Are gamers getting angrier?

18th August 2009 • 0 Comments

Just recently I've been getting back into classic PSOne gaming, and what better place to start than with Crash Bandicoot Warped.

Ah how I loved that game, I used to spend hours playing through levels, tirelessly repeating the bonus levels until I'd worked my way up to 100 lives and managed to smash all the crates in a stage. And then there were the delightful Relic races, involving countless hours of practice making sure I was using the absolute fastest line through that particular world.

However, on picking it up again about eight years after originally playing it, I find that something has changed. I'm getting angry at it.

Whereas I used to be able to redo levels and boss fights with almost limitless patience, now I find myself being frustrated after being sent back to the same checkpoint for only the third time. I find the urge to throw my PSP across the room almost irresistible as I once again plummet down one of the sink-holes in the racing stages.

So what's changed?

Is it just getting older that makes us more impatient, or is it the newer generation of games with their regenerating health and almost limitless ability to keep us playing and avoid repetition?

It also makes me think that games like Mirrors Edge which involve a lot of 'wrong, try it again' gameplay are somehow out of their time now. We live in a new age of impatience, where Dial-Up broadband is a forgotten nightmare thanks to 20MB connections, affording little time to repetition.

Tell us what you think. As a gamer, do you find yourself more angry and impatient these days? And what could be to blame?

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