Yesterday, I wrote a comment on one of the cblogs that I couldn't be a fanboy, because I don't even bother playing video games. Written in jest, I came to the realization how much truth there actually was in my statement for myself, and potentially, for alot of other people here. Seeing comments on the cblogs and forums and all the complaining about games, consoles, what's not in the game, how it should better, etc... it's taken me this long [shouldn't have taken that long] to realize that gamers are a fickle bunch, never satisfied and always bitching. But not me. I may complain, but I sure as hell am not putting myself in the same group as you all. In essence, I'm no gamer.

It wasn't always this way...



A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, I played video games obsessively. I remember coming home from school and turning on Final Fantasy III [VI], playing beyond dinner, my eyes red and glazed over, my body shaking from the lack of nutrients. I was a primitive version of MMO addicts. I needed to level up my characters to 99. All of them. Nothing could stop me from leveling, even such a silly thing as basic nutrition.

I remembered playing Metroid in elementary school over and over again, unsuccessful in beating the game because I was unable to write down the horrendously long password down correctly. Over and over it happened. And then I figured out what I needed to do. I grabbed a giant stack of papers, and drew myself a map as I played. I was tired, I was confused by all the different paths, but I soldiered on, knowing that I was unable to save the game and play it another time. I had to finish it then and there. After a very long afternoon, I conquered Metroid.

And then there was Super Metroid, a game that I borrowed from a friend of mine. I was allowed one week to play it. I played it deep into the night, slept a few hours, and began my journey again early in the morning, thus giving myself two to three extra hours in the morning. Super Metroid thus, was completed.



Through all that time, I don't recall myself complaining. Complaining about the graphics, the storyline, the characters. In fact, I don't think its the retro goggles talking, but all I remember talking about with my friends were the positives. How awesome the characters looked, their special powers, the coolness of the SuperFX chip, bragging about secret levels I'd found.

Fast forward to now. There seems to a nonstop barrage of people whining that Nintendo sucks, that Microsoft has only space marine shit, and Playstation sucks because they can't play the ps2 games. E3, where new games are shown, was met with the expected wowzers. But what blew me away was the enormous amount of people absolutely saddened and angry by the presentations. That their personal expectations were not met and so therefore the entire thing was a failure.



Fuckin' ay I say.

Have we become such a strange and peculiar basement dwelling sort that with all that went well with E3 we have formed a tunnelvision to only see what we were disappointed in? Do we invest too much time hating different games and consoles that we no longer have the time and energy to actually play video games? I'll admit, I spend most of my time thinking about games. I'm sure most of you do that too. But has thinking about games become a substitute for actually playing them?

For myself, it has. That's why I say I'm no longer a gamer. No longer do I stay up building my characters up to lvl 99. No longer do I wake up extra early to get a couple missions in. No longer do I draw maps with a pencil and paper.



Instead, what I do is complain about exclusivity. Complain about DLC prices. Complain about amount of hours of gameplay divided by the sixty I spent. Complain about Gamestop. Complain about EA, Ubisoft, M$, $ony, Madden, etc. Complain about the shovelware instead of praising the good stuff.

Nope. I'm no longer a gamer. And if all you do is complain, neither are you.