The Need
I think there's something wrong with me.Yeah, yeah. You figured that out a looooong time ago.
Shut up.
I was going through my video game collection yesterday when I came to an interesting discovery: I've got games I've never even played.
That might not sound like a startling development to you. The fact that you're even reading this suggests a high probability that you're a gamer as well. Most gamers have a backlog of games they've either never finished or never even started.
That's fine with me. It always provides me with an option should I ever be overcome with crippling boredom.
I can just browse through my collection and find something new to play.
That's always good.
No, my discovery was interesting for an entire other reason: even though I have all of these games I have yet to play, I am still constantly searching out new games.
I just can't get enough.
For any of my consoles, I have several I have yet to play and yet, I'm scrounging around for wii points like a meth addict trying to find nickels.
Why?
I know I don't need them. I know I have a million other things to play.
But I still want them.
You know, if you'd asked me six months ago about old Nintendo games, I'd have said "meh" and gone back to my drinking.
Now, I sit and stare at the virtual console longing for games I had even forgot existed.
I want them.
I need them.
One of my readers sent me a VC game recently. Bubble Bobble.
I hadn't thought about Bubble Bobble in years.
Many, many years.
And yet, when the message popped up, it felt like Christmas morning. I jumped on that game like a fat kid on a cupcake.
Bubble freakin' Bobble.
My living room has at least ten games I've never played sitting on shelves collecting dust.
Good games.
I assume.
And yet, receiving that game made my entire day.
I think there's something about gamers. I think we just like having them there. We like the option of picking them up whenever we feel like it.
Hey, I'm in the mood for a shooter. Let's crack that one open.
Oh, platformer mood. Got a few of those ready to go.
Part of me knows I might never play them. But I just feel good knowing they're there.
I always have something to play.
Still, part of me always wants more. Part of me is always looking for the new and the better.
Can you honestly tell me walking through a Gamestop or an EBGames doesn't make you feel a little warmer inside?
Doesn't all that potential just scream at you from every box?
I walk through a games store like a starving man at a buffet.
I scroll through the virtual console like it's porn.
[GM]Dave>> What am I in the mood for today?
[GM]Dave>> Oh, this one is just in from Japan.
[GM]Dave>> Daddy like.
Susan>> Why aren't you wearing any pants?
Okay... That kind of went to a weird place, but I think you get my point.
I think part of loving games is loving GETTING games.
You can talk all you want about graphics and lasting appeal, but part of you secretly loves the feel of a new game in your hand more than anything.
The anticipation.
Part of me doesn't even want to play those games I have. Not because I don't think they'd be good. I'm actually certain that many of them would be great.
Part of me doesn't want to play them because when they've all been played, then that feeling will be gone.
Is that crazy?
Probably.
But I have a feeling you guys know what I'm talking about.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go get my Bubble Bobble on.
posted by Goblin Smithy @ 9:39 AM
22 Comments:
Exactly! That feeling you get when cradling a new game in your arms in tantamount to an orgasm...wow, I'm almost as weird as [GM]Dave! I think...I need a bath.
That feeling is so true. I can't tell you just how many PS2 games I own that I haven't even gotten halfway through. I think that as time goes on, you feel less and less interested in playing one game. Your attention drifts over to, well, Final Fantasy XI.
Don't forget Dig-Dug..... Dig-Dug was the shit. As well as the original NES TMNT, the SNES Zegend of Zelda: A link to the past, Metroid 1&2, Contra, Battle Toads, the original Ninja Gaiden games, all old-school great games that are hard as hell.... I should stop now.
The other awesome thing about new games? The smell, dear jeebus the new video game I just cracked open the plastic case for the first time smell...
I'm not weird.... nooo, not at all....
I had to buy Bubble Bobble and Gradius on there...
Sad part is if I were less lazy I could have walked from the living room to the bedroom, turned the NES on and popped either game into there.
It's almost as addictive as remakes. Anyone else drooling over Dragon Quest IV coming out on DS? *stares at her original copy for NES*
oh god its so true tho
I've got PS2 games i'm not nearly done with yet - and game cube and wii - and I can't count how many DS games i've got on the go -but i love going to gamestop and browsing their new titles
Call it an addiction or whatever, but i think you're right - its a gamer thing
OMG you don't know how true this is for anyone who calls themselves a diehard gamer. Just as an example, WAY back when a little niche RPG named Suikoden came out for the PS1, I played it. I beat it. It was cool. Hoorah! When Suikoden 2 came out I immediately went out and got it. Haven't played it all the way through yet. When Suikoden 3 came out for PS2, again, I immediately went out and bought. I HAVE NOT PLAYED IT. LOL! So i know exactly where this is coming from. I can say it for so many games. Loved Chrono Trigger, bought Chrono Cross but haven't really played it even though in my mind I know it will be fun.
