I spend at least a bit of time each day perusing sites such as Kotaku. Today on there I saw this post listing out the drinks EA came out for the EA Games Spring Break 08. Other than what I write on here (not much recently, I know), I spent a lot of time in the Scofflaw's Den, an online speakeasy that my friend Marshall and I started primarily to talk about cocktails.

I was even more amused to see this after instantly recognizing the reference to a video game in the punch drink from Monday night's dinner [0]. Let's see what my initial looksie here has me feeling...

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(Just a word of warning: this one does kind of wander a bit as I ramble on in my caffeine-addled haze. That's why it's a blog post and not an editorial. But I am very interested in comments on this, and since it's so long, I'm going to put the "more" in early.)

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If you remember, I had a less than satisfactory experience at a GameStop up here in the northern Virginia area back during the Halo 3 midnight release.

I complained about it here and put in a complaint via GameStop's website. On the last page of that complaint, it ended up redirecting me to a contest of some sort, and I had a feeling that no one ever saw my complaint.

That was true. However, their director of customer service saw my complaint when I went to unsubscribe from the GameStop newsletter, and he took the time to contact me.

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Lured over to Time magazine online by a story talking about mental health for Mets fans (I'm not a Mets fan, but I find the offer high-larry-ess) I saw another story entitled "A Surge in Cop Killings".

Another coincidence: While reading a gaming magazine this weekend, I read an interview with David Grossman, who has worked on games such as Day of the Tentacle and Sam & Max. There was a line in there about how he has the same name as an anti-video game crusader known as Lt. Col. Dave Grossman.

I hadn't heard of him (or, if I had, I'd forgotten about him, probably thanks to Jack Thompson overload). Then I read that article.

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At least, I think I am. They just don't respect me as a person anymore. It's always sad when a relationship dies.

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It's one of those weird things about getting older. You make more money, but you have less money to spend on things like video games.

I find my money going away - meals, insurance, taxes, eyeball zapping surgery, airline tickets, hotel rooms, parties, parking, all kinds of little things that add up to lots of money.

And I look over and say, hey, I want that game, but do I sixty dollars want that game?

There's a way around it, too - one that, in my younger days, I'd never do.

Sell back my old video games.

But it can be so hard to do.

I have a thing about media. I never throw away books or CDs. I keep them for, well, forever. The only CD I've ever really sold was a Damn Yankees CD someone had planted in my car (and no, not the one with High Enough) in high school. I tried to sell Chris Connelly's Phenobarb Bambalam, which I bought by accident after mixing him up with Chris Cornell (and assuming that I'd like it after listening to too much Ministry) but now, after the record store laughed at me and about a decade later, I kind of like that album. A little bit.

It's on my iPod, but then again, every CD I own is on my iPod. Including such classics as Green Jelly's Cereal Killer soundtrack, the entire Smithsonian collection of classic jazz, the 1992 Florida State University marching band CD, and the soundtrack to Jurassic Park. Plus a lot of other music. But I digress.

So I hate getting rid of things. Even the worst books I own I still re-read occasionally (such as Virtual Death) just to make myself feel better about my attempts at writing. Sure, I haven't been published - yet - but at least I haven't inflicted some of the books that I've read in the past on the public.

Anyways, so I hate getting rid of some things. It took me forever to give up some video games, and ironically, it really helped when I started writing for GamersInfo to encourage me to get rid of games. I laughed at the cashier when he gave me $1 for my copy of Stolen.

But everytime I go through my collection of games, I find it hard to get rid of some games.

This time I'm getting ready to go get a copy of Bioshock (yes, yes, I've been lazy in getting it) and Medal of Honor: Airborne. I figure that I should clear out some of my 360 games I don't play. So I take a look.

Tenchu Z? That's an easy choice.
Forza Motorsport 2? I just can't get that much into simulationist racing games.
Just Cause? Done with it.
Call of Duty 2? We don't play it anymore.

Some other games I should probably get rid of, but I don't. I haven't played Prey since I beat it, nor The Outfit, but I don't get rid of those - they were fun enough I could imagine playing them again.

Then that leaves some of the other games.

Madden 2007 - Despite my love of pro football, I have a really hard time getting into the Madden games. They're just flat-out hard. Now when NFL Tour comes out in January, I'll be all over that...

Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter was fun, but I just couldn't stick with it due to various reasons (which you'll see in my review). I don't mind giving this one up.

Project Gotham Racing 3 was one of the first games I bought for the 360 and just didn't play it a lot. Mostly 'cause it's more like Forza than Burnout, I guess.

Splinter Cell Double Agent is another game like the Madden games, where I want to get into them but just can't.

And that leaves Rainbow Six Vegas, which I bought used and might not be able to get a lot for, but I did like the game a good bit and should go back and play more of it. Then again, a coworker wants to buy it off of me...

But I've kept my other games. Sure, most of my original Xbox games have been sold or given away, with the exception of Halo and Halo 2. (And I do have my pre-order for the Legendary edition of Halo 3...only 3 weeks!) I'm keeping Crackdown, Call of Duty 3, and Dead Rising. And Gears of War is a no-brainer to keep (especially as I have a collector's edition of it).

