moderne luxus badezimmer
hi and welcome to the sidcourse. like discourse, but my name is sid i have a secret to tell you; i'm getting old and spoiler warning so is everyone else and with and with each passing day the commitments and choices in my life become more more serious which is why making informed decisions about how i spend the little free time that i have
becomes more and more important. time is against me, against all of us one way or another. for me, my time is split between my parents and siblings with familial obligations my girlfriend of whom i intend on marrying and making little versions of us with friends in real life and on the discord server that i have social obligations to. a career outside of this youtube thing that requires daily work, along with maintaining an up-to-date knowledge of hardware software, skills and industry news. there's also the media that i enjoy consuming
including youtube, film, television shows, books, podcasts and graphic novels and on occasion, i enjoy sleeping. all of these things in turn require myself and hundreds of thousands of others if not millions, to manage our time effectively. it's not easy and never will be but in the kind of world and society that we live in. that's just life. in this episode of the sidcourse, i want to talk about the media we consume in our free time more specifically, about growing older with video games.
as far as video games go there's only a small section per day, maybe even per week or month where we can place that in our schedules. unless of course playing games is how you make a living. in regards to maintaining a balanced life one could easily just cut out games altogether and use that time on film television books or the thousands of other hobbies available to us. for me personally i believe in games i grew up with games. my sisters and i weren't allowed out of our house growing up because we lived in a rough neighborhood
and we weren't ever allowed to go anywhere outside of school so all we had was a television and a playstation. we loved the stories of metal gear, final fantasy, tekken and so on and the inherent challenges that came with trying to get the next story moment in the game i believe in games as a medium for storytelling i believe games are the best form of entertainment to date. it has the potential to include all the best elements of literature, filmmaking, music and art combined with the very latest in technology. to me games are a form of progress
we've obviously grown past the stage in the industry's lifecycle where games are just toys and a waste of time. the same can be said for every piece of entertainment since the dawn of humanity. as a species finding entertainment and time to play are important to our growth. however, as i'm growing older i'm finding it harder and harder to justify a commitment to any game when other things may come up. when a game developer puts out a press release saying that their game will have fifty to a hundred hours of content or even more. that scares me.
and rightfully so because i don't have that kind of time. when you consider all the things that anyone has to do in their day-to-day life video games aren't something that i can justify committing a hundred or so hours in to. take for example the witcher 3. i can't explain to you how much i want to play the witcher 3. in fact all the witcher games as a whole because i'd like to experience the story firsthand however when howlongtobeat.com says that a combined play through of all the games will take 345 hours it's hard to justify installing the games and getting started.
because when i want to play something i want to enjoy it experience it. become immersed in the world and go through the stories and side quests, but still be aware of everything i don't want to pause for 3 to 12 months and come back and not know what i was doing before. i don't want to forget the control scheme or the subtle details of enemies telegraphing their attacks in combat i don't want to forget why i have however many quests to do and what i'm supposed to do. and with my kind of schedule that's a very likely scenario. my own personal neurosis forces me to start again
and i'll be back at square one which is just all the more frustrating. this very thing has happened to be more than once in games like skyrim and dragon age that's not to say anything bad about the game. i'm glad that something like the witcher series exists it's a marvelous achievement of game development and from what i've heard, it's definitely worth it. but unfortunately, it's not a luxury that i can afford to partake in so for now. i'll just have to avoid the game even though everything that's been said about it from friends, news outlets and peers points to the same direction encouraging me to play the damn game so what does someone who does enjoy video games,
who wants to play them and doesn't have enough time for the bigger games play i'd like to share with you three areas of the games landscape that i think are a good solution that's not to say they are the be-all and end-all solution. nothing ever is, but these are solutions that i would personally recommend one solution is to perhaps focus attention towards smaller games. indie titles that don't require as much of a time commitment to complete games like firewatch, gone home tacoma, inside and journey
are excellent examples of games that can be completed in one or two sittings. taking only one to four hours to complete and provide a satisfactory storytelling experience. one fairly recent example is mike bithell's subsurface circular. the aim of the game was that it could be completed in a single sitting at a glance at a glance it looks incredible. a lot of time went into the visual design of the characters and environments. however, you'll come to realize that when you play the game it's a visual novel. the entire story is delivered through text and chat prompts between the robots
i personally didn't enjoy the experience as i'm not a fan of visual novels nor did i find the story particularly compelling. however, the concept of a game that could be delivered in a single sitting is what interests me the most. because it directly caters towards my situation as someone with a limited time but enough that within an evening i'd like a satisfying experience with little commitment. my biggest problem comes from the fact that games like subsurface circular, firewatch, tacoma, and so on are about as mechanically challenging as swallowing. i'm not suggesting that these kinds of games need to be as difficult as a souls game or extremely competitive but on the scale of difficulty i would personally prefer it to be towards the middle.
