Is the problem with gaming today that there's just too much out there - and not enough time? So posits Michael Zenke, who discusses why too many games could be a bad thing, and one reason it's increasingly hard to be a gamer. Too many AAA titles? Is such a thing possible? Well, when it means that a lot of people will never finish those AAA titles, maybe:
You couldn't go into a store and buy Call of Duty 4 without *having* to pick up Super Mario Galaxy. Can't snag Rock Band without that Burning Crusade box. And - seriously - can you even still be called a gamer if you didn't play at least one of the offerings from The Orange Box?
The happy shopping sprees and smiling faces at GameStop, more than likely, eventually turned into sour grimaces and furrowed brows at home. Like it or not, the gaming public is an aging public. We've got kids, jobs, and responsibilities. Ironically, at a time when more gamers are able to afford these games than ever before, the Western lifestyle precludes the time to play more than a handful.
So I'm willing to bet that, across the country, gamers brought home games they didn't play. They downloaded titles they never loaded up, purchased handheld games that stayed in the packaging.
Interesting concept, and probably has a lot of truth to it for some of us — my days of blitzing through long games in a couple of marathon sessions are (for the most part) long gone, and it's hard to justify spending more money on games that are going to languish for months until I have the time to devote to them. Zenke doesn't offer a solution, other than to say 'It's OK to slow down.' And really, it is.
The Z-Axis: 'Lust for the New' [GameSetWatch]