05 - Video Games
My character in Animal Crossing: New Horizons basking in an autumnal wonderland
It started in 1992 with Sonic the Hedgehog 2. I had gotten a Sega Genesis for my birthday that year, and that was the first video game I ever played.
I was mystified. The colors, the music, the level design. I couldn’t put it down.
Two years later, Sega released what would end up becoming my favorite video game of all time: Sonic the Hedgehog 3.
Yes, it was more hedgehog goodness for someone already deep into their Sonic mania, but with a quickly growing library of games that didn’t center around a blue rodent, it was clear: I was becoming a gamer.
After the Sega Genesis era came to an end, the Sega Saturn era began; and when that ended, the Sega Dreamcast took its place. But it wasn’t just Sega.
Sony threw their hat in the console ring with the Playstation, and Nintendo, which was already a behemoth, changed the game (pun very much intended) with the N64, and subsequent release of Super Mario 64.
Fast forward from the 2D platformers and the blocky graphics of early open world games - to the photorealistic, cinematic masterpieces of today’s next gen titles, and I’m still here, banging the sticks.
Through it all, games were, are, and will continue to be, a huge part of my life, no matter my age.
Games have played a significant role in my life this year in particular, given the pandemic.
No movies, no sex, no summer adventures, no fall adventures? One of the only things that kept me from sitting in a corner babbling to myself incoherently was Animal Crossing. A storied franchise that was never on my radar at any point prior to 2020, and still wouldn’t be on my radar, if times were normal. But here we are. Adulting during the day, and building a zen garden for my anthropomorphic neighbors at night.
Laugh, but it’s honestly helped me maintain my sanity.
It wasn’t just Animal Crossing, though. Even pre-pandemic, I can’t fully articulate how therapeutic it’s been for me to fire up the old Genesis (yes, I still own one), blow the dust off that Sonic cartridge, and forever revisit the 90s whenever I need to.
I’ve accepted the fact that my gaming days won’t end until it’s game over on my life, and there’s nothing that’ll change that.
I feel the need to defend that fact, because I think there’s still a stigma when it comes to how we view gaming culture at large.
Most people tend to think of edgelord teenagers spewing racist bile during online play, misogynists launching hate campaigns against women in the industry, or the stereotypical nerds who can find a rare Pokemon in Mt. Moon’s cave, but can’t find the clitoris.
Those same people tend to view gamers aged 30 and above as grownup babies, desperately clinging to their childhoods, running from the realities and responsibilities of being a functional, fully-formed adult by escaping into a trivial, virtual world.
I disagree with that sentiment. I think games, like any other medium, will continue to be consumed by those who enjoy it, regardless of their age.
I’m not suddenly gonna wake up at 40 and say to myself “What am I doing? I’m 40 years old still playing video games? I have to fucking grow up!”
Why would I stop doing something I genuinely enjoy? Isn’t a big part of being an autonomous adult doing whatever the fuck you want? Wouldn’t caving to peer pressure and society’s expectations actually be more in line with how teenagers move through life? Isn’t that what’s childish?
We don’t blink an eye when an older person goes to the movies, or reads a book, so why balk at an older person indulging in the latest Nintendo release?
I think it’s because games are still largely a new phenomenon. At least when it comes to home entertainment.
Sure, pinball machines, Frogger, Pac-man, and other arcade games have been around decades, but playing those games still required you to go outside and socialize. You didn’t play those games alone in your room.
Sure, Atari came out in the early 70s, but it wasn’t really until the late 80s and early 90s gaming boom that playing games at home was an event - and the children of that era are now adults, who rightly see no reason to stop playing what they love.
Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z aren’t gonna stop playing games, no matter how old they get. We’ll all be in our 80s as nursing home residents, with our fading tattoo sleeves and piercings, our songs with sexually explicit lyrics, our tablets and smartphones, and yes - our video games.
It’s funny to imagine that now, but by the time we actually get there, gaming culture would’ve been effectively normalized.
I can only imagine what I’ll be playing then.