Confessions of a gamer

In the good old Mario days you had to play together on one screen, the battle between Maro and Luigi in Super Mario bros 3 is almost legendary to me. I played that with a friend all night, it was just so much fun. Later I did the same with Goldeneye 64, there you had a splitscreen it was a lot of fun! These days you go online and play with random strangers, even when you play with friends only you have the whole screen to yourself. Which is of course nice, seeing things smaller doesn´t make it easier! But I do miss playing with someone I can see and punch when they´re messing with me, something I kind of miss in the online co-op. Like having a friend that constantly blows you up with a rocket launcher, I can´t imagine that you don´t want to have a little bit of revenge after that. But it´s more than that, it the fun that you share when you´re sitting next to eachother, it´s more personal than hearing the voice of a friend (or stranger) through your headset. But that´s the future I gues...

Playing games isn´t always easy, sometimes you really have to work for that achievement/trophy! But there are also games where you can get achievements/trophies without too much trouble. In a way there isn´t really a middle ground, often games are too easy or too difficult. There aren´t many games that are in the middle, with just the right amount of difficulty to make the game challenging but not unbeatable. Maybe some developers are afraid that a game might be too difficult and people won´t buy it because of that, others might want to make it difficult because they hope this will make the game more interesting to play. But what happened to games that are fun to play but still challenging? A game that will take some skill to beat but won´t keep you stuck at the same point for days. I won´t say it´s easy to find that balance, but it´s strange that so many games seem to go for the easy road and not make it too difficult. I guess you have a difficulty setting to make it harder for yo...

It seems that more and more games want you to smash on the buttons of the controller, which seems like fun but knowing that this weak piece of plastic can´t handle much it´s not the smartest way to handle your controller. In the good old arcade days I could smash on buttons, ok nothing too crazy but at least those machines had a lot more resilience than these weak controllers we have now. You have to pay a small fortune for one of them and they fall apart with the slightest bit of force you use. After smashing a couple of controllers out of frustration I learned to be careful with them, but when games force you to be an agressive button basher it doesn´t really help. Button bashing is nothing new but I do seem to see it in more and more games, even games that could easily do without this abusive way of treating your controller. Instead of button bashing people came up with the idea to press a certain series of buttons in a sequence, I first saw this in God of War which was fun. But s...

I doubt that you have missed the appearance of zombies in games, especially the games based upon these unfortunate creatures are full of them. I can´t even remember when it all started, for me it was one moment I was just playing Mario and the legend of Zelda until suddenly zombie games invaded the game world. Which is not a bad thing, but I do think that they´re a bit too much used in games. It´s almost as if every game has to have zombies, which isn´t always done correctly. Sometimes it´s just for fun for example in Saints Row the Third, that´s quite alright because the Saints Row games are not to be taken seriously. But when you´re playing a game like Dragon Age or Mass Effect I don´t expect to see zombies and I don´t think they belong there.  I have to admit that the creature you meet in Dragon Age 2 isn´t really a zombie but it comes close to it and also leaves you quite miserable, I won´t spoil why or who it is but I think everyone who played the game knows what I mean. ...

I wonder if I´m the only one that is annoyed by the whole Xbox One vs Playstation 4 competition. Sure some people will speak with the voice of reason and say that both are good and that they´ll buy them both as well. It´s trange that in their magezines, youtube channels and websites they can´t stop putting more fuel on the fire, because that´s apperently what people want to see and hear. But is it really? Do you want to hear how much the Xbox One sucks and how great the Playstation 4 is or vice versa? Do you actually feel better when your favourite comes out better at the end? I seriously hate this and I hate people who participate in this stupid nonsense. So you like the Xbox One more than the Playstation 4? Well good for you! Do you think the Playstation 4 is superior to the Xbox One? How swell! It´s just two sides with a different opinion and somehow people can´t accept the other side for having a different opinion then theirs. When you think about it, then it´s just a sad imm...

Do you know that feeling of frustration when you play a game and then suddenly out of nowhere it freezes? The worst part is that you haven´t saved in quite some time and you lost all the progress you made so far, so that means you have to do it all over again. For me this is probably one of the biggest things to trigger my anger, the fact that you lost your progress and have to do it over again. Also the fact that you can´t do anything about it makes me very annoyed, but I´ve heard stories about games that freeze and then after some time then unfreeze. Well I´ve never had that, I even waited 10 minutes once because I had played over 2 hours since my last save and didn´t want to lose all that progress. It´s problem that happens to most of us sooner or later, I guess there is no escape from a game freeze but was it always like this? When I think back of my NES, SNES and N64 days I can´t remember one moment where my game would freeze. I don´t even think I had that on my Playstation or G...

