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Losing Interest In Games - A Natural Progression?
MotherInferior writes "I'm 27, soon to be 28. I used to fiend over the newest games and eagerly play whatever I could get my hands on. Team Fortress Classic, Civilization, WarCraft, these were all games that I could literally lose myself for days in. I still drool over the newest games at Best Buy, but now that I actually have the money to buy them, I find myself saying, 'Nah, I'll just play what I've got,' or 'Y'know, I'd rather design my own game then play someone else's.' Even still, I don't really play the games I have. What's up with that? I'm sure my mom would sagely say (with some satisfaction in her voice), 'Wellll, you're just growing up...' Am I not as capable of having fun as I once was, or what? Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy gaming, but I can tell there's some kind of trend happening. Will there be gaming Viagra in my future, I wonder?"
I feel like my gaming glory days are behind me. I see all the latest games that I *want* to play, but either I can't bring myself to play (let alone buy) or I find something else more important to do (like programming). I think it's just age. I've heard from others though that gamers that turn about 40ish seem to pickup gaming again (assuming their spouse, if they have one, let's them).
One other aspect of growing up, besides losing interest in childish things, is moving out on your own. Preferably somewhere where your mom won't be able to give you sage advice so easily.
I have been pwned because my
I dont think your age has much to do with your disillusion, the more recent games just arent as innovative. Genres are already formed from the ground breaking classics, and now it's just a race for the best graphics.
by the time you're old enough to really have really disposable income, you usually have a job that takes up 40+ hours in a week. There's less and less time for games, so you're less likely to buy something new on a whim, more likely to stick with what you know (i.e., established franchises), and since quality game releases are few and far between, even more likely to just play what you've got.
The last game I actually purchased for my PC was War3 expansion. The next game I'm planning on buying is either Doom3 / HL2. Other games have slightly caught my interest (was eyeing galactic civilizations for a while), but I just don't have the time to get lost in a big game, unless it's something I really want to get lost in.
the same phenomena typically happens with music. mid 20s and you start listening to what you have rather than what's new...
I've not played or bought new games in a while. .. and usually loose interrest when the demo ends.
.. you hunt for bugs, which kinda kills the playing experiance.
I usually download the demos and play them
There are some games that I still buy, mostly RPG style games with much more story line based gaming then action.
Part of my loss of interrest in working for gaming companies and doing QA (quility assurance) testing. After a while you no longer play the game
Just my take on loosing interrest. Maybe try games you always found boring? explore new horizons with games ?
bain
Sanity is a majority vote.
Sometimes, you realise that the games that you play are repetitive and monotonous, and are really aimed at the younger population. Sometimes (and this actually happens), you purely lose interest in those games. A human being can only perform a repetitive task (which is what current gaming is all about) -that much-.
:)
I would assume that given a good, involving game, or an in-depth roleplaying game, you would be more eager to play it, because of the story involved. Sadly, the current trends are reeking of filler instead of actual gameplay, and games are usually almost carbon-copies of one another. This doesn't really lead to an urge to play something
I had this happen to me much sooner than you, I believe at about the age of 15, when I realised that games have become utterly repetitive and in some cases genuine boring.
Then again, it could be the 'growing up' stage, when you realise that you just don't have as much time as you used to have before, and gaming is shifted to priority B.
But don't worry, you will still enjoy a good gaming session once in a while, humans need games to stay sane
For me its mainly a lack of time.
When I was younger I had oodles of free time so I was able to lose days playing the latest games.
Now I dont have the time to spare what with working, running a house, girlfriend... All the things you tend to aquire as you get older.
I still love games, but find myself trying to spend time finishing th eones I have rather than buying new games.
I have no sig yet I must scream.
Congratulations! Sounds like you are moving up. This phenomenon happens in lots of areas of activity, not just gaming.
You have the urge to be proactive, not reactive. To produce rather than consume.
You don't have to totally give up $EARLIER_STUFF when you move on up to $NEW_STUFF. That's a common but erroneous belief. You're just adding some more activities that are way more satisfying to you as you are now, with your increased capacity for thinking, etc.
