Want to live longer? Kick your fear of the unknown in the neck, and do things you've never done before. Stop buying stuff that'll clutter up your home, and buy experiences. Go on holiday somewhere new.
You might not actually live longer in a strictly chronological sense, but your life will feel longer. It's simply a scientific fact that our perception of time speeds up as we get older.
Due to a phenomenon called neural adaptation, our brain starts to edit out the familiar routines - the brushing our teeth, taking the kids to school, doing the same job year in year out, going to the gym - simply because we don't need to pay so much attention.
What does this have to do with games? Allow me to explain.
You might not actually live longer in a strictly chronological sense, but your life will feel longer. It's simply a scientific fact that our perception of time speeds up as we get older.
Due to a phenomenon called neural adaptation, our brain starts to edit out the familiar routines - the brushing our teeth, taking the kids to school, doing the same job year in year out, going to the gym - simply because we don't need to pay so much attention.
What does this have to do with games? Allow me to explain.
As we age, we develop repetitive mental habits and external routines that are almost automatic, and these are the ones that our time perception skips across.
Consequence: shorter days, shorter months, shorter years.
It's also why we remember, say, our first Call of Duty far more vividly than the last half a dozen. They're so similar, there's no need for our brains to hang onto the specifics.
It's why it becomes harder to get excited about new things - new experiences become tougher to come by. We're numbed by the familiar-but-new. But!
All is not lost: today is the day that Far Cry Primal is released, and I'm relieved to report that I can still get excited about video games.
JOHN MENZIES
I miss the regular rush of pocket money-fuelled excitement I used to get from picking up a new game at John Menzies or Woolworths. Back then, pretty much every game felt like something fresh and precious (freshcious). Nowadays that hardly ever happens.
For some reason, though, the Far Cry series still has that affect on me. I was excited for Far Cry 4 last year - though the game, ultimately, left me disappointed.
Why? Because it was so similar to Far Cry 3. I remember much of FC3 far more than I do anything in FC4. Insanely, I remember even more about the much-criticised - but woefully under appreciated Far Cry 2. I remember when I first set fire to a jungle clearing. I remember seeing my first zebra. I remember being lost in the Sahara Desert. Most of Far Cry 3 and Far Cry 4 get confused in my head - though many of the memories, if I think really hard, are from the former.
Far Cry Primal arrives with relatively little gap between it and its predecessor, but just look how different the setting is: no guns! No cars! Wolves and sabre tooth tigers and mammoths! Loin cloths! I've not played it yet - it's waiting on the mat as I type this - so I can't attest to how different the gameplay is, but I'm optimistic that it will at least feel different, due to its setting. That it will take me places that I've never been before in a game.
I'm excited by that promise of the new, and the promise that I'm going to play something which actually has a chance of staying with me this time.
Consequence: shorter days, shorter months, shorter years.
It's also why we remember, say, our first Call of Duty far more vividly than the last half a dozen. They're so similar, there's no need for our brains to hang onto the specifics.
It's why it becomes harder to get excited about new things - new experiences become tougher to come by. We're numbed by the familiar-but-new. But!
All is not lost: today is the day that Far Cry Primal is released, and I'm relieved to report that I can still get excited about video games.
JOHN MENZIES
I miss the regular rush of pocket money-fuelled excitement I used to get from picking up a new game at John Menzies or Woolworths. Back then, pretty much every game felt like something fresh and precious (freshcious). Nowadays that hardly ever happens.
For some reason, though, the Far Cry series still has that affect on me. I was excited for Far Cry 4 last year - though the game, ultimately, left me disappointed.
Why? Because it was so similar to Far Cry 3. I remember much of FC3 far more than I do anything in FC4. Insanely, I remember even more about the much-criticised - but woefully under appreciated Far Cry 2. I remember when I first set fire to a jungle clearing. I remember seeing my first zebra. I remember being lost in the Sahara Desert. Most of Far Cry 3 and Far Cry 4 get confused in my head - though many of the memories, if I think really hard, are from the former.
