NEWBIE MAGIC [Author: Savant]

I don’t know, perhaps this is just a phase we outgrow in our gaming “careers.” I can’t help but think back to my days of playing Rygar or the original Legend of Zelda and constantly grinning or running scared at every turn. Maybe it was because I was younger and my imagination was still in control, while the left side of my brain was still growing.

In my constant (arguably naive) struggle to come up with “a game that pleases everyone,” I want to preserve newbie magic. It’s one of the most important phases (in my opinion) of gameplay. It’ll always be the part that “hooks” me, but I also want it to be one of the reasons I stay.

This is probably one of my shorter pieces, because I really don’t know what more to say on the subject, and I don’t have a single answer. I love how it feels to be new in a new game, that’s all I really can say. Usually I try to give my opinions and then listen to the debate that it brings about – This time, however, I really don’t even know where to begin. How dynamic would a game need to be to keep those butterflies in your stomach, especially in a massive and persistant world?

I’d say “I don’t want to grow up.” but that would be a bit too cliche, and Toys ‘R Us would be peeved – and we’re in enough legal trouble as it is!