Games, Childhood, and Why Sewermaxxing is Awesome
Video games are supposed to be fun. So why does it feel like everyone has a Steam library full of enjoyment, but feels only apathy when they browse it? Games can host a pseudo-digital third space. But more and more we take the express lane developed for us to be alone and secluded. Each year, another title gets remade to mixed reviews, and another round of the annual suspects gets the red-carpet treatment, and their title is slapped on every chicken-tender box in town. I won’t speak for everyone at the table, but the kindling for change is being laid under the ass of the video game industry, and I feel like we’re starting to see smoke.
More and more often, I’m seeing people innovate on their favorite games. While a “bronze to grandmaster” or “I just beat a souls-like game without breathing while using my mind” isn’t necessarily a novel idea, that type of content is only gaining traction. Instead of settling for the seventh installation of the same over-processed, 4D, 7-teraflop poly-count, sludge that’s wheeled out like some Dune villain every year, people are finding their own fun.
Let me preface this: I’m currently hooked on a YouTube series where someone has locked themselves in the sewer of one of RuneScape’s starting cities, and can only sustain themselves off what they find there. To top it all off, if they die, they have to delete their character. This challenge, while punishing, changes how we see games we’ve become accustomed to. It breaks our expectations down like I imagine some isolated, granola retreat where you can only see out of your left eye and can’t speak, might do, but for video games.
Where is the fun? I’ll answer with a question of my own: if every day is sunny, then can you truly appreciate the weather?
The rain and snow help us appreciate the warmth of summer. Is this a bias from an LA transplant that calls Michigan home? You know, where it snows in April and Fool’s Summers streak through weeks in November? Yes, sue me. Every day feels the same, and some variety helps, okay?
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It is not shocking to me that hardcore challenges and games like Dark Souls are vaulting from their social realms of cult followings and quickly becoming mainstream. These difficulties are not for everyone, of course, the thesis to this is to find what is fun and remember that these are the vehicles for that. We all want to chase that high of finding a secret item or obtaining a rare drop. These alternative gamemodes help not only recreate that but steer us towards objectives and achievements we might have overlooked as we raced to the finish line.
The fun in this instance is locking yourself in a beginner zone and setting a lofty goal that can only be achieved by an arduous amount of tedious grinding. But, I wonder how relaxing that might be for someone who grew up in the streets of Varrock, leveling Woodcutting. In a world that demands your attention and is pulling it here and there, is it so bad to want to fall into a warm bed of nostalgia? I hear this rebuttal often when people scoff and raise an eyebrow at those who indulge in this era of early 2000’s graphics and the simple, and clunky, gameplay loops of the early internet. Not falling for the nostalgia bait only leaves us with more slop from the slop factory.
“Please, sir. May I have another reskinned variant of the same game I repeatedly say I can’t stand? I’ll happily spend the increasing industry standard on the newest skins and microtransactions to flex to my friends that Kakashi looks sick in some dunks.”
Those same corporations will jump at the chance to shut down community-driven projects that dare to challenge their bottom line.
While I hate to cede ground, at least we can support games we love that are, hopefully, kept in a stasis. Frozen in time as we celebrate birthdays and those around us succumb to overwhelming hospital bills. I write this feeling a little embarrassed to admit that I’m inspired by that level of freedom. To break away from the over-optimized way to blitz through the newest game that reeks of corporate nutrient paste. Does it have all my essential vitamins and minerals? Yes. Is it the hot new meal that every live streamer is promoting? Probably. Is it edible? Well, I did spend $60 on it, so it has to be. But man, do I miss simple mornings waking up to the ending credits to Inuyasha, going to school, and running home to mine rune essence and defend Auberdine from the Horde.
I’m inspired by the people going back to classic World of Warcraft who choose to only group with other players of the same race. I’m inspired by the Elden Ring players who finish the game without being hit. It is this return to fun that has me compelled. The speedrunners, the one-trick ponies, the people who kill the same mob for thousands of hours for accurate loot tables. Hell, even the survival skills and log cabin building crowd are cool in my books!
The rubber band has snapped back from over-optimization and searching for solutions. Today, millions of people are tuned into rebels who construct their own hurdles and artificially create friction in worlds sterilized of them. They stand as a reminder that fun is subjective and that we should remember that tenet when we exercise our power as customers. Please don’t pin me to a soapbox in your mind. I’m not here to preach to you. Only to ramble into the void, to someone who stumbled their way here. We live in a world of weary adventurers who are stuck in the illusion of a dopamine-fueled treadmill. Reconnect with the games your inner child loved. Build the sandcastles right next to the tide. Find and make your own fun. You might be surprised at what you find.
