What is a Gamer?

          “One who plays games.” Possibly the simplest way to define the term “gamer”. But what else does it mean? What can one do to earn the title of “Gamer”? What comes to mind when you hear the word?

          Becoming a gamer is easy. All you need to do is play something. It can be a board game, video game, card game, physical sport, whatever. You play it once and you’re technically a gamer. It’s like how writing a single sentence makes you a writer. Maybe you aren’t an excellent writer, but you wrote something. But what if you were to write more? What if you wrote two sentences? Or a paragraph? Essay? Short story? You’ll become a better writer, just like playing more games makes you better at gaming. But what does it mean for us to play?

          To play is to engage with the rules of the game. You follow the laws set before you to experience something fun and/or interesting. Breaking the rules effectively means breaking the game world itself. When you cheat the game, you deny the game itself and the engagement is gone. You’re no longer compelled to play, let alone win. And the gaming community detests nothing more than a cheater.

          Becoming involved with the gaming culture isn’t too difficult. We’re rather open-minded people. There may be the occasional player hiding behind a false identity and throwing insults, but we welcome all newcomers to join us. We’re not elitist jerks; if anything, we need new players to play with. If they stick around, they might become skilled enough to challenge the more hardcore audience.

          We play not to waste time, but to make the best of it. We’re not trying to avoid reality because life is difficult; we seek escape during our downtime to make the day easier to deal with. We’re not becoming violent; we’re learning about the world outside. We’re learning literary elements, history, science, creativity and art. We’re interacting with stories and characters we never knew could affect us on such a deep and emotional level. Ultimately, gamers are enjoying a pastime. Gamers are playing for their own reasons that perhaps only we will understand. Gamers are playing for the sake of the game.

          When I hear the word “gamer” I think of someone akin to a person who loves a good book. They seek out these stories because it fulfills some sort of need. A moviegoer does the same thing; they want to see amazingly beautiful narratives on a display. With games, we want to experience a new sensation that we’ve never had before. What’s it like to be trapped in a dark room with no escape but the end of the night shift? What’s it like to be a fire-breathing dragon? What’s it like fighting demons with nothing but a hatchet? What’s it like to be a hero? Or a villain? To be smart? Or slow? To be something beyond human? Games are the closest things we have to those experiences. To me, a gamer is “someone who not only plays games, but lives them.”

Investing Time

            So I tried playing an MMO I hadn’t played in a while. Guild Wars 2 to be exact. The same content was still there and the community seemed better than three years ago. But you know what wasn’t there? My old guild. They were just gone. None of my previous friends were logged in and I was without a guild. I tried joining a new guild, but it wasn’t the same. Trouble is, I’m not on nearly enough to play with them. School and work come first in my life and sometimes that means not playing anything at all. 

            Back in grade school, time was virtually meaningless. I woke up, ate a bowl of cereal, went to school, spent about eight hours in classes that were not interesting, then went home and had maybe 6-8 hours to do any homework I had to (and play games) before going to sleep. Then the cycle repeated over and over for a week. Weekends were possibly the only free time one could have. That was for all the personal things I wanted to do. When it comes to college, that schedule changes a bit.

            Classes vary from taking up a large part of your day or just a single hour. In some ways, it feels like any other school. You might ask yourself “Why am I here? I’d rather be anywhere else.” Let me ask you this then: if you could be anywhere else doing anything else, where and what would it be? Where are you willing to invest time and what will you be doing with that time? There’s an assignment due tomorrow. Maybe get that out of the way first? What about that project due at the end of the month? Should you work on that instead? Does it need more time compared to anything else? What about sleep? How long can you function without needing to call it a day? Knowing how to balance all of this is called “time management.” 

            You may not like to hear this, but you have to prioritize what you do in your day and you must unfortunately give some things up for other activities. I used to play online games after school as soon as I got finished with homework. Roughly, I invested six to eight hours a day playing video games (even more on weekends). You know what I could have possibly been doing during that time? Practicing drawing. I love drawing and I’ve gotten considerably better since I first attended Southern Arkansas University, but back then I took it for granted. “I could totally draw that. Just not right now.” That would be my go to response to any picture I looked at that someone else drew. I don’t know how many pictures I’ve seen and said that, but I’m sure it’s an embarrassingly large number. Knowing how to draw something is not the same as having drawn the thing. We’re judged by what we’ve done, not what we can do.

            So how does someone manage their time better? How do you break the cycle of non-production and stagnation? It varies per person, but it’s helped me to write down what I’m supposed to do today. That way, I have a physical list of tasks that need to be finished by the end of the day. Sure I cross out what I can’t do if something else comes up or my energy is spent, but I try to stick to my list. The hardest part of any task is getting started. If it’s something easy and enjoyable, then it’s not so difficult. However, if the task is demanding and strenuous, you might not be so eager to jump on it. The best thing for this is to do the most difficult task first. For me, that’s any kind of drawing. I do all of my drawing in the morning while I still have a good amount of energy to invest. If I put it off too long, I end up procrastinating more. Sometimes procrastination works and puts you in a sort of panic super human mode where you can write ten page essays in the span of one hour, but I try not to rely on it too much. If I put it all off until the last minute without any prior research, I’m boned.

