WHAT’S YOUR FOREVER GAME: or, that...THIS new game is really THAT old game, and I’m cool with that...game.
(random thoughts and video that kinda really sums up five hundred percent what I end up loving so much about a “game” / archetype / franchise I’ve been playing and enjoying for 10 years plus)
So, for whatever reason I’ve decided to write / ramble about something that keeps coming back for my brother and I every few years in our respective / mutual gaming cycles...
That...going / crawling on your knees back to your…“forever game”…
Which, the more I think about it…I’m mostly curious about defining / dissecting the idea of this kind of game…
As well, because we’re in this golden age of video games as “video games as a service”...so I get the feeling that people WANT these games to exist for us…and I kind of think they already do, but...what are they? Are they made, born, or just effectively “sold” to us?
And what has me wondering the most on this topic...most surprisingly...is how the game I’m thinking of for all this...isn’t what I would’ve originally put on my “must play” or “desert island” games lists...
If anything, it would probably be on the “games I keeeeep playing and would never tell anyone about BECAUSE I keeeeeep playing IT!” game list…now that I really think about it…
Which brings me to Everybody’s Golf…
(which is the 7th? I think? Game in the Hot Shots Golf Franchise...but, really, is just the newest in a long line of golf sim off shoots of, what was really FIRST for me personally, (despite 1990s Golf on the game boy technically being the first I played and did love) 1999’s Mario Golf for the N64 (which really had its hooks in me for years, and with every new incarnation, to come…))
Which is a brand new MMO (wooo, the chance to play a live round with my brother...where we can chat and watch shots and shoot the shit while we drink a beer ALMOST like real golf!) with microtransactions…
(...has there ever been a ship you actually helped make float?)
BUT...at it’s core...this, in part, “forever game” of mine, is ALSO the most bloated version of the simplest thing I love...
(and what’s funny to me when I really break down what the “game” is, and how this “game”, through all it’s versions, has been able to feel / be the same “game” because it’s ALSO felt so...formulaicly similar?)
Which is just...hit A to “start swing”….hit A to stop “top swing” (power guage)...hit A again for follow through contact (to stop “accuracy guage”)...
Which is so mechanically simple that it was able to be made on the game boy...and, as well, because it’s part one of what only has to be a two part system of game mechanics who’s formula add up to “re-creating” / making a simulation of what “golf” is.
“aim” mini game + “club swing” mini game = golf
(though, to be fair, the new MMO lets me drive a cart around, explore a little...fish...all on a live course with other players...and it’s all sooo seamless and lag free that I can do other things AND this OR play my own round and fly through it while completely forgetting everyone else and the entire world is there if I wanted to (...until the crazy created characters / bear suit people show up and start spinning around and I can’t forget them...))
player controlled “paddle” + player controlled “paddle” + computer controller “ball” = table tennis (Pong)
So, really, my earliest thoughts on this were of me marveling at how a game that...when it stays simple...gets to also feel easy and familiar over the long haul…
(...and how and why I think people jump from top / newest competitive shooter to the next...chasing the technological edge, latest philosophy on “feel”, AND the competition...perhaps more than other genres, while games like madden or fifa can do nothing different until the end of time and will always have a strong player base)
But that’s what brought me to my next thoughts on what makes this possible…
Which is easy enough to understand in the close up and most immediate sense with…
How do my hands think and feel about this game?
(...and how do they get to remember...to build up and into being a part of this game?)
(...am I learning to move, then punch, then combo, and fight...adding things up over incarnations until I’m dancing...)(...or seeing an initially arbitrary, but, later on, very important, score climb as my bare bones understanding of a few simple arcade game concepts turn into muscle memory and late game meta strategies?)(...do new game plus runs give me just a little more to see and explore as meters get higher and my hands get more confident, like in shadow of the colossus, or just darker dungeons and toughter fights, like in final fantasty remakes on 3DS / mobile?)(or am I just getting more chicken dinners and or seeing better KD ratios?)
...but, this always becomes interesting, over time, because video games are also, in part, technology...so what we play on can change out from under us...from handheld, to 64 controller, to the gamecube’s cushy cloud (in the case of me playing Golf, then Mario Golf, then Mario Golf Toadstool tour)…
So the game itself (or it’s goals (goal line) and objectives (touchdowns)) can feel familiar…
But how we play...what we play for, and why…can change, add up and be wholly re-interpreted out from under us too...with us learning, borrowing, and abandoning a lot at times even...
(the easiest and quickest example to tie up all those esoteric questions about “what’s it all about”, can be made out of...skateboarding games...and how it’s main contributor / trunk game of the genre, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, evolved from high scores and timed runs on a controller...to a plastic skateboard peripheral (for a second)...and, in a different but still similar sense, from the arcadey, combo chain, game style of Tony Hawk to the trick specificity, unique goal, flow and feel approach to skating that was EA’s Skate franchise)
But that “feel” of everything...as a whole experience, despite some reuse of more simple “parts”...is really about the entirety of that equation adding up into something that can be remembered as “different”…and it’s what makes a game, potentially, infinitely replayable (because it’s worth is always there for it being / feeling so unique).
As another example...there are all kinds of snow boarding games to play (technically, not necessarily within the newest generation of consoles), but, really what that means is that, snowboarding games as a genre, only saw so many incarnations over the years (surfing games has it worse), but...to name a few...
1080 snowboarding (N64), Snowboard kids (N64), Cool boarders (PS), SSX (PS2), Amped (Xbox), Shaun White Snowboarding (PS3), Steep (PS4)...
But each, is wildly different in terms of single player / multiplayer objectives / intent, story mode or competitive replayability, and, yes, though each sees a swell of content, console power and so, depth, breadth, and newness all it’s own, really, they each, ultimately “feel” unique, I feel, and warrant their own specific attention because each is such a different “game”, in terms of what you play for, on, and how...
