It’s a Classic Doncha Know?

Mark Twain once wrote “A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.”  I know because I once saw it quoted on a Waterstones carrier bag.  This can also be true in part, of games – or at least for me.  Those who devour each and every popular release will undoubtedly cover most of each generation’s ‘classics’ without trying, but for others, covering those bases comes a little harder.

Jerry Hardin as Samuel Clemens FTW!

Many games which are considered a ‘must play’ or a ‘game of the year’ or which have been branded an instant classic, I have never played.  The reasons are many-fold, and laziness does admittedly play a large part, but the main one is that I don’t wanna.  Don’t get me wrong, I actually own a lot of them.  I look at the row of games on my shelf featuring things such as Rainbow Six Vegas 2, Bioshock, The Orange Box, GTA4 and I wrinkle my nose up, before always selecting something else.  I want to have played them, to have gathered the achievements, and to be able to talk nineteen to the dozen about them like everybody else… but not tonight, I tell myself.  Maybe another time. 

So why did I buy them if I go through this every time?  Various games are raved about for one reason or another – for the depth of story or the innovation or their graphical beauty.  They make the favourite games lists at the end of each year, they squat resolutely in the top ten lists in the back of gaming magazines month after month, and no doubt in years to come, they will be featuring in Retro Gamer’s pages to be viewed with misty-eyed nostalgia. 

It’s not just the games that I do actually own and spurn, but others too.  Halo 3?  Not remotely interested, don’t own it, Call of Duty 4, don’t own it, Gears of War 2, don’t own it.  Heresy.  Burn me at the stake and to steal from the great Stephen Fry, watch my witch’s heart bubble.  That I don’t and never will own, Halo 3 say, is beyond the comprehension of many but that topic and the nagging game invites is perhaps best reserved for a post all to itself in the coming month, so I will set that aside for now.  However, it’s the thought that some games should be staples of anyone’s collection because they are deemed ‘classics’, regardless of their specific tastes or genre leanings, which both interests and frustrates me in equal measure.  I suppose it’s like being shocked at a Game Boy owner never having played Tetris… it’s a core staple and yes, a classic. 

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I have zero interest in certain games, (though I do pretty much have zero interest in FPSs)… I find COD4 to be interesting, with a modicum of appeal and I tell myself that one day I will play it.  Bioshock… I’ve heard interesting things about the story and purported choices and it looks not half bad, so it will be played.

One day… one day I will see them on my gamercard and think, ‘yeah, I’ve played that’ and I’ll be able to talk about it and broaden my yardstick when it comes to drawing comparisons, and one day, I’ll be able to say that way back when games were proper games, I played X, Y, and Z… they were classics you innocent, moon-faced little grandchildren – you with all your ‘3D full-sensory games malarkey’.  So I want to have played them, these classics, I just don’t want to have to actually play them.  It is such an effort.  One day, I will though… one fine day they shall be played.  Just not today.


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15 responses to “It’s a Classic Doncha Know?”

  1. City avatar

    I think this has summed up how I feel about a few ‘big release’ titles I have kicking around that I have started and I am yet to finish..

    Dead Space, Little Big Planet, Battlefield Bad Company.. I want to play them, I want the trophies, but why cant it just happen on its own?

    I dont get the deal about Halo 3, wont be getting it. never play a tom clancy game, or a mario bros game..

    I usually prefer weirder slightly less advertised things, and every week theres a new distraction from my game pile as I download yet something else from PSN.

    *sigh*
    I wonder what “classics” ive missed/will missed simply because.. meh.

  2. Lorna avatar
    Lorna

    Lol, I know…XBLA adds to the delay with me getting things done, not to mention that I seem to spend more time deciding what to play than actually playing 🙁

  3. Sikamikanico avatar
    Sikamikanico

    You need to play Halo 3…. ;o)

  4. The Rook avatar
    The Rook

    I understand that some games get alot of hype about them before they even come out. The amount of pages dedicated to Halo 3 in one magazine I read was incredible, and this went on for many months before it even came out. I got bored with Halo 2 so have had no interest in Halo 3 and no interest in ODST or Halo Wars at this time either.

    Lots of people raved about MGS4. I played through the first act and haven’t gone back to it. Different tastes for different people I guess.

    Reading through your list of games to play or ignore, I see you mentioned Bioshock. This would be the only one you mentioned that I feel I would have missed out on a good game if I hadn’t played it.

  5. Swift avatar

    …okay, so what games do you play and why do you prefer them over these regarded classics?

