What kind of video games I like to play

Welcome back to Needless Jargon! In this post, I will write about what kind of video games I like to play. In my previous one, I wrote a self-introduction with a little about my education background and a tiny bit about what I do professionally. Since we got the boring stuff out of the way, I wanted to spend a little more time writing about the stuff I like to do when I’m not in a classroom or at work. Not like I am glossing over that stuff at all. Life is all about balance.

One of my favorite things to do is play video games. I like to play a variety of games, but for the most part, all games I play share four similar characteristics. First, I need to explore new areas. Second, I need to expand my collection of items to improve stuff I have and find along the way. Third, I need to find means to exploit what advantages I can gain. And fourth, I need to exterminate things to gain experience for my character and to progress further into the game. For the most part, this is very similar to a 4X game you’d find on Steam or some PC platform. In case you’re wondering what a 4X game is, it’s a type of board or strategy game, primarily played on the computer. Its name comes from the 4 Xs in eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate.

I mostly play games on consoles. I currently have the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 and the Sony PlayStation 4 and 5. Growing up, I played a lot of games, many very much like the 4X games mentioned earlier, on the computer using the mouse and keyboard. Gradually I shifted away from computer games, but it wasn’t until I got a desk job in the military that I transitioned to playing primarily console games. I had a hard time working behind a computer screen for eight to ten hours and then going home to play games for a couple of hours behind another computer screen. My mouse and keyboard were eventually replaced with a console controller. I still have access to my Battle.net and Steam game libraries, however.

My recently played games on the PS4 are No Man’s Sky, Diablo 3, and Nier: Automata. My recently played games on my PS5 are somewhat similar. They are are No Man’s Sky, Gran Turismo 7, and Borderlands 4. I haven’t turned my PS5 on for a couple of months since I’ve been trying to earn Platinum trophies in Diablo 3 and NMS on my PS4. I play NMS on both the PS4 and PS5. I originally bought the game for the PS4 in 2020 and became engrossed in the near-infinite space exploration I could embark upon. The tutorial for the game helped me understand some basic mechanics. The tutorial concluded once my starship was repaired and flying in space. NMS is regularly updated, and many new features have been added over the past six or so years I’ve owned it. One of those updates was a free upgrade to the PS5 version. The differences in the game between the two platforms are vast, but despite this, the game is just as fun and immersive played on either.

I took a while to get used to playing Diablo 3 on a console. D3 was one of the games I started out by playing on a computer. I still own a digital license to the game on Blizzard’s Battle.net, but it’s been many years since I’ve owned a computer capable of playing games effectively and I have since stopped regularly logging in. Since then, I’ve played mostly on the PS4 and the Switch. I like how easy the game makes it to open a portal to a Nephalem Rift and then start slaying endless hordes of demons. It ticks all the right boxes and the rewards are worth the extra effort it takes to survive Torment 16.

My Nintendo Switch games differ from my PS4 games, but not all that much. The 4X-like experience I preferred was difficult to find on Nintendo systems up until The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was released as a launch title on the Switch system in 2017. I played BotW until I discovered Xenoblade Chronicles 2. I fell in love with XC2 quickly and played that game a lot up until 2020. Animal Crossing: New Horizons became my game of choice during the pandemic. Coincidentally, the Xenoblade Chronicles series is made by the same game developer that made BotW and ACNH. I looked into Monolith Soft because of how much I liked those games, and I realized I had already been played their games for many years without knowing they were all from the same company. I own all but one of the games made by this developer.

My recently played games on the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 platform are Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, and Pokémon: Pokopia. In XC:DE, I just restarted the story in a mode called New Game Plus. Once I complete the story once in the game, this mode will unlock allowing me to play through again but with new stuff unlocked. I haven’t completed the story in XC3 despite the game being out for almost four years. I have played for a little more than 100 hours, but I keep getting distracted by the battle mechanics and exploration.

Pokopia is such well made game in the Pokémon universe, and I really like the environment development mechanic in the game. Rather than being focused on battling with other trainers, the game is focused on improving the lives of the Pokémon that inhabit one of a few locations. I can increase the number of inhabitants in those locations by building new habitats where different Pokémon can live. Instead of having a single goal of becoming the strongest trainer, I have a goal of increasing my Pokémon’s environment level. I am not the most competitive person, and having a single goal of becoming the strongest trainer was fun for a time. Pokopia’s value, for me, comes from every inhabitant sharing in the collective development of Ditto’s abilities. I enjoy fixing power lines, rehabilitating Pokémon Centers, and rebuilding community spaces in the game.

I really enjoy playing video games, and I intend to write more specifically about games I particularly like in future posts. I fall short sometimes adequately describing why I like a particular game or a series to another person in a conversation, and I think that’s because I experience things differently than others. I don’t see this as a negative thing; I mean to simply acknowledge it as a fact of life. I spend hundreds of hours of my free time exploring these digital worlds and learning different game mechanics, so it stands to reason there’s something that keeps me coming back over and over again. Rather than just stopping at, “yeah, I like playing video games”, I figured I could benefit from exploring why I spend so much time with them.

Until next time. Chop wood, carry water.