I love video games. That is an undeniable fact. They can be meaningful in a variety of ways that no other medium can achieve. They have a very unique capability to tell stories and really touch lives. Serious games like Spec Ops: The Line, Gone Home, or Cibele are truly powerful experiences that leave their mark on you after you play them.
But let's face it, those games aren't the reason we're gamers, are they? Some of the older gamers out there would've been initiated into the medium with their Super Mario Bros. and their Sonic the Hedgehog. People my age were brought in by stuff like Advanced Mario Bros. 4, or the third generation of Pokémon. The newcomers would've got here via their Call of Duty and Minecraft. None of these games are particularly deep or challenging, but what they most definitely are is a whole bunch of fun.
At a very basic, very baseline level, gaming is about fun. No, this doesn't mean games that aren't fun are not good examples of the medium. I don't think there was a moment during The Banner Saga where I was genuinely having fun. It's a game that's heavy, dark and keeps just weighing down on you like a son of a bitch. It's unparalleled at creating a feeling of dread, of despair at this tired, dying world that you're scrambling to keep alive for a few more moments. It's an absolutely magnificent experience, masterfully crafted and one that I would recommend without a second of hesitation. Its very nature, however, means it's not fun.
I have to admit, in these past couple years, I fell prey to one of the things that I hate the most about some game critics: I became snobbish about fun. Sure, games that are fun were to be commended for it, but that wasn't enough. I needed the clever commentary about how narrative affects gameplay of a Call of Juarez: Gunslinger, the smart messing about with the player/character boundary of a 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors. If not that, I at least needed the relatively substanceless narrative focus of a BioShock: Infinite. I needed something there to justify playing games other than that stupid, childish "fun" thing. I'm an adult now, I can't play games just for fun like some kind of 14 year old.
Then there was this Overwatch thing Blizzard was putting out. I'd never really liked Blizzard, but I started playing the stupidly addictive card battler Hearthstone a couple years ago and its grip is still holding me. It's got tonnes of strategy: Figuring out what the meta-game is like, and what deck counters it best. You have to figure out what your opponent is playing as soon as possible, figure out how to scramble your strategy into place with the disparate parts of your game plan you've drawn so you can defeat them, and adapt to unexpected situations borne from odd card combinations, unconventional deck-building, or random factors baked into the cards themselves. I guess it also has that "fun" thing. I'd heard nothing but good about this Overwatch thing, and it was coming out in a couple days, so why not, fuck it, I'll pre-order it on a whim at 4 AM, exams just finished and I deserve a reward of some kind for studying so hard.
I, of course, knew that Overwatch was just an online shooter, but my tired self at 4 AM never really parsed what that meant. It looked colorful, was made by a company that has made one of my top 10 games of all time, and it had a talking gorilla named Winston in it.
So, a couple days pass, and when my Internet connection is finally good enough to let me play online shooters, I fire up Overwatch. A quick tutorial and a few bot matches later, I'm jumping into the quick-play mode proper. I pick up the hero who seemed the coolest from the little experimenting I did in the practice range, and I start pointing and clicking at things until their health is gone.
This... this is fun.
And that's it. That's all that Overwatch is at the level I'm playing it at. It's just a lot of fun. Let me rephrase that: It's a lot of fun. There's no place for a "just" there.
I feel like a child again.
I just... I just want to play this game, man.
It feels good. I like shooting people. I like flying around as Pharah. Zipping around as Tracer. Throwing bombs around as Junkrat. Failing at doing anything useful as Genji. Pulling big Resurrections as Mercy. Just creating two fucking dragons out of nowhere as Hanzo. Engaging in GLORIOUS COMBAT as Reinhardt.
Overwatch reminded me why I'm a gamer in the first place. All the games I mentioned before? They're all great. They're fantastic, beautiful pieces of art, all unique and worthwhile in their own ways. I've got nothing but respect for them and the mad geniuses who created them.
Overwatch is just relentlessly, unflappably fun. It controls so well! The heroes are all so enjoyable to play! It's a truly beautiful, really masterfully designed piece of art. It works like absolute clockwork. It's just so tightly constructed in every way. And for what purpose? To say something about video games? To convey a message about the human condition? Tell a personal story?
No. Fuck that. You're going to have fun. That's all you need, and that's exactly what you're going to get, in an absolutely masterful and ridiculously polished way.
Ultimately, I play games to have fun. Yes, there's games like The Banner Saga that aren't fun at all, but are fantastic experiences in their own right. I won't knock them for not being fun, and I'll keep looking for those kinds of experiences. I love those experiences. But when I first fired up Advanced Super Mario Bros. 4 I wasn't looking for that. I wasn't looking for a significant challenge, brilliant atmosphere, or something significant to think about. I just wanted to have fun making the funny little man jump. I did, and it brought about a passion that hasn't just informed what I do in my free time, it's fundamentally changed me as a person through the experiences I've had through gaming.
Overwatch is an absolutely brilliant game. It's most definitely among the 5 best games I've ever played, and it's revived my love for gaming. I'll keep looking forward to games like Analogue: A Hate Story and Always Sometimes Monsters, that are there to provide a deep and meaningful experience, filled with rich themes, but I'll make sure to not forget that something like Overwatch that exists solely to provide joy is just as valuable, important, and impressive.
