I’m getting too old for this.
I grew up with video games. Literally. When I was a kid I played Space Invaders on my Atari 2600 and nowadays I play The Legend of Zelda on my Wii and World of Warcraft on my computer. When I was a kid I would play Galaga for maybe half an hour before turning it off and running off to play with my friends. Now that I’m a big kid I spend more than a few hours playing World of Warcraft alone.
But it’s not because I’m addicted and can’t stop playing. It’s because it just takes longer to play the damn games.
My ex-girlfriend was not a gamer by any means and thought I was committing too much time to games. She expressed her concern on more than one occasion and I had to break it down for her. My explanation did little to comfort me, either.
“You’ve been sitting in front of that game for three hours now. You’re addicted.”
“I’m not. I started playing with the sole purpose of doing ONE quest.”
“And you’ve done, what, twelve?”
“No, I’m still on the same one.”
“….huh?”
“See, first I had to find the guy who gives me the quest. That took fifteen minutes. Then I got the quest and had to find the area where the quest takes place. That was twenty minutes. Then I had to find the monsters I had to kill in order to complete the quest, but some other people were logged in and got there first, so I had to wait my turn. Now every time I get a ‘game over’ I have to run back to where I died from the starting area, twenty minutes away. And sometimes the monsters I’m supposed to kill don’t give me the items I need to complete the quest at all.”
“So why don’t you just stop playing?”
“I can’t. I’d have to get to a save point first.”
“And what’s wrong with that?”
“It takes another half an hour to get there.”
I’m glad I’m not a kid during this era of gaming. I rarely made it outside because I was busy reading fantasy novels and comic books. Mom and Dad tolerated that because at least I was reading. The argument I presented to my ex-girlfriend would never have flown with my parents. I know this because I tried it when I visited them this past summer.
*click*
“Mom! What the hell? I didn’t get to a save point first!”
“Tough shit. Days of Our Lives is on.”
Stumble it! Explore posts in the same categories: Mookie, games
November 16th, 2007 at 6:08 am
I know the feeling. I like a game I can pick up and then put down at a moment’s notice since I’m the tech support in this house and get called at any time. That’s the main reason I play the DS more now.
November 16th, 2007 at 6:42 am
So THAT’S why you two broke up.
Joking, just joking.
Actually I don’t seem to have this problem, but that might be because I play a rather narrow selection of games. Actually to be honest, I usually just stay away from games that require a lot of exploring because I generally hate having to run around for three hours to get to the next place that gives you a clue as to where to go next. Also, I abuse GameFAQs. I don’t care if it’s cheating, I have a life outside of gaming and can’t spend 40+ hours on one freaking game, and even if I could I don’t have the patience.
P.S. Mookie, pick up Mario Galaxy, the missions are really fast, you can play through a level in 10-15 minutes then save and quit.
November 16th, 2007 at 8:35 am
Awwwww
*picked up okami on your suggestion, fell in love with it*
Gamer girls FTW!
OMG What you say?! O.O
They exist?
Yes……yes………they exist, girl parts and all! XD
*end idiot rambling*
~~~~~fate.netgame.com, lvl 52 healer, IGN: Laruna~~~~~
November 16th, 2007 at 9:08 am
As a female gamer… yeah they exist. I have to agree, I dont play WOW but I do play Final Fantasy, which has the same idea, and I play SRO which is even worse. Sometimes I can spend up to five hours on one quest… and not finish it. Luckily I don’t have the same problem as you tho, my fiance is also a gamer, and he spend more time playing video games then I do
November 16th, 2007 at 9:37 am
(Quotes) “So why don’t you just stop playing?”
“I can’t. I’d have to get to a save point first.”
“And what’s wrong with that?”
“It takes another half an hour to get there.” (/Quote)
Oh hell’s, If I haven’t had to use that explenation a thousand times…
Then again- My husband uses it on me. Its just a vicious circle of Games, quests and Skittles. -nods-
-laughs- As for what your mum did? -grins- My dad is the one who got me into gaming in the first place.. Oh I was certainly born under a blessed Pixilated moon. -nods-
By the By! Your never too old for games.. Until you 7 feet under… And if you happen to be forsaken- Take the computer under there with you.. Im sure eternity in a box would be boring without!
