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Have I Lost My Gaming Mojo?
danabnormal writes "Increasingly I'm being frustrated in my attempts to find a game I want to play. In an effort to catch up, I've been using my bog standard Dell laptop to dig out treasures I have missed, such as American McGee's Alice, Grim Fandango and Syberia. I don't often get the time to play games, so I like to have the opportunity to dip in and out of a title without feeling like I'm losing something by not playing it for periods of time. But when I find a title I like, I make the time. Heavy Rain is the last game that gripped me, that truly engaged me and made me want to complete it in a single sitting. I'm tired of the GTA formulas, bored of CoDs and don't have the reaction time to think on my feet for AOE III. Is it about time I tossed in the controller and resigned myself to the fact that the games I want only come out once in a blue moon? Or have I just not found that one great title that will open me up to a brand new genre? Lords of Ultima is going OK at the moment — is there anything of that ilk I've missed? What are your thoughts? Do you stick to a particular genre? Are you finding it harder, as you get more mature, to find something you want to play?"
As a student of game design, AAA console titles are generally designed to be conservative in gameplay and copy what's out there, polish it a bit, and sell it with new art. Now, that's not even close to being ALL of what's out there, but if GTA IV, CoD, and Mass Effect 2 aren't your cup of tea (and you do enjoy Heavy Rain) then the big-advertising-budget titles will likely never appeal to you in the way it sounds you want them to.
If you're willing to buy a game without a proven track record, look at the indie scene (Steam has a good starting selection) and some of the other great titles that have been passed over like Beyond Good and Evil or Psychonauts. They're usually more Grim Fandango or Alice than the bigger games, and you might like them more.
I am become
There are lots of them available. The 2010 IF competition just finished, so there are a bunch of (free!) games of varying quality levels, genres, etc available.
September 2011: Looking for Cocoa/iOS work in Boston area Cocoa Programmer Quincy, MA
So fully agree.
Besides, we're almost 7 billion and rising fast. This isn't sustainable...
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You have no idea how you'll change between now and 60.
Its possible that by 60 you'll have found there there are things other than games that are fun.
That's your mom's lawn, sonny.
More important things like buying a riding lawn mower to prune your suburban lawn? Getting older doesn't mean that you must sacrifice video games as an entertaining outlet. It's not so different than watching films or television. Actually, I find myself less and less interested in on-going television shows as I get older... I fall asleep during them. Watching television is such a passive experience, there's nothing to keep me interested.
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
I have this exact same problem. I'm 35 years old, and I've been playing Arcade/Console/PC games since the age of 12.
Over the last 3 weeks I've been scouring the web for reviews, spanning back as far as the mid 80's for gems I may have missed. More and more I'm convinced that I've played every game worth playing.
My favorite games throughout my life so far have been:
(the times when I discovered or played them, not necessarily when published)
Age 12-15: The Bard's Tale, Wasteland, Ultima, Pirates!, Might and Magic 2, Dungeon Master, Gold Box AD&D, Castlevania, The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Punch Out, Super Metroid
Age 16-24: Dune 2, Warcraft, Warcraft II, Tie Fighter, Mechwarrior Vengeance, Counterstrike, TFC, Diablo, Everquest
Age 24-30: Diablo II, Nethack, Moria, Angband, Zangband, Civilization 3, Baldur's Gate II, Age of Empires II, Shadowrun (Sega Genesis), Half-Life, Daggerfall, Fallout 1&2, Far Cry, X-COM UFO Defense, Battlefield 1942, WoW
Age 30-35: Master of Magic, Master of Orion 1&2, KOTOR, GTA Vice City, Jedi Knight Academy, Pirates 2, System Shock 2, Deus Ex, Thief Gold, Fallout 3, Might and Magic VI&VII, Wizardy 8, Titan Quest, Torchlight, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, Borderlands, Mount and Blade Warband
There are hundreds of other titles & sequels I've tried which I don't consider worth listing, I'm sure I forgot a few that are.
But I feel like I've seen it all, and that innovation in computer gaming has stopped.
I'd like to believe I'm wrong, and I'm sure there are some great indie titles I would enjoy (Mount and Blade Warband was a wonderful surprise), but it's taking me more time to find a game worth playing than to actually play the game. I don't remember that being a problem before.
The government has a defect: it's potentially democratic. Corporations have no defect: they're pure tyrannies. -Chomsky