A reader wonders why he’s going from playing N64 games for weeks and months at a time to buying and selling games in just a few days…
I recently fell in with a box of my old Nintendo 64 games that have been unloved for far too many years. They barely number in the twenties but I can recall the weeks/months I dedicated to each of these games, one at a time, getting every last ounce of enjoyment from them. No one game was neglected until I had seen or done everything I possibly thought there was to do. Nowadays however I’m lucky if I spend over a week on a single game, let alone keep them after completion.
Within my group of friends and work colleagues it seems a growing trend to trade in games within a week or so of release regardless of how much enjoyment they are getting out of the games, sometimes even before completion.
A friend of mine holds Wolfenstein: The New Order as one of his favourite games of last year, however never did complete it before trading it in. He cited that he had gotten all he needed out of the game and was ready to move on to his next title. I have a few ideas what has led to this new practice.
Perhaps it is an age thing where the older we become the more precious our free time is. I myself have noticed that between work and ‘quality’ time with the wife my gaming time has greatly diminished.
When I was younger as soon as I got home I could theoretically sit with my games from dinner time until the early hours, now I am lucky to have two hours after the wife has gone to bed. It’s funny when you finally have a good enough job to get any game you want whenever you want it you just don’t have the time to play them all.
Another theory is the rise of CeX and trade-in merchants who solely survive on the impulse of gamers wishing to move on to their next fix while the trade-in price is still competitive. It’s a valid strategy, I have heard of those that buy single-player games on release day and trade them in a few days later for a loss of less than a tenner. In their eyes they are treating it like a rental, without worrying about late fees or waiting for it to arrive.
My last theory is that with the advent of smartphones we have become a generation that find it hard to focus on any one thing. We tend to have our phones to hand when we are watching TV, playing games, or even eating our meals. It could be this lack of focus which convinces us we are done with games long before their time. I have noticed this lack of patience myself any time I’m in a lobby in multiplayer games I am almost instantly on my phone.
Maybe instead of grabbing and rushing through the next big release at the weekend I should dust of my trusty old Nintendo 64, throw in Super Mario 64 and enjoy the titles that made me fall in love with gaming all those years ago.
By reader Reallightsleeper (PSN ID)
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