V.I.D.
Videogamer's Interest Disorder. Not a term you usually hear, now is it? Not surprising. But despite the reader never having heard this before, you have probably experienced it. It's a normal condition felt by all experienced gamers. Especially those who play ALOT of games. It goes something like this.
VIDEOGAMER'S INTEREST DISORDER
V.I.D.
DEFINITION:
A disorder in which the gamer has been over exposed to flashy graphics while not backed up by enough depth.EPIDEMIOLOGY:
- Incidence: Common
- Age of onset:
- Teen years
- Risk factors:
- Any new game
- Rarely familial - autosomal dominant and autosomal recessive
- M = F
PATHOGENESIS:
- Over years of development, gamers are exposed to primarily games with flash, but not enough substance.
2. Term Effects
- Term Effects -> Loss of faith in gaming abilities, loss of interest in having "fun".
3. Others
- Appeared recently during school vacation
- Permanent loss of interest in videogames in 5% - 10%
MANAGEMENT:
- Attempt to enjoy multiple genres rather than any singular style
- Play multiplayer games with friends
- Play oldskool rather than newskool
For those of you who were rather lost by the wording of that document, I will put the whole thing into layman's terms. Imagine you are playing some brand new game. You have read all of the reviews (especially those from Domain Kain ;) concerning this particular game. You purchase it, and much to your delight, it is as good as you expected it to be. As a matter of fact, it's BETTER than you expected! But... It's just not fun. It's not like there is something wrong with the game. Darn, it's perfect! But, it's just... well... You are not enjoying it. In fact, that's how you have begun feeling about a lot of games, as of late. You start to wonder... Are you losing your touch? Have you reached that magic age where you are suddenly too mature to play those "kid games" anymore? Of course not! (Besides... There is NEVER any magic age at which you stop enjoying games) Videogamer's Interest Disorder(VID) is something that most gamers exprience at one time or another. At some random point in your life, you just suddenly lose interest in playing games. It isn't a problem that slowly but surely creeps up onto you. It just suddenly HAPPENS. I believe that it is caused by overexposure to games which substitute flash for substance. This isn't just a problem with the bad games, it happens in many good games as well. Many games now days don't have as much depth as we would like, or remember from the games we played as children. Even if you don't consciously notice this, it affects you.
There are ways to treat this however. Since the cause of this affliction is overexposure to flash over substance, look for a game with some SERIOUS substance. The easiest way to find such a game, is to go looking through those bargain bin games over at your local EB store. Pick pretty much any NES game, and you are set. Genesis and SNES games will have very similar effects. I have had the privledge, if you can call it that, of living through the eras of those consoles (NES, Genesis, SNES). I have seen games evolve from sprite based platformers to cinematic quality adventure/rpg/action/shooting combination games. Yes, for a technology as such to evolve so much in so little time amazes me every time I think about it. It's not just the technological aspects like graphics and sound that have changed either. The styles of gameplay have changed tremendously. Playing a classic platformer such as Mario for the NES, then turning around and playing, say... er... well... Pretty much any modern day game, is such a huge contrast. It's like hot and cold. Ok, maybe not THAT extreme, but you get the idea. Older games tended to make up for their graphical weakness with nice challenging gameplay. Time has proven their worth. Another way of treating this is to branch out your gaming experiences. Never limit your playing to one genre! Buy the occasional puzzle game that comes out, or perhaps the odd Japanese import to add variety to your library. Playing a game like 'Ka', a game in which you are a mosquito and you must suck the blood from humans, will definitely liven up your day. Well, it'll at least make your day physcologically imbalanced. Now that I think of it, 'Ka' is sort the odd cousin of Blood Omen, as in blood sucking is a major gameplay piece in both games. So, the two part cure for V.I.D. is oldskool and variety. Get in on some of the classics, play the odd game or two and you'll be able to appreciate more, the gameplay of fighting the Umbrella corporation (Resident Evil) or beating up on old ladies(GTA3) in no time at all.