There was a day...

by Joshua Maciel

There was a day when one would get stuck on RPGs. Yes, that's right, stuck. Now while that may have irked many gamers, it also gave an added feeling of abject joy when you succeeded in solving that puzzle

(or in my case, put FF1 away for 7 years and decide to come back to it when i wasn't 10.) In addition to that feeling of joy, one didn't have to come to a site only to notice that somebody took less time to beat the game, than it did for you to solve that one puzzle. There was also the one other great joy about RPGs, was uncovering all the secrets as you go.

There was a day when Final Fantasy 1 came out, and my only source of information was the instruction booklet, which provided a convenient walkthrough, the map, and the game. My few friends who played the game generally didn't know much more than me, so everyone was pretty much on their own. Then comes the internet, suddenly I find that I can beat a game in no time, getting all the secrets, with a few simple keystrokes. The satisfaction from beating a hard part of a game was still there, but that overall feeling of, "I've done it all on my own," disappeared.

There was a day when games were just games. A little fun for every person individually. Then came the internet, and one can't go to an RPG site with reader submission without reading, "But I beat that game in 2 minutes 24 seconds, getting every single whoojangle in it!"

There was a day when I would walk away from a game with the feeling that beating it was just enough, and going through it again would be for fun. But since the advent of the internet, there's this nagging feeling in a part of your brain saying, "You have to get EVERYTHING this time, Goodwin Ingamer did!"

There was also a day when I started playing Dragon Warrior 1, and the simple nuances of gameplay were a mystery. I didn't know the best strategies, I didn't know about, well, anything. I used to get to discover an entire world. Then came the internet, and before a game comes out, one can be expected to be confronted by a variety of comments on the new system -- before the game is even released. There was that feeling of joy when you saw Bahamut summoned for the first time, or when you saw the final boss on screen, only to be slaughtered instantaneously. Then came the internet, with a picture and a caption of the easy way to beat the boss.

There was a day when gaming was hard, but the games were simple. Perhaps the more complicated newer games are a bit harder to understand now, and require information in addition to the booklet. The internet becomes a crutch for those who don't like to learn things the hard way. Although cheaper than hint-lines, the internet can cost a whole lot more in the enjoyment of a game. The difficulty of a game makes it more rewarding, and more fun. The challenge comes not from other people doing better than you, but from you beating the game. The global community of gamers creates a competition between people, not games. That competition makes people long to get better, read walkthroughs, research thoroughly. Then a game comes out, and they beat it quickly, they beat the pants off every boss, but then it's over. They know they haven't missed anything, they know they've seen every secret, and all they got for it was the ability to brag about it to a group of people doing the same thing... There's a choice that everyone has to make, play to enjoy, or play to win. And sometimes people don't realize which they're picking.