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My son discovers RPGs, or How I Realized I’m A Jaded Gamer
Shoegaze99
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
My son is 11. Growing up in a home with a guy who’s played games forever, watching his dad play games since day one – up until some recent eBay sales, we had a dozen different consoles and three different handhelds in the house – naturally he plays games, too. Not nearly as much as I do, but enough to be enthusiastic about them. We do some gaming together, but he mostly has his own stuff that he likes to play. These days it’s largely DS games; Pokemon, Age of Empires, Lego Star Wars, etc., etc.
On the Xbox (and now the 360), the one game he always goes back to is Star Wars: Battlefront. He’s a huge Star Wars fan and he loves getting into those big giant battles.
So one day he asks to play Battlefront (the system is not his; he asks before playing games), and I say, “Nah, no Battlefront. Try this instead.â€
And I hand him Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.
Mind you, outside of Pokemon he’s never played an RPG before. He’s watched me play some here and there, and I ran him through a D&D dungeon once or twice, but otherwise this was totally new to him. It’s simply not the sort of game he plays.
Took him a while to get the hang of it, but once he got into things he was hooked. The fascinating part is watching him choose dialogue options and react to the story and all that. Unlike me, he doesn’t see the GAME behind the game, if you know what I mean. He doesn’t think about the mechanics or how to manipulate dialogue options or any of that stuff. For him, he’s living in the Star Wars universe for a little while and seeing things in those terms.
For instance, at some point some NPC tries to give him a datapad. It was a side quest trigger of some sort. But he wouldn’t take it! “Oh no,†he told me, “I didn’t trust him. I’m sure that thing had a tracking device in it. Malick wants to find me BAD.†When he encountered the dark Jedi on Tatoinne he didn’t see it as a mere encounter, he said, “How did they track me here!?†He doesn’t see the mechanics behind the game, he’s just living in the world during the time he plays.
Holy hell, I remember playing games like that! I remember that time before you became aware of the game. How on Earth do you recapture that sense of totally getting lost like that? I don’t think I could now if I tried. I get absorbed in them, yes, but never so far into them that I forget there are game mechanics driving the whole thing, or that there are certain rules holding the whole experience together. He’s playing it like it’s a living, breathing world with all sorts of stuff happening, not like it’s a scripted, focused game experience.
I dunno why, but it struck me as kind cool to see someone playing games and not seeing the game, if you know what I mean.
I want to be there when he finds out the truth about Revan.
On the Xbox (and now the 360), the one game he always goes back to is Star Wars: Battlefront. He’s a huge Star Wars fan and he loves getting into those big giant battles.
So one day he asks to play Battlefront (the system is not his; he asks before playing games), and I say, “Nah, no Battlefront. Try this instead.â€
And I hand him Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.
Mind you, outside of Pokemon he’s never played an RPG before. He’s watched me play some here and there, and I ran him through a D&D dungeon once or twice, but otherwise this was totally new to him. It’s simply not the sort of game he plays.
Took him a while to get the hang of it, but once he got into things he was hooked. The fascinating part is watching him choose dialogue options and react to the story and all that. Unlike me, he doesn’t see the GAME behind the game, if you know what I mean. He doesn’t think about the mechanics or how to manipulate dialogue options or any of that stuff. For him, he’s living in the Star Wars universe for a little while and seeing things in those terms.
For instance, at some point some NPC tries to give him a datapad. It was a side quest trigger of some sort. But he wouldn’t take it! “Oh no,†he told me, “I didn’t trust him. I’m sure that thing had a tracking device in it. Malick wants to find me BAD.†When he encountered the dark Jedi on Tatoinne he didn’t see it as a mere encounter, he said, “How did they track me here!?†He doesn’t see the mechanics behind the game, he’s just living in the world during the time he plays.
Holy hell, I remember playing games like that! I remember that time before you became aware of the game. How on Earth do you recapture that sense of totally getting lost like that? I don’t think I could now if I tried. I get absorbed in them, yes, but never so far into them that I forget there are game mechanics driving the whole thing, or that there are certain rules holding the whole experience together. He’s playing it like it’s a living, breathing world with all sorts of stuff happening, not like it’s a scripted, focused game experience.
I dunno why, but it struck me as kind cool to see someone playing games and not seeing the game, if you know what I mean.
I want to be there when he finds out the truth about Revan.
Shoegaze99 on
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Watching mine play Smash Brothers: Brawl and the original Lego Star Wars on oXbox were some of the most fun I've had. In fact, my oldest still calls the Lego Star Wars game "The Crash Game", as we would play the first part of EP3 over and over and over and over...always with a crash ending the run.
You know, now that you mention it Everquest got me real close to that feeling, too. I played briefly at launch, for maybe six months, and while the game mechanics did a bit to stomp on things for me, exploring that world ... wow, that was a great experience. I got lost in that. All my most exciting adventures were just exploring and seeing new things and not knowing what was around the next corner.