            Time management doesn’t necessarily mean giving up all the things you like. I still play games despite my schedule, but it’s down to one to three hours a day. Some days I don’t get to play anything, but that’s fine. I can always play it tomorrow. It simply means you will need to prioritize certain events and tasks over others. It can be difficult, but it’s worth it. You feel more productive and accomplished at the end of the day and people like it when you put them first. Employers especially like it when you sacrifice your personal time for their projects. 

            If you’re thinking “I don’t want to have to give up my personal time for this!” I don’t blame you. I didn’t exactly want to give up online gaming. Thing is, that playtime wasn’t fulfilling to me anymore. When my guild was gone, I had nothing to return to. I moved on. Maybe the stuff you do in your time is highly fulfilling to you. I can’t and won’t make you give that up. But keep in mind that should you want to pursue multiple goals, you will have to let something else go (at least for a while).

October Analysis: Crypt of the NecroDancer

          What happens when you combine the elements of a rogue-like and a rhythm game? You get Crypt of the NecroDancer. It’s this unusual, but interesting game where the player must move in time with the tempo of the music. Failure to do so will result in being stuck and vulnerable to attack. The game requires the player to not only move to the beat, but to plan their attacks around traps, walls, and monsters. It’s a difficult game which will require lots of practice to master. But how does it accomplish its dynamics?

           First, the game asks for one rule to be followed: don’t move out of rhythm. If you keep up with the timing, you’ll do fine. The monsters keep in time as well. They also have animations that show when they will move to another space. But there’s more to the game than simply moving around monsters and striking them during the opportune moment; you need to find the exit of the level. Each level acts as a floor of the dungeon. When you find the exit door and beat the Miniboss, the door opens and you can continue. If the song ends before you find the door, you continue anyway. You can also reach lower floors earlier if you find a trapdoor, but they always put you in a room with several monsters that must be slain first. If you’re well equipped, this shouldn’t be an issue. Otherwise, play it safe and find the floor’s exit.

          The game keeps things interesting with its random pickups. Most useful are weapons that offer unique effects such as being able to strike from two panels away instead of one, slicing across tiles adjacent to yours, and the ability to throw the weapon across the room until it hits a wall. The player can also acquire Spells to aid them, Armor to reduce damage, Food to recover Health, and several other items. Most of these objects are found in chests, but can also be acquired from the Merchant. He’s always found in a small room surrounded by gold bricks. He also sings along with the song playing in the level which makes it easier to find him if you get lost.

          As customary to the rogue-like genre, rooms are random. Every floor the layout changes, the monsters spawn in different locations, different items are found, and traps are repositioned. The neat thing about the rooms is the dirt walls that separate areas. The player has a spade that can dig through those walls and potentially lead them to a shortcut. Most of the time I just dig through walls to go to other rooms that have less monsters in them. 

          What the game does differently than other rogue-likes is how they handle perma-death. Players who die are sent back to the beginning, but they keep any permanent upgrades such as Health. If they clear a Zone (the collection of all floors plus the Boss), a new Zone is unlocked and left open permanently. Progress is not saved with individual floors. Dying resets you back to floor 1-1 or 2-1 (for Zone 1 and Zone 2 respectively).

           Progressing through the game unlocks additional characters, all of whom have their own playstyles. The default character Cadence has to move in time with the music. Bard, the other character unlocked at the start, can move whenever he wants, but monsters move right when he moves. It can be fun to mess around with each and discover a playstyle you like.

          The most crucial things one can learn studying this game is how rhythm and music play into a game. Observe how the soundtrack makes you feel at specific moments and how the gameplay gets faster and more intense the further down you go. It’s also a good idea to study the animations. They move slow at first, but as the tempo increases, the monsters move faster. The frames never increase or decrease, but the framerate changes based on how fast or slow the music is playing. And finally, look at what the you the player have to do in order to survive. You have to keep moving to retain your coin multiplier so you can earn lots of Gold to spend at the Merchant. You have to keep in time with the music or risk being immobile briefly. You also have to manage items, slay monsters for Gold, purchase the right items, avoid getting hit, AND find the exit door. It becomes necessary to plan a strategy not around maps, but around what you have, what you can get, and how you get make the best of what you’ve got. It will take lots of practice to get good at something like this.

          That’s all the games I’m analyzing for October. Hopefully you’ll try them out, if possible, and have a Happy Halloween!