Gamer Fatigue

August 16th, 2008

gamer fatigue

I’m not the sort of gamer that is quick to adopt spiffy new gaming terms into my vocabulary. So when my brother tried to explain the concept of “Gamer Fatigue”, I was a little reluctant to accept the term. As of writing though, I feel a great sense of this “gamer fatigue” come over me and would like to share this with you guys.

As can easily be guessed, gamer fatigue is the process by where tiredness is created by playing video games. This tiredness is a result of stressing the brain which can be done by excessive playing and/or long stretches of intense play.

My bout of gamer fatigue has been from a bit of both. I’ve been grinding my way through Gradius Collection and it’s a harrowing experience. Even on the easier difficulty settings this game is tough forcing me to rely on save states. I’m starting to feel less empathetic with the shoot ’em up genre simply because it is so damn ruthless. While I’m sure some would chalk this one up to skill (and hence my lack of) I simply can’t concur. The challenge in playing many shmps (shoot ’em ups) on a standard difficulty level is beyond human skill and relies heavily on repeated plays to burn enemy movement patterns into the walls of your brain. It’s cruel and irrefutably a result of this recent bout of gamer fatigue.

In the past week or so when I haven’t been playing Gradius I’ve been retreading my way through Resident Evil 4 on Pro difficulty and while it has a much more humane experience than Gradius, I must confess that I have hit a road block. I’m up to the 3 minute battle with Krauser and no matter how many times I shoot him in the face with my shotgun he refuses to submit to my trigger finger. I spent a solid 2hrs filling him with pain and yet he refuses give up, the difficulty curve has unsuspectingly spiked, displacing the difficulty level off the charts.

Nevermind though, I’m sure some Elite Beat Agents will curb my ailment. Unfortunately not as I am playing through the hardest difficult on that as well (and yes it is, THAT difficulty, the one you unlock after the supposively hardest difficulty).

In the midst of all of this I’ve been flipping through my collection in search of a slow pace RPG to easy the tension but haven’t been able to conjour up the spirit to refuse the hearty challenge that these games have taunted me with. As a result here I am, mentally exhausted and drained. So, just a warning to you all; try to keep a balanced game playing diet or else you may suffer this “gamer fatigue”. Oh and be sure to add it to your vocabulary as well. ^_^