I can relate to this article when I look back at my own gaming experiences, I'm one of those PS-era gamers with bad taste, a lot of my most memorable experiences was in line with what the article was saying.
The first game I had for PS and my all time favorite is Final Fantasty Tactics for the Playstation, mind you, I didn't play this game like it was meant to be played. It was because for one reason: I didn't have a memory card. I forget the reason, maybe we couldn't afford it or whatever, but the case was I was forced to play Final Fantasy Tactics without saving the game. Now, a lot of players who played it know that I couldn't have finished it. But at the time, it wasn't the point. The point was me seeing how far I could get in one play through, and how many classes I could unlock. My best achievement was unlocking the Oracle class by Mandalia Plains, after the second battle. I don't remember how far I got, to Dorter I think, before I borrowed a memory card from a friend, but this blunted FFT for me. Supposedly this was one complicated and harsh game, but it wasn't to me. Once I got a memory card I ran right through it, leveled whenever and beat it. But I think what made "going" through the game so easy, is I didn't have cold feet anymore. I mean, I restarted the thing a lot of times and faced the game over screen quite a bit, and wasn't scared to lose. I don't think I have ever mastered a game quite like I did with FFT, and after reading the article I think it makes sense why.
I'm actually this type of player:
especially if you suck, which, if you are reading this because you expect some sort of a revelation from me, you most certainly do
But I took a lot from this article, so much, that I read it twice trying to understand what it was saying. I don't think I've actually played anything honestly, except for some competitive multi-player games, in the last 9-10 years now of gaming. I've played RPG's, MMORPG's (lol? - but I got to meet a lot of cool people), and well I think I was looking for "profoundness" in the wrong places. Especially, when I got to a point where I wouldn't play a game unless I could hack, so I could finish it as fast as possible. This article was a really eye opener to me, as well as the "Can Games be Art?" article. But, what gets me is, why I couldn't figure this out myself? I mean, that's what the quote above means doesn't it? Why is it that I'm waiting for some weird revelation to come to me about a recreational activity that's pretty trivial to begin with. Well, I'll end with that. Thanks again.
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User was banned for posting again, this time a huge entirely off-topic post, which was also retarded into the bargain. --icy]