Game Depression: A Serious Question For A Humorous Topic

Hm. First time writing a blog on here after being a member now for two years. It has a nice forest pine scented smell to it. But on to the topic at hand:

I would like to pose a simple question:

Can you love gaming, designing games, and playing games so much, that you end up unable to play anything that has come out in the last six months? Now, extend that "last six months" bit, to any game that has come out?

Think about that for a second.

What's this man babbliing about?

I have been unable to sit down and play a game in six months like I would usually do. Usually, I will pour this finite resource known as time into any game I like. 257 (no joke) hours of Fallout 3? Check. Batman: Arkham Asylum 100% completed? Check. Red Dead Redemption?

You get the picture.

I'm in what you could call a gaming depression. I cannot find a game to satisfy myself. Why is this? Why is he still rambling on?

This is why (atleast, at 3:23 AM in the morning why I think this is): We, I, am thinking too much like a developer.

Over the past view months, there have been some interesting topics on here on Gamasutra. Some of these include:

I'm not going to touch on the first two topics, as I feel I couldn't properly explain them (yes, I'm still unsure about how I feel at what Ms. McGonigal proposes). I will comment on the last two in one fell swoop.

Sequelitis, Glorifying certain games, etc.

I heard this term as a description by Adam Sessler a while back (smart man, definitely an influence on me). It has had a lot of us in a bind lately:

"We must create something original!"

While this is true, lately I've noticed a trend. We'll take any indie game made and proclaim it as "truly innovative", "OVER 9000/10".

Before I am flogged to death, I am a humble indie programmer.

I'll take a game that was widely praised. A little thing called Limbo. The atmosphere is great. I love the look, the sound (or lack thereof), and story of it.

It's also an average game. I can't deny this as I play it. I stopped playing it actually. It just bores me. It is equivalent to Call of Duty: Black Ops for me. Both games feature amazing visuals, but halfway through the game I am bored. Granted, it came third level with Black Ops, but who's counting?

Bringing this mess of a blog to an end!

To bring this poorly written blog full circle, I would like to tie my "Gaming Depression" in with the above comments about Limbo and Black Ops. Basically, I've realized that as a developer, it's my duty to make something wholly original. As a developer who likes to play games, it's for the safety of not getting killed by (hopefully) future fans to make a game that is FUN.

There's nothing wrong with FPS games, JRPGS, or *insert overused genre here*. It's the way we go about them that can be wrong. We can gripe all we want about how the large companies are not being innovative (a true statement, here's looking at you Activision), but until we realize that we need our Citizen Kanes to be as fun as Demolition Man, than we're going to be stuck in this rut.

Or for my sake, please, those of us on Gamasutra,  make something that I'll talk about at the proverbial watercooler. Gamers will come to you, I promise.

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