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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?"
Yeah... yeah.
Well FUCK THAT, I will still be playing games as much when I am 60 as now that I am 30.
If you can't find something fun, look harder or GTFO.
Now get off my lawn.
...
How about go adopt a kid instead? There's a world full of children that need good parents.
Quite frankly, I think it's irresponsible to have children of your own with so many that need the love, protection, and guidance that a good parent could provide.
The most engaging game I've played recently is Portal. Unique, and fresh. Looking forward to Portal 2.
Let me just point out that there is something ironic in your opening statements.
I think the drive to "have a storyline" is what's killing games, by turning them into movies. What was the storyline of Asteroids or Pac-Man?
The problem with modern games is that the gameplay is exactly the same across many many titles. Most FPSs have pretty much the same gameplay. The breakout indie successes are almost always about gameplay, not storyline.
You should be modded troll for that one.
I'm in my mid 40's as of about a week ago. I still play games, single and multiplayer, and I still own the kiddies who think they are hot stuff. Getting older doesn't mean you can't have fun.
An AI might be predictable, but at least it's not a douchebag.
I disagree. Ridiculously big budgets are killing games, just like they are killing movies and music. The more money there is on the line, the more pressure there is on the creators to go with a tried and tested formula, in the hope they can minimise the risk. In other words, the variety and creativity from the early days of computer gaming is being sucked out by the games industry.
If one wants to see something fresh, indie games are the way to go (World of Goo, Osmos, Amnesia, Minecraft). Adventure games from smaller European companies can also be quite good (The Longest Journey, Black Mirror... check out www.adventuregamers.com).
This is not to say that no worthwhile games are being published through the industry. The problem is, the non-clones usually remain obscure because they don't receive the advertising budgets of the clones.
My 2c.
Something happened to the context of Chess too, essentially rather suddenly.
Back In The Day if you went to a bookstore, Chess was virtually the only competitive hobby that solidly rewarded studying, and the rating system was near-perfect (with certain blips like scholastic or isolated areas.) Before the internet, poor man's info feed was the bookstore, and I for one found it not possible to interact as an accepted peer in most other areas "off the street". Also, up until about 1995 chess had a "culture" with its past heroes, and its famous benchmarks, etc. It was a solid outlet that lasted pretty well.
Suddenly the real power of the internet took hold. At first it was like a "secret weapon" to train for Old School Chess, but somehow, being able to dig around in all kinds of other interactive activities took away the silent monopoly on accessibility that Chess once had. I have remarked that my time here on slashdot, if intelligently compiled, could form four college courses, aka intro classes on the topics covered well here.
(Basic computer security and exposing corporate tricks, the rise of Big Brother vs. politics, etc. )
Yet also, when we joke about not even reading TFA's, we're saying that we don't look toward our past heroic moments anymore. Without the lineage-culture mood, coinciding exactly with the rise of computers, Chess stopped being fun when it became just position crunching up to the point you hit your particular wall. (Typically 1800 aka "just below expert" is a well known barrier when the additional work now required exceeds the fun.)
But the last sad point is when you hit that wall, you know exactly who you can beat, and who will beat you. On a particular day it moves around a little, but the metagame is the same, and its effect on your local crew. Joe the Expert beats you, you beat everyone else. Go to a tourney and you can beat up to the 1600's, and the Sandbaggers who should be 1900 beat you, and you score 4/6, just enough not to win money.
On the net, you can collaboratively Do Stuff, and even if you plod along for years you can eventually add your little pocket of cultural contribution to something. Whippersnappers are fresher, so be it, your experience counts elsewhere as it grows, and ... Net Life intersecting with training real skills that can actually go towards a job is more fun overall than even the Grand Old Game.
Now a days, I use Chess only as a mental metric to test the shape of my sadly erratic nerves. There's some value with it as a study on force & initiative too. But as a grand pursuit, for me it has become a matter of RIP.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
As a counter perhaps I still enjoy playing games because I have a richer imagination. That my desires are less shallow, incapable of being fulfilled by the latest version of CoD, or Madden.
I still play games because I enjoy them. I enjoy them in the same way that enjoy a good book, a good movie, etc. I'm not limited to video games either, I play new boardgames and table top games. I do so with my children.
To answer the OP as you get older your life becomes more complex. You have more demands on your time. You might not get the same joy out of playing because you believe you should be doing something else, or that there are other things you'd rather do. If its the former then that's a shame, if its the later embrace the other things.
You may think me a tired, old, cynic. I'd have to disagree about the tired bit.