Do not fear that you are getting dull as you get older. Which is sharper, the mind that sees a game and says "Cool!" or the mind that conceptualizes it in the first place?
Any change like this generally requires some re-thinking of how you define yourself, but I think you'll like the new definition better.
"Men do not quit playing because they grow old; they grow old because they quit playing."
- Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes
It's sad to see an old gamer quit the hobby. Maybe someday you'll have more free time and some interesting game will catch your eye. Until then, good luck and have fun with whatever you do!
Work, like in general, and just problems with sitting in front of the computer for who knows how many hours add up.
Find something to do that's differnt than what you normally spend time doing.
Sit and play with lego
Read a book
Work on a puzzle
Build a model
Walk around outside
Take some time and just wander around a nearby mall
It's tough isn't it? I remember when I was about 13 I started to get bored with my matchbox cars and racetrack. It used to be so much fun putting piles of books under the track so the cars would do little jumps, or seeing how big you could make the loop without the cars just falling onto their backs like little turtles.
Then it just started to get boring. I didn't want to play with my old toys any more. Oddly enough, this didn't cause me a huge friggin existential crisis. I didn't post to some Goddam website to find out if the other 13 year olds were suffering a similar confusing emotional trauma. Instead, I took the 'growing up' route, and simply grew up.
Why don't you try the same? Growing up isn't as hard as many people make out. Here are some key tips:
1. Don't idolise your lifestyle. Don't kid yourself that playing Quake II on the office LAN all night was actually some incredibly cool 'in the zone' moment of one-ness with the God of electronic entertainment. It was just being 24.
2. Realise that new things can be fun. If games no longer thrill you, try books, or maybe taking an art class. Perhaps gardening or cooking will be your new forms of relaxation in the daunting world of 'being older than you are right now'.
3. Don't make such a huge deal about it. That way, all the other people who don't give a shit, frankly, won't be disturbed. In time, you too will stop giving a shit, allowing you to simply do something new and different without worrying.
I too wish that computer games gave me as much fun as they did back when I played X-Com for 12 hours straight, or started dreaming about Baldur's Gate or Syndicate Wars.
But then, I wish getting that playing on the swings could keep me happy for 2 hours. I wish that colouring in a picture of a clown gave me a sense of achievement. I wish that I really did believe my lego men were still involved in a desperate war against my brother's lego men.
But, d00d, it ain't going to last, so stop asking where all the good times went, and find something new and fun to do. I mean, why do you think people end up having children?...
-----
This is a phase that everyone goes through. Either because of something in your life (often something subtle) or just a batch of mediocre games that temporarily sour your opinion of the entire medium, you stop playing games for awhile. I did the same thing when I was around 17. I stopped playing games for about a year or two straight and missed out on most of the interesting games that were released for the original PlayStation. But it wasn't a part of "growing up", "putting away childish things", or some other moronic platitude that non-gamers would give you. It's just a temporary change in the way you choose to entertain yourself.
This is something that we all do on a regular basis, but we don't really notice it until it strikes a medium that we actually care about. Personally, there was a time when I watched at least a couple of movies on DVD every week, burning through them at about the same rate as most regulars buyers/renters do. But now I haven't watched a movie on DVD in a good three months or so, but I haven't even noticed it. Why? Because I don't visit six or seven movie sites a day, but I do visit Insert Credit, GameSpot, Video Fenky, GAF, The Magic Box, Penny Arcade, and Slashdot Games just about every day. If you're actually posting on this site, then I'm guessing that you have a pretty similar set of sites that you visit.
I'm guessing that you'll pick up something really good in about a year or two and then you'll be addicted again just like the rest of us. But then again, if you really are of the mentality that "games are kids stuff", then maybe you'll deprive yourself of them forever. I really don't see how Metal Gear Solid or Knights of the Old Republic are any more childish than any of the TV shows or movies that I watch, but that's just me. Maybe that's why I really don't see myself abstaining from video games as I grow up any more than I see myself suddenly abstaining from television, movies, or music.
I shall now indulge in reckless and flagrant navel-gazing.
