eternal Darkness and Resident Evil 4. ED has yet to be surpassed as the ultimate horror game, although I haven't played Dead Space to confirm that. RE4 was more of an excellent action game with horror in it. Still, there wasn't much else to be impressed about from the GameCube.
The Xbox was the place to play online games, and also multiplatform titles. Beyond Good & Evil married several game-play systems from different games, yet its high concept felt entirely unique and endearing. Thank the Gods of Gaming (whoever they are) for green-lighting a sequel after abysmal sales of the original. The system was also home to Shenmue II, and it was fine by me since I've never gotten in the practice of importing games to get the original DC version from Japan. If Shadow of Destiny was a beacon of light in the dark room of console adventure games, Indigo Prophecy was the light at the end of the tunnel... as long as you ignore the latter parts of the game. I never became a fan of the Halo effect, but I was hugely addicted to the online multiplayer of 2 and 3. It always bothered me that game journalists and gamers put the campaign mode of Halo games on such a high pedestal (Halo 3's was great, though). Did everyone forget about Goldeneye or Perfect Dark? Not even Perfect Dark Zero was able to bring back what made GE and PD so fun. Anyway, if there's one Xbox game that grabbed me by the balls and made me his bitch, it was Ninja Gaiden (sorry, John Romero). It may be masochism that made me finish the entire game, and then finish it the next day a second time in just 14 hours because I had forgotten to register for the online tournament. Those were "good" times. NG, along with Jade Empire and KOTOR, are the best memories I have from Microsoft's first console.
Now I find myself in the new generation, still playing games as I have before, although now I do it for two reasons: Fun and research. As someone who has "made his dream come true" and "joined the industry," I find myself with little time to play games and pursue all other interests and responsibilities I have. I bought each one of the three systems at their respective launch dates, and I'm happy to say only my 360 had to be taken back for a brush up after two years of quality service. The PlayStation 3 is a workhorse, and the Wii rests a little too much in my living room.
Random Facts
I came here from Action Button Dot Net, although I'm not a regular visitor of that website. Someone else from a forum I visit, with glowing eyes, pointed us to abdn as the gospel of game reviews. Their articles posing as game reviews are interesting to read, even if many are flawed (don't get me started on the whole "Naomi can't cook eggs" bullshit).
When I came here though, I found some interesting articles that are quite different from the articles I read on games, be it from the consumer or professional media. I'm interested in exploring this site further, as well as some of the philosophical works that the webmaster seems to be so fond of, and see for myself if there's anything useful there that isn't pointless theory, something which many people outside the industry looking in seem to be full of: A bunch of information that is useless in making a game that actually needs to be shipped. Hopefully this time it will be different. After all, our industry is far from perfect, and there is much ground to explore. I'm happy to see people so passionate about gaming, that they're willing to expand the field in the best way they can, whatever that may be.
Of course, hardly all the knowledge I seek is for the purpose of game development, but I'm attracted to this site because it seems to attempt to break down videogames as we know them by the use of philosophical works, which interests me. I haven't read a lot on this site, so my assessment could be mistaken. I'll see.