On Anticipations

I think it's obvious that I'm a gamer.  Those categorized as such will often succumb to a very maddening shortcoming: impatience.  Impatience  has many ways of manifesting especially in gaming.  While most end up annoying the heck out of those around you, there is at least one that really only affects oneself.

Waiting for a game to come out in stores is painfully annoying.  I had to think for a while to see if "painfully" was the right choice of words to describe it.  What is the symptom of anticipation?  A constant reminder that one has the time to play said game despite being unavailable and, at the same time, one doesn't feel like playing anything else during the wait.  It's painful because the time wasted thinking about it or reading about it could've been spent on either playing another game or doing something else (and possibly more productive) and the person in question is AWARE OF IT.  It's disrupting and I think we've all been there.

I consider myself lucky because that feeling is very new to me.  When growing up, I played the games that were available to me and those games were rarely new.  In fact, I don't recall receiving video games as presents or going to a store to see rows of games on the shelves.  All I know is that I had games and I played them.  They were just there.  It wasn't until I was in my teens that I was introduced to the concept of going to a store to get games.

Marathon and Warcraft comes to mind; and then I discovered sequels.  The thing is, I was so "late in the game" (get it?) that I didn't have to wait for the sequels to come out.  They had already come out one or two years prior.

A very good example of this is Diablo.  After playing the game for two years, I happen to come across Diablo II in stores.  So I bought it and started to discuss the awesomeness of the game to my new friends in college who, to my surprise, informed me of Lord of Destruction (Diablo II's expansion pack).  I was still playing through Act 1 at that time and I already had new features and more content.  While I secretly hoped for a Diablo 3, it never was a game that I was anticipating until Blizzard Entertainment announced it back in 2008.

The Elder Scrolls is a mystery to me because it was one of those games that people always told me about back when Morrowind was the new thing in RPGs but I just shrugged it off thinking I wouldn't be interested.  Can you blame me?  I had my Diablos; TWO of them!   Then  World of Warcraft showed up.  While I knew WoW was coming, it didn't think I'd be willing to pay a monthly fee so I didn't wait for it (in fact I was playing Neverwinter Nights in online persistent realms).  When I decided to play WoW (after trying the beta), the game was out.

I bought Oblivion on launch day (in 2006) including a DVD player for an old PC that was donated to me by a friend.  That was the biggest video game related purchase I've ever done even to this day... It's also my first PC game purchase.  That's the real big mystery for me.  How does a Mac user just go out and buy not only a PC game (and a single-player game at that; I'm a multi-player guy), but PC hardware for a machine that was barely making the minimum requirements to play said game... On launch day?  The E3 demo did it.  It had completely sold me on the concept and while the video looked too good to be true, I figured that if I could experience a fraction of what I saw in the demo, I'd be satisfied.

Since then I've bought GuildWars, Dungeon Siege II-III (the original being available on the mac) and Magicka.  And now I find myself "caught up" and for the first time in my life, I'm eagerly waiting for my games to come out in stores.  It's a strange feeling and I laugh every time I think about it.  What's stranger still is the shift of priorities in my games.  I find myself anticipating Skyrim much more than Diablo III (a game I've been wanting to play for 10 years now).  It's almost embarrassing, actually, but it really illustrates the quality and magic of The Elder Scrolls.  Maybe it's because I don't really notice the wait for Diablo III as much anymore......

Not only that, I've been writing these blogs on the go with my iPad 2.  I've had it since it came out and, like The Elder Scrolls, it has also shifted my habits.  Other than doing my 3D work and record Let's Play videos, I don't really use my laptop anymore.  The iPad completely took over my lifestyle.  As a Mac user, that sort of shift is not uncommon.  But the strange part is that I'm now considering buying a PC to play Skyrim.  I hate the Windows platform with a passion.  I sound like a grumpy old guy at work when I have to use my PC machine (I also work with a Mac).

Skyrim is a "killer app" for a platform I despise.  The idea would be to "live" with my iPad and play a select few games on the PC.  The thought of buying a console has crossed my mind.  They're decently priced, having no mods never bothered me and it would do the things I'd want it to do save for the awkward controllers.  Perhaps I could even get into the Halo games if I got an Xbox.  I've been wanting to try out firefight for a while now... Then again, I'd be missing out on GuildWars 2.  Its funny to consider that, despite being very good, the other games don't have the same effect as The Elder Scrolls.

Regardless, The Elder Scrolls might be my biggest video game related purchase once more and I know it'll be worth every penny.

Here's my list of anticipated games:
- Skyrim.
- Diablo 3.
- GuildWars 2.

Now I have to find the time to play them all as they're all coming out around the same time-frame.