Jul 3, 02:07 AM

Boring Age


I haven’t played Brain Age in 3 weeks. I know, I know, the future of my brain is at stake. But I just couldn’t keep it up, it’s just plain BORING!

I mean, how much simple arithmetic and sudoku can a person take? The greatest brain exercise of all could be seeing if you can continue playing the same exercises over and over and over again. I’ve talked to at least one other person who’s abandoned their cartridge as well. There just isn’t a lot of replay value there.

But let’s think about it – why do people buy Brain Age? For most games, it’s fun. When people pick up and examine a game in the store, the question that’s going through their mind is “will I have fun playing this game?” For Brain Age, however, the fun factor is peripheral . People buy it because they think it will make them smarter. That’s certainly the way that Nintendo is marketing it.

And it is here where things get dangerous. When a game goes from saying “play me, I’m fun!” to “play me, I’ll make you smarter!,” it changes a lot of things. When someone plays it, they don’t do it because of the enjoyment they get out if it. They play it because, in a way, they think they have to. Gaming becomes a chore. And when people start to think they have to do anything, well, it ends up being a negative experience.

Isn’t that why we play games? Because their only purpose is to be fun? If you start to tell gamers that your game is about something else other than fun, you play with fire. By saying that Brain Age is for training you to be smarter, it equates the experience to your daily workout routine, washing the dishes, and walking the dog.

Is there nothing sacred?

-Jon
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