Aging Gamer: Continuity

<p>It is weird what can pop into your head at random moments of the day&period; I was driving home from work&comma; daydreaming since I travel an hour to and from work&comma; and an old achievement from my youth popped into my head&period; There use to be a time when you had to go to brick and mortar stores to rent video cassettes&period; These store were strewn all over the strip malls&comma; almost as bad as Starbucks&comma; but at least renting a movie or game was fun&period; Spending five dollars on pure sugar every day&comma; day in and out&comma; not as fun and not as cheap&comma; but I digress&comma; when I was pre-double digits in my age we would go to the rental store almost every Friday to pick up some entertainment for the weekend&period; Cable back then wasn&&num;8217&semi;t like it is now and there were no streaming services&comma; heck Al Gore hadn&&num;8217&semi;t even &&num;8220&semi;invented&&num;8221&semi; the Internet yet&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>So every Friday I went with mom and dad to the local video store &lpar;<a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;apnews&period;com&sol;e543db5476c749038435279edf2fd60f">Blockbuster<&sol;a> and Hollywood Video weren&&num;8217&semi;t even around yet&rpar; and I usually got to chose something and my parents chose something&period; So seeing as I loved <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;tran&sol;"><em>Transformers<&sol;em><&sol;a> at the wee age of 8 I wanted to rent all the cartoons&comma; oddly enough in order&period; Yes&comma; at the age of 8 I somehow knew about continuity and to play things and collect things in order&period; Keep in mind this was also about a year or so before I really got into collecting comic books and the constant numbering that I would insert into my life&period; So at 8 years old I&&num;8217&semi;m bugging the poor high school kid for certain copies of the Generation One <em>Transformers<&sol;em> cartoons&period; I even remember the check out person mentioning that there&&num;8217&semi;s &&num;8220&semi;some kid&&num;8221&semi; who wants to rent them all in order&period; I didn&&num;8217&semi;t know back then that he was being condescending and proudly told him&comma; in front of my parents&comma; that it was me&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;142963" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-142963" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-142963" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;12&sol;25002639&sol;1984-vintage-original-Transformers-FHE-VHS-Collection-Volumes&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"480" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-142963" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Transformers<&sol;em> &&num;8211&semi; F&period;H&period;E&period;&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Flash forward about twenty years&comma; collecting comic books has increased my need for continuity in almost all my life&period; This continuity obsession gloomed its way over to my video game collecting&comma; and I&&num;8217&semi;m glad to know where it stemmed from&period; For the life of me I couldn&&num;8217&semi;t&&num;8217&semi; figure out why I had to have all the <em>Assassin&&num;8217&semi;s Creed<&sol;em> on the Xbox 360 and then once<em> Unity<&sol;em> came out I needed them all on the PS4&period; Now I know why I need to keep certain franchises on certain systems&comma; or it bugs me to death&period; At first all my <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;residentevil&period;net&sol;en&sol;"><em>Resident Evil<&sol;em><&sol;a> games were on the PlayStation&comma; then I had to re buy them all for the GameCube&comma; and once again re-buy even more for the Xbox One&period; I do this for two reasons&semi; one&comma; I love playing the games over and over again and two&comma; I just love seeing them all in order on my shelves or on my games homepage&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Two instances ring out in my head that just show how bad this obsession is&period; I&&num;8217&semi;ve still not beaten <em>Black Flag<&sol;em>&comma; which means I cannot continue playing all the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;assassinscreed&period;ubisoft&period;com&sol;game&sol;en-us&sol;home"><em>Assassin&&num;8217&semi;s Creed<&sol;em><&sol;a> games because I simply cannot play them out of order&period; I have every game after <em>Black Flag<&sol;em> and I&&num;8217&semi;m pretty sure they are all sealed&period; Here&&num;8217&semi;s the funny thing too&comma; I downloaded <em>Black Flag<&sol;em> on my Xbox One when it was free for Xbox Gold Members&comma; and I never played it just because I need to play them all on the PS4 now&period; I know it is weird that I am like this&comma; but there is nothing cooler than seeing an entire series on the shelf on the same console&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;142962" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-142962" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-142962" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;12&sol;25002444&sol;gamestop-storefront-photo&lowbar;1280&period;0&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"426" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-142962" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;GameStop Black Friday 2018 &&num;8211&semi; <em>Polygon<&sol;em>&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The second instance happened on Black Friday this year&comma; GameStop had <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;132234-2&sol;"><em>Lego Marvel Superheroes 2<&sol;em><&sol;a> on sale for 14&period;99&period; I couldn&&num;8217&semi;t pass that price up&comma; it was too good to be true&period; The GameStop closest to me was sold out&comma; so the manager said he had one on the Xbox One I could have&period; I politely declined because I have all the <em>Marvel Lego<&sol;em> games on the PS4 and having the latest one in that green color next to my two blue colored ones would be maddening&period; Later Black Friday Weekend I found a GameStop that had that particular game on the PS4 and I went ahead and continued my <em>Assassin&&num;8217&semi;s Creed<&sol;em> collection on the PS4 as well&period; I know this seems to be a peculiar kind of habit with my collection&comma; but it looks good on the shelf&period; <strong>What kind of odd gaming habits do you have&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>Like what you read&quest; Check out more of my <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;tag&sol;aging-gamer&sol;">Aging Gamer<&sol;a> series on BagoGames&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

Exit mobile version