The Age of Innocence. It's a phrase much more than a title of an Edith Warton novel. Everyone has this stage in his/her life. In the case of video games, it's the age where knowledge is scant, and the game's the thing.

What do I mean by this? The best way to answer this is by self experience. My Age of Innocence was the golden age of the SNES era, scanning 1993-1996 or so. Earthbound, FF III, Tetris Attack, Secret of Mana, Lufia II, BoF II were all a part of this. The topper in this was Chrono Trigger. I was 13-14 at the time. Since if my memory serves me, it was fall, so I was 14. It was the first game I bought with my own money (on a side note, despite the steep price, it was well worth the money).

What did I know about Chrono Trigger before I bought the game? Almost nothing. What information I had came through the hype machine of Nintendo Power. I never had a "hands-on" to review, or an updated preview to scan through. I didn't have dozens of screenshots, or gameplay movies to view. Hell, all I had from Nintendo Power were ambiguous, partially covered screens. The base story was never really revealed. Yeah, I knew that it dealt with time, and drawn looks of some of the characters, but I didn't have much of an idea of the game.

All I knew that it was an epic RPG. That's all I needed. I was instantly drawn in to the game. Everything was new. There was nothing I was prepared for, no surprises revealed. My opinion of the game was made solely on my playing of it. There were no reviews giving an arbitrary number to graphics, or sound, or tilt, or whatever. There was no categorization.

This leads me back to the concept of the Age of Innocence. I grew up totally within the world that the game industry wanted kids my age to be in. "Industry," "fiscal year," "Nobuo Uematsu" were all foreign. I was in the gaming world, just like I was in the Chrono world.

Now, I live in a world outside of the game industry. I read all that concerns the industry as a whole. I am outside of that boundary that I once was in. I read reviews, some previews, watch screens and videos. I go to message boards, which may be the farthest away from that world. In anthropological terms, I live the etic life. I watch the industry from an outsider's perspective, unlike the way I was growing, inside the industry bubble, the emic way.

I have Tales of Symphonia. Good game. Why? Because I'm told so. I've had the game for several months now. I have yet to play it. It's a game that should put me inside a world. I've played several games in that span of owning a game. Most of those don't have the epic tag to it, games like Advance Wars, Mario Tennis, and Donkey Konga. I guess I fear I won't be drawn in.

In addition, I feel it's not just me growing out of the early teen wonder. I also feel it's the games themselves that aren't bringing you in.

Blasphemy, you say? The way games are made today, they should be drawing you in more, correct? They do depict a more realistic world, fantastic or not. I feel this is the precise reason I'm not drawn into these games.

I'm being treated like I have no patience. Most games force you to be somewhere fast. There are two games that buck this idea, and are tended to be rebuked because of it. The games are Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker and Skies of Arcadia. Huge worlds. It takes time just to explore them. Yet I see many posters hate the games for this very reason. I fear this may be the majority, and it saddens me. What's wrong with epic games? I enjoy useless space. That's what makes a world real. Every single room, and every single "area" does NOT have to have a purpose.

I believe the reason for this is that games are being compared more to movies. Thus we have to be there, ready to go, fast. I desire games, particularly the RPG and Adventure genres, to fit more comparatively to books. A movie can't bring you into a world like a book can. Simple reason for this is you don't have to time to do it in a movie. You have plenty of time to do so for games. Let us explore. Let us take the time to move from place to place. Let us not have the path of least resistance. The next area doesn't need to be the next closest point, or right next to a warp zone. That's not a real world.

An example I can give here is Halo 2. I don't particularly like FPS games, but I do have fun playing this game with friends. In this game, I always feel trapped. The biggest map makes me feel so. I'm basically moved one area to another to another in story mode. I can never really freely explore. The game doesn't seem to want you to, either. Intense action is quickly followed by intense action. I don't feel like I'm in a game. I'm controlling a guy in a universe created by another person. I add nothing to it. In Chrono Trigger, my visualization of the characters and their clothing don't necessarily match that of the creators. The world itself I add my own imagery to it. I can't do that with today's games. Everything has already been laid out.

So yes, the Age of Innocence is gone. Mine is gone. The gaming industry's is gone. The industry is generally targeting, and rightfully so, the lowest common denominator. The epic seems to be passing. Quick and easy are coming in. Do I lament this as much as this commentary suggests? Not completely. I'd like to think there is a place for games like these. I mean, Wind Waker did win a game of the year award. I'd like to think that the industry and its gamers don't exlude this type of game experience in their paradigm. There is a place for the fantastic epic game. You don't need complete control over every aspect of the game. You don't need a ten layer graphics engine that's so complex you need to reduce the amount of explorable area in a game. Draw me in with story, ambiance, music, and the sense of exploration. Please give me some of my innocence back.