Chasing Credits

I'm a gamer. I game. That is to say I engage in an expensive form of immersible fantasy for one goal. Credits. I crave a good game, enjoyable play and engaging storyline, but above all, I'm in to win. I suppose it's just my nature. I want to see it through to the end.

I have, for no other reason than completing it, spent the last 200+ hours of my gaming time on a game called Morrowind. I traipsed about the countryside, helping those in perils, righting wrongs, slaying evil and insulting uptight policemen. And most folks, besides a few policemen, thought that this imaginary world was a better place because of my interest in it. Why did I do all of this, with what other people might see as an unreal horde of perfectly good free time? Because I enjoy being belligerent to imaginary cops!? Possibly...

But there was more to it than that. I wanted the credits.

See... like a great movie, when a game is completed they congratulate you. A sort of "thanks for sticking it out" sort of thing. It allows you to feel closure. In the game, my character started out as a nobody, a nothing wuss who ran away from scary insects (not unlike myself in many respects). By the end of the game, I rid this fictional world of a crazed demon god leaching his powers from a Dwarven machine attached to a disembodied heart. It was, well, pretty impressive work if I do say so myself. I mean, am I being overly pompous to expect a little praise for that?

Well not in Morrowind. You get a 45 second ataboy, and told, "Thanks for stopping by. But honestly we got other stuff for you to look at. Don't touch the cheeseball though, it's for the real guests."

I have played dozens of games and have yet to complete one that didn't roll credits. It's like...well...like it's not over. Could you imagine a movie ending, the house lights coming up and and being like, "Well... I guess that's it." You would always wonder, was there more film that they forgot to roll? Now imagine if your movie was 200 hours long. That sort of how I'm feeling... A good game, but honestly. Did I really finish it? Should I keep wandering around killing monsters, even though there are no quests left to complete? I feel sort of empty.

I was explaining this to another guy at work, a fellow gamer (who actually used to code games for Lucas Arts) and when I told him after my epic journey there were no credits he was flabbergasted. I tell you this as an excuse to type out the word 'flabbergasted' twice in one blog post and add unnecessary quotation marks. . <--- This second period is a typo that I'm leaving alone so I can type about it. (This is quickly becoming one of my favorite posts)

Regardless... Anyone know where I can get 200 hours of a wasted year back? See, there's this new game I'm thinking about installing...