In last week's feature we met a World of Warcraft devotee who got into gaming fairly late. Now we speak to an avid gamer who started playing PC games at a tender age, and hasn't stopped since.
While Dylan Pearce's concentration problems first got him into gaming, he can now focus for hours with a single-minded goal to reach the finish.
“When it comes to playing games alone, it's almost always the challenge of the game that makes you stay and beat it.”
The 23-year-old, who works as an IT administrator at a small training company, has been playing games since he was six.
“The main start behind my gaming career was short attention spans. I could never sit still and read a book or play with one toy at a time. So after several visits to 'special doctors' it was recommended that I start a hobby.”
His father was an avid computer user at the time and introduced him to his first games: a basic two-colour Pac-man, Kings Quest, Space Quest and so on. “I got my first computer at age 10, a humble 486 dx100, and from there started learning how DOS worked.”
At first, gaming was a way to spend time with his dad, says Pearce, as he didn't always have a lot of time. Then during high school, it graduated to networking parties of a dozen or so people.
Generally, your first game shapes your impression of all other games.
Dylan Pearce
“When I first started gaming, it was almost a family activity; my dad, mother, and I would play Hexen or Heretic for hours at a time. Then, as I got older, I got better and my parents got worse. So I started playing games by myself. When I got to high school it was a relief to find other people like me who spent hours after school playing games instead of doing homework.”
The LAN parties started shortly after that, with anywhere between four and 16 friends getting together at someone's house, eating all the food and seeing who could stay awake the longest, says Pearce.
“Suddenly gaming was a challenge again. Then after school when you start working, you start being able to afford better equipment and more games, but then work just ruins your social life.”
Pearce thinks this is probably why multi-player online role-playing games (MMORPGs) work so well: only a few hours after work, one's guaranteed at least 10 000 other people ready to play a game with you.
“The majority of games I enjoy playing are a good way to unwind at the end of a long day at work - something that has nothing to do with the daily grind. Just getting together with a group of friends and forgetting about the world for a few hours before I have to get up and do the dishes.”
His first shooter game was Duke Nukem 3D, followed by Need for Speed, Unreal Tournament, and Quake.
First-person shooter (FPS) games, which include the likes of Quake and Duke Nukem 3D, came about in the early 1990s and have since evolved to feature elaborate, hyper-real graphics. Wolfenstein 3D by id software is generally considered the first of the FPS games, followed by Doom in 1993, a more advanced and popular offering that put the genre on the map.
Duke Nukem 3D and Quake came three years later, both hugely successful, with the latter establishing a solid multiplayer online gaming base. In 1998, Valve's Half-Life burst onto the scene, introducing a much more narrative-driven playing experience, and the following year Unreal Tournament was released, boasting impressive outdoor scenery.
Pearce says while the realism and graphics of games have improved over the years, the storylines have gotten worse, as developers focus on creating dazzling visuals. While previous games needed compelling narratives to support sometimes ho-hum graphics, modern-day games are big on life-like action.
“Stories don't have as much depth. It's like reading a book that takes three pages to describe a room versus just seeing the room.“
He adds that newer games from the past decade have mainly focused on gaming as a group activity, promoting multiplayer over single player titles. “The introduction of MMORPGs just made gaming more accessible for the social misfits, as most of society sees us. Games like World of Warcraft, Eve, and Warhammer online are great places to meet like-minded people and enjoy an evolving game.”
Time warp
For Pearce, gaming is a welcome escape from the daily drudge, and a thrilling way to wile away a dull afternoon.
“It's a similar experience to getting lost reading a book. It's an amazing stress reliever, and a great way to pass the time and do something mindless, but that's still more active than falling asleep in front of the TV.
“A good gaming experience for me is when I lose myself playing a game. You know, sit down and tell yourself you are just going to play for an hour, then emerging into the daylight several days later trying to figure out what happened to your weekend.”
He says this stumbling into reality after a spell of immersive gaming has happened a few times, each one involving a captivating game.
“From Mass Effect 1 and 2 with their brilliant storylines and in-depth characters that get you hooked right at the beginning, to trying to beat every level in Unreal Tournament 3 at the highest AI setting - or simply playing a slow strategy game and trying to beat the developers of the game... at their own game.
“I don't think it's something that can be explained, it has to be experienced. And generally your first game shapes your impression of all other games.”
On creating a killer game design, Pearce says many evenings of lively debate have only led to his friends agreeing to disagree. “The ultimate game would be a combination of Mass Effect and Supreme Commander with a splash of Star Craft 2.
“A mash-up of Fallout 3, Mass Effect and the Fable series would be an awesome game.”
Pearce notes that for some, gaming can be quite addictive. ”I know someone who has over 100 Xbox games - that's R60 000 for one person. It's not a cheap hobby, but some people spend thousands building model airplanes or jacking up cars.”
In next week's 'Mind games' feature, we speak to school IT administrator Bradley Forrester, who predicts gaming will become the modern form of book reading.
* Speak your mind: Have you ever gotten 'lost' in a game? Post your comments using our feedback facility.
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