November 16th, 2007 at 9:39 am
Could be worse, the way I see it you could be watching the drivel that passes for television these days. I can quite happily spend my evenings playing ET:QW with my mates.
November 16th, 2007 at 9:49 am
I’m female too and a gamer. I’m also 52. Hubby doesn’t play but he sees how much fun I have playing so he doesn’t say anything. In fact he bought me 3 accounts. I play every Sunday for a minimum 12 hours with my 32 yr old son and a couple of friends. We play EverQuest II. I also get on and play a few hours during the week. And yeah, most of the quests take a while to finish, that’s why I have a schedule on when I can play and when I have to work and when I need to clean my house. I know it doesn’t sound like it but I do have a real life, I relax and meditate with my cats, ride my HD, play with my puppies and talk to real people, a lot. >^_^
November 16th, 2007 at 9:52 am
OMG…I got cut off…roflmao to finish…>^_^
November 16th, 2007 at 9:53 am
again…must be my face…I also run my own business… Life is good!
November 16th, 2007 at 10:01 am
*click*
“Mom! What the hell? I didn’t get to a save point first!”
“Tough shit. Days of Our Lives is on.”
I hear you!!! lol
This has been going on for a pretty long time though, I remember when I was in school playing FFVIII for countless hours that I hardly left my room except to eat, use the bathroom and reluctantly sleep.
I’ll never say anyone is too old, but when you do reach a certain age when responsibilities tell you there’s other things that need to take priority. I know responsibility is an ugly word for our selfish generation though.
It reminds me of that story about a small child who became seriously malnourished because both parents were playing WoW. You can’t expect small kids to understand “hang on I have to find a save point!” when they need you to be parents.
Whatever way you look at it you’re right, because we will never go back to an age of playing our small games.
November 16th, 2007 at 10:13 am
I tend to play games that take ridiculously long to fight battles (tactical RPGs such as Fire Emblem, FF Tactics, Front Mission, etc) to exclusion. The great thing about many of these games is that the game designers realize how long battles take and build-in a quick save feature. Some games don’t and that annoys me. I used to play the Final Fantasy series fanatically until XI and have since ignored the new games in the core series (Tactics Advance is awesome, however) so I don’t have much issue with finding the save point.
November 16th, 2007 at 10:27 am
Man oh man.
I know exactly what you mean Mookie.
I grew up with an Atari, not because it was the great system at the time, (that was the NES), but because it was the only thing that my aunt had.
I played that thing until she got the NES.. then I tossed aside one system for another.
Currently I am on the XBox 360, PS2 and computer.
And yes, we Gamer Girls do exist.. we are just in our rooms trying to get our Palladins to Lvl 50 by the time the next solstice comes around. I really wants that diamond tiara. It gives a +7 range on sword skills.
And the thing about the save point and the missions.. I think this is something you left out:
“Well, I went the guy, got the mission. Now I need to go aaaaallll the way across the map, but I have to run there because I’m not a level (#) so that I can use (Mode of transport here).
So once I get there, turns out my character is early for what I need to happen to get the item that I need, so I have to sit there and wait X amount of time so that this one villian can show up. In the meantime, while I am waiting, I get to fight all these other mosters and if I die.. that is X amount of time wasted because then I’d have to start over.”
That is the short version..
November 16th, 2007 at 10:53 am
Hahahaha, you’re never too old to play! My dad recently got into gaming. I was both surprised and amused, since he started spending more and more time trying to beat my brother in just about everything, football, sonic, final fantasy…
Gamer girls exist, my best friend being one. I could never be one for the simple fact I suck at these games and end up so frustrated, I just give up. But I like watching XD.
