Not a gamer, but I still like to watch
To my wife’s great relief, I’ve never been a “gamer,” someone who plays video games obsessively and immerses himself in the subculture of “gaming.” I don’t insist on buying the latest version of “World of Warcraft” or “Call of Duty” or whatever else is popular these days. I don’t spend hours on the couch, pumping digital bullets into virtual enemies. Nor do I engage in online feuds with people I’ve never met in person.
Luckily for Linda, I got that all out of my system when I was kid, or at least a “young adult.” By the time I graduated college, I was pretty much done with Nintendo, Sega and PC (personal computer) games. I’ve never owned an Xbox, a Playstation or even a Wii. I do occasionally play a crossword puzzle game on my phone before I go to sleep, but that’s hardly the all-encompassing game world that many men my age (and older) inhabit. Still, like many aspects of my life, I have a soft spot for nostalgia. That is why video games from 30 years ago still catch my attention from time to time. This is where today’s Internet, with its ability to preserve and recycle every pop culture memory of the past 100 years, comes in handy. YouTube, for example, has an extensive collection of “play-through” videos, which basically allow you to watch someone else play a video game from start to finish, just to relive the experience vicariously.
Between the ages of about nine and 14, I was an avid consumer of just about every game released by Sierra Online, a California company that produced fantasy role-playing games requiring players to solve puzzles, collect certain items and fight or outwit enemies. My favorite was the “King’s Quest” series, which put you in the role of classic adventurers in the realm of dragons, wizards, and characters from fairy tales and Greek mythology. I don’t know how many hours of my childhood I devoted to “beating” these games, but it would probably add up to weeks or even months.
Of course, the graphics are laughably primitive by today’s standards, but I still love watching the familiar scenes and long-ago quests play out in front of me on my laptop computer. I’m not sure my wife completely understands why I enjoy this, as I overheard her trying to explain it to members of her family during one of their weekly Zoom meet-ups. “He really likes it...I think it relaxes him,” I could hear her say as she struggled to explain why her 40-year-old husband was watching a pixilated hero talking to an elf about a magic mirror.
She’s right; it is relaxing. It’s a digital trip down a pre-Internet Memory Lane, when all you needed was some floppy disks and a keyboard to have fun. And, don’t worry, I still leave the house.
OUT FOR A WALK
KEVIN O’BRIEN
EDITOR
