by Joshua Simmet

Created on: July 25, 2009

Every year there is a huge leap in the technology that powers the video games that are released. Graphics are more lifelike, sounds are more vivid and the controls are more fluid. You'd think that there would be no question as to whether the games are improving. Yet to me it seems that, while the gameplay is improving, the actual games are not. This may not be an important distinction to some people, heck maybe not even to most people, but to me it is a major difference.

I have always played games as much for a story as for the chance to do something cool or liberating. This may make me more nerdy, I don't really know. But anyways; I enjoy an engaging game that draws the player in, make me care about the protagonist, want to beat the evil genius at the end for reason other than I win if I beat him. I need to want to save that idiot princess who gets kidnapped every fifteen minutes, otherwise I'm gonna leave her to the mushroom people. My all time favorite game s Half-life 2, because not only does it have good graphics, but it has an excellent story as well.

Now this is not to say that I do not appreciate the good graphics and whatnot, but they come in second for me. I couldn't play Pac-man because I didn't know why he was trapped in that maze. Maybe he was an escaped ax murderer and the ghost were the jailors, I didn't know. Multiplayer games I can usually let slide, Team Fortress 2 is one that comes to mind. But usually I would have a truly compelling story than lifelike graphics.

It is my belief that as game developers gain the ability to create worlds that mirror the real world, they begin to care less about the story, thinking that the game can float by on the look alone. But not only do game designers think this, the consumers also go along with it. I look around (figuratively) and see games that are almost exact copies of the same tired old story that has been used hundreds of times before, and it saddens me. Because the harder it becomes for me to find a game that makes me want to play through it, the less I actually play games. And for someone who grew up with the game industry that is like losing a part of my (ongoing) youth.

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