Gaming for the Rest of Us

There is something about myself that I have finally admitted and it scares me.  I find video games difficult and the newer ones are confusing. What with the perfect graphics, the heavy shadows, the complicated controls, the gory details and whatnot.  Good grief.

I like video games but do not own a Wii, an XBox, a Nintendo, or any other gaming console. I went through a stage where I bought video games for my PC for awhile, but frankly I don’t have time to play them.  The ones you buy are big and long and complicated.  I am simply after an occasional 5-10 minute diversion.

So, I don’t game on PC based titles, I don’t own a console, but I still get my game on, my friend.  How? I get my game on in a much sadder way.  I play games my kids introduced me to on Flash game sites like these:

http://addictinggames.com/

http://www.flashgames247.com/

http://www.flash-game.net/

This actually begs a very good question about the future of gaming.  These little diversions represent a significant effort on the parts of the designers, who are largely hobbyists.  There are some companies out there that have grown up around this niche, but the numbers are far fewer than the numbers of standard video game producing companies.

I heard in a podcast recently that the most active gamers out there are moms in their 30s who like puzzles and other simple games we find on these Flash sites.  This makes sense to me, as I am a “micro-gamer” myself. And in my 30s.  And basically a mom. Kinda.

At any rate, this proliferation of fairly low-tech games is interesting because I think it is another example of how the simple stuff just works.  Sure, I could play WoW with a quad xenon and a plasma screen, but why?  I could just shoot arrows at stick men for free.