Remember, Mookie, we all get older, but growing up is not a must, it’s just an option…
November 16th, 2007 at 11:10 am
alrighty, so I have to say, I do commisearte with you…although, my girlfriend does understand that it takes a while to do things, for instance, UBRS last night, :P. On a semi-related topic, what realm do you play on? I think it would be cool to throw you a tell, since I know you through a relation who lives in Essex Junction, Vermont. I’m a 70 Nelf Warrior on Earthen Ring
November 16th, 2007 at 11:52 am
Ah, mothers. Can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without their TV.
When you get to the point where you’re about to get bumped, don’t forget your old friend, the pause button. Hit that, let ‘em watch TV for as long as they want, and then pick right up where you left off once they’re done. Works great for modern games… not quite as well with old Atari 2600 stuff, of course.
November 16th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
I agree. Thats what I like about a webcomic actually. The storyline still takes months to play out but I spend less than a minute each day on it. Too bad, there’s no phat lewt at the end of a chapter. =)
November 16th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
On the subject of gamer girls:
Though a rare species, they do exist! Roughly half of my friends who are of the female persuasion are gamers, including my girlfriend. Quite refreshing. Though, when we’re sharing a computer, I have to constantly nudge her to get off the comp for sleep or to get my turn. >.
November 16th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
((Grr…cut off nonsense…))
Awesome that you play WoW, Mookie! If you’re ever on Argent Dawn or Thorium Brotherhood (mostly here, I am), try looking up Xanotos.
And, as has been said - growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional. ^_~
November 16th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
Know the feeling
Mom: GO TO BED!
Me: Can’t must reach save point!
Mom: I don’t care.
Me: That’s because Tetris doesn’t have a save point
You can fill in the blanks. At least my Girlfriend is a gamer so we understand. Also I usually utilize the start button when possible or say “Can you please wait I can’t physically stop the game without losing or without saving and I will help you the second I am free” Usually works.
November 16th, 2007 at 2:51 pm
omg…i hear ya mookie… i dont play that much…. but i do draw alot and sometime is just need a way to get away from my books and hit the games for an escape from the constant making up ideas and stuff….. but that only happens when im away from my friends. they tend to help me out alot when i need it. i also find i hrd to sleep when im drawing or playing games… but i dont seem tired at all the next day. so i can go to work and come back home to continue were i left off. ive never really had a problem with turning off games… untill my partents thought it wize to givem emy own tv… not i cant watch anything i want or play my games on the big TV when they are home becaue they “need a turn” after they got home from work…. and after i got home from work too.
November 16th, 2007 at 4:25 pm
I’ve been playing video games since I was five, and everything definitely takes so much longer now! I used to get through Golden Axe on my Sega Genesis (which is older than I am) in half an hour.
And as far as being a girl gamer goes, a lot of guys just don’t believe you’re any good, which gets really annoying. When I go to cons and I go in the game rooms I always have to prove myself. But it does make exploding some douchebag in Halo a lot more satisfying.
November 16th, 2007 at 6:57 pm
Yeah… I grew up with them too. Actually, my dad is to blame for it, ha ha. He’s the one who started me at the age of two how to start up the computer and load up the games. Mind you, this was back in the days of DOS and the REALLY crappy monotone graphics. And now I STILL spend as much time as I can playing video games. I’m not addicted either, it’s just something to do, lol. And there’s nothing quite like the feeling of defeating a final boss. There really isn’t… I remember waking up whole the whole house more then once cause I was whooping and hollaring and doing my happy dance…
Ha ha, I tell everyone videogames are my anti-drug and anti-homicidal rage pills
November 16th, 2007 at 7:11 pm
I grew up on Nintendo, Super Nintendo, then moved on to PC games, which I enjoy more only because the damn controllers got too confusing >.
November 16th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
I know what you mean… I remember starting Final Fantasy X and thinking how long it took to get to the first save point.
I’ve played a lot of games recently that I haven’t liked, and even though I’ve never thought about the space of time between one point where a player can save and the next, now that you mention it, that might be what it is.
November 16th, 2007 at 11:10 pm
Yep. I grew up with video games, though when I became a teenager I stopped playing. (Girl + teen + video games = trauma…at least, a the time. lol) I’d watch my boyfriends play, though, and today I’m right back to indulging.
