A Gamer Who Doesn’t Like Games

I like to think of myself as a “gamer.” I own all three major home consoles and usually play through all the major well-reviewed releases, Red Dead Redemption, Super Mario Galaxy 2, you name it. But then I look at the most popular games around right now. I’ve never desired to play any Call of Duty game, nor do I play very much Madden. I especially have no interest in dancing for Kinect. When looking at the role games play in our culture, these are types of games that I observe breaking the boundaries from stereotypical gamers like myself, and reaching people who have never picked up a controller. Even with online games, whether they are Farmville or World of Warcraft, they just don’t appeal to me.

When trying to look at this paradox, as a gamer who doesn’t like or play the most popular games, I arrived at two reasons: I love narratives, but dislike social gaming. Almost all of the above games include some interaction with other players, where I guess I would rather just play through a game on my own. I wasn’t aware introversion applied to video game usage, but apparently it does. Further, I like to play through narratives on my own, which are almost exclusively single-player based. Ironically, I am most attracted to the cinematic and literary elements in games, not their ludological elements. In juxtaposition with what distinguishes games from other media, I play games that are similar to other media.

As to avoid the egotism that goes with talking about oneself for an entire blog post, what does this personal case study mean about games in our society? Well for one, I think it shows how diverse the audiences are for any type of game. Whereas many people may like specific genres of film, television, or books, it seems that many people view games as an entire genre, which is liked by a specific group of people. There’s no other medium that I can think of where the medium is thought of as more of a niche market rather than a form of entertainment that everyone can enjoy a part of. In contrast with this mindset, I think recent surge in diversity in not just game content, but game interface, displays the growing appeal of games to various types of people. The idea that someone like me would like some games but not many others shows how games, like traditional media, are developing specific genres.

Additionally, I think these narrative elements of games make them comparable to other media. In the early days, games were focused on challenge and skill, but as the industry has grown, the genre of narrative-based games have developed as well. By focusing on well-developed characters and plot, in a single-player experience, games can offer stories in the vein of a miniseries or television show, where the audience views the story episodically. Like other media, not all games are about stories, but many of them are. For every Heavy Rain there is a Wii Fit. For every Boardwalk Empire there is a Dancing with the Stars. Different strokes for different folks. Even though I may not care to play a lot of games, I’m happy they’re bringing new audiences to this growing medium. As the industry expands further, I don’t expect everyone to play games for same reason, I just hope we can all find satisfaction in them, rather than passively dismissing them as a waste of time. Games aren’t just for gamers, they’re for everyone.

Tags: culture, response, video games