1. Violence – The uber violence of today's games is unsurpassed. What with all the headshots, decapitations, assassinations, and blood. It's awesome! If I were my own parent, I would be worried. But I haven't become a psychopath yet, and neither have my friends, so I think we're okay :)
2. Sandbox Games – The first of these I ever experienced was "Scarface: The World is Yours". Man, what a great game! I used to put down the Grand Theft Auto games as being nothing but mindless violence, but boy was I ever wrong. Those are tons of fun. From building my virtual cocaine empire in Scarface, I moved on to owning all of New York in "The Godfather". Then I went back to boarding school and learned how kiss girls in "Bully". Oh, and "Fable" happened too, somewhere along the line, along with "Knights of the Old Republic." It's a good time to play open ended games!
3. Online Capability – Never knew what I was missing here, until I finally got high speed internet about 2 years ago. Yeah, I am WAY behind the times! Taking my game online has pretty much revolutionized the whole experience for me. I actually have virtual friends that seem almost like real friends – imagine that! (The "almost" being that I don't have to listen to anyone burp or fart, and I can kick them out of my house whenever I want to.)
4. Achievements – It's meaningless, yes. Addictive and cheesy? Yes. But it sure is fun! I like gamerscore. It means nothing to anyone but the player, and that is the beauty of it. They can take away my pride. They can take my dignity. But they'll never take my Halo Vidmaster achievements!
5. Customization – Sure, you can make fun of them. But the use of Avatars helps personalize the experience. By customizing every person's gaming experience, it helps them to feel like they "own" it. At first I thought they were dumb, but now I really like Avatars. The Wii's Miis though still look really stupid.
6. Adult games – Aging gamers lead to more adult-oriented games. There are now more options out there than ever before. A variety of genres to suit every conceivable type of player.
7. Low Costs – We bitch about $60 games, but come on people, do you remember how much games USED to cost? In the 80's I mean? I remember Super Mario Bros. 2 coming out for $50. And games have only gotten more complex since then. Plus if you are willing to wait, even the retail price of most games comes down quickly. Relatively speaking, games are cheaper now than they've ever been.
8. Graphics Improvements – I was stunned the day I first plugged my Xbox into an HDTV. I already knew the graphics were great. But good grief! Every time it gets better, I keep thinking, "It can't get much better than this." And then it does. Will there ever be an end to that?
9. 3-D Gaming – I haven't experienced this yet, but I want to. It's too bad that 3D TV's are so expensive. And PS3's, too. Pretty much guarantees that few 3D games will ever get made. But I hope that will change someday. (Sorry, not much interested in the 3DS – Nintendo has burned me too badly.)
10. Downloadable Content – DLC can be really fun, with new maps and new adventures. What would Ninja Gaiden 2 be without Mission Mode, after all? But this can also be abused by marketers.
11. Social Acceptance – The stigma of gaming as being "for kids" is slowly dying, but still it persists. I hope that as we gamers get older, this will eventually go completely away. I'm sick of lawmakers and conservative types coming down on gaming. I'll be glad when we someday have a president who grew up playing Super Mario Bros. or even Grand Theft Auto. Wouldn't that be awesome?
That's it. Now I realize that many of these Annoyances / Awesomenesses conflict with each other. However, I am not interested in logic. I just like making lists. So don't bother pointing that out.
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