Players Will Be Players

Players Will Be Players

A digital love story…

When a potential love interest asks you to help them get into games, what do you do? That’s what Bobby Foster’s been trying to work out…

“I was thinking I should probably get into videogames. They’re, like, this massive thing that I know absolutely nothing about. I mean, I played some Mario Kart when I was at uni but, really, I don’t understand what all the fuss is about. Can you show me?”

As was foretold in Issue #4 of the 1982 edition of Sinclair User, the geeks are now truly inheriting the Earth. An attractive woman wants me to teach her about videogames.

“Sure. That could be fun,” I say, trying to hide my excitement and surprise.

She agrees to come over to my flat the following Saturday, and in the days leading up to what I’ve optimistically decided to call a date, my head spins with ideas for what to show her. I want to avoid the obvious route, which might take in the likes of Wii Sports and Singstar and Buzz!, as none of those are games I really feel passionate about. Naturally, I want this to be as much about demonstrating what’s interesting and exciting about me as the games themselves.

My first instinct is to take the historical approach, probably beginning with the SNES, so I can instil in her an appreciation of the classics. Super Bomberman seems like it could be a good “welcome to videogames” candidate, offering as it does the kind of pure, frantic but accessible fun that’s hard to dislike. But then I realise it needs four people to be at its best, and for not entirely selfless reasons I kind of want to make sure it’s just me and her involved in this little cultural exchange.

I start wondering whether I should focus on showing her games’ potential as a narrative medium. Although the stories told in most games are less convincing than a performance by your local junior school drama class, there are exceptions. I think long and hard about Shenmue, that mad, unintentionally hilarious but beautifully directed Dreamcast heavyweight, but ultimately rule it out for being too slow to start and unwieldy to control. Maybe if things go really well, a few weeks down the line I’ll let her take the console away so she can experiment with it at her leisure. But for now, I feel as though I should start with something that’ll grab her immediately.

Could the indie scene hold the key? The recently released Digital: A Love Story is a short, smart and sweet game that would allow me to stare longingly at her as she played it through from start to finish. I picture a moment where I put my hand on top of hers to help guide the mouse to the right part of the screen, and, responding to my touch, she turns to me and smiles, and then, well, something beautiful and wonderful happens.

Yet the game is steeped so heavily in late ‘80s Internet culture that I can’t help but worry she’ll end up rejecting it – and me – for being just a little too nerdy.

As the week goes by I get more and more nervous about the responsibility I’m carrying. If I mess this up she might never play games again. Worse still, I might never see her again.

The night before

Come Friday evening, I’m in the pub and drinking heavily. I still haven’t convinced myself that I’ve found the right game. The unfailingly impressive Mass Effect 2 is what I’m now leaning toward most, but I’m far from certain that it’s the perfect choice. In desperation, I turn to the collection of friends I’m with – most of whom don’t play games with any real frequency.

“Important question: what’s the best computer game you’ve ever played?”

“Duh. Easy. Eve Online,” says the one other regular gamer at the table, without a second’s hesitation.

I laugh. “Okay, you’d thought about your answer to that one before. How about you guys?”

There are pained expressions on the faces of my three other companions.

“Oh, I don’t know. Really?” asks the one woman at our table. “I’m not like you lot. I only ever really play Farmville.”

She gets laughed at by Mr Eve Online, although a few moments too late it occurs to me that the two games have more in common than either of my friends would ever realise or admit.

“Pro Evo. Definitely Pro Evo,” comes the vote of one of the others. I can almost agree with him – I’ve certainly sunk as much time into the series as anything else – but a football game isn’t really the inspiration I’m looking for.

All our eyes turn to the one man at the table yet to give an answer. He’s a few years older than the rest of us, and stopped playing games in the PlayStation generation – mostly because the gruelling realities of full-time employment left him with too little time to spare.

Continues…

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