A theory about "old" Part III : Games

As you can see, I've kept apart Games from Software. This has not to do with games not being software, because they are. This has to do with my own position about games, which is quite different from the one about software.

I simply LOVE games, I think I'll never stop playing. Perhaps I'll change the type of games I play over time, but I'll never stop playing. That being said, there's something seriously wrong about this activity. Marketing, a powerful force behind all kinds of software, becomes overwhelming when it comes to games. This generates hordes of people wanting to play the latest game that just came out, clearly influenced by the never ending bombing of information we are constantly under. I don't share that position.

My computer is a little bit old, although is still a powerful machine. It was built with one idea in mind: stability. This doesn't mean it doesn't have any power, only that power was not the idea behind it's design. This PC can run between 65 and 70% of PC games (that is, If I install a Windows on it). As 65 is over 50%, I still can play more than half of the games out there, and I don't have the time to play even 10%. Thus, the main limitation is in my free time and not in my PC.

Between 70% and 95%, there are games I can run, but only with low textures and detail, no shadows, lower fps, etc. So I don't think it's a good idea to play them now that I can't fully enjoy them. In the future, when it comes the time to build myself a new computer, I'll be able to run that same games with full details, so there's no rush to play them.

A lot would say, 'you didn't play Doom 3' or Crysis, Oblivion, etc. I really don't care. I still have jewels like Half Life and Half Life II, Portal, Morrowind to play, and I still haven't found the time to do it. If I play a watered down version of Oblivion instead of a full detailed version of Morrowind, I'll be making a big mistake, falling to temptation to have less fun that I could.

So, instead of getting angry about not being able to play the latest games, I prefer to investigate carefully and play forgotten jewels that I find in the oddest corner of a game shop or in the webpage of a game manufacturer which understands the value of good games. For example, I see X3:Reunion in my near future.

Always remember, we play to have fun, not because we are told to play.