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I admit it, I’m a big fan of Pokemon. While I haven’t played every installment of the main series, I’ve played enough of them to know that I enjoy the mindless and formulaic experience of capturing cute creatures who repeatedly say their own names. Its no secret lately either that I have been playing Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia and having quite possibly one of the best mindless experiences of my life.
Hold on now, ‘best mindless experience’? Is there really such a thing?
RPGs tend to be a genre that requires thinking, strategy, and a lot of depth. What we tend to expect out of the genre are interesting plots, or innovative game play. Paper thin plots or stupidly complex controls are not an option, and when these types of games are created, they tend to be punished by the audience. As I’ve stated in pervious articles, balance is difficult to achieve in RPGs nowadays because there is too much focus on one aspect over another, often creating a very unbalanced experience. If we play an RPG and tend to have a ‘mindless’ experience, it often translates into the game was ‘awful’, or ‘meh’ or ‘why the heck was this even made?!’. We as RPGamers have specific reasons why we like the genre and why we play games. ‘Mindless’ is generally not a word that is associated with RPGs. Intriguing, complex, engaging, these are words I tend to ponder when I think of RPGs.
Let me get this out in the open: mindless games are great. If you’ve been having a stressful day, or you need a game to play while killing time at the bus station, sometimes a mindless game is a great escape after a day of perpetual brain-farts. We all get them, there’s no shame in it. Games are great ways to de-stress from life… unless you are playing the type of game that is an exercise is frustration. For me, drawing loops and befriending Jigglypuffs is a great way to unwind, where as for some, games that test one’s patience such as the Fire Emblem series might be another person’s perfect way to de-stress. The truth is that we all have our own ways of escaping from the stresses of the real world even if it’s not through gaming. Sometimes we need a mindless activity just so we can get through the day.
Still, what does that say about the RPG genre? For a genre that is not associated with ‘mindlessness’ many of the games have qualities that make them mindless – level grinding being a perfect example of this. Sometimes we level grind because we don’t feel like continuing the main plot. Mini-games are also ways in which we waste time while still being connected to a game’s world. Then you also have simulators such as Harvest Moon and the The Sims which allows you to perform the monotonous tasks of someone else’s virtual life.
For me, however, Pokemon is the epitome of bliss when it comes to ‘mindless gaming’. The point of the game is to collect pocket monsters, raise them to become your BFFs, and become the Pokemon Master. There’s no insane plot-twists, no real character development, just catching monsters and collecting them.
Tell me something, fellow RPGamers, what do you play when you need something mindless?
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