I've been a gamer since probably before most of the people that are reading this have been alive. I was born at just the right time I guess because prior to my arrival on this earth video games were just an idea for the most part. I was there when it all began and it has been a rather large part of my life ever since. As I get older it tapers off a bit and I don't put as much of my life into gaming but there was a time when it started to become a bit of a problematic addiction where I was avoiding school, work, and my social life. As I have gotten older it has tapered off a bit and I probably only game maybe an hour a day even though there was a time where I was gaming so much that it resulted in the end of employment and relationships. I look back on those days with a bit of disgust with myself but well, I suppose I could have gotten addicted to something far more destructive and difficult to walk away from like heroin.
Through the years there have been many trends that occurred and I was there when a lot of them began. However, there have been some trends or some really big names in gaming that I have actually never gotten involved with. Some of them I've never even seen outside of a Twitch vid here and there.
Here are the big ones that I think most people will know though.
I was there when MMO's were just becoming a thing. I was there when they were buggy as hell and offline more often than not. It was so uncommon to be able to make it all the way through a mission because of the fact that this was relatively uncharted territory for the developers but it was so new and fresh that we kept at it despite the frustrations. I was involved primarily in Anarchy Online, Dark Age of Camelot, The Final Fantasy one (A Realm Reborn?) and the one that probably destroyed the most of my real-world relationships was Guild Wars 2. However, as much as I played the absolute hell out of all of those I have never actually logged a single minute in the biggest one of all, WoW.
I've seen other people play it and it looked really cool. However, at that point in my life I had already had a bit of an awakening and realized that my addiction to MMO's was a very real thing that had destroyed some pretty fantastic potential relationships in my life so I wrote them off forever. I have no intention of ever getting involved in any MMO at any point in the future. They can be great for a lot of people but for me, I have a bit of a bad history and a lot of regret surrounding how I chose gaming over friendships, family, and even a relationship with a girl that was definitely the one that got away. Therefore, I never play MMO's anymore and I have never so much as logged a single minute in the most popular MMO of all time.
I suppose it could be for similar reasons as above, but I have never played a single minute of Fortnite. I don't honestly really even know that much about what the game is actually like. I just know that it is one of the most profitable games of all of history and aside from watching a video by a famous streamer here and there, I don't really even know what it is all about.
The reason behind this is likely because I am not really a fan of always online games and I don't really know why that is. I suppose it is because of the fact that I was a bit traumatized by my gaming addiction in my 20's that resulted in the losing of real-world relationships that I tend to stay away from games that don't have any end to them.
if you like Fortnite, or anything else like it, I am not judging you. I just have a lot of regrets about how I chose gaming over real life friendships and even potential marriage and I think about this often. Therefore, I tend to shy away from games that in theory at least, don't have any end to them.
According to the Wikipedia, Minecraft is the best selling game of all time and I have never played a single minute of it. This is perhaps due in part to what I mentioned above about how I don't ever want to get involved in games that don't have any end to them ever again because I am a bit traumatized by the losses I had in real life because I chose to play video games over my real life relationships. If you like this sort of thing, and with an estimated 300,000,000 sales of the game on record you probably do, I am not judging you. I just made a decision years ago that I was not going to get involved in games that don't have any end to them and unless I am terribly mistaken, that is what Minecraft is.
point is I never played a single minute of it and at this point I don't think I ever will.
This is rated as one of the best-selling games of all time and not only have I never played it, I have never even seen anyone play it. I consider myself and avid gamer even though that it tapering off as time goes by but yeah, I've never even seen what the game is like. I'm presuming it must be pretty good because so many people loved it but I never felt compelled to get involved. I couldn't really even tell you what the game is like all that much. I will say that as someone that is likely older than you are that I did play the first one and it looked like this.
Things have come a long way since then and I will admit, the idea of being able to do just about anything you want to no matter how messed up it was, was something that appealed to me immensely when this game was first released way back when. I enjoyed the lawlessness of it all just like everyone else but for whatever reasons, I never got into any of the latter games with the same name. I only featured 5 in this because it is one of the best-selling games of all time. I don't think I played any of the other ones for any meaningful level of time either.
I only featured these two because I remember finding it strange that there were so many of them being released back when Pokémon was just all over the place. I have never played ANY Pokémon game including that one that is on everyone's mobile phone these days that was meant to encourage exercise or something. I have been sitting with people at places when they are opening eggs or whatever the hell is going on there and that just shows how little I actually know or care about any of these games.
I consider myself an avid gamer even though the amount of time I spend on them has diminished over time. When I was a teen and a pre-teen they were everything to me. When I was in college I kind of tapered off and started to focus more on girls but then the MMO's came out and I was hooked. These days I still consider myself to be a bit of a gamer but not a very serious one.
I am probably what most people would consider a filthy casual at this point in my life and since I am nearly 50 years old that is ok with me. I no longer enjoy competitive play and am looking for more of a relaxed experience for the most part these days. Fortunately for me I kind of succeeded at the game of life and honestly, a lot of that was because I identified that I had a problem with MMO's and cut them out of my life entirely. These days, a game has to be something pretty damn special for it to occupy my time and I certainly don't blow off real-life relationships in order to play them.
Perhaps this is why there are a ton of titles these days that it seems that everyone is into and I have never logged a single minute in them. I still consider myself a gamer, but I would not be considered "good" in most serious gamers' world's. I am perfectly ok with that too!
What about you? Are there any huge games out there that it seems the whole world talks about that you have never played before? Let's talk about it!