VideogameVagabond.com

Can a 45-year-old man maintain a marriage and a videogame habit? Let's find out!

Daily Archives: August 17, 2010

Cured of Madden fever

I used to wait as breathlessly as anyone for the release of the newest edition of Madden NFL. In fact, I was there from the very first edition on Sega Genesis, and bought the title uninterrupted until Sony introduced the original PlayStation. Even after that, I still loved Madden and bought it most years.

But in the past four years, I’ve grown less and less interested in Madden. Part of that is marriage, part of that is waning interest in football, and part of that is growing too enamored of PC sports management sims that are, simply put, more compelling to me at 43.

I mean, I still love football; I’m a fan of the Vikings and there will always be a place in my heart for, say, Adrian Peterson personalized footballs.

But Madden? Maybe I’ve played it for too long, too many years, but it’s just not compelling anymore. Sorry, EA!

Kindle vs. iPod

Outside of videogames directly, I have some new tech that’s been demanding my time of late.

The first is the Apple iPod nano; I’ve had my 16 GB device for several months now and couldn’t be more thrilled with the way it’s reignited my passion for music. I have pretty much every Glee song on it, as well as loading it up with old CDs, new artists and a lot of Messianic worship music. It’s a joy.

Now, my passion for reading may be getting refueled as well; I preordered an Amazon Kindle 3 and have gone crazy buying books for it of late. The ultra-thin eReader is only $139 and still over two weeks away, and yet I’ve purchased at amazingly low prices at least 35 books for it. Talk about fun!

On a side note, it seems like my interest in videogames is finally waning a bit. I don’t mean I’ll never game again or anything, but as I’ve been writing more, I’ve been prioritizing reading and music over PS3 and Xbox 360. There are only so many hours in a week, and for the first time in a while, videogames are the thing taking a hit.

That’s why I’m writing more about Kindle and iPod than I used to in this space, because it’s all electronic entertainment. Sure, I’ll still share my videogame experiences here regularly, but there’s going to be more variety going forward.

On that note, have you ever wondered why videogames haven’t ventured into even more niche areas? It seems to me there are lots of unexplored sim genres. I mean, I’m sure there are some young girls who could become interested in videogames if they could, say, design women’s dresses in a competitive environment. Something to think about.