It takes me quite some years back to think of a game that didn´t have any collectibles, well these days you also have games without collectibles but usually your average popular game has some collectibles one way or another. I think they started as something fun, like collecting something nice and view that in your inventory or discover that way more about the game and the characters. I understand that and I actually like that, because I like to delve deeper into the game and read about the backstories of characters and read about the world they live in. As an rpg lover I like to get to know the characters I´m playing with so I can easier put myself in the shoes of the main character. But over time collectibles became more and more a way to keep players busy in the game world. For example collect a certain amount of objects because we say you have to. You´ll probably get a reward at the end but you really have to wonder if that was worth all the trouble. I´m not saying that it´s diffic...

Yesterday I could finally play Saints Row IV and I must admit that I´ve been excited for that game, because I really like Saints Row the Third and having super powers means fun in my game experience. Things are still as insane as ever and the fun factor doesn´t really drop in the game, I would have to admit that there are good parts and not so good parts but I´d say most games have those moments. It doesn´t take a genius to figure out that this game strongly points to the movie the Matrix. Which doesn´t bother me for a moment, because they do it in such a way that you´d rather laugh than be annoyed. Like being naked the first time your character goes outside the simulation, in the Matrix they didn´t make a big deal out of it but in Saints Row IV your ´friends´ like to talk about it. So what makes this game better than Saints Row the Third? Well in a way it´s not that different and at the same time it is, ok that´s probably weird to read so let me explain. The game takes plac...

It´s not a secret that a lot of gamers are under the age of 30, but that doesn´t mean that there aren´t people above 30 who also enjoy playing games. Whenever I play multiplayer matches I hear a lot of kids, it´s not always easy to figure out an age but hearing a squeaky voice usually gives away that they´re not that old. But when you go online later you´ll meet people who are a bit older, it´s not easy to determine that because not everyone would tell their age to strangers and I can definately understand that. So where are the older gamers hiding? Well I´ve seen groups online that are more for adults, so that should take care of annoying squeaky voices and immature behaviour. But of course not every adult is always mature, I guess you can only hope. But sometimes you also meet random people who are sometimes older than you think, which is actually a pleasant suprise. I have to admit that I prefer to play with people around my own age then some kids, not that I have anything against...

I always hated the end of August, because school would start again and I never liked that. Your vacation would be over, no longer could you stay up all night and stay in bed every morning. As a gamer I love to spend my day like that, because there is nothing in the morning for me as a gamer and later at night more people go online (for example the Americans) which means more people to play online multiplayer games with. So for gamers going back to school or for others going back to work is really not much fun, because you have less time to play games and you´re expected to spend more time on your study or job. Which makes perfect sense, but that doesn´t mean you have to like it. But what I really like about the end of August are the new releases, because in Summer you hardly ever get any decent releases and the ones you get aren´t always the ones that get you excited. Maybe if you´re lucky you´ll get a fun game in June but usually July is a bad month for game relea...

We´re all different, some might even say unique, and have our own dreams and wishes. But when it comes to games I like to think that gamers have their own type of personality, though often this is based on behaviour and doesn´t have to represent the actual personality of that person. But then again if you´re going to act like a douchebag online then it´s difficult for others to see you as anything else but a douchebag. So how does this work? Well I´ve made up some names, not original names but just something to describe that personality, and then it´s really up to you to decide what your gamer personality is. I´ve also made some descriptions so it´s easier to figure out what fits best with you. Let´s begin with the least favourite gamer personality, the coward. A coward is someone that likes to use explosive weapons or other weapons that kill quickly, I´m not even saying that they don´t have skills but it´s often the fact that they want to get kills quickly in a match without too muc...

Let me first say that I like the option that you can type messages to someone else, it´s easy to type a message if you want to say something and you don´t feel like plugging in your mic. It´s another way of communicating with others, but I wonder how many people actually have something interesting or nice to say? Most of the messages I get aren´t positive, it usually comes down to threats and insults. I´ll spare you the worst ones but it´s often messages that claim that you´re gay, that you´re a cheater or that your family should get a terrible disease. These are only the text messages, I don´t even listen to the voice messages because I don´t feel like listening to some loser saying something stupid. But is it all that bad? Have people nothing nice to say to eachother? Well I think that really depends on the type of game you play, games with a lot of competition usually attract less friendly players. Frustration and irritation can easily turn a calm person into a ravin...

