Back to playing games because of Breath of the Wild

My wife has recently started playing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on her Nintendo Switch OLED. I’ve been watching her play, and it rekindled my interest in the game in a way that I didn’t expect. I’ve been playing video games on and off since I was a kid, but honestly believed that I was done with them. However, watching her play the game and seeing how much she enjoys it, I couldn’t help grabbing my Switch and continuing from where I left off.

I previously wrote some of my thoughts on the game, and so you don’t have to go read that, in summary it is amazing! To me, at least. Perhaps what I enjoy so much about it is that there’s an entire world to explore, and while many will say the overworld is empty for the most part, that provides me with just the right amount of spacing to pause and take in the scenery inbetween any side or main quest events. It seems to me like my wife and I are on the same picture regarding this. Playing the game has made me covet her Switch OLED due to the bigger and higher quality screen.

I don’t think I’ll ever get one for myself, as my regular Switch is still in great shape, and so is my Switch Lite. At this point I’m excited to see what Nintendo has in store in terms of future SKUs or successors to the Switch. Even when it does come out, however, I think I’ll try playing more games from the now extensive Switch library. This may prove difficult.

The paradox of choice

After extensive research — of the Wikipedia article on the topic — I can not-very-safely say that my problem with games stems from a general unhappiness observed in consumers when faced with too many choices. Perhaps in this case it’s in two instances: when purchasing games and when picking one to play from the available ones. This wasn’t an issue during the times I enjoyed playing them.

When it comes to purchasing games, as a kid I naturally — and luckily — held no authority over financial decisions. When and whether I’d be getting a new game or gaming console was entirely up to my relatives. Games are an expensive hobby, especially in a country where 97% of their price is tax. My family did financially well during my early years, however, so I was one of the lucky few who got to look forward to Christmas and birthdays, as that was when I’d be able to get my hands on a new game!

One could say that has little to do with it, and that instead games managed to pique my interest because those were simpler times, with higher quality games. That might well be true, except my country had a limited selection of games to begin with. There were plenty of games that weren’t available here, and to this day there are still plenty of games simply unavailable. My argument here is that maybe twice a year I could pick a game from a selection of 5-12 games. Also, I was a kid, so I didn’t mind tie-in games like Pirates of the Caribbean or one of the Harry Potter games.

When it was time to play, I’d pick a game and play it until I was basically done with it. I didn’t have many, after all, and the ones I did were usually good enough to satisfy me. Most of the games I had were single-player, and I was okay with that. Nobody in my family would play games with me, and none of the people I knew in school had games or were interested in the ones I played, so my collection had no space for party or multiplayer games.

You might think I was lonely for that, but in solitude I had the time to enjoy the games nobody else had the time for as they were enjoying each other’s company. Do not think that in saying that I’m implying some form of misanthropy or superiority! I do enjoy other people’s company, and think socializing is perhaps more worthwhile an activity in the long run than playing video games by oneself in a dimly lit room during one’s formative years. To this day I struggle with some of the colloquialisms normally used in everyday social life.

Nintendo and simplicity

Most people chalk Nintendo’s success up to marketable nostalgia. In my opinion, what they do with franchises like The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros. is akin to the incremental upgrades for which Apple is so praised. No, I’m not an Apple customer or fanboy, but I see no reason to hate on the idea of incremental upgrades.

Nintendo makes high quality games that are for the most part simple to play. Yes, they definitely miss the mark in plenty of titles, but are ever so careful not to do so with their flagship franchises — even the lowest quality The Legend of Zelda game made and published by Nintendo is still a good game. Once they strike success, their follow-up titles usually follow the same formula, with minor tweaks and improvements. This guarantees that even if the direction in which they decide to take the franchise proves to be a misstep, there’s still a good game at its core, and the chance the next one will be a return to form.

Therefore, for someone who doesn’t like change very much, Nintendo is a safe haven. If I play a Super Mario Bros. game today and enjoy it, chances are I’ll enjoy the next one. The same goes for The Legend of Zelda, for Mario Kart, and for Pokémon — sure, this one is a Game Freak game first, but they’re basically a Nintendo studio. It just so happens I like the games in those franchises, and there not being a huge number of them to select from in each iteration, I have an easy time making my purchase.

So will I be playing more games?

Probably, probably not. Recently I went back to Minecraft after watching a few random videos on YouTube. I played it for a couple of days and didn’t go back to it. Once I get my fill from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, I think I’ll try playing more of the games I bought. Life has become surprisingly busy, but somehow I still found the time to read a book, watch The Office with my wife, listen to music and play video games. Let’s hope I can keep that up.