within the methods of gameplay at hand with these kinds of titles is hard to recommend them especially with that i would personally consider very limited replay value. the story of firewatch was engaging the first time but on a second playthrough the minimal interaction and agency is something i'd rather not go through again. my other concern is the target audience for these kinds of games. they're indie games. they don't have the massive marketing budgets to reach the audience that they rightly deserve luckily for the particular developers of the games that i've already mentioned they are loved by the gaming press and get fairly decent coverage of their development
however other games in the same kind of category aiming to reach the same demographic of players who want that easy gameplay and engrossing story are going to be hard-pressed to reach that audience the last thing to consider with these kinds of games is that they're beautiful to look at and with great beauty comes a necessity for dedicated power. consider a hypothetical situation: a new user sees games like tacoma, firewatch, night in the woods, subsurface circular journey, inside and similar games. they see them being well reviewed and understand that they're not challenging, but have great stories to tell.
they don't currently own a console or pc that runs games but would very much like to experience it firsthand. the problem therein lies that the user has to buy a console or a personal computer capable of running these games. is it plausible to spend $300 on a playstation 4 to play firewatch. would it be recommended to purchase a 500 to $800 pc to play night in the woods or subsurface circular. again, this is completely hypothetical and a little unfair. however, the point
i'm trying to make is a combination of the concerns around these types of games. they take a fair amount of power to run and the cost of that power is the same for a much more demanding and mechanically engaging games. the problem with these games is that they're great stories and beautiful works of art, that are better off being sold to people already invested in games as a medium. but these games are being designed for players completely new to gaming. in recent years games released in an episodic format have increased in popularity telltale's the walking dead and the wolf among us showed us that the episodic format of television
can work incredibly well for the medium of games. with each episode taking no more than two hours to get through, it serves as the ideal time length for an evening session maybe even split into two evenings if so inclined in fact the ideal way of playing is to play the first episode on a monday night and go through one episode a day for the working week. from personal experience i can tell you binging and episodic style game in a day is not worth it having played batman: a telltale series in a single sitting i can assure you that was one of the worst gaming experiences i've ever been through. not because the game is bad the story was surprisingly interesting considering the source material
it's just delivered in a way that suits the tell-tale formula which in turn leads me to the problems of the episodic format the primary the primary fault of this particular format is the release schedule as a consumer waiting week sometimes even months for a 5 episode series to complete is just not worth it. the core idea of the episodic format and seasons is that at a regular schedule the continuation of a plot is split at key moments and ensuring the viewers engagement for a period of time. it allows for expansive stories with multiple characters to develop over time in ways that a single purpose story like film cannot
which is why it works so well in television. over the course of 6 to 24 weeks a television show with a digestible time length which remains at a consistent time and day for release is able to engage millions of people, create discussion, anticipation and tell incredible stories. when it comes to games there's yet to be an episodic series that has fit into a timely schedule. this is partly due to development constraints. the majority of developers like telltale, dontnod and valve use the model to generate revenue with each release to continue development of the subsequent episodes unfortunately for the consumer that could mean anywhere between a month and never for the next episode.
in that space of time the player can forget the entire plot important details and may need to start the series again on the release of the next episode. in fact it's generally common practice to simply wait until the season is complete before even purchasing a game like this. it allows the player to binge through the game in a five-day week method and enjoy the experience the most convenient way. the ideal scenario for episodic games would be for developers to complete the entire series long before the release allowing them to make an event of it all. consider the next telltale game or life is strange being released weekly episode 1 is available on a tuesday and the following week, the next episode is released and so on.