Once I got into the usual routine, though - questing, camping, grinding up, etc. - I bailed out. I haven't played an MMO since. I sometimes want to, but now I can't help but see them as a series of zones and grinding and whatnot. I see them in terms of the mechanics and gameplay, and I didn't like the mechanics and gameplay, and I give up on the idea.
For a little while, though, I was exploring a new world. The entire experience was new. That's was awesome.
Gamertag: PrimusD | Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
When it happens, post it.
yes please.....
I used to be a naive gamer before I picked up Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth. I played that game online, found gamereplays(dot)org, and started to pick it apart for the best build orders and maps and what not.
After that, Age of Empires III came out - mind you, I played AoE II forever - and I wouldn't even look at it. "Not balanced yet," or "I don't like that mechanic." Soon after every single game I purchased was only after a thorough analysis - no more of the, "oh, this looks fun!"
I can still have fun with games, but I feel I'm always trying to push the boundary. Few games today impress me. A list of recent titles:
Crysis
(Far Cry 2)
World in Conflict
Sins of a Solar Empire
Penumbra: OVerture
Portal
[edit] Actually, Mass Effect sucked me in for days somehow. That game made feel like a kid.
But then Oblivion
I was amazed, and so impressed by the giant world, so full of life and people and weapons and stories. I felt so totally engrossed in it, I thought it was the best game ever.
Now, retrospectively, I see that it really wasn't all that good. The game was almost completely go here, kill stuff, get loot. And after playing it religiously for a while, it really started to bore me. I just wished that I could go back to the way I felt when I just got the game.
So keep us updated, I enjoyed reading it! Made me relive my past feelings of total immersion.
Thirded.
The Pipe Vault|Twitter|Steam|Backloggery|3DS:1332-7703-1083
But that's the answer to everything.
Especially because "throwing myself into the plot" usually includes doing whatever I can to make sure I catch sidequests, even i they're decisions I wouldn't make if I didn't think it would net me more plotline.
Yes yes yes. You MUST. In fact, you know what?
The instant he gets to that general part of the game, only let him play while you're there, and have a video camera going. Post the reaction on Youtube.
EDIT: Personally, what helps me kinda get deeper into stuff like that is really making a CHARACTER, from a writing perspective. Make someone with their own desires, thoughts, and opinions, and then ask myself what would they do. Admittedly, this mainly only works in games where you make your own character.
edit: yalborap's idea of videotaping your son at the twist is great
Hell I figured out the Revan thing about two hours into the game. Sixth Sense? About 20 minutes in. Happens all the damn time.
Hell part of the reason I love Baiten Kaitos so much is that it actually has a twist that I couldn't see through.
If I get that sensation, even maybe in just sections of the game, of losing myself in the game... It makes me feel like a kid again, and reminds me... OH YEAH, THIS IS WHY I LOVE VIDEO GAMES!
That sensation is why I play games rather than watching TV, etc. The total immersion, the only other thing that does it for me is a good book.
I too seek this in games - it happens occaisionally. Part game design, part imagination I suppose.
Agreed. It's one of the only plot twists I can remember that I didn't see through right from the start. It's definitely what makes the game stand out in my mind.
Zeboyd Games Development Blog
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire, Facebook : Zeboyd Games
I will consider the video idea. At the very least, I'll for sure detail his reaction to KOTOR's twist. Hell, I'm looking forward to that like crazy, because I just know it's going to blow his mind. He's truly trying to be the most noble Jedi possible, being the best good guy he can, so when the twist comes ... BOOM.
I honestly think it's a game design thing almost more than anything. Few games have that ephemeral something else that can really draw you in. It's also something very specific to the individual.
Clive Barker's Undying had a similar effect, only with pants-wetting nervousness.
The Pipe Vault|Twitter|Steam|Backloggery|3DS:1332-7703-1083
The whole not seeing the game behind the game thing is something I wish I could re-experience.
I feel jaded and indifferent to JRPG's that would capture me 10 years earlier. Maybe it's growing up, maybe I've played too many games.
Trying to recreate that "first time, totally immersed" feeling is impossible. Keep chasing that high you drug addicts.
Final Fantasy XI -> Carbuncle - Samash
What would be fun is understanding the rules on a different level, like shoegaze's son does (and my brother with Age of Empires 2, he actually saw human reasoning in the AI; it fucking baffled me, especially because he was in his late teens at the time). I'd love to understand game worlds on a human level instead of the coldly logical sense I have about them now. And it's really the immaturity of games that gets in the way of this. The rules shouldn't give as predictable results as they do. It'd be really nice for there to be some ambiguity.
If the game world was a real world, I will be glad to fool myself and behave as such again.
amen
You HAVE to tell us how he reacts!
I lent the game to a friend of mine, it was his first RPG and I was actually quite surprised how much he got into it. He called me on my cell when he found out.