  6. Kirsten avatar

    Funnily enough Jerry Hardin who played Clemens in Star Trek TNG pictured in your blog also played a character called Issac Clark in Sliders which is the name of the main character in Dead Space.

    You should play Dead Space, Lorna :p

  7. City avatar

    Sliders! ZOMG that was awesome *scurries off to watch*

    and yeah, you should.. its like fate or something..

  8. Lorna avatar
    Lorna

    lol, fate indeed. Strangely enough Dead Space is on my mental ‘maybe buy’ list 🙂 A game for when I just want to scare myself without Googling George Galloway.

    @Swift, various games just not FPS and the seeming myriad of online fragfest games. Otherwise, I consider that I have diverse taste.

  9. aagl avatar
    aagl

    Classics are such partly because of wide appeal. Certainly, you may be missing a fine experience because a game’s quality is high; but if you don’t enjoy the genre, you can afford to pass on it.

    Incidentally, since you referenced Hardin directly: Time’s Arrow 1 & 2 are classic Trek. “It would be advisable for you to monitor that cough.”

  10. Lorna avatar
    Lorna

    Yes, I’d agree, Time’s Arrow was wonderful. I loved Hardin’s sparkly eyed portrayal of Clemens as a slightly mischievous old man.

  11. Andy Turner avatar
    Andy Turner

    Procrastination as long been my enemy too, especially when it comes to games I want to spend a decent amount of time on or I know I can’t give my full attention to at the time.

    Prime examples for me at the moment are Dead space, and Fallout 3….that being said I have started both of them and played briefly for the sake of actually having started but I can’t seem to let myself get into them until I’ve cleared enough from my plate to really get stuck into them and really enjoy what are by all accounts awesome games, but with fable 2 now bled just about dry I think I’m ready to hurry through the end of Sonic Unleashed to get that distraction out of the way and then hope be able to get some good mileage out of one or both of these killer titles before Resident Evil shows up and upsets the order of everything (again).

    PS: I’m always surprised just how much wisdom is available printed on Waterstones bags, written on bus stops or appearing when you die on call of duty.

  12. Jay avatar
    Jay

    I find a lot of ‘big’ games sit on my shelf unplayed too. I think it’s partly because said games have been played to death already by everybody else and their dog. Combine this with the almost endless stream of commentary both in print and on the interweb, and some games just feel too familiar before disc has even touched tray.

    Other games are simply too daunting. Fallout 3 I enjoyed immensely for about 10 hours, but it’s *too* big. I look at it on the shelf now and it scares me with its endless quests and seemlingly infinite map. So I play Pure instead.

  13. blagmasterg avatar
    blagmasterg

    I totally relate to this. I too have a big list of unplayed games (although I have to admit that I hae completed Halo 3 and both Gears games) My PS2 is my biggest shame tho – the amount of games that I have for that which haven’t been played is apalling. Final Fantasy 12, MGS3, the whole Prince of Persia trilogy to mention just a few. Its not that they are bad games (I’m sure they are all fantastic) Its just that somehow I find it difficult to find the time and energy to play them all. Plus, now that I have LIVE, I find it difficult to sum up the enthusiasm to play through stuff on my own. Sad but true 🙁

  14. Andy Turner avatar
    Andy Turner

    Ahhh final fantasy 12…I’d almost forgotten about that. Add that to my list on unfinished shame…though I blame my PS3 for having slots for everything except a PS2 memory card giving me the option of starting again or ignoring the machine I’d just shelled out infinity billion pounds on and playing my old PS2 that I was about to donate to the needy (my sister)

  15. Rich from PEOWW avatar
    Rich from PEOWW

    I guess this taps into the non-debate that is casual vs. hardcore gaming and what games are actually classics. For many people, the 360 is all about the Halo type titles and that’s fine (although you have to worry when you ask someone what their all-time fave game is and they say GENERIC FPS SEQUEL 2009).

    I’d equate it to music.

    Gears of War 2 could be thought of as that awful X-Factor single ‘Hallelujah’. I heard it, it wasn’t for me in the slightest. It was the biggest single of 2008 and will always hold that ‘accolade’. It was bought by millions of people, that I hope I have no relation to. Does that make it a classic? Gears of War games are pretty, if a little too grey, and involve a lot of shooting and not much else. They’re insanely popular though. Modern day classics? To some people (see also: Angels by Robbie Williams, funeral choice of a million idiots).

    In console generations to come, I’ll look back at the likes of EDF2017, Crackdown and Dead Rising as the classics. Cult classics maybe (Dead Rising, less so).

    CoD6, or whatever the next one is, won’t even be a footnote.

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