with a micro trailer for the next episode released on a friday. that kind of marketing could generate the hype needed bringing players together and turning the occasion into an event. the same way television series like game of thrones have been doing it for years. unfortunately it appears that the company's publishing the games are unwilling to front the full cost of development of an episodic game and this format is doomed to niche games and audiences. the other alternative is to forego story entirely and take on single session games
i like to call these types of games arcade nouveau. games that are entirely based around a simple gameplay loop. these types of games provide a wealth of fun and enjoyment with little commitment like a coin op game from the age of arcades where you enter your coin play as much as you can and game over. but in the current era of personal computers, smartphones and consoles these arcade-ish games include modern day benefits like save files, progression systems that allow you to unlock cosmetics weapons etc. in order to encourage the player to continue playing the game multiplayer only games like overwatch, league of legends, battlefield, rainbow six siege, hearthstone, player unknown's battlegrounds
are all games that can have between 15 minutes and an hour per round or match. a game like rocket league has matches of just 5 minutes which is perfect if you want some quick entertainment. these games were easy to learn hard to master gameplay loops are designed with the intention for players to return back for easy to digest sessions. within that time frame a player can have a completely satisfactory play session that is both rewarding and doesn't have a need for commitment. barring a few updates someone like myself can come back after three to nine months and still get the same level of enjoyment. in fact, during the writing of this script a couple of friends and i got together and played battlefield 4 for the first time in years. granted, multiplayer only games are also a breeding ground of toxicity and immature behaviour
without a group of friends that also play the game with you, you're opening yourself up to people who do commit and dedicate themselves to the game. the kinds of players who enjoy trolling, being toxic and immature in the event that something doesn't go their way. another thing to consider with multiplayer games is the meta. if you're returning after a term of absence you may find new items, character changes and updates that have changed the way of play. this can be frustrating and force you to relearn the game. one particular example is with league of legends. a few years back i used to play the game a lot with friends and my favorite champion was his azir.
i loved his lore, his voice lines, his character design and especially his unique mechanics. after an interim period of not playing the game and being coerced back i found that his mechanics had changed in a way that i didn't enjoy like i used to they didn't align with my muscle memory, and it just felt off. it's not a massive deal but it's an example of how the rebalancing in a game changes over time and those changes are a lot bigger to someone who hasn't played recently another example is when the meta shifts in a massive way. someone who played during the juggernaut meta may not recognize the current state of the game.
items, playstyles, team compositions are vastly different since i last played. this makes returning to the game from whatever hiatus, an unwelcoming challenge. the alternative to this is single player games and in some cases, co-operative. that have the most basic level of story for the sake of context but also an engaging gameplay loop where the player can have a successful or failing run at the game. games like nuclear throne, enter the gungeon, ftl and others in the roguelite genre are wonderful, simple games that give the player a new challenge with each attempt.
with no two runs being the same and huge amounts of variation in levels and upgrades, these too fit into the arcade nouveau sensibilities however, like i said you have to forego a well-written and compelling story in exchange for engaging gameplay loops and mechanics titles like overwatch and league of legends do have a "narrative" but the game itself, the thing you play, has nothing to do with it. the players input into these games have no bearing on the progress and continuation of the story and world they're engaged in or where it goes. as a short aside; there are some games that you may actually be familiar with that actually tick a lot of the right boxes for someone who wants to
enjoy games as a medium but with little time to spare. there are titles in existence that have shorter stories that are easy to play for new users and can be mechanically engaging. which at the same time don't require a long time commitment. these games offer endless replayability in both single cooperative and multiplayer varieties. whatever your opinion is of the call of duty franchise looking at it from the perspective of someone who wants to enjoy games and doesn't have much time it's a pretty easy sell. there is a reason it comes out every holiday season.
recent sales figures may not be as massive as modern warfare 3 but those numbers are still in the tens of millions every year. because as a package, call of duty provides a well-rounded purchase for the average person. one of the more surprising things to me personally was the legend of zelda: breath of the wild. in fact all the games on the nintendo switch seemed to cater directly towards the kind of person who has very little time. the console in itself is designed to go anywhere and i believe breath of the wild's greatest achievement isn't its take on open-world design or whatever else everyone seems to praise it for. the greatest achievement of breath of the wild is that it's a game that can be played for 10 minutes at a time you can wait for something to cook and travel somewhere in the world.
