I have always been a big game player and love to think and talk about games and how to make them better (for me). Games, however, don’t get much respect in polite company so I have been something of a closet-gamer for some time. My close friends know about my addiction but I doubt most strangers would have any idea of my passion.

Most people that i have met, including my wife and mother, think games are silly, anti-social, and the province of weirdo’s. While there is a lot of truth to this belief (which I may elaborate on later), I think it is time for more mature gamers to speak out and by doing so, raise the stature of the genre. I recently started reading a really great book on games, and it motivated me to write more about my game-perspective.

The industry

The game industry is only a few decades old and as such rather immature on many levels. Despite its rather second-class reputation, the game industry has been booming. In the past few years, the game market has made a bid for respect by repeatedly stating that games now make as much money as movies, as if making money is some universal sign warranting respect.

While making money is a good thing, I would prefer games to garner respect by making respectable products. Some of that is happening but I fear that more often games are mimicking the negative aspects of movies: derivative, sexual and violent content designed for adolescent boys. Blech! Also like the movie industry, the game biz generates a few hits, a few great games, and a TON of crappy products that no one has heard of or wants to.

One of the interesting/frustrating things about games is that people’s tastes vary so much. Take two self-described “gamers” and ask them what they like and don’t like. Odds are good that they will like totally different games and their reasons will be totally different. This problem makes game design a real challenge and that is before you add the corporate pressure for “hits” into the mix.

Me, myself, and games

I thought I would start this thread of game posts with a bit about myself and the games that I have enjoyed. For non-gamers this wont make any sense but it will give some context to game players.

For starters, I am in my late 30’s and have spent my whole life playing video and computer games. I largely credit video games for my desire to program computers and to get an engineering degree. As a kid, I blew through many rolls of quarters, but these days I only play PC games, meaning games on a personal computer not a console system.

As I have aged, so has my taste in books, movies and games. Games that cater to teens generally don’t appeal to me although they seem to make tons of money and generate media buzz. For instance, I have yet to like a game from Blizzard, (not Warcraft, not Diablo, and not WoW) and I was rather bored with Grand Theft Auto.

As a general rule, I like immersive games with an original story, realism and that require some thought. I much prefer something novel to “same as last year with better graphics” (which seems to dominate the industry). I play different types of games when I am in different moods and there are some genres that I never play at all, such as sports, driving and puzzle games (and I have never wanted to play a game on my cell phone.) For the past few years, I have spent the majority of my time playing online games which has changed my outlook so much that many single-player games now depress me. (More on that later)

Since there is so much variation in “games”, the best way to learn about someone is to look at the games they have really liked, and over the years there have been a number of games that I would recommend. Here is my list of influential and favorite games, loosely broken down into genre’s.

FPS

First-Person shooters are games that allow players to experience a world for a first-person perspective and they generally require a lot of shooting and killing. I find FPS games to be the most immersive and exciting, as well as the most derivative, boring and offensive.

Doom, Marathon, Dark Forces, System Shock2, Half Life, Arx Fatalis, Halo, HL2

With Half-Life, we saw the emergence of the mod-community and the online FPS. In terms of play-hours and fun-factor, these games are my favorite. There is no substitute for playing against and with other human beings. The game world owes Valve a great debt for creating this genre.

Counter-strike, Day of Defeat, CS:Source, DoD:Source

RTS and Strategy

I have always liked strategy and turn-based games although they are very hard to find these days. Sadly the industry has moved away from these “thinking” games to an “action, action, did I mention action?” model. Turn-based games are also great to play online with friends and they cater to those of us with lousy reflexes.

Myth and Myth2, Command and Conquer, Shogun:TW

Age of Wonders, AoW2

Civilization, Civilization3, Civ4

Online RPG

In terms of hours played, I have played (and paid) Everquest more than any other game (the free Day of Defeat would be second). I began my wood-chopping career with Ultima Online, played EQ for 5 years, and now am largely disappointed with the second generation games of EQ2 and WoW. I think the online factor is the most significant development to hit games and I expect to see a lot of evolution and exciting things in this area.

text-based MUD’s, Gemstone Warrior, Ultima Online, Everquest

City of Heroes, Everquest2, World of Warcraft

That that should give you some idea of where I am coming from for my future comments about the state of games today and what I would like to see in the future.