In which drool plays a role.

I know I talk about games a lot on here. I say this not so much because I feel badly about it, but more as a way of acknowledging that I am aware of the fact. There’s no doubt that this bores some of you, and for that I do apologize, but games are a pretty big part of my life. Of course, if things go well at GDC this might become slightly less pathetic since it’ll be a legitimate part of my career. Or is that more pathetic? I’m not totally sure.

Anyway, my period of engrossment in Final Fantasy XI has come to represent my personal gaming “dark ages.” Like the Europeans of old, after a century or so of indulging in the new, the innovative and the exciting, I slumped into the easier realms of repetition and monotony. I don’t necessarily regret my time in the MMO world, as such, because I think getting as deep into the endgame and community aspects as I did will provide invaluable research for future game design endeavors. I’m not trying to claim that this was the goal, but the end result will be the same.

In any case, playing an MMO in a serious way is the sort of time commitment that keeps you from playing other games. There are only so many hours in the day available for the playing of video entertainment, after all. As a direct result I saved a lot of money (down from buying a game or two a month to one or two a year) but I also missed out on a ton of impressive titles. From a certain standpoint this has actually worked out really well – I went around a picked up a bunch of great-but-old games for thirty dollars or less with the intention of playing through them.

When I tried to start, though, I felt a kind of trepidation that was odd. After having spent so much time with FFXI there’s a strange sort of resistance to learning new controls schemes and dealing with new plotlines. Idiotic, I know, but the pressure was there. To help, I decided to go back and play what is probably my favorite game: Beyond Good and Evil. This is a title I’ve mentioned a few times in the past, and my comments from back then ring even truer now. The game is a masterpiece, and the sort of thing that everyone who enjoys games ought to play.

The experience inspired me to take a look at my old catalog and start remembering all the great but hopelessly obscure titles I used to play. In the spirit of this renewal, I’ve decided to write a post dedicated to suggesting a handful of excellent games that most people probably haven’t played. Some of them you may not even have heard of, especially if you don’t consider yourself an enthusiast. I’ll probably get this up some time tomorrow.

It’s good to be playing again.