Snacking for the Serious Gamer
We’ve all done it. It’s part of the gaming lifestyle, a period in which the newb is separated from the gamer, a rite of passage. I’m talking, of course, about the long-winded gaming bender. Whether running a 10-hour online session of Call of Duty or the pressure of developing and sustaining a 20-year championship caliber NCAA football team—in which case I’d advocate only using Michigan State—the gamer needs some sort of nourishment to keep their mind clear and focused on the task at hand. The selection of food is as important as the decision of choosing between wielding duel needlers or the gravity hammer in Halo, or spending 5 million in cap space on the high flying left winger or the stay at home defender in the off-season in NHL 08. The wrong choice can be disastrous.
To keep a game fun, the designers have to come up with imaginative representations of practical tools. There can be a dozen methods of replenishing your character’s falling health, but what form should that method take? Should it come in the form of an object or an action? Some of the solutions that designers have come up with have been downright bizarre, but in a video game context, we strangely accept them without question! Let’s hope you’re hungry…