I have even heard arguments that playing only older games like SNES and back doesn’t make you a gamer. Just the fact that people can consider that a legitimate argument shows where we are.

It’s tough being a gamer these days in this respect. I have spent a lot of time dedicated to games, through my blog as you know, through actual studying of the history of games (through books and research), trying to play all the games considered “classics” and just reading about video games daily on the internet these days. But as soon as I let out that I don’t like Halo, all my gamer “credibility” is lost.

I love video games, and feel like all the time i’ve spent with them has not been wasted, and plan on spending a lot more time studying them, playing them, and thinking about all the issues gaming has these days. But you will probably never hear me call myself a “Gamer” because just like the guy in the article, the people who tout the title around are not the same as me. gaming to me has been an exercise in things that I find fun and interesting, not some sort of code i have to live by.

I’m of two minds about Zenke’s particular criticism of the game. On the one hand, making an FPS feel more approachable doesn’t necessarily mean it’s exactly like every other FPS you’ve ever played. Consider, in contrast, point-and-shoot FPS games in arcades, anywhere from Time Crisis to Big Buck Hunter. When I was doing research in arcades, I saw non-hardcore gamers—especially couples on dates—playing these things all the time. I think a big part of that, though, is that the big plastic gun looks a lot more approachable than a controller or a keyboard to a non-hardcore gamer.

On the other hand, of course, I feel like I know just what Zenke means. In fact, I often feel like, “Wait … this is exactly like every other game of this genre I’ve ever played.” (That goes especially for fighting games.) Having never played the game he criticizes, I can’t say for sure whether his criticism makes sense for that game; all he’s basically saying is that this offers nothing to hardcore gamers, and it probably won’t sell to casual gamers anyway. The first point may well be true, and the second I probably agree with.

Zenke’s objection is an odd one. I’m not sure how he gets from a game you know *how* to play, to one you already *have* played. I’m reminded of Myst, which was a pretty familiar (although wonderfully tarted up) HyperCard interface, and yet a very compelling story. Or, perhaps a better example, all the early FPSes had extremely similar mechanics, yet Doom, e.g., was a very different experience than Marathon. I’m going to chalk that one up to a looming deadline.

Also, it needs to be emphasized that someone has done a research paper that extensively cites Encyclopedia Dramatica. The Intertubes are weirder than you *can* imagine.