Being a Gamer goes beyond just completing Games

Up until recently, I have really struggled with games. I’ve struggled to keep up with all the games available at my disposal – pirated and bought alike. I’ve been absolutely overwhelmed by the choices of games that I could pick, ending up mostly playing the same stuff over and over again. Does it make me less of a gamer? Am I not a gamer at all anymore? Well, let’s try and process that today.

In an earlier post, I shared about my top gaming moments.

With the start of the mobile devices like the iPhone, iPod touch and androids… came a huge change in the gaming landscape. From full blown PC experiences, people had to slim down games into pocket-size addictions that started out in the form of Doodle Jump or Candy Crush. All of these are games, alright? But for gamers, these aren’t games. These are just tiny little casual games and don’t make you a gamer.

While companies were riding on the new cash cow – that is the mobile gaming industry – the PC and console market lead the charge of raising the gaming standard year after year as well. Breath of the Wild, Horizon: Zero Dawn, The Witcher 3, God of War, Final Fantasy XV and so on. All of them are gaming experiences that are just kind of impossible on mobile right now. Do these full-blown console and PC games make their players “more a gamer” than those of the earlier mentioned ones?

Then we have games like Mobile Legend or Arena of Valor that are bringing DotA-like strategy unto the mobile platform. The scene for these games can be highly competitive but for serious DotA2 players, it doesn’t even match half of the skill required to play DotA. Does it mean that Mobile Legend players are stupid?

Different Gaming Factions are pulling at each other’s throat, instead of bringing us closer.

I can’t help but feel that this is just a huge overreaction, perhaps even a tinge of threat and fear in these console gamers. Whilst a huge focus has shifted to the mobile scene, making a cash cow of whoever has enough money to buy hearts, diamonds or unlocks to expedite their gaming experience, the console market hasn’t lost quality at all. Developers haven’t lost faith in them at all.

At this point, I think, it’s important for all gaming factions that acknowledge and accept the existence of the others out there. Mobile Legend players can’t go out there and say they are technically the best and could rule in DotA, whilst DotA players shouldn’t say they are more skilled than their Mobile Legend counterpart. You can say that an Ancient player is better than an Archon or that a Mythic player is better than a Master ranked player — but you can’t compare Apples with Oranges. Live and let live.

Back to my personal struggle though.

It took me ages to finally finish a proper game. I think before I finished Horizon: Zero Dawn, the last game I finished dates back to the Omega Ruby time on my Nintendo 3DS. And that’s been years ago. I have so many great RPGs and games at my disposal but I just couldn’t find myself motivated enough to finish them. Sometimes, the pressure of having to finish a game got to me and spoiled my experience – and this shouldn’t be the case. Not finishing a game doesn’t make you less of a gamer. Just like how sticking to Mobile Legends as your desired competitive game, makes you less relevant in the scene (within context of your respective scene).

It’s about time that we stop with the stereotypes flying around between so called casuals and hardcore gamers.

Everyone who loves to play video games is a gamer.

And no one should be allowed to spoil this fact for others.

Ever since I started embracing my more lax gaming approach, I started enjoying games more. I felt less guilty throwing hours at FIFA’s Manager mode, I felt more happy killing newbies in Mobile Legends — because I am enjoying game how it is. I’m ignoring the fact that I’m allegedly not progressing a story or playing towards rolling the credits.

But really though, what kind of gamer are you, Kevin?

Whenever I invest time and effort in a game like say DotA 2 or Mobile Legend, I try to focus on one or two heroes and master them with my heart. This explains how I’ve almost ended up with 1/3rd of all my DotA 2 and Mobile Legend games using only 1 hero. For DotA 2, that would be Nature’s Prophet and for Mobile Legends, that would be Cyclops.

I don’t try to be the kind of guy that knows every single hero or role, respectively. I try to master the roles and heroes that appeal to me and make use of them effectively.

When it comes to RPG games, I often want to collect everything. It’s getting to the point that side quests totally take me out of the loop of what the main story was all about this. This is something that happened to me in Breath of the Wild, where I’ve used up over 60 hours just running around, collecting shrines, opening up towers… with little progress to the main story. It reached a point where I just sold the game.

But this isn’t always the case. Horizon: Zero Dawn for example was kind of perfect for me. Engaging story, interesting plot and a lot of things to put my curiosity at work. You just really need to find games that are appealing to your gamer preferences. It doesn’t mean that you are a lesser kind of gamer if you decide to choose games that fit you.

Others love having shit thrown at their face and feel empowered when a game kills you a million times for you to start over at the beginning. Cheers to them! I couldn’t imagine keeping up with that – maybe at some point, but not right now.

Hey, if it works for them, great! That’s just what gaming is about… enjoying them.