I bought five games last week. Six, if you count that I pre-ordered Starcraft 2. The other games were all for my gamecube and ps2. Why did I do this after vowing I would only play the gorgeous exploration-friendly Just Cause 2 (on PC) for the foreseeable future?
It seems I have injured my
precious index finger, a precious resource in PC gaming. There are
downsides to being a 3d game artist. The inability to distinguish
leisure time from work time; explaining to people that you make video
games, not Pixar films, and no, you don't want to make Pixar films, but
yes you like watching them; and working in a stationary position for hours upon
hours upon hours, moving naught but your fingers.
My fingers
have become a big problem for me. I enjoy rock-climbing. I like
gripping tiny holds with the tips of my fingers, balancing
precariously, slowly shifting my body in any direction to ascend slowly
up a sheer face. This requires a lot of finger strength. And working on
a wacom tablet for hours at a time does not relieve one's fingers. And
then typing ctrl+z repeatedly over and over to get just the right
stroke on a 2d photoshop painting. That does not help my fingers or
hands. And typing this tale (I enjoy typing) does not help my fingers.
The
main issue I have with my choice of career, which I would not give up
for the world, is that it taxes so little of me that I feel as if I am
wasting eighty percent of my being. We are animals, built to exert
ourselves, and now, through overuse of those few parts that I do use, I
have made it even more difficult to exercise the other eighty percent
of me. (At least, in the manner I'd prefer.)
So I have bought a bunch of games for my last-gen
consoles because they rely on my thumbs, and this will give my wounded
index finger a rest.
The Sonic Mega Collection was one of my
purchases, and for the past week I have been playing through Sonic The Hedgehog for the
first time (well, I have now played it about fifteen times over the last five days). This gauntlet of trial and death is fascinating. I like the
excellent little curve that allows me to get about a level or two
further each time. The sequel (I did play Sonic 2 in college) was much
faster in one's movement around the levels, and so I find this slower trap-laden method of level progression to be
more difficult. I will have to check out Sonic 2 after
beating this and see how it compares after playing the first.
I
guess I am a little glad for this break from current games. I am only
now coming into my own as a gamer. Absorbing all of these various
classics for the first time (Sonic, Metroid Prime, Kingdom Hearts, Sly Cooper)
is a fun important exercise of its own. Heaven knows I can't give up gaming completely. These might still use my hands, but at least
I will be beating my thumbs up instead of my other more tender digits.