Exposing my socks to the world

We’re at an interesting place in the evolution of video games. It’s now possible to have hours and hours of high-definition spoken words played back in your game. This is a far cry from just 20 years ago when hearing a couple of words compressed nearly to oblivion was considered pretty amazing. Like in Blades of Steel.

So, since space was at such a premium, if you wanted lots of dialogue, you were limited to text, lots and lots of text. Which never bothered me too much, it was a limitation of the media.

But games have now evolved where multi-minute scenes are played out (with varying levels of talent, but that’s fodder for another discussion), and text-heavy exchanges are becoming more and more infrequent.

And, to be honest, I hadn’t really given that a whole lot of thought either, until I was watching some video game review show or another and one of the reviewers actually gave the game a lower mark because he had to read too much. He was of the opinion that technology had progressed to a point where everything can be voiced, so everything should be voiced.

But does it really add that much to the experience? Yeah, it’s great to hear what the developers think the characters should sound like so I don’t have to improvise voices in my head, but I can actually read far faster than most people talk. So if I come across a game that has the audio subtitled, I end up skipping over the dialog and reading the text instead. Which ends up sounding pretty herky-jerky and unbelievable.

So, for me, the jury’s still out. I don’t mind doing a lot of reading, but, I have to admin, having big blocks of text punctuated by the occasional voice-acted section (for the important plot points) is kind of nice.

In my time behind the various consoles, I’ve put in some marathon gaming sessions, occasionally hitting mental states very near to sleep. But I sometimes actually do remember to eat or drink something during a several-hour binge. Mostly because I start feeling too weak to hold up the controller without significant effort.

It’s about then that I reach for something to get me going again. You’re probably thinking, “Duh, caffeine.” But you’d be wrong. Caffeine for whatever reason doesn’t have much of an effect on me, and besides that, Mountain Dew just isn’t a substitute for actually eating something.

But some foods are better for eating while playing games than others, especially if you can do some planning beforehand. I’m going to run down some choices and their relative pros/cons. We’ll start off with some obvious choices:

Chips are pretty much a given. It’s easy to grab a few during a break in the action, cram ’em down your throat, and continue gaming. But, unless you get baked chips, they’re a little on the greasy side, which makes your controller slippery, and if you do get baked chips, they’re pretty gross. Chips with flavored powder on them (like Doritos) are delicious, but you get that cheesy, gunky residue all over your fingers, which gets on your controller, which gunks it up worse than just the grease does. And anything that requires dip? Forget about it.

Pizza’s convenient, since you can call up your favorite pizza joint and they’ll cook it and bring it right to you. But, eating pizza really requires two hands to do properly, so it’s really only viable if you’re taking turns and it’s not your turn or during the next several-minute long cutscene, and who knows when that’s going to happen.

Candy seems like an obvious choice, especially the non-chocolatey kind. It’s not messy, tastes great, and comes in these little wrappers. Which makes them good for a quick fix, but if you’ve ever eaten nothing but candy for a whole day (and I have) you’re going to start feeling… weird. Weird is not good.

Fruits are actually a decent choice. Not necessarily because they’re reasonably healthy, but because several of them come in their own wrappers. Just stay away from the ones you have to peel and you’re golden. Stuff like pears and apples are OK, but once you eat more than half of it, you can’t just sit it down without getting the flesh all gross, so bitesize stuff is a much better choice. Like cherries, grapes, or strawberries.

Simple sandwiches are also a good choice. Throwing your favorite filling between two slices of bread takes almost no time at all. As long as you don’t go overboard making a Dagwood, that is. Just make sure you have a paper towel or plate handy so you can throw down your sandwich between bites, and you’re in business.

I’ve tried a few other things, like soups, cereal, or even some herbal stimulants that were marketed toward golfers (no, I’m not kidding), but nothing has worked as well as fruits and sandwiches. I’m interested to see what other people have come up with to get them through marathon gaming sessions.