PixlBit

Not just a Billy Joel song, but what happens when I play games of questionable quality for review.

It’s surprising what you find out about yourself after reviewing stacks of video games – or what other people seem to find out about you. At my last job, I worked with a bunch of guys who were all into video games, and as a matter of fact, most of those guys write for the site – Jason Hillhouse, Stanton Daries, and Sam Hawkins, to name a few. As you might expect, video game conversations were pretty frequent and often I’d talk about games I was reviewing at the time. After a few conversations, people started to see a trend.

“So, last night I was playing Arc Rise Fantasia,” I said. “Oh, god, that one game that Ignition stole from XSEED,” says Jason Hillhouse.
“Yeah, that one. I threw it in last night, figured I’d start getting some play time in to review the game. Seemed like it could be interesting, but I fell asleep playing it last night.”
“Seriously?,” added Sam Hawkins.
“Well you know, I was kinda tired already and it was pretty late. I’ll throw it on later a bit earlier in the night and see how it holds up.”

The next morning, we convened once again in the break room.

I started, “So, I got a chance to play some more Arc Rise Fantasia yesterday.”
“You fell asleep, didn’t you?,” Stanton said accusingly.
“... Yeah, I did. It’s just so... boring. I really tried, too. I kept dozing off and waking back up making it a bit further each time, but it’s just so... boring.”
“Nick, I think your body is trying to tell you something here,” Jason stated. “The game is just bad, stop trying.”
“Yeah, I think you’re right, man. I do need to get this review done, though, and I have no idea how that’s going to happen. I’m going to have to drink a pot of coffee and play it on the weekend, because it’s just not happening at night.”

From here, review copy discussion always opened with, “Did you fall asleep playing it?” Believe it or not, this was always a pretty great litmus test to see if the game was any good. If it put me to sleep, pass; otherwise, it was usually worth everyone checking out. It was always pretty funny when I tried to justify a game that put me to sleep. As you might imagine, nobody was quick to accept my opinion if it did. “No, seriously guys, it’s a good game. I was just tired!” “Sure, Nick, we believe you. I bet it was the best game ever.” “I hate you guys.”

Things didn’t start this way for me. At one point, I’d be so gung-ho for anything to arrive that my adrenaline would keep me in the game for much longer than I would have expected. Hell, I played Octomania for hours on end despite the fact that it was, by all accounts, a pretty awful game. It was my first review copy ever, so I’m sure you can understand my excitement. As you might expect, this level of excitement doesn’t hold, as the extraordinary quickly becomes mundane.

These days, games like Arc Rise Fantasia get pushed off to the weekend for play. I have a tendency to appreciate the unique aspects of all games, so my sleep litmus test does a great job of keeping me grounded in my opinions. If I have to wait for myself to be rested to even stay awake to play a game, I know that it’s lacking the most important characteristics a game should have – being engaging and immersive.

I’m not sure if this phenomenon occurs for others, mostly because they have a vested interest (money) in the game they’re playing. But let me know, because I’m curious to see if sleep has plagued anyone else’s gaming time due to a game’s lack of quality.