Isn't a game simply a set of arbitrary objectives made difficult by arbitrary obstacles?... but made "fun" by gradual progression and feedback?
I believe that people like to use their minds and actually create "things to do" when there isn't any. When I was younger, I didn't have many obstacles, so I got my "work" on by subjecting myself to the purchased goals and obstacles, IE, a complicated game.
Now that I'm older, I've made my own game: my life. I've created my own "arbitrary" goals and have to work against obstacles to reach those.
At the end of the day, I'm tired from playing a game that's more important to me. Myself.
Yes. That's right. I'm tired from playing with myself.
My quaint little theory works best on brain games. For example, if I have to manage 20 people 40 hours a week, it's not likely I'll enjoy Railroad Tycoon 3 on the weekend. (But that could just be me.) On the other hand, a alpha-state twitchy game might be a nice break from analytical stuff.
I think there's a concept of "control" as well: in one's teens and early twenties, many aspects of one's life is beyond their control. That changes with age, usually and hopefully.
The business climate has gaming companies acting very conservative right now. You are much more likely to see another Warcraft clone than you are to see an innovative new game. No matter how nifty the graphics, if you notice it is the same old Warcraft, you instantly lose 80 percent of your enthusiasm for the title.
Combine that with the constant nagging voice in the back of our heads, telling us we should be doing something more productive, and it can be a battle.
Personally, I believe we are all just wandering around the lobby, waiting for the doors to open to true, immersive virtual reality. We have seen the pretty sunsets on our CRT, now we want to feel the wind in our hair.
I've never been much of a gamer, but I'm 23, and I've noticed the exact thing happening to me with television. I used to follow a lot of series, now I haven't got a clue when anything is on, and just watch whatever's interesting on the rare occasions I happen to sit down in front of the telly (and if there's nothing interesting, I just do something else).
Mostly, the time I used to spend in front of the telly has been taken over by the Internet, books, and programming. I think that's healthier, the latter is more creative, and all three allow me to go at my own pace, rather than sitting there passively waiting to be spoon-fed information slowly.
Another thing that I have noticed now that I've "grown up" is that I simply have not enough time to play all the games I'm interested in. I'm 25 and work full-time and have a house and wife to attend to, family/friend obligations, etc., and I'm lucky if I get to game for 2 hours in as many weeks.
Sometimes I have wondered the same thing as you, "have I lost my interest in gaming," when I have several games I was excited about but I simply don't bother playing. Then I realized that the games I was interested in in the past have started to bore me.
It's the same as anything really. I'm also bored with stupid action flicks, pulp novels, and Star Trek. I'd much rather watch something with substance, action or no, read a long series of classic books(eg. The Foundation series), or non-fiction(eg. The Making of the Atomic Bomb - brilliant book BTW), and as for TV, I really don't care if I miss an episode of one of my favorite show(although I do enjoy 24 and haven't missed an episode, heh).
You get the point. Tastes vary over time. While you may always enjoy a good movie/book/game/etc., you won't want the same thing over and over. And then there's the time and social factors. Don't fret. Things change. Adapt.
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
I'm going on 30--I nearly fucked up my college education by spending aeons of time on Netrek and progressed from that to C&C, to Red Alert, to Tomb Raider (my girlfriend loves to watch me play for some reason) to Half Life to Homeworld to Deus Ex to Battlefield 1942 (which I play pretty often.)
I was never too interested in always trying out the latest and greatest, but I notice increasingly that, once I've found something I enjoy, I tend to stick with it for far long--it just holds my attention better.
I don't know how people have time to always finish the newest games right when they come out and move on to something new--the only times I do that is when I find something episode-based or story-based (like Half Life), play it through once, then move on, but I take my time with that, sort of like reading a good book a bit at a time before going to bed.
Cole's Law: Thinly sliced cabbage
For me there are a few reasons why I don't play as many games thesedays:
:-/
1. Less time. Got other stuff to do. Study, and work. Work is okay but study consumes a lot of outside hours too. There's always more you could be doing. I find it harder to put time into games now. In the back of my mind, I'm always aware of what else I could be doing.
