Binging Media: Go Big Or Go Home

I've been playing a lot of Final Fantasy VIII recently, and I've come to the realization that I tend to binge the entertainment that I consume—whether that happens to be the games that I play, books I read or TV shows I watch. I have a bit of an addictive personality and once I start something it's a bit hard to stop...

...Which is funny because if I miss a beat at any point, I actually find it very difficult to get back into something. Take The Sopranos for instance: amazing show, heralded by many, and the 3 seasons or so that I did watch were very enjoyable. But I had taken a break from the show, for a reason that happens to escape me at the moment, and as it stands I don't have any inclinations to finish up the series.

The same thing can easily happen to me right now with Final Fantasy VIII. I think this is the 4th time that I've restarted this game over the last 15 years. I've never gotten past the second disc and I currently stand on par with the furthest I've ever gotten in the game.

Benefits?

I'm not really 100% sure if binging is a good or bad thing but, at least in regards to RPGs, it has one large benefit: an unabridged story. The biggest culprit for not continuing an RPG has to be taking a break in the middle of a mission and then having no clue what you were doing when you start the game back up again. I couldn't even count how many times this has happened to me and my friends over the years. Thank the devs that started integrating logs into games; being able to keep track of progress is amazing.

Now binging a 40-hour RPG is one thing—even if I played 4 hours a day it would still take over a week to beat—but what about a shooter? Typically a shooter—like Wolfenstein or Killzone—only lasts around 8-12 hours, if I were to binge that it would be over in a couple days, almost leaving me feel a bit wasteful because I didn't relish the little bit of gameplay it offered. Not to mention if I bought it on day one, dropping $70 on it and then just beat it in 3 days...not the best feeling.

Final Thoughts

Along with Final Fantasy VIII, I'm also currently binging The X-Files, which is amazing I tell you! My love for the X-Files aside, swapping back and forth between the two actually works out pretty well; even if I get a little bored with one, I can just switch every other day and continue.

I'm curious about all of you, how do you consume media? Do you take the more methodical approach, take your time, savor the moment, or, do you try to consume as much as possible in an attempt to stave off your impending boredom? Let me know!

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Give It To Me Raw

Recently, I purchased a cheap vinyl player and began listening to a few vinyls. Call me a hipster, but I honestly think it provides a better listening experience.

No, I’m not trying to argue if the medium sounds better on a CD; in fact, vinyl LPs can sound poor if you don’t take proper care of it, or if it was improperly pressed by the record company. I will stress that whenever I listen to a vinyl, I just sit in front of my speakers and listen—no distractions whatsoever.

Most people enjoy passively listening to music in places that don’t allow you to concentrate on the music—in their car, at the gym, at parties, etc. For me, concentrating on listening allows me to appreciate music at a much more active level than ever before.

So how does all of this play into gaming? Easy: every game demands your attention. Think about it—you’re actively taking part in playing a game with a controller in hand. Even if you’re playing a portable game, you’re still required to pay attention.

This active role that I enjoy about gaming is a very fulfilling experience. You immerse yourself in every sense minus smell. You get to enjoy visuals, music, story and most importantly, you take control of the game. It’s easily the most active you can be in front of a screen.

The Oculus Rift and Project Morpheus (Sony’s virtual reality hardware) could easily take gamers even further, but I don’t think VR will be a big financial success. Just like how I listen to vinyl, gaming already seems to be active enough of an experience. Of course, I can only speak for myself but a peripheral on my head would lose its novelty quickly. It’s still interesting as a concept, but who knows how virtual reality will really perform.

Things like VR have already been done in the past, but not in such a big way. This is similar to the craze over 3D movies and games we had a few years back. People now have 3D TVs and are able to play 3D games, but the novelty wore off, and I don’t know anyone that plays their games in 3D.  Most people even turn 3D off on their 3DS nowadays.

3D movies are pretty neat, and the technology has caught up enough to provide a proper experience for the consumer, but in the end, do all these extra features matter? I fear VR will become something tacked-on that developers will be wasting their time on, just to include it. Sort of like multiplayer in some games.

Things like 3D and VR aren’t huge steps at improving an active experience. Rather, they provide immersion in ways that won’t stand the test of time. Give me a controller and let me enjoy the game, and don’t waste money developing tacked-on things like 3D and VR. Like vinyl, let’s just focus on what’s important: what the artist(s) truly intended.

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Seriously Funny

I've been watching a crap load of X-Files over the last couple of weeks. I currently just started the 3rd season, and I've come to realize 2 things about the show. First, there are a ton of actors that you see all over TV nowadays, more so in the Sci-fi genre mind you, that made some sort of appearance on the X-Files—heck both Giovanni Ribisi and Jack Black were in the same episode! Second, as serious as the X-Files is trying to be, it's also full of humour...like a lot of it. Personally I love comedy and this is really amazing; it really makes me wonder why there aren't more serious games that incorporate some form of humour.

I'm not so sure if it's just as simple as saying that some developers are trying to be taken too seriously, so they make serious games. That was my first thought, but I think the industry as a whole has come a long way and gets a lot more recognition than it used to. If it really is the case, I think it's a little sad... humour is a part of everyday life.

This isn't all to say that there isn't any humour in games—I just don't really think it goes very far. I don't even remember the last time I actually laughed out loud playing a game, but I do it nearly every episode of the X-Files. If I were to think of some "funny" games, I would have to go with Escape From Monkey Island and Brutal Legend, both having been made by the same person! Even his new game Broken Age is supposed to be funny, although I haven't tried it. Is Tim Schafer the only funny man in the industry?

All the money

Of course there are also some games that are explicitly trying to be funny, such as South Park: Stick of Truth and the Borderlandsseries, but in these cases a comedy should be funny. If those games weren't funny, it would be like watching a bad episode of Seinfeld.

I believe the main culprit at hand for the lack of humour in video games is that studios usually don’t have any professional writers on staff. For the most part, believe it or not, the writing is done by committee, usually by the design team and whoever else has some input. Writers do get brought in from time to time, but not too often—a good example of a writer being on staff would be at Bioware, who make huge RPGs with thousands of pages of dialogue and lore. The argument made for this is that the story usually comes second in many game, RPGs withstanding, the main focus is making the game fun and interesting to play.

Other than the graphics getting better this generation, not much has changed in regards to the core gameplay experience; personally I believe this is quickly going to change.  The next step developers are going to have to take is delivering stories worth a player's time; I think that is going to be the biggest difference between generations.

No doubt about those graphics

Infamous: Second Son has some amazing character development and the writing is actually really well done. I thought it was genuinely funny and not the forced kind of funny most games tend to be; it was very natural. I think we're going to start seeing a lot more games released with the level of production Second Son has. Some might even be revealed for the first time in the coming week.

E3 is finally upon us, I can't wait to discuss it all at our weekly podcast. What are you most excited for at this year's E3? Leave a comment below!

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