But still, at the same time, there's that little voice in my head...

What if I want to play one of those games I'm selling again?

(Well, one of them other than Tenchu Z. I'm not worried about that.)

I'm sure I'll get over it.

Okay, so we’ve talked about previews. Now let’s talk about sequels.

Possibly one of the bigger issues when it comes to sequels is not the fact that there are so many of them, but rather that companies seem to insist on calling additional games sequels when they’re only loosely tied into the first one.

Let’s look at the different types of sequels:

1. The Direct Sequel

The direct sequel is fairly straight forward. Typically the same studio/company does each sequel, they tie into the previous games, and have similar game play. Look at, say, the Brothers in Arms games, the Halo series, Diablo 1 & 2. Each might have refinements and improvements in gameplay, but they’re telling an interlocked (or continuing) story. In Mercenaries 2, one character, a Chinese colonel, comes back from Mercenaries 1, but is now promoted and a general. He’s an NPC, but you’ve got the same “main characters” that the player can pick from the original, too.

These are true sequels. They’re like good movie or book sequels – not when the studio says “let’s add more of the same!” to something, but rather when they concentrate on making a solid contribution to the on-going storyline.

(Halo Wars makes for more of the re-imagined sequel, down below, though it’s a prequel (technically), and manages to keep – from what we’ve seen so far – a lot of the same feel.)

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"How is this 'Gaming for Adults'?" you may ask, if you're one of those people that care about the tags on a blog post. I can't imagine that anyone actually does, but hey, more power to them if they do.

Previews of a game are a funny thing. Honestly, I consider it more "adult" in that as you get older, you have less time to play games, and typically you're more critical about which games you do play - while when younger you have more time to play, and are more willing to give a completely new game a shot, as well as be more enthusiastic about a game that isn't even out yet.

(I know those are crass generalizations. I also am way too lazy to create a new category for this kind of post, given how little I use the other ones I have and not knowing how often I'd write something like this.)

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Well, not THAT old. I'm still younger than a certain someone who is an editor on this site. I won't say who, but her first initial is "O" and the rest of her name is "phelea".

But my birthday is next week. The 31st! Huzzah, and stuff.

It's kind of funny as I look back at my 30th birthday and forward to the 31st on how things have changed for me. There are the changes that have been obvious for anyone who knows me, but perhaps less visible are the changes to my gaming habits.

Going up to my 30th birthday I played a ton of games. I raided regularly in WoW. I spent a lot of time in Oblivion. I was my usual obsessed self when it came to a lot of games.

After 30 I started taking stock. I quit WoW, and despite a run-in with Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War addiction (which lasted only as long as the campaign) I failed to get really sucked into any other games.

I'd still play games - obviously, you've seen my reviews of them. But I was less likely to play games under my own power unless they were games that I could play at any time - Zen of Sudoku, Circle Popper, Brickbreaker, those kind of games.

Mobile games, mostly (though Zen of Sudoku was on my laptop, and one I could get away with at work).

I bought and got more games for my 360, including Guitar Hero 2, Crackdown - the only 360 game which really addicted me to any degree, and downloaded Catan. But especially after I moved the amount of play time I spent on them dropped and dropped.

There are various reasons. Traditionally, most of my gaming time has been during the week - but when I started working out every night, that cut into my gaming time. I shaved the goatee, got LASIK (which has made it uncomfortable at times to stare into a screen too long, though that's getting better), started going out more and dating more. All of those cut into that gaming time.

And I found that a game has to really do SOMETHING to get me involved. It can't just be "the latest and greatest" - there has to be a catch.

Crackdown had the open ended gameplay. If I wanted, I'd just log in and blow up bad guys on other rooftops over and over again.

Guitar Hero 2 could've had that hook, but the lack of a good tutorial (in my opinion), coupled with what felt like an unreliable (and bulky) controller has made it difficult to summon up the energy to deal with it.

What about games coming out?

Bioshock has been getting a lot of publicity lately. I've been reading up on it more and more - and that's ruining the experience for me. I find myself not caring. It's like they're trying to hard to be "something" other than just a shooter - and instead coming across as trying too hard, like someone being too clingy in a relationship.

I've got a write-up coming out about Warhammer: Age of Reckoning. Conversely to Bioshock, the more I hear about WAR the more excited I get. They understand that I don't have a lot of time to play, so they're at least attempting to make an MMORPG that can be played in short intervals. And I'll get to bash on other players, without the inanities of Xbox Live that make me hesitant to get online with random people.

Does everybody's gaming time go down when they get older? Of course not. If I lived alone, or if I was "settled down" a bit, perhaps I'd spend more time gaming. But I also find myself drawn more into other forms of gaming - I can actually afford 40K gear now!

Of course, I haven't had much time to do that, either...

But what about you? How's it different gaming as an "adult" and as a "senior citizen" (Ophelea - well, not *really* but it's funny to insinuate) than it was when you were younger (assuming video games were invented then)? Do you find that you have to make the trade-offs between being social and being a gamer? How do you decide how much to do with what?