Always when I play a fps I want to hunt down other people, this means a lot of moving on the map and that usually means I meet up with a lot of campers. Because of campers I can´t always play a game the way I want to, I have to check every corner just to be certain that some douchebag won´t shoot me in the back. I know that you shouldn´t run around like a moron but it sucks when you move around in such a slow pace, it takes the speed and the fun out of a game. The same counts for when you play a fighting game against someone else and that person keeps using the same move, it makes it difficult to try new combos and be creative. You´ll usually have to respond with the same tactic over and over again. It sucks if you can´t play the game the way you want to! I remember in older games like Goldeneye 64 I didn´t see many campers, probably because my opponents would be sitting next to me on the couch. So I could see on their part of the screen where they would hide, otherwise I could alway...

These days it´s nothing new, you open the newspaper or turn on the tv and you see another idiot who did something terrible. A teenager or young adult that shoots innocent people, why did he do that? The ´experts´ quickly come with some vague arguments that there might be a connection with games, because the violence in games must have twisted this young innocent mind into a raging lunatic.Often these ´experts´ don´t know anything about games, they have never played one and probably have no idea what gaming is about. I know that gaming isn´t for everyone but to judge something you know nothing about is just another sign of ignorance, maybe these ´experts´ should stick to what they do best and that´s talking bullocks on tv about the current crisis you see in the news. Perhaps it would be better if they actually played games and then see for themselves that violent games don´t make a person dangerous! It doesn´t matter how violent a game is, it won´t make you more violent then you alrea...

In the good old days you would be sitting on your couch playing with friends, you´d work together to beat a game and try to look out for eachother. Of course you´d have game modes or moments where you´d be messing with eachother. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that! But in the end you´d be helping eachother trying to get further with a game or beat that annoying boss. These days with online strangers things are a bit different, no longer do you play games with people you know. The other people you´re playing a game with can be and most times are complete strangers, of course you could think that a stranger is a friend you haven´t met but is that really how it is? Often when I arrive in a multiplayer lobby I see either a lot of people with no mic plugged in, so they probably have no intention of speaking with anyone, or people that are loud and annoying the crap out of other people. That last group of people explains the first group of people, but still it´s difficult to work ...

I love dogs, I grew up with them and I don´t wish to live in a house without a dog. So every time I see a dog in a game I have mixed feelings about it, because a dog in a game isn´t always your friend and even when the dog is your friend then something could happen to him or her. But I have to admit that games that have dogs in them usually make me happy. For example: Fable 2, Fable 3, Fall Out 3 and CoD Ghost also looks interesting with Riley (the dog). But I feel heartbroken when I have to hurt dogs, for example in Far Cry 3. Still I´ll do what I must, but it´s not something I like to do. So how is it that some people feel some kind of guilt for killing a dog in game but don´t have problems killing other people in a game. Like in Fable 2 I wouldn´t feel bad butchering a town, but when something happened to my dog I was quite upset about it. It´s strange though, because it´s all just artificial and none of it is real. But I guess the bond you have with the dog, yes even if it´s not ...

I remember the old days, when gaming was anything but cool and talking about it with friends would be rare. I´d grab my controller the moment I got out of school and played until it was time for bed, sometimes I´d play all night long if possible but that would be a big mistake if I´d had to go to school the next day. For me a lot has changed in the 21 years I´ve been gaming. I´m not just talking about the consoles and the games, but also the people that play games now and definately the amount of people that like to play games. It´s still strange for me to see women that are interested in gaming, now don´t get me wrong I have absolutely nothing against that! It´s just that when I started playing games there was not one girl I knew that liked it, actually if the girls I dated as a teenager knew I was into games it would be a big turn off for them. I´ve tried to convince girls sometimes to play games, but often this is met with a lot of resistance or just a complete lack of in...

For every gamer that likes to play solo in a multiplayer match a camper is probably your worst enemy. Though a lot of lone wolfs turn out to be campers as well, so maybe it´s a two sided medallion. Anyway as a lone wolf you like to go your own way, you break free from the group and explore on your own. Probably you like to move around, see places and go explore the enemy side of the multiplayer map. But then suddenly you get shot down, some coward was hiding behind an obstacle or in some (dark) corner waiting for a brave idiot to get too close. I don´t think I have to mention how frustrating it is to encounter campers, especially when you´re interested in exploring a new map or when you´re trying to rack up some kills. They ruin the game, because they take all the speed out of it. You can´t move quickly on the map because there might be a camper around the corner, but at the same time you have to keep moving because if you move to slow someone can sneak up behind you. But ca...