2. Other interests. Other stuff can be fun too. A few years ago I never read books just for my own interest, now I do. And of all things I've been learning Japanese recently, again something I never would have been interested in when I was younger. I guess I want to expand more, comes with age.
3. Age of fellow players. This one is pretty big. There's only one game I still play occasionaly now, and that's Live For Speed, an excellent, high-quality, independently developed racing sim. The online play is the best I've come across. But while the competition is good, the competitors themselves mostly seem to be guys who are 13-25 (mostly immature), or guys who are 45+. High school kids or men trying to fit in a few games around their spouse. I feel a little out of place.
Aside from LFS, the last game I played for a while was Grand Theft Auto 3. But I think I played that more for the radio stations & music, and the scale of the city rather than gameplay. I tired of it pretty quick. I definately have less tolerance for repetition now.
Times change
It's all about the fact that you now have the possibility to buy most of the games you want.
It just isn't that exiting anymore when you don't have to decide whether to buy QuakeIII or Unreal Tournament2003. You buy them both, and get the short end of the stick, because you don't have the time to play both, or find it hard to decide which one to play at any particular moment. A problem which increases in size the more games you buy.
For us with families, the time spent playing games gets ever shorter, which is why we put higher demands on the games we play. Which in turn leads to the conclusion that all of a sudden, games are no longer that good, because you cannot find the time to really get into more than a few games per season.
I buy fewer games nowadays, but instead I really try to play through them. This pays off most of the time.
Fifty bucks?!?!
That's a week of groceries for cryin' out loud! I'll wait until next year when it hits the $10 bargain rack at Wal-Mart.
I seem to remember going through that with beer, too. At some point, everything just started looking expensive.
Sincerely,
An old fogey
P.S. Just you wait you young buX0rz, pretty soon THE RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS, NIRVANA and PEARL JAM will be on the oldies stations. HAAAAA-HA-HA-HA!
"Lawyers are for sucks."
- Doug McKenzie
I went off games for a period - still bought some but rarely played and never completed. Turned out I was suffering from clinical depression and since recovering I have been right back into gaming and enjoy it as much as ever!
I am 31 btw...
For me, a soon to be 30-yr-old, it's all about two things: the time some of these games would like you to consume playing them, and then the increasing difficulty getting people together for the on-the-couch (as opposed to online) multiplayer games that I like so damn much.
Also, games get no respect from the world at large. Even though I'm mostly a social gamer, though I will play through the occasional one player adventure, my soon-to-be-ex-wife cited that as one of the (minor) issues, my devoting hours to gaming, despite her own f***ing introvert need to sometimes burn hours watching the crappiest of movies on TV to unwind/recharge.
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
I still have my original NES hooked up to the TV in the family room. Never had a SNES, N64, GameCube, PlayStation I/II or anything else.
:-)
I'm currently playing in the pennant race on Bases Loaded. I just finished beating Metroid and Contra (again). (For the latter, yes, I still use Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A.) Anyway the list goes on.
I've found that I can get all kinds of games for the NES from people that think they're worthless. Without even trying, I've picked up about 30 additional titles, along with several extra controllers and even a separate console that I use for spare parts when the need arises.
Lots of fun, and I have no plans to upgrade to a "modern" system in the near future.
Back in one of my college anthropology classes, our professor noted sociological studies that showed people's music buying habits dropping significantly at age 25. Anecdotally, that seems to be true. The history of games is much shorter, so I don't think any similar studies have been done, but they both may be manifestations of the same root cause. That root cause, though, has not yet been revealed.
Life is like surrealism: if you have to have it explained to you, you can't afford it.
> Am I not as capable of having fun as I once was, or what?
Maybe your ideas about what is "fun" are changing. This in itself is not a
bad thing. When you were eight, you probably thought it was fun to run around
on a blacktop with eight-year-old children. At some point you may have thought
it was tremendous fun to read those lame, elementary-school joke books, such
as "101 Fun Food Jokes". Think that's fun now, do you?
The first time I ever played a 3D FPS (it was Wolfenstein 3D at the time), I
thought it was pretty cool. At this point, I've had a belly full of those
and don't care if I never see another one.
Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
Do you still play with your GI Joes? Do you still ask mommy if you can ride your bike down to the store to buy some YuGiOh (or however the christ you spell it) trading cards?
Do you really need Slashdot to confirm for you that your interests change when you grow up and get a life? That one day you realize there are better places to spend your money, and your time?
Jesus H, next thing we're gonna be hearing from 13yr old geeks who find hair sprouting in funny places and want to know if that's normal.
Listen. You losing interest in video games at 28 is a *good* thing. The other 28yr olds at the next party you attend want to talk about the new house they bought, or how their job is going, or the plans for the wedding. Not how awesome it was when you shot the guy that was on your team because he picked up the sniper rifle when everybody knows that you kick ass with it.
The only fun part about writing this response is seeing whether I'm insightful or a troll. :)
www.HearMySoulSpeak.com
For example, lately I'm playing through Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem for the Gamecube. It was one of the first games I bought when I got my Gamecube, but I didn't really start playing it until recently.
My opinion is this: If you are too busy to watch TV, you'll probably find yourself too busy to play games.
If I ever found myself saying, "Rather than playing a game, I'll watch that new My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance show," I seriously hope somebody will shoot me....
All the creatures will die, And all the things will be broken. That's the law of samurai. (Jubai, 1605)
With my own children growing old enough to play games I have found my own interest rekindled playing with them, showing them the games of my youth. I got the old Atari 800 out and they are having a blast with the classics from that system - River Raid, Pac Man, Ballblazer to name a few. After getting them a PS2 my interest has also picked up. I find myself playing Ratchet and Clank 1 & 2, Jak and Daxter, and Sly Cooper long into the night after they have went to bed. On the other hand, I have found the PC game scene to be stagnating with every new release just more eye candy with the same game play with previous titles in the same genre. For instance, the graphics in the latest FPS are amazing, but the basic gameplay is still "if it moves, shoot it", unchanged since Doom and Wolf3D.
Don't get me wrong, I understand perfectly well the gist of your post, but I think you are jumping the gun.
There are a lot of hobbies that people "grow out" of, such as playing with matchbox cars. However, there are some hobbies that can have more staying power, such as reading, movies, model trains, etc. People don't look at those things and say, "Grow up!" Gaming happens to be one of those new hobbies that people without prior exposure to don't understand and assume to be a hobby for young people, like comic books. But, apparently that isn't necessarily the case. Sure, there are a lot of *"losers" who still read comics and play games at 40, but with the advent of adult-oriented comics(ie. "graphic novels") and games, many older folk (ie. non-"loser" older folk) are continuing with those childish hobbies.
At 25, I don't read the same comics I did when I was 13(rather, I don't read any comics), but some new graphic novels (mentioned here on /.) have interested me.
YMMV, different strokes, etc. But please, don't be an old pompous scab telling us youthful folk how to live.
Paraphrasing:
- someone less of a dullard than you* - are they really "losers," I prefer not to label someone so harshly simply for continuing with something I consider to be somewhat childish. Perhaps they just didn't sell out and murder their inner child in order to be accepted as an adult. Or perhaps they are indeed losers and should be derided as such until their sad, lonely death.
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
If you're a fan of the classics, then really, gaming is moving away from you. Classics meaning like Pac-Man, Galga, etc. They're not going to make any more, because the classics are already there, and anything to try and capitalize on that will just be seen as a copy-cat. (EXCEPTION: Most current puzzle games I see is beeing Classic-ish. Simple gameplay, playing for points, not levels, etc.)
Myself? I tend to play more games now than ever. And I'm enjoying them more too. There are several reasons...The main reason is they're making more games I like, at least on consoles.
Things I like:
#1. The feeling of being busy and intense while not feeling frustrated and out-of control. Viewtiful Joe, being the best example (and one of the best games ever), as well you have Ratchet and Clank:Going Commando, the Dynasty Warriors series, Ikaragua and assorted others. (Some of which are not so good, like Enter The Matrix).
