I work for a small online games retailer in Waltham, Massachusetts. I work with many people who play video games. There is one kid in particular, though, I'll call him...Keith. His favorite game of all time is Grand Theft Auto IV. He plays the online multiplayer from when he gets home at 5pm, until he goes to bed at 2am. And on weekends? He plays it from the moment he gets up until the moment he goes to bed. I am not exaggerating at all. He is hardcore about that game.
We talk games all the time, to make the day go by. I'll talk once in a while of my exploits on Call of Duty 4 over Xbox Live, or how fantastic games like BioShock or Portal are. I'm not a huge shooter fan, honestly. The three I mentioned are pretty much all I've played in the last two years or so. But what happens when I mention them? He flips his lid!
"First person shooters are so fuckin' dumb. You have to be a retard to like them," he'll say. I can kind of respect that. Some people get motion sickness, or some people find the genre to have way too many generic titles to really sift through and find the truly outstanding ones.
"Why?" I would ask.
"Because the character is a gun. It's a fuckin' gun. That's so stupid! Why would I want to play as a gun?"
"But you aren't playing as a gun. You are playing from the perspective of a character. You see what they see."
"No you aren't! You're playing as a gun! No personality, you can't even see anybody. You just see the gun. Why would I play as a gun? I don't get it."
"But you're missing out on some of the best stories ever told in games! BioShock is so incredibly immersive and beautifully done and--"
"Nope. That game sucks. You're a gun, it's dumb."
"But you're not a gun! You are a man who ends up in this abandoned underwater society and you find out how the place fell apart and--"
"No you don't, you're playing as a gun. You're an idiot for liking those games."
So, let me ask you all this: Do you ever feel like you are playing as a gun in a first person shooter? Are there FPSes where the immersion is just not there and you think you're just playing as a gun? Or do some people just not understand that there is more than one way to see your character in a game?
UPDATE: As of January of 2009, he has turned around out of the blue. After tons of begging and pleading for him to play CoD4, Left 4 Dead, and other outstanding shooters, he has embraced the first person perspective. He now has replaced GTA IV with CoD:WaW as his game of choice every day, and frequently plays L4D when myself and others are online to play it with him.
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"Or do I work with someone that does not understand that there is more than one way to see your character in a game?"
Yeah, most people have these things called brains, conscience, and common sense. Mr. GTA there does not have any of these.
And no I have never thought of a character in an FPS as being a gun. That's just stupid. You're not a gun, he's dumb.
If you were a gun it would make for an awesome Monty Python FPS.
Ah, colorful metaphors! I love it!
I want to be a gun
Can I substitute the gun for my penis? Because I've always wanted to be my own penis.
I really found this to be true with Crysis. I'm not saying it was a bad game or anything, but there's no way getting around the fact that the story and main character was awful.
@MRSADISTIC
You really want to change the meaning of the "P" in FPS, no?
Assuming that your colleague is not smiling as he says those words, assuming he isn't joking at all, I would like you to do me a favour. It might seem a little weird at first but just go with it and you'll feel good, trust me. Jam his penis through a mangle. Go and do it now before he realises how much of a douche he is and tries to kill himself. Keep turning the handle until it starts to lose purchase, then turn it a bit more to give him friction burns, not because it serves any further castratory purpose; just for funs.
I REALLY REALLY hate to somewhat agree with your dumbass co-worker, but I have found that FPS characters do essentially become non-entities for me, personally.
Actually, the first time I did not experience that lack of character-feel was with the Mirror's Edge demo, which is impressive, being a demo and all. I don't know, the idea of Faith just comes through for some reason. And yes, I have played BioShock.
I'm not disagreeing with you, your co-worker sucks and so does his reasoning. I'm just saying this has been my personal experience.
Maybe I did in Timesplitters 2. You where always a different character, and you couldnt even see your own hand holding the gun from the first person perspective.
Jiggle my trigger baby
Never in my life have I even imagined or fantasized that I am playing as a gun in a First person shooter. Grand Theft Auto has created, nay, devolved, a new type of gamer. For the record, I love Grand Theft Auto, but something about that game turns casual gamers who play it into fucking fanboy extremes.
This is just a case of him spouting the first stupid shit he could think of out of his blowhole to try and defend his game. For some reason, you even talking about other games made him go on the defensive almost instantly.
Casual gamers + GTA = Stupid fucking monsters.
Oh lawdy, lawdy, lawdy....
"I don't know, the idea of Faith just comes through for some reason.
Maybe that's because she's constantly sucking air through that hole in her mouth. I fucking love that game, but fuck me if that doesn't get annoying as hell.
The only thing that makes up for it is the disgustingly real sound of her falling 20 stories to her death on some cold hard concrete.
@ TheGuero
The sound of Faith falling makes me sick to my stomach, especially looking down as you fall. But that immersiveness is what's going to make the game awesome.
You should turn into a gun and shoot him. But seriously, anyone who disregards an entire genre of games as crap, is an idiot. Especially for reasons as stupid as his.
For SHAME. You can see Chell in Portal. You see a million copies of her while falling through an infinite loop. Hell, the first portal that opens to take you out of the cell was placed so that you HAD to see yourself. Why did you not bring this up? Go and fix your mistake.
...And you played Portal but not Half life 2? That's an odd choice. You should check it out, it's great.
No, he's retarded.
At the very least, you're playing as a gun that can morph into other guns when it goes off screen.
Does his name have to be Keith...cuz like...that MAY be my name..or whatever *looks away*
"Or do I work with someone that does not understand that there is more than one way to see your character in a game?"
I think you just answered your own question there, buddy.
Maybe it's his little way of asking you to uppercut him in the jaw.
hahaha
Sounds like he's just trying to annoy you. That, and he probably doesn't like playing a game as "himself".
From your description, he has plenty of reasons to not like himself, enough that a major part of his motivation for gaming is to not only be somewhere else, but to be someone else.
Folks like that tend to be less keen of the FPS genre.
Yeah, this guy sounds like a read life troll.
ahem... *real life*