Bangs and Bucks

Looking back on my gaming purchases this year so far, it's clear that I've bought more games in 2016 than the last several years combined.  What's more, pretty much all my purchases have been indie titles.  Because of the price difference, the cost of two dozen of these indie titles amounts to about the same amount as a half-dozen indie triple AAA games.  The variety of experiences is also worth mentioning.  When it comes to video games I've played isometric games, side-scrollers, top-down RTS titles, and turn-based strategy ranging from conquering galactic empires to small bands of individuals just trying to survive.

I've gone adventuring in idyllic fantasy kingdoms and futuristic dystopian hellholes.  I've solved puzzles, jumped platform to platform, and flown starfighters through the void of space.

I've commanded fleets and armies, ruled centuries beyond reckoning, and died more times than I can possible count.

I've filled the shoes of wizened old men, frightened children and muscle-bound barbarians bent on revenge.

I've lead hordes of undead, fought against them in battle, and taken the role of giants made from machine and metal or in other cases flesh and blood.

I've sailed wooden ships from island to island, and conducted trains from station to station.

I've seen other worlds, watched kingdoms begin and end, wielded weapons of ice, fire, steel and hard-light.

I've called destruction down from the heavens with technology and magic.

I've conversed with aliens, ghosts, monsters, and madmen.

I've built starships, dune buggies, and decks of cards.

I've been a pilot, a king, a knight and a cop.

If I had stuck to the triple AAA scene, I might have experienced some of these things from the first or third person perspective.  Even so, I have to ask, "Does it really matter if your character is made of pixels or polygons?

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.  I think one new experience is worth a thousand of the same old ones...especially when it costs and average of one-quarter the price.