Maybe nine hundred ninety-nine times out of a thousand, I'm usually the biggest anime or gaming geek in the room. As I hang out with mostly geeks, that's pretty incredible. However...every great once in a while, I'll find someone that knows just a bit more, and can begin pushing me in a new direction in my tastes.
It's even rarer when I meet someone who can not only keep up with me, and maybe know something new I haven't checked out...but someone that can show me entire genre's or types that I haven't even checked out. Such happened to me last night.
This blog isn't really about that, though...it's about the possibility of it. So often as gamers, otakus, geeks, whatever, we find ourselves stuck in our own ways, in our own games, never willing to look at another type...or flat out disregarding one game or another because of social stigma or anxiety.
My latest review of a Final Fantasy Game (X-2 in case you haven't read it) examined a title that's generally shunned even by fans of the series, that turned out to be a great game in my opinion. Granted, I only paid three dollars for it at GameStop, so, there wasn't much to be lost if I didn't...but still. However, this isn't the only case I've seen, especially in gamers of late.
Let's look at a genre I generally despise. Football simulators. For starters, I'm not a big fan of football...well, sports in general. I like watching the Stanley Cup Finals if one of my teams makes it there (back in 03, both of them did, so I was pretty ecstatic, and 07 had one of them there too) and the Olympics are usually pretty interesting (I'm a fencer, so I like watching the bouts for sure), but outside of those, most sports bore me. Football is one of them that I feels takes up too much time on the air.
When it comes to gaming though, it permeates there as one of the most successful genre's period thanks to EA's long running Madden series. John Madden may be a great guy, but his license is a blight on gaming. However, even though I hate it and don't really enjoy football in general, there are games in the genre that I actually enjoy.
Tecmo Bowl is fun in short bursts, and I really enjoyed the Sega Sports NFL2K (got it free with my Dreamcast), but it's two other titles that make me think of good football games. Mutant League Football, the only good thing to come from Madden's influence on gaming, and NFL Blitz, Midway's rendition of football in the same way NBA Jam was their rendition of basketball. Both of these are great games, however, a little odd just the same.
So, reiterating...I hate football games, but those four are fun...they're well made, and they did a lot of things other games didn't. Don't expect them to see on a My Favorite Games or anything, but they're still a lot of fun.
So, let me know. Is there a genre that so far you haven't been able to find a game or book you like in it? I'm sure there is, there always is...but are you open to playing it or reading it or watching it if one could be found? That's kind of the point of this little exercise, we as gamers and geeksreally need to broaden our horizons overall.
Now this isn't to all gamers obviously, but, let's face it, I've been gaming for nigh over two decades (and keep in mind, only twenty-one, so that's pretty impressive), and there are still games out there that were awesome. I've been reading manga's and anime's since I was five (sure, I'm a rare case in that my dad reads manga and watches anime too, but still), and I'm still coming across mangas I didn't even know the genre they were in existed, let alone that they did.
So...I really don't know what the point of this blog is...maybe it's that we're getting stuck...or at least I am...amongst our favorites and not looking at what's new to us, or well, me. Maybe that it's I implore you not to make the same mistake I did, because there's always something awesome out there. Maybe it's both, or maybe I missed the point altogether...but if you see one...I'm really hope there's some good advice amongst it.
-Sara
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