Girl WoW players exist. 70 draenei shaman on Moonrunner, here. Girl gamers exist. And we *like* guy gamers…as long as they’re not creeps. Or idiots. Or 90% of the WoW playing male population.
What’s going to be fun is I’m a mom of a 7-year-old boy. I can’t wait ’till he’s a teenager and he wants to spend all his time gaming. “Homework done? Chores done? Read for an hour? Play outside for an hour? Okay, you have an hour and a half before bed time. Don’t burn your hearth and try to use it as an excuse to keep playing, either, or I’ll sign on my warlock and summon your little gnome behind to the gates of OG.”
November 17th, 2007 at 12:04 am
As a “girlgamer” I find it difficult to explain to people a hobby of enoying videogames, because apparently even now it’s not a feminine thing to do.
As a young kid, I got the same thing, turn off my rpg half-way through a boss battle and a massive argument about save points and ‘youhavenoideahowlongthattook’.
I managed to struggle through teenagehood with the addiction of final fantasy + online mmorpgs + racing games like Burnout…now I think most people who know me have accepted that I would rather take 12 hours to do an inane sidequest with my favourite group of pixels rather than shoe-shop or go out binge-drinking.
And yet still, one of the more polite questions I get when I go out game-shopping is “What’s your bra size?!”
November 17th, 2007 at 6:24 am
In my opinion though, WoW isn’t a slow game. Sure, you can easily play it for a looooong time a day (And sometimes I do. And other people call me geek for it) but you can easily do one or two or even more quests (if you know where to go) in about 30 minutes. That’s only WoW though. I don’t dare playing much other games or I’ll never see daylight (daylight, what’s that?) again!
November 17th, 2007 at 9:27 am
Wow’s not quite the time sink anymore. I think the game devs realized that they can only suck so much wasted time out of people before people say to hell with it. A lot more graveyards and flight points were put in over the spring.
…along with the 6 hour full clear raid dungeons…
November 17th, 2007 at 10:53 am
This is why I’m glad I play old games…. I can sit down with wild arms for a half an hour and bam! I’m at a save point… this is with me walking in circles and going back for treasurres because i’m still new at this.
I’m a girl and I started gaming at 18 because of my boyfriend. I wanted to know what he was so into so we started playing ff5 together. I’ve been hooked ever since. I just make sure he gives me games with save points often because homework gets in the way.
November 17th, 2007 at 11:15 am
I totally agree. A great game would have a great deal of fast-play content. I mean, that way you could enjoy it while trying to balance everything in your life, and have a lot to whittle through.
Of course, I’m fairly poor and running on a PSP, PS2 and a PC. XD My selection’s rather limited.
Monster Hunter and WoW FTW.
November 17th, 2007 at 11:21 am
Heil Mookie man! (dont ask :P)
I know the feeling too, its hard to stop playing a good game, i was a FF XI player un til i found it boring to play co-op`all the time, i wont deny i had my nice moments like when i became a summoner and a dark knight, but the missions… damn them damn them all! now i play FPS, the classics rpgs, breath of fire, FF etc.. on the ps2 and blue dragon right now on the 360, so i can take my times.
But you know, we all are addicted to games when we play them more than or normal real life character
glad we can turn off the console and keep our lifes
About your exGF she missed a nice quest time
Now… your next quest is to level up your moral +6 points,
and then you have to go to the next corner store and get the holy drink of..
wait a damn minute ¬_- ROFLMAO!!!
I was thinking in making a dominic deegan RPG: P
November 17th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
One of the reasons I don’t play games like WoW or things on the console that take hours. Of course at times it is just fun to go ahead and lose yourself in a game, that you start at 4 pm and after “about 2 hours” you are thinking “well lets go do some shopping for dinner” and it’s already 9 pm.
But I usually play games like shooters, rts, some adventures or an rpg like oblivion where you can just save and quit. (although with online shooters it is tempting to finish the map :D)
My biggest gripe is the opposite, games are looking prettier and prettier but spend 6 to 10 hours on em and you are done!
