I had a little time to kill while I was in Best Buy today, so I headed over to the Playstation 3 display to see if I could find any games to pique my interest. Scrolling across the list of demos, I found a selection for an upcoming Batman title, and being a bit of a comic book geek, I decided to give the game a try.Once the game had loaded, I found myself in the role of Batman, locked in a dark, dingy room and approached by thugs. A flurry of button-pressing resulted in a whirlwind of attacks, and one by one each of the bad guys brutally went down. On my way to the game's next level, I did a mental review of each button and it's function so as to refine my fighting technique. Playing through the next level, my skill increased, and a few levels later I was not only punching thugs left and right but also blocking and dodging with ease. I became invincible as I tirelessly went from thug to thug, executing a series of intense fighting moves and taking each one down with a storm.
By this time, I had completed the entire demo and a promotional video for the full game appeared. Video clips were joined by emphatic descriptions of each of the title's brand new features, such as the ability to explore the entirety of Arkham Asylum, the world in which the game takes place. I could help but think about how far video games had come since the days of hallowed classics like Pac-Man. New features are constantly being developed and have become a pivotal selling point of many new releases. If players can unleash a fury of new moves or take advantage of bigger weapons, they have an extra reason to buy the game. Essentially, it seems as though video game creators are pushing the development of their products in order to enable players to do more and more.
But no matter what technology may emerge, video games will always boil down to a flurry of button-pushing that controls an imaginary world. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed my afternoon stint as Batman and had a riveting time punching my way through bad guys, but I came away from the console just the same as I had been before. No matter what the game allowed me to "do", I remained unchanged.
The full version of the title, "Batman: Arkham Asylum" will debut late next month. I could go out, buy a copy, and play with delight through the whole thing. But I would just as soon invest the same time in developing my own fighting skills so I could actually do what Batman does in the game. And I'd actually have something to show for it. Why spend time "doing" something imaginary when I could actually do the real thing?
I'm not an avid gamer, and I'm sure some heavy-duty video gamers could easily counter my statements here, but that's okay. I'm not here to condemn video games nor to praise them. In fact, I'm not sure what I'm trying to say about the gaming world (hence the title), but this most certainly is a commentary on the overuse of video games. It all comes down to this -whatever game developers are working so hard to allow you to "do", don't invest too much in it, and certainly not at the expense of other things you could actually do here in the real world.
That's all from me for now,
T.H. Excellence
