Finding a game to love is definitely not hopeless for anyone. Companies are beginning to realize people had good ideas beyond, "Hey! Let's add polygons to that!" and are re-envisioning old classics in some form or another. Bethesda Softworks owns the rights to the Fallout license, which should elicit a collective deafening cry of joy from every fan community in the world. The Bard's Tale remake sent a wave of jubilation through many circles, rippling from deep within central communities. And while many of my fellow hobos might not want to admit it, good games have been made since the late '90s. Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines by the now-defunct developer Troika is guaranteed to bring some new refugees into the mix. Katamari Damacy has brought jaded gamers out in droves, all tittering over how much fun they're having.
Maybe Katamari Damacy is the secret. It's not all that deep - you run around with a giant ball of stuff which you convert into a bigger ball of stuff. It's simple, it's fun, and most importantly, it's new. We hobos understand it's hard to go home again, but finding a new place to dwell is almost as exciting as taking off your boots in familiar territory. Strange innovations from the Orient might just usher in a new era of gaming for the old school. Maybe it's only because it's hard to have an old school mentality toward novelties previously untouched by Western hands. Or maybe those same novelties are created by groups who know how to instill spirit into games instead of just the standard "more is better" formula.
The revolving door of the gaming homeless never stops spinning, each generation of consoles and video cards sucking in new hopefuls and spitting out disoriented derelicts just looking for "not Halo 2, damn it!" The horde is finally getting big enough to collapse upon itself; sharp developers are beginning to listen to our beleaguered cries. As I continue shuffling around, I bump into other zombies like me, some of them occasionally lighting up, snapping out of their melancholy like a coma victim emerging from the ether of the subconscious, discovering their latest place to squat for a time, or even taking up residence with a new lease on their gaming lives. These awakenings leave me wondering, when is it my turn?
Maybe tomorrow.
Joe Blancato is a Content Editor for [i]The Escapist Magazine[/I].