November 17th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
Oh and a little P.S. people tend to look back at the good ol’ days but forget to remember that on the C64 it took half an hour to load the darn game
and that you had NO savepoints in most games and the save didn’t really come until the SNES/later computers. So you had to finish the game or just turn it off and start all over again 
November 17th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
I know what you mean, now that I live on my own and have a job I have all the freedom to play the games only not the time -_- I am never home and when I am I am infront of my computer catching up with friends, or drawing, or being too damned tired XD
The other problem is there are few games scattered through many systems that hold my attention.
I gave up on WOW for that reason.
So now I mostly just play with the many DS games I own because I can take those to work with me ^.^
Still want a Wii though.
November 17th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
Yeaaah, that sounds familiar. I now judge videogames solely on how many save points they have, and although I love playing them on the big screen tv, if you download them illegally you can freeze states whenever you want. Which I do. Obsessively. A huge bonus in, say, Super Mario World (SNES). Although I am on the RPG side of gaming most of the time, my little brother is into MMORPGs and I do not envy him the arguments he has with my parents over computer usage. He gets outside, plays hockey, does well in school, but he also spends hours on the computer chopping wood to make into arrows to sell to some guy to make enough money to buy a better axe. My attention span doesn’t last that long, which is why I require something like a plot to keep me motivated to completion. I didn’t have quite so many arguments with my parents over this kind of thing, but battling the Elite Four in Pokemon Blue just before supper time? Don’t even bother trying.
November 17th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
Oh, I hate it when I’m playing a game and somone comes in and says: “turn off the game, I want to watch tv and you’ve been playing for hours” this was a big problem during the summer holidays when me and my sister were home all day. But it annoys me even more when they say I’m addicted, it just seems to be something related to gaming. I mean if my mum watches tv for three hours no-one says she’s addicted, if my dad reads for three hours he’s not addicted, if my sister goes to a club for three hours she’s not addicted. If I game for three hours…I’m addicted.
p.s. I’m a girl.
November 20th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
[…] brought this small thing up? Why a post over on SPWUG: Written by Mookie of Dominic Deegan Fame It made for interesting light reading this morning before […]
November 21st, 2007 at 6:10 am
Gosh, this just reminded me why my PS2 is covered with dust, soon I won’t even be able to open it in order to get back the FFXII CD inside…
Feel lucky, Mookie: you’re speaking about offline games…
I played online for five years - not the MMORPG you are thinking of, but merely a 5-minutes-a-day PHP-based game.
Only 1 to 3 actions a day, should not ruin your social life.
But it did. Because it’s team-based.
How many times did I have this conversation:
- diner’s ready !
- yeah one sec’, playing my turn now.
- can’t this wait after diner?
- well no, I need to synchronize with four other guys, three are already waiting and we need to act before our target plays.
- diner-prepared-with-love can’t wait, just pass your turn !
- I can’t ! These guys are counting on me. We planned the actions of the whole week just for this moment. I can’t let them down now.
This made me feel really bad. I was either betraying my friends, or giving the feeling to gf that playing was more important to me than being with her. Mutually exclusive choice.
I quit the game. And what’s more sad is that gf did not even notice.
I then replaced this gaming activity with an offline game: FFXII. But never made progress. The pattern was: play 15 minutes, U-turn, go back to save point, quit the game because-it-s-TV-time-and-you-played-30-minutes-already-anyway.
At some point I just got tired of never progressing in the storyline, and completely quit playing.
So in the end, it’s not that we are too old for this. It’s just that it’s nearly impossible to keep a serious hobby if your companion does not share it.
Seems then that keeping TV as the sole distraction is the secret of a successful an healthy social life. I’m sooo looking forward to it…
November 21st, 2007 at 6:34 am
… what all this about WoW taking time and save points? WoW has no save points and you can log out any time. It is absolutely -no- problem to play WoW for just half an hour.
The biggest problem with others not understanding when you don’t want to drop the game suddenly for them is not the games. It’s the still prominent belief that a video game has no artistic, educational and entertaining merit whatsoever. It gets even worse in online games, where the belief is added that when something is a game, it is automatically ‘not real’, no matter how many real people you are just playing with.