Usually I am a total E3 junkie scarfing down every little scrap of information that I can get my hands on but this year I am ruled by a level of indifference. The only news that I have been interesting in has been how badly Sony wants to abuse my wallet and when will the Wii launch and for how much. I have the answer for Sony and none for Nintendo. My indifference though seems to be rooted in my general boredom with video games as the chart below illustrates.

We purchased a Gamecube for Christmas of 2002 along with two games and in the following year picked up an Xbox and a combined forty-seven games. Needless to say in the year period we were gaming almost every day. However, the following year say purchases fall off by nearly half and then another 25% in 2005 and this year I have only bought one game. Granted the bumper crop of 2003 could be spread over the following years but in all honesty actual time spent gaming matches purchase history fairly closely. So what gives?

My first thought is that I am generally bored with the state of gaming as it stands and my lack of excitement over E3 stems from that ennui. The last game I purchased was Doom 3 for the Xbox and I have logged some three hours so far. Three hours of yawning. The FPS genre is pretty well played out and developers and publishers really ought to look at ways to either merge genres, like Deus Ex’s addictive blend of FPS, Adventure, and RPG elements or begin thinking about the way people actually play games. Doom 3 is a standard shooter: monsters pop up and you shoot them, find switch and flip it to open doors. This trend holds up for all the other genres though and on of the reasons I’m not terribly excited over the 360 is that every game I have previewed for it is sticking to the formula albeit with better looking art assets. Yawn. Halo 3 = Halo 2 = Halo. PGR3 = PGR 2 = PGR. I want something different.

What games captured my attention over the past couple of years? Top on that list was Animal Crossing, with its free form play style geared towards collecting knick-knacks had me riveted in a mellow relaxed sort of way. The KoTORs, Deus Ex, Paper Mario, and Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga captivated me with their inventive spin on RPG elements either mixing action, platforming, or moral choices to extend gameplay; to a lesser degree Fable and Jade Empire have done the same. Nintendo’s Wii along with the DS has piqued my interest but I am hesitant to leap back into gaming for a number of reasons. Cost, at the moment, is a large barrier, particularly since we have sunk approximately $2,400 into gaming over four years and the return on investment has been shrinking with each dollar spent. Time is another barrier as I have been finding myself doing more with the house, the websites, the dog, and reading instead of picking up the controller.

What is it going to take to get me back into gaming? Good question. I think that Nintendo might have the answers for this generation by focusing on new and inventive ways of playing. The DS has proved that it can deliver some very inventive styles of gameplay from Trauma Center, Phoenix Wright, and Lost Magic and judging from the videos coming out of E3 the Wii looks to be poised to do the same. What I hunger for is something new not a re-hash of the same game wrapped up in new assets.