Thanks, Overwatch.
But let's face it, those games aren't the reason we're gamers, are they? Some of the older gamers out there would've been initiated into the medium with their Super Mario Bros. and their Sonic the Hedgehog. People my age were brought in by stuff like Advanced Mario Bros. 4, or the third generation of Pokémon. The newcomers would've got here via their Call of Duty and Minecraft. None of these games are particularly deep or challenging, but what they most definitely are is a whole bunch of fun.
At a very basic, very baseline level, gaming is about fun. No, this doesn't mean games that aren't fun are not good examples of the medium. I don't think there was a moment during The Banner Saga where I was genuinely having fun. It's a game that's heavy, dark and keeps just weighing down on you like a son of a bitch. It's unparalleled at creating a feeling of dread, of despair at this tired, dying world that you're scrambling to keep alive for a few more moments. It's an absolutely magnificent experience, masterfully crafted and one that I would recommend without a second of hesitation. Its very nature, however, means it's not fun.
I have to admit, in these past couple years, I fell prey to one of the things that I hate the most about some game critics: I became snobbish about fun. Sure, games that are fun were to be commended for it, but that wasn't enough. I needed the clever commentary about how narrative affects gameplay of a Call of Juarez: Gunslinger, the smart messing about with the player/character boundary of a 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors. If not that, I at least needed the relatively substanceless narrative focus of a BioShock: Infinite. I needed something there to justify playing games other than that stupid, childish "fun" thing. I'm an adult now, I can't play games just for fun like some kind of 14 year old.
Then there was this Overwatch thing Blizzard was putting out. I'd never really liked Blizzard, but I started playing the stupidly addictive card battler Hearthstone a couple years ago and its grip is still holding me. It's got tonnes of strategy: Figuring out what the meta-game is like, and what deck counters it best. You have to figure out what your opponent is playing as soon as possible, figure out how to scramble your strategy into place with the disparate parts of your game plan you've drawn so you can defeat them, and adapt to unexpected situations borne from odd card combinations, unconventional deck-building, or random factors baked into the cards themselves. I guess it also has that "fun" thing. I'd heard nothing but good about this Overwatch thing, and it was coming out in a couple days, so why not, fuck it, I'll pre-order it on a whim at 4 AM, exams just finished and I deserve a reward of some kind for studying so hard.
I, of course, knew that Overwatch was just an online shooter, but my tired self at 4 AM never really parsed what that meant. It looked colorful, was made by a company that has made one of my top 10 games of all time, and it had a talking gorilla named Winston in it.
So, a couple days pass, and when my Internet connection is finally good enough to let me play online shooters, I fire up Overwatch. A quick tutorial and a few bot matches later, I'm jumping into the quick-play mode proper. I pick up the hero who seemed the coolest from the little experimenting I did in the practice range, and I start pointing and clicking at things until their health is gone.
This... this is fun.
And that's it. That's all that Overwatch is at the level I'm playing it at. It's just a lot of fun. Let me rephrase that: It's a lot of fun. There's no place for a "just" there.
I feel like a child again.
I just... I just want to play this game, man.
It feels good. I like shooting people. I like flying around as Pharah. Zipping around as Tracer. Throwing bombs around as Junkrat. Failing at doing anything useful as Genji. Pulling big Resurrections as Mercy. Just creating two fucking dragons out of nowhere as Hanzo. Engaging in GLORIOUS COMBAT as Reinhardt.
Overwatch reminded me why I'm a gamer in the first place. All the games I mentioned before? They're all great. They're fantastic, beautiful pieces of art, all unique and worthwhile in their own ways. I've got nothing but respect for them and the mad geniuses who created them.
Overwatch is just relentlessly, unflappably fun. It controls so well! The heroes are all so enjoyable to play! It's a truly beautiful, really masterfully designed piece of art. It works like absolute clockwork. It's just so tightly constructed in every way. And for what purpose? To say something about video games? To convey a message about the human condition? Tell a personal story?
No. Fuck that. You're going to have fun. That's all you need, and that's exactly what you're going to get, in an absolutely masterful and ridiculously polished way.
Ultimately, I play games to have fun. Yes, there's games like The Banner Saga that aren't fun at all, but are fantastic experiences in their own right. I won't knock them for not being fun, and I'll keep looking for those kinds of experiences. I love those experiences. But when I first fired up Advanced Super Mario Bros. 4 I wasn't looking for that. I wasn't looking for a significant challenge, brilliant atmosphere, or something significant to think about. I just wanted to have fun making the funny little man jump. I did, and it brought about a passion that hasn't just informed what I do in my free time, it's fundamentally changed me as a person through the experiences I've had through gaming.
Overwatch is an absolutely brilliant game. It's most definitely among the 5 best games I've ever played, and it's revived my love for gaming. I'll keep looking forward to games like Analogue: A Hate Story and Always Sometimes Monsters, that are there to provide a deep and meaningful experience, filled with rich themes, but I'll make sure to not forget that something like Overwatch that exists solely to provide joy is just as valuable, important, and impressive.
Thanks, Overwatch.
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