[Disclaimer: this post isn't a dig at those people who have already listed a guilty pleasure or at the concept of the monthly musing. This is my own take on the idea. Remember folks, even though this is the interwebs, opinions are like arseholes: everyone has got one. This post will also veer on and off gaming a few times. ]
Come closer my friend, I'm going to tell you a secret. You wanna know my gaming guilty pleasure? Well I don't know how to say this, but.... I don't have one.
The concept of a guilty pleasure is taking enjoyment in something that we either would not admit to or be seen enjoying in the company of others. In the last few years, there's been a bit of an indulgence of guilty pleasures, especially in the UK where Sean Rowley's Guilty Pleasures club night has been a roaring success as well as spawning two compilation albums. In my estimation, guilty pleasures are more common in music and film, than gaming. You might enjoy a brainless action flick or dumb comedy, but you're probably not going to list either of them on your top 10 films? right. A cursory glance through my DVDs shows some films by the Coen Brothers, Orson Welles and David Lynch, some esoteric Asian films and plenty of critically acclaimed films. But I've also stuff like Jackass: The Movie, Kingpin and plenty of Adult Swim stuff too, which is hardly the most mature thing you could watch. Looking at i-tunes, I've got Godspeed You! Black Emperor, influential post-punk and left field hip-hop. I've also got Keane, Electric Six, Coldplay and Welsh hip-hop goons Goldie Lookin' Chain. Do I feel embarrassed about this? Not a bit.
Time for me to go all psycho-analytical (without the benefit of an "analrapist" [1.11 in]) on you, I think my feelings on this stems from one incident. Was at high-school one day, during my last year. I brought in some CDs for a friend of mine to listen to. I was getting them out of my bag, when someone I wasn't too fond of asked me what I was doing:
"I'm giving Chris a loan of a couple of CDs,"
"All your CD's are shit,"
"What? You haven't even seen CDs they are!"
"Doesn't matter, you only like shit stuff," (For the record, the CDs were Urban Hymns by the Verve and Ok Computer by Radiohead, two of my very favourite albums)
I know you're thinking "What the fuck! What kind of twat would say that?", but this was about par for the course when I was at school. This kind of galvanised me, because up until that point I had been very eager to please people since I never really fitted in at school. Wasn't bullied per se, beaten up for sure and generally ignored, but not bullied. But this moment crystallised things for me. I realised that I didn't like this person and they didn't like me, so why should I give a fuck what they think? From then onwards, I stopped worrying about the dreaded "other peoples' opinions" and instead enjoyed the music, books and films that I was passionate about. I would still talk about stuff with my friends and take recommendations form them, but I never let what someone else thought cloud my judgement.
So, my complaint against the idea of a guilty pleasure is that we shouldn't feel guilty about enjoying anything. Now I don't mean, we shouldn't feel guilty about drop kicking a puppy down the street because you should feel downright ashamed of yourself if you do. What I mean is that, why lie about what we enjoy and hold dear and feel ashamed if we're found out. I like plenty of things most of my friends and acquaintances don't like or find "gay" (the most well thought out criticism you seem to get these days). I really enjoyed Assassin's Creed and Mass Effect despite their flaws (and the fairly vitriolic reaction some people aimed at both of them). I prefer FIFA games over Pro Evo. Just finished playing some Peggle which was fun, gonna do some Brain Training later on the DS before I go to bed. Need to finish Lego Star Wars too at some point. So, I guess my point at the end of all this meandering rubbish would be, do as you will. Enjoy your games, give them your all and don't worry how you're gonna get judged.
Grapic: Some E Cards
Attached photos:
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(# 0) on 04/22/2008 06:16
Also I drop kick puppies down streets and Im proud of that fact!
(# 1) on 04/22/2008 06:25
I'll be heading back to the land of fry ups and heart disease on Friday for a couple of weeks. Might try and get my dad to buy GTA IV whilst I'm over.
(# 2) on 04/22/2008 07:07
Keep it coming.
(# 3) on 04/22/2008 07:42
(# 4) on 04/22/2008 07:44
(# 5) on 04/22/2008 07:54
It's cool, like I said, I'm not dissing on anyone that's written an article (or will write one). I mean I wracked my head trying to think of something to do with games that made me feel guilty and I really couldn't think of anything.
(# 6) on 04/22/2008 08:18
(# 7) on 04/22/2008 08:29
(# 8) on 04/22/2008 08:39
(# 9) on 04/22/2008 09:47
(# 10) on 04/22/2008 10:08