And each of those games “feels” different because each tries something different for specific reasons…
It’s not quite like golf games, who’s simple idea has been more or less repeated, and kept similar, yet slowly built up and stacked upon with bells and whistles until we swell into a crescendo (like with Everybody’s Golf)…
Sooo...maybe each of those snowboarding games could be seen as having their own “forever game” potential, or any from the genre itself BECAUSE the genre, from game to game, can end up with so much variation in “feel”?
...it all makes me think and ramble in a bunch of different directions lol.
But I’ve only really looked at things from within the realm of sports games, more or less, so far...as well because they are games who’s controls, or “hand feel” (to be most? Specific), are at the forefront of their core experience...
BUT...is this similar to how and where match three games like candy crush, or light and simple puzzle games, number games, or physics games can offer simplicity and immediate return, consistently and conveniently?
OR even beautiful giants like “Threes” can offer a streamlined, brain heavy mountain to climb?
OR the way that real Donkey Kong folks need a standing arcade cabinet to really complete the experience, AND be serious about a record?
Is that how people end up begrudgingly jumping on board with the most modern fighter, and yet...
Some will always end up back at the arcades that are closing down, and hunting down gamecube controller parts, even if no one else is?
What makes a forever game…
“feel”? And NOTHING else, maybe?
...rhythm...pattern...flow of “feelings” and “rewards” to a game?
Why chess, Tekken, and poker are always going to exist in some form, somewhere?
It all makes me wonder...and feel kinda sad and embarrassed for “games” too, because...
Everybody’s golf is a game that ALSO...FAILS...SO much at what it’s ALSO trying to do…
Which is...make itself into THAT game that gets me to hand out more money, but...honestly, they’re in a bind because...why would I?
They’re throwing new clothes, purchasable with COINS, and club upgrades, purchasable with GEMS and TICKETS, at me like nobodies business, but...
(quick aside...I hate microtransactions...it’s why I can’t and don’t wanna play Overwatch anymore...because I don’t have enough friends to enjoy it competitively, and it’s too miserable to end up actually “wanting” anything in the game...because, then, once I do, I have to be miserable and sad and only, on a timed grind to get it...OR, I waste money on slot machine boxes and end up skipping meals and over-drinking to deal with my sadness...in part, because I feel hurt and let down for letting myself depend on / trust a game for some enjoyment...which was a place I used to think was safe for wanting things...)
FINALLY – WHY I POSTED THE VIDEO
THIS, what this video shows, ultimately, maybe...is what ends up being the MOST magical of moments in these mostly “the same” slogs through a very samey kind of game, like these golf franchises...
Wild moments of physics-made chance that turn into something I can send my brother a replay of via my phone, just so we can laugh together, and get excited to send another one back because NOW we have a machine for MAKING these moments between us…
It’s not a scripted event, an achievement, an unlockable…
It’s not a well written plot or bit of story that connected to me more to my soul…
...it’s just...a surreal, or silly...emergent...moment from playing hundreds and hundreds of holes WITHOUT skipping a beat, until…
...I absolutely HAVE to pull the car over from this smoooooth ride to marvel at something that’s spectacular...
It’s something that feels mine...and, sadly, MAYBE couldn’t even be pre-programmed to mean more, or even as much...
And that, really, is I think what’s magical for these games…and what makes a “forever” game different than the games you put on display, in your library, on your desert island...
These are the games who’s moments you don’t brag to everyone about…
Just your closest family, who might have the same itch, and get the same enjoyment out of this little slice of...hundreds of hours…
For those thirty second clips, and two minute laughs...
...it’s JUST a game that let’s me just “play” it, and enjoy the play of it, until I MYSELF make something happen?
And, again, what’s sad, I feel...is that they could add a hundred courses over time, and ask me to buy each one, or season pass, or something, but I don’t know if I’d shell out a time, because...can’t I just keep playing the old ones? Wouldn’t I be fine with it, because, as well, maybe I could afford the DLC this month, but, if my brother can’t...why would I want to send him a clip or something he can’t enjoy, as much, too?
(This led me to another thought / example...Shadow of the collossus...one of my favorite games with FEEL to it...but...if they added monsters and different story scenarios...on and on, forever...I’d probably never touch any of it past the main story because...how and WHY it ends is really one of the most beautiful things about it...same with metal gear solid 3, and other games I could probably think of…
but, the truth is...adding more of that “in between” isn’t gonna help an already great game be better, or even good forever…
and, MAYBE they could keep coming up with meaningful ways to show new / different stories in / through that same original world / game / vessel…
like, I’m sure someone could turn out fantastic dead pan comedy arc using the shadow of the colossus’ game engine, but… just make a new tv show!
...why are they trying to turn each new game (or new tv series), INTO the NEW television set?? as if THIS will be the new vessel through which all stories can / SHOULD flow...)
So...I really don’t know how to help “games” as an industry, with doing the impossible (being both worthwhile, finite AND infinite money machines)…
Because the game I’m currently expecting to play forever...probably won’t get any more money out of me any time soon...
But I’m curious about thinking about it…
Those games you’ll always jump back on board with…
You might not tell EVERYONE to get on that horse with you…
But you’ll ALWAYS put a quarter into the Galaga machine when you’re waiting for your slice of pizza…
...and maybe you’re gonna get the new Red Dead game just to enjoy more horse with your nature...
THOSE forever slices of something...be it a whole, or little bit of who knows what or why, that becomes your “forever game”…
...but is it?
I don’t know...but, whatever it is, it’s perfect…
So…once again, and always and forever…
(...rant over...for now...)