It's true, it's so true.
Christ on toast. Bubble Bobble? I had that on the original Game Boy, along with three other games I thought no one else had ever heard of, and (of course) Tetris. Let us know if Balloon Kid comes out on the Wii. I might have to buy that shit and start trying all over again to beat the shrimp boss....
I have a list of about 30 different MMOs bookmarked just sitting there waiting, and even if they're all essentially the same thing each time I change games it feels new and exciting for a little while at least.
I NEED IT!! <.<
I have more sealed games than I know what to do with. I'll be dead before I can finish them all.
Hell, I just bought 3 more today...
I blame FFXI for keeping my attention.
I'm waiting for family intervention any day now.
I read this thinking I wrote it. I'd estimate that I haven't touched more than half of the games I own, and I own a lot. Some of them are unopened. It's kind of hard to describe. It's both a hobby to play the games, and a hobby to collect them. Hell, I've had Xenogears for about 8 years or so and I haven't touched it. I've maybe played 10 minutes of it. But enough of reminiscing about games I'll never play. I've got some FFXI to play!
You know, I wrote that whole thing trying to think about how stupid it is to keep wanting more games, but the whole time I was thinking "Damn, Mario Kart 64 looks awesome."
It's a sickness.
I completely agree. I have over 80 PS and PS2 games sitting around, and I have only beaten about 40 of them I believe. Yet that yearning for more and more is amazing. As one post said about Suikoden II, I got that, III, and IV, and yet I have not beaten all of them. I paid out the ass to get a copy of Suikoden II, but I love the game, yet I don't want to beat the game cause I feel as if the allure will be gone
I'd like say that FFXI has done this to me at first, with console games and all.
The I remember the 30+ gigabytes of freeware I have, untouched.
Then I weep.
Then. THEN!
Dear god, Blogger needs an edit button.
Oh yes, i definitely know what your talking about.
I believe my husband once told me i had a "problem" ...
Just because i want all of the old school SNES FF games with original books and packaging, does not mean i have a problem.. And just because i have a list of all the games i have yet to buy (which is very small now since i almost have them all) does not mean i have a problem!
Or when people say "just download the emulator and game and play it so you don't have to spend the money".
It's not the same! Why cant they see that. Seriously I know theres people who are with me on this. Right?
nostalgia pal
I've been reading for ages but I had to sign up to comment on this one.
I get currently anywhere between 1-3 games a week sometimes more if lots are out. Over time its added up, I now have about 100 un-played games and 50 or so un-finished games.
Even the big name games I sometimes play them 50 hours but never do the last 10 like GTA4 and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn.
Yet after all that I still buy new games every week and now most of them don't get played for at least 3 weeks.
Its a interesting theory we do it since we like the unopened games and the feel and smell of them, I love waiting for them to get here too and when it drops through the door pure excitement.
Final Fantasy 11 does not help either as for me it takes up most of my time, Thank god for DS/PSP you can play while LFG or in Dynamis >.>
Anyway was nice to comment on my favorite blog, Keep up the good work Dave
I wish I had an N64 so I could make comments like, "Damn, Mario Kart 64 looks awesome." I have every other Nintendo system with the exception of a Virtual Boy, but no N64. I feel like I have failed life.
i think it is as we all suspected. MMORPG's are like crack. they draw us away from all other form of gaming.
I know this is two updates ago, but I just had to comment here. I can fully understand not wanting to play those games. The feeling of magic one gets while playing through a new game is something few other things can grant. Half the time when I play through a game I've beaten several hundred times already, I try to imagine that I'm someone who hasn't played the game before, just so I can try to re-experience that feeling.
That said, I've got a few games I've yet to beat as well. Two of them I haven't even touched yet (well, one of them has an excuse, being that it was bought as the same time as another game I've never played before, which happens to be the one I'm playing now).
BUBBLE BOBBLE! I love that game!
Oh how I wants it.
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