Far Cry Primal arrives with relatively little gap between it and its predecessor, but just look how different the setting is: no guns! No cars! Wolves and sabre tooth tigers and mammoths! Loin cloths! I've not played it yet - it's waiting on the mat as I type this - so I can't attest to how different the gameplay is, but I'm optimistic that it will at least feel different, due to its setting. That it will take me places that I've never been before in a game.
I'm excited by that promise of the new, and the promise that I'm going to play something which actually has a chance of staying with me this time.
LOCATION, LOCATION
As I'm thinking about this, I'm actually realising that it's all about location, location, location.
In some respects, the map-mopping model that Ubisoft perfected - which I've been vocal in criticising - wouldn't have been anywhere near the issue it had been, had it not been applied to so many similar games.
The Grand Theft Auto series has done a good job of setting its games in cities which feel diverse from one another. Yet in their wake we've had the likes of Watchdogs, Sleeping Dogs, Just Cause, and others that have failed to stick in my memory because they're so similar.
See also countless fantasy RPGs. The only thing which separates Dragon Age Inquisition and The Witcher III in my brain is the fact that you're on your own in the latter, and the graphics in former weren't quite as good.
See also the last couple of Assassin's Creed games. So similar are the locations in Unity and Syndicate that my recollection gland has a hard time separating them. Yet I remember Black Flag vividly, because it was so atypical. I did things in that which I'd never done in a game before.
Hats off to Ubisoft for realising that annual instalments of the AC series were only going to result in diminishing returns. Let us hope the next full-blown game (rumoured to be set in Egypt) can find us plenty of mental photo-ops.
THE KEY
If the key to feeling like you're living a longer life is doing new things, or going to places you've never been before, then the only way games can help with this is to offer us new virtual worlds. Ones distinct from one another.
I don't want to visit the same American city time and time again. I'm tired of shooting people in various identikit war zones. And I'm sick to the stomach of crumbling temples infested with giant bugs. Worse than all of that: those experiences simply don't stay with me.
Games have the whole of history to draw from as inspiration. The whole of the world. They have the limitlessness of the imagination to be our tour guide. There are ways they can get their claws into our memory, and become something that endures.
Imagine if the next Call of Duty or Assassin's Creed or sandbox crime game or RPG was set somewhere completely different. Somewhere that didn't feel like we'd been there before. I'd be able to forgive so much.
It's time to embrace the thrill of the new.
As I'm thinking about this, I'm actually realising that it's all about location, location, location.
In some respects, the map-mopping model that Ubisoft perfected - which I've been vocal in criticising - wouldn't have been anywhere near the issue it had been, had it not been applied to so many similar games.
The Grand Theft Auto series has done a good job of setting its games in cities which feel diverse from one another. Yet in their wake we've had the likes of Watchdogs, Sleeping Dogs, Just Cause, and others that have failed to stick in my memory because they're so similar.
See also countless fantasy RPGs. The only thing which separates Dragon Age Inquisition and The Witcher III in my brain is the fact that you're on your own in the latter, and the graphics in former weren't quite as good.
See also the last couple of Assassin's Creed games. So similar are the locations in Unity and Syndicate that my recollection gland has a hard time separating them. Yet I remember Black Flag vividly, because it was so atypical. I did things in that which I'd never done in a game before.
Hats off to Ubisoft for realising that annual instalments of the AC series were only going to result in diminishing returns. Let us hope the next full-blown game (rumoured to be set in Egypt) can find us plenty of mental photo-ops.
THE KEY
If the key to feeling like you're living a longer life is doing new things, or going to places you've never been before, then the only way games can help with this is to offer us new virtual worlds. Ones distinct from one another.
I don't want to visit the same American city time and time again. I'm tired of shooting people in various identikit war zones. And I'm sick to the stomach of crumbling temples infested with giant bugs. Worse than all of that: those experiences simply don't stay with me.
Games have the whole of history to draw from as inspiration. The whole of the world. They have the limitlessness of the imagination to be our tour guide. There are ways they can get their claws into our memory, and become something that endures.
Imagine if the next Call of Duty or Assassin's Creed or sandbox crime game or RPG was set somewhere completely different. Somewhere that didn't feel like we'd been there before. I'd be able to forgive so much.
It's time to embrace the thrill of the new.
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