#2. Fighting games that are both deep yet accessable. They still make them, I still love them. Yes, Fighting games are deep. Always lived outside a big arcade scene, but locally, people here are big KoF nuts, and I had a fun time learning 97-98-99 into the ground. But Soul Calibur 2 is great with some people who know what they are doing.
#3. Better stories. This is both a function of technology, but it's also a function of ambition. I'm not just talking about your Final Fantasy type story. (Although the story for X was amazingly deep, yet because of the PoV aspect was still personal) I'm talking Ratchet and Clank with the hilarious commercials in it. Disgaea:Hour of Darkness, the story is just not what you expect at all. I think the word is...snarky among others. As part of the story, the best games just feel fleshed out. They have that something extra that keeps you in there. Interesting characters, if there's not the oppurtunity for a story..an interesting idea.
#4. Eye/Ear candy. I love this stuff. Sure sure, it's all about gameplay. But still. Starting a race in F-Zero GX, and watching all the light trails from the racers in front of you, as they are attacking each other and jockying for position. Metriod Prime, when an energy ball comes flying by your face, seeing Samus's reflection in her visor. At the same time, you have Audio candy as well. The radio stations in GTA 3/VC. The music from Final Fantasy games, (Especially X. Auron's theme pumped through a surround system is mesmorizing.)
Now, if you have better things to do, in your mind, that's a personal decision. But yeah, if those things don't matter to you, then it's fair to say that games have "left you".
As for PC games? PC games are unfortunatly boring. There's not much that's coming out that really pushes the boundries. And when they do, it tends to not be too unplayable. What do I play? Half-Life mods. Natural Selection mostly. I like some of the Microsoft games, believe it or not..Freelancer, Rise of Nations. What else is there? Not very much.
If I set aside 20 minutes or so, get comfortable and just start playing, that 20 minutes quickly becomes 20 hours and I've thrown away buckets of time like back in the day.
It's not actually a matter of losing interest in gaming, but rather becoming distracted away from your favourite distraction (if that makes sense).
Take FFTA on the GBA for example. I don't feel like playing it right now, but if my GBA somehow turned it's self on and jumped into my hands, you can bet I'd be playing for at least 3 hours.
Looks can be deceiving. Or CAN they?
Gaming solo is what I can't seem to enjoy as much anymore. By making it a social event, I can really get into gaming without fear of getting old. I get "together" with my friends twice a week to play games online. We don't get to see each other nearly as often as any of us would like to, so our Monday night Battlefield 1942 and Wednesday night Rise of Nations sessions give us a reason to hook up the VoIP chat and hang out, even if it is only virtual. Since it's a habitial thing, my wife doesn't even give me much flak for it.
Your comment is pointlessly wrong on so many levels.
Games teach you skills, whether physical (hand eye coordination), emotional (confidence in ability to complete a task, or not), and mental (learn how to problem solve in ways others do not). You experience a wide variety of things you can never touch. The rewards are not immediate, but the fruit bear out in the long run.
I suppose you think reading is useless? After all, it's the same principle - reading a book does not affect THIS world. Not immediately, anyway. When you finished, there's no new car in the garage, no revolutions have been won or lost as a result, and the hungry are still hungry. But it has long term consequences, just like games. Games stimulate imagination, or they can stifle it. They have the power to improve or damage, just as much as anything else in this world.
Doing anything at all is wanking. Everyone dies in the end and all works fade away.
When Sol dies in 20 billion years, what could you possibly have done in your life that will matter then? When the last of the Milky Way is being crushed into a supermassive black hole quadrillions of years from now of what use will any of your life have been?
I rediscovered wargames, which I used to play as a teen--the maps and counters type, whereas now it's the PC versions. They're great for business travel--don't need a hefty laptop for them, can make a few moves as time permits, can let games stretch out for months, don't need the constant work on the hand-eye skills, which deteriorate with age anyway. I've always liked the thinking, reflective games better anyway, not the instinct/reaction speed games.
Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
My love for games has been rekindled recently. The reason is becuase I finally bit the bullet and tried a game genre that I had always shyed away from. I always thought I wouldn't like certain genres. It turns out that I am addicted to some of the games I thought I would never play. If you lament the fact that you are losing interest in games just try one game that has gotten great reviews in a genre you have never tried or have avoided. I think you will be pleasantly surprised. If you don't lament your lack of interest than bugger off.
I swear PowerPoint is going to be the downfall of higher education in western society.
slow maturing nature of gaming.
If you've played computer games as far back as the atari/coleco days, then you have clocked in many days of game, that can probably amass to half a year by now. With that, you have played a varied spectrum of games in the early years, to more specific genres. Now, what's happening is that you want more complexity in the game play, along with more future possibilities for longer lasting game play.
For example, you play in an MMORPG and have reached the highest level, tons of credits, numerous weapons/items, have travelled the known universe of the game... what else is left? Retirement? Well... yeah.
Many games are not innovative enough to keep up with our desires for grander things in the game. Whether you have played that new game that just came out or not, there's a very good chance you have played the same functions in a previous game, and are just redoing what you've done before? Yeah, it has a new storyline, new characters, but same things are happening. I'm currently in that situation now, I've played a number of games, but find the mechanics to be too similar to previous games that after awhile, it's not new and it's no longer exciting.
You want excitement, go back to pen and paper rpgs, that way you have more flexible mechanics than the computer. I wish you luck in finding a game that can satisfy your gaming needs.
I love to play games. But I am selective. Games I don't enjoy are a bloody waste of my time. Fortunately I played so many different games that I now know what I like and can recognize quality. And quality does not mean "the coolest graphics". It means "the best gameplay". Therefore I don't mind playing older games. As long as they are fun.
It's the same with music. When you're a teen, you listen to all the crap that's pooped into the airwaves over the radio. Then your taste matures. You may get interested in classical music, or at least you realize there are only a few good bands out there.
It's the same with books. As a teen you read lots of SF (if you are a geeky type), but when you mature you realize most of it is just a waste of good trees.
Remember, most of it. Not all of it.
When you acquire a mature taste, you don't need to spend so much time on something to get your fix. But your love need not diminish.
What I've found recently is that I don't like to spend as much time anymore on games and rather get on with my "real" life instead. This results in me choosing games that I can play for say 15 minutes at a time rather than having to invest hours into each gaming session.
Still, whenever I go on a business trip, I take a couple of good old-fashioned RPGs (think Baldur's Gate and similar) and spend a lot of time playing those in the bland boring hotel rooms.
I therefore conclude it is not the games that are at fault, but my priorities of what I like to do with my spare time have changed. That said, I recently started playing Rainbow 6 on XBox live and this game, I can't get enough of. Maybe that's because of the more social nature of the co-op game modes I like to play, maybe it's just the novelty (at least for me) of being able to talk to people in multiplayer games.
I asked for a refund - and got my monkey back.
I played quite some games.
... well, what is the good thing of that? If you play alone, or if WC 3 is youor first game you are less bored, fine. And for true players? Building a town and upgrading troop stats is now boring, why not starting with a full town instead? Skip upgradig of troops completely.
... no new games. The new games of our days simply suck, all of them. As I mentioned Settlers above: Settles IV is just the same like WC 3. The shift from Settlers III to Settlers IV ... they dropped everything and rewrote teh complete game. They could have changed the name and no one had realized the connection between the two games. No deed to say: Settlers II was GREAT, besides it gets a bit boring over time because of the dumb RTS battle AI. Settlers IV was a $40 waste of money. The biggest shit in games I ever bought.
... its funny. However the coders spend more time in making a good game concept and using a standard vanilla engine instead of crafting incredible fancy effects ... te story line and the way to play it is cool. Only realy bad: the battle AI is as dumb as a 15 years old WC 1 battle AI. No idea why that is constantly bad since decades.
... at least Diablo II LOD remains :D
Civilization II/III, War Lords II/III, War Craft II/III, Descent I/II, Sim City I/II and endless unknown low sales games. Ah yes and Settlers II/III/IV.