you can go to the bathroom and beat a boss you can complete a sidequest or a shrine on your commute to work satisfying gameplay can happen in this game at the most convenient of times and that also applies to other titles on the switch, like mario and rabbids kingdom battle or splatoon 2. so, we've discussed smaller games, episodic games and the arcade nouveau. they're all games are catered directly towards our target demographic the player with little time and a disposable income who wants the best their games as a medium and art form can offer. there is a very small segment of games that i personally enjoy i would love to see more of it also incorporates all the other types of games we've just discussed.
hitman: absolution came with a standalone bonus game called hitman: sniper challenge. it's a one level game set in a fixed position on a rooftop looking down on another there is a target and his guards in the fashion of all hitman games you have to learn the patterns, eliminate your target and the guards without being detected. the level and patterns stay the same but there are many ways of killing certain targets. for example this guard, will always be walking on this balcony however above him in this area is a crate above his head. shoot that, kill the guard, looks like an accident. another example is this guard.
shoot him as he stands in front of an open elevator and no one will find the body it's an example of a minigame that is very fun to play over and over again to improve your score and learn more about the level and ai. another example like this would be metal gear solid 5 ground zeroes. granted this game was frowned upon as a very expensive demo from much bigger game, and that's a fair criticism it's just one open-world level that has a number of objectives and ways to complete the mission and that's what i love about the game it has the expansive nature of a big-budget open-world game. the polish of something with a aaa budget and incredibly deep gameplay and mechanics. it's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination
but if it had regular updates when new missions based on the environment were added over time. it'd be something i regularly go back to. which in turn leads me into one of my top three games of 2016. the episodically released hitman actually fits all my personal requirements it's a aaa game with enough of a narrative to justify whatever you're doing. it's mechanically deep and engrossing. there's huge amounts of replay-ability. and you had the choice of purchasing as much of the content or as little of the content as you desired. the game got a lot of flack from the hardcore gaming audience
which is understandable. if i had the kind of free time and sensibilities that they had towards this hobby i too may have been upset but i don't believe hitman was designed for that crowd in all honesty. because if you look at it from the perspective of someone who just wants to play something that they can pick up at any time go through it as and when they please without the commitment that a huge story encompasses. then this is it. every couple of months a new level is released with just as much, if not more, content to engage you. new challenges, elusive targets and a scoring system with that encourages you to replay the missions and try again to get a better score.
all in all, i personally, and i don't speak for everyone, would like to see more games like this. games where you have a relatively large sandbox of possibilities with varying ways of completing and taking on missions with new maps and content released in a timeframe that gives me a feeling or something new but doesn't make me feel overwhelmed with tutorials and plots that'll leave me confused if i don't play it for months at a time. hitman (2016) is a game that respects my time it respect my ability as a player and provided a solid year's worth of entertainment and content that i can keep returning to. it's inevitable. time will always win, and we can't always get the time we want for our hobbies every now and then i do get to play something whether it's a board game on tabletop simulator with the wonderful people on the discord server or
some battlefield 4 with friends or even a walking simulator from an indie developer and for players like myself, these are the kinds of games that do value you as a player. they respect your time, they respect that you can't commit to something massive an epic no matter how great they are. i love video games more than film, more than television, books and every other medium. i want to design and make them. i want to play them. i want to discuss them with people and share experiences, but at the end of the day, i love my job. i love my family. i love my friends my community, and i love my girlfriend more. it's okay to not play the latest and greatest releases
they all still exist when you do have time but in the meanwhile playing something smaller, something that doesn't need more from you than what you can give, is still an option. video games and everything around them will always be my passion i want to see the medium grow. i want to bear witness to the incredible worlds and stories that talented people around the globe have put their lives and souls into. i want others to experience it and learn to love it the way i do. and i hope that one day i get a couple of weeks off to fucking play the witcher 3. thank you for watching. i appreciate the time you've taken to watch this video
do you have concerns about growing older and the time you spend with video games? what are your thoughts? i'd love to hear what you have to say in the comments below. if you liked or disliked the video leave a rating. you can talk to me directly on twitter. better yet, you can join me and the small community of amazing people here on our discord server. and of course if you'd like to see more episodes at the sidcourse, please subscribe. stay sexy <3.