It seems like lately the video game think piece (I’m not sure who coined that phrase) is becoming a requisite part of a game’s release cycle. Instead of vague teaser, potential preview, availability announcement, and review, the internet as a whole apparently got together and invented a new story to sandwich in there, dubbed the think piece. Now, when a game is released, the cycle is closer to: Vague teaser, think piece on teasers, potential preview, think piece on whether or not the game should exist, availability announcement, think piece on whether or not this was the right time to launch the game, review, and think piece post-mortem. Now, all these think pieces aren’t required, but, why half ass your think piecing?
So, instead of worrying about these kind of things, I figured I’d just post a think piece that I can link to whenever we feel tempted to write a think piece. Overall, I’d say I’m 100% OK with video games. I enjoy playing video games, and I appreciate the fact that people can make a living making games and selling them for money. I might not like some games, but that’s alright. I realize there’s many different people in this world with wildly varying tastes. I mean, hell, some people even think cilantro tastes like soap, and I can hardly imagine a taco without it. This kind of thing doesn’t make me angry.
Similarly, I realize that my hobby of video gaming requires new video games to be released for the medium to evolve, the market to continue to exist, and so I keep having games to play. Therefore, I’m totally alright with new video games being released, on any and all platforms. If you’re a game developer releasing a video game, I say, keep up the good work. You release that game, and if it looks like it’s something I might even remotely enjoy, I’ll buy it. No problem.
I’m even alright with remakes and re-releases, as it’s fun exploring the potential nostalgia I may have had to see how much my memories of yesterday line up with tomorrow’s realities. It’s fun seeing whether or not the JRPG that ate your life as a teenager is still even remotely interesting to you as an adult. In the same vein, I don’t have a problem with ports either, in fact, ports are great!
I’m at a point in my life where being able to sit down in front of the TV and play a game for an extended period of time is a rare treasure, so when something gets re-released on mobile in some form, it often allows me to enjoy that game in a way that I wouldn’t be able to. I don’t care whether or not something “fits" or “belongs" on mobile, as I’ll always choose a video game existing over a video game not existing, regardless of how much or how little it interests me.
I used to think this kind of thing was just normal, and common sense, but a lot of the things I’ve been reading online have me really questioning whether or not people who identify as gamers, or write about video games, even like games anymore. It’s a weird world we live in, and I’m excited for the future, all future games, and all future platforms.
Why does that make me feel like the strange one?