Point is: Civilization III was "just the same" like Civilization II. No real improvement. On 100 times the hardware power (Pentium III/1400) CivIII was as slow as Civ II on my old Pentium 1/180MHz.
War Craf III was a complete disappointment. Incredible dumb AI. Boring (IMHO) story, and the new game concept of story/quest IMHO badly adapted. See SpellFore, quite the same game, but 10 times better. 5 times faster building of constructions
RTS games have not improved besides using 3D engines now. No real new kick except more graphics, more sound, more lightening. Even the 3D characters, the heroes and power units in WC II are so poor designed, rendered. Unbelieveable. I have a super 3D graphics card and a charcter traveling over the screen barely has more than 4 "positions". If you count the waving cape, you have 4 for the characer and 3 for the cape.
Same for Descent 3. Descent 2 was a quite good game. On modern hardware you realized the bugs caused by network latency and "drifting" world images of the different simulation on the playing hosts. But it was really great fun and we play it still today.
But D III? Only everythign was FASTER, BRIGHTER, and with more POWER. It makes no sense to shift from a game version 2 to 3 and the main difference is the increase speed of crafts and incresed damage of weapons. E.G: D II you could play wit keyboard only, no need ofr a joy stick if you where good at it. D 3 was impossible to pay with keyboard because you could not configure the autorepeat and delay and acceleration speed of keyboard commands good enough.
Then came games like Halo. Just an example: the cross hair is as big as my thumb, the hit zone as well. What sense is it to have a 3D first person shooter and the player only needs to run around, avoid getting hit, collect amo and continioulsy keep the mouse button(aka fire button) pressed down?
Bottom line: I still enjoy playing 12 hours at my PC a computer game. But well
Since two weeks I play SpellForce. It has disadvantages en mass. Stupid 3D engine whre a standard old day 2D isometric view would be enough. When I have a full fledged army my screen makes only 4 to 5 frames per second. But: the game is GREAT! A lot of the game is so old habited
Conclusion: modern computer games are only "movies" adapted to the computer with a limited possibility of interaction.
The poster is right: meanwhile I rather code my own game than spending endless hours wasting my energy in playing stupid designed incredible expensive games not even running properly fast on my just one year old PC.
Sig
angel'o'sphere
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
... when she complains that the sex is boring, "stop asking where all the good times went", it's part of growing up.
Of course your 'wife' might just be that stack of sticky playboys under the bed, or have you grown out of them too?
GPLv2: I want my rights, I want my phone call! DRM: What use is a phone call, if you are unable to speak?
As a 30 year old, my interest in games is waning quickly, mainly because I can no longer compete.
MMORPGS take up too much time to be competitive, I cannot hang with people with no jobs or go to college, since the nature of the MMORPG is Time = Equipment + Gold + Abilities. Whomever has the best equipment due to the most gold usually wins.
FPS's the winners are the ones with the high frame rate, low ping times, twitchy reflexes, and macros. Kids can out aim, jump, and shoot me now.
Single Player RPG's - I sit there, and play, and think, I'm sitting here trying to figure out a puzzle, or to click the buttons in the sequence that the developers tell me to, or allude to. *Not Fun*
So, I'm left with open ended games like GTA Vice City, and single player sports games. Madden, etc.
Both of which I find amusing and relatively fun to play. But neither of which are very satisfying, because, once again, you're beating a computer. There's no "HA HA" factor in playing by yourself.
So, for me, my interest in games is dying because I can no longer compete. The competition is what was fun for me.
I think, though, that I will always play videogames to some extent. My circle of friends and I discuss this occasionally. Do I think I'll be up till 3AM playing an FPS when I'm 40? No. But when I have my old buddies over to watch the superbowl or a barbeque, could a descendant of Super Smash Bros. make an appearance? I suspect the answer will be yes.
I also have a feeling that, should I have a son, playing videogames will be a great way to interact with him. My generation (or slightly before) will be the first one with any hope of relating to their kids in this way. Maybe I'm being naive, but I suspect videogames are here to stay, and that the industry is going to be stuck for quite a while with the same 3 spatial dimensions and 2.1 vectors for sensory input (sight, sound, lame rumbling).