I am probably a strange anomaly in a video game studies class since I do not generally think of myself as a "gamer." That particular notion of mine was upset last week when a friend of mine made an observation while watching me play Sonic the Hedgehog 3. He claimed that there was no way someone with such an obsession with a particular game could consider themselves "not a gamer." Never mind the fact that I've played the game about three times in the past five years and that 99% of what I was doing was based on muscle memory -- I did have to admit that he had a point. I still knew where practically every 1up was located, and had just spent five minutes explaining to everyone in the room that in order to gain a perfect score in the 3rd level of the special "chaos emerald" bonus stage, one had to jump over the last red sphere and collect all of the rings before completing the level. The fact that I had stored away all of this inane knowledge for the past 15 years did kind of say something about my level of obsession with this game as a child.
My brother and I pooled our money to buy a Sega Genesis in the early 1990s, when I was 7 and he was 11. Of course, being the oldest, he got the first crack at every game (when my father wasn't extending seniority over him, that is). By the time I got a chance to play, my brother had usually already conquered the game. I was not a particularly skilled gamer as a child - I had no more hand-eye coordination then than I have now - but I was persistent. I would play my favorite games over and over until I learned every move by heart. My three favorites made up an eclectic collection - Streets of Rage II (I got a disturbing amount of joy out of beating up thugs with a lead pipe), Aladdin, and of course, Sonic 3.
By the time I reached middle school, I began to play games less and less as I became interested in other hobbies such as reading and music. We never got a more advanced gaming system, so I never developed many skills besides mastering the basic tenets of early Genesis games - always run to the right and try not to get hit by enemies. This has left me at a great disadvantage as my college friends have tried to teach me to play more sophisticated games on the Wii or XBOX 360. 3-D games are basically too difficult for me to navigate, and I have no idea what to do with a controller that contains more than four buttons.
I am trying to learn enough skills that I can at least get through a game passably. I made an attempt at playing Super Paper Mario this summer, and I got through several levels, though not without practically making my friends’ heads explode as they watched me try to navigate my way through without help. I tend to enjoy active games such as DDR and Guitar Hero more than other types of games, and the appeal of first-person shooters still eludes me completely. I will play games if they are around, but I imagine once college is done I will become distracted by other pursuits. However, when life gets stressful, I might have to dust off the old Sega Genesis and take Sonic for one last spin through the imaginary world of my childhood.
2 comments:
Thats cool that you like sonic 3. it was and still is one of my favorite games ever. Actually i used to play all of those games.
Oh and you know how we were talking about Streets of rage 2? well i found that they have it on Xbox live arcade. so you wont have to bring your sega over, we can just use my 360.
That is so awesome. I loved Sonic when I was younger (like most normal sega-owning kids), but I also was into Streets of Rage. My brother and I used to play that all the time...along with Double Dragon.
Its pretty crazy that you remember all that from sonic. Does that make you a gamer? What classifies people as a "gamer"; thats what I want to know. if its being influenced by a game at some point in you're life, then we're all guilty. no?
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