[therabidfrog]

I used to love Myst and Myst like games, but recently I tried playing Zork Nemesis, and after spending an hour in its sprawling vast hugeness I thought to myself "Gee I don't give a crap"! I just don't have the patience to invest that much effort into a game anymore.

Another example would be some time ago I found my old top loader Nintendo in my closet so me and my friends went out and bought practically every Nintendo game that we could even vaguely summon a memory of playing, and I was surprised at how rotten some of my favorite child hood memories were.

Or the fact that games like Final Fantasy 3 and Chrono Trigger seemed to have engaging and emotional stories, but after recently replaying both I had to wonder if I was at some point retarded.

I like the modern production values, and now seek a more casual experience. Heck I used to vomit at the thought of playing racing games now they're in my top three favorite genera.

How has your gaming experience changed as you got older?

[Ninja Dodo]

One thing I've noticed is I'm very rarely able to really sink my teeth into ONE game anymore... spending a few days or weeks on it and playing it all the way to the end.

Now I play on and off sometimes for just a half hour and am often trying to complete three or more games simultaneously. It took me almost a year to finish Okami. I've very little patience for getting stuck so if I don't figure something out by the next day I go for a walkthrough without hesitation and if a game is just too damn frustrating I drop it and never come back because there's too many other great games I could be playing instead.

[Hammerite]

I'm quite the opposite to Ninja Dodo - I used to buy loads and rarely finish them, but now I usually buy one and don't play another until that one's completed.

[MoriartyL]

When I was little, I didn't really have access to games. Not good games, anyway. There was whatever shareware trash I could get off the internet. So I'd have, at any given time, one game I was remotely interested in. Usually a cheap knock-off of much better games, though I couldn't have known it at the time. That one game would take up all my free time, even though I didn't really have much emotional connection to any of it, just because I had nothing better.

Now I have better games. What with the Wii's downloadable games, and all the other games I've bought for Wii and DS, I alternate between around ten games at any time.

If I had access back then to the games I have access to now, I might have been exactly the same. There are lots of games I'm not likely to ever finish (Okami, for instance, which I found tedious and unfocused), but when I was younger I never finished anything. Now I do. I get pretty obsessive about high scores and the like with games I really enjoy, let alone just completing them.

So I don't think I've changed at all. The games around me have changed.

[Ninja Dodo]

I think for me it's been a combination of having less time overall and a considerable expanding of my interests. I used to play basically only adventure (action or point & click) and platform games... Now I play RPGs, shooters, the occasional strategy game, crazy random indie games. Very nearly almost everything.

And besides new things, I'm still trying to catch up on the classics.

[nomadsoul]

Very nice topic, since ps1 i have been enjoyng pirate games which are legal in many countries including my country. Everyone was after modded consoles and pirate games, both on consoles and PC, so it was like very cheap affair you buy anything that feels cool on cover on that time there was only mag as source to enlighten you about software, no net and videos. So i got many , experimented many and found many rare gems which never made headlines or front covers, but those game were gems, so i always believed in taking extra step to TRY , feeling it could might turn worthy and 90% of the time i got experience of lifetime, memorable games.

So i enbjoyed the variety , even on that time PC game scene was becoming hot in 1998 to 2001, games like gk3, omikron, outcast, deusex, hitman and darkearth (epic gem which only few played) etc., pc was full of variety , ps1 was throwing rapid creative games which werent too budget heavy but high on creative stuff, genre exploration(experimental).

PC lots its valor became FPS/rpg/RTS affair, PS2 took the lead and again threw plenty and again i got pirated treasure of unknown games and found them most interesting.

Took 9 years to finally sell ps2(last year i sold it).

My actual goldenage in 3D gaming consists of these PC 98 to 2001 and ps1 whole gamelog ps2 whole gamelog, i almost tried every game and finished many(RTS and sports game were never my genre so didnt even purchased them).

I learned alot about gaming, and for me story, art, music became more important, gameplay was hit and miss in many titles for many obvious reasons but it didn't stopped me form enjoying games.

When i entered this gen i was happy, graphics what i always craved for, kameo, oblivion, lostplanet, deadrising, doubleagent was my first wave of titles and i was shocked by graphics and got satisfied, however something went abnormally wrong after gears1 and Wii in industry, and i felt sudden paradigm shift in nature of almost evrything, developers attitude , new breed of gamers emerging, developers catering them(abandoning old players).
Surge of casuals and noobs and whole shapeshift.
Blood, gore, aliens, marines, greys and browns , compounded by same generic plastic looks which makes even creative art to look like saturated crap , unreal engine became excuse for crappy developers to flood market which more generic crap which sold and still sells.

New corporate structure milking sequels and franchises, developers then only looking for buddgets and profits , making cheesy games to appeal general public, casual gaming at rise, old gamers around me losing interest , they hardly found any hardcore stuff so they left , other type includes too busy with other life hold chores. Some nongamers atttracted to gaming like punterz and started claiming as gaming nerds.

Money was the reason behind that. It further spoiled the situation when games were cut to make it DLC with more money reaping efforts. Journalists became abundantly avialable on net, people finding thier ponds to gather anc voice their opinion, flamewars, arguments, journalists making more heated topics to register hits again 'make money'.

Piracy is now only on 360 but wait there is also redring which was also blunder due to quick release of console rather than sincerity towards gamedevelopment. Hey gamers can take bullets rip them. And ps3 dont have piracy so have to get original games and 60$ at that.

And since there is so much saturation against the era i talked about with full time experimental creative titles , and cheap even as original , that i had to get really selective now.

Also i did so much gaming that typical idea or game design hardly interests me like before, the feeling i get form todays game is not classy. Now i am sad gamer, but optimist.

Its not total loss still there are games too play this year Bs2, bayonetta, maxpayne3, kof12, infamous, uncharted and most importantly heavyrain. So its not all casual generic stuff. Also loved the sudden surge of beatmeups and slashers the genre i love most and started with(sf2).
But question again is this, are they going to be classy like coming in my topten games, or they are going to be just best titles for that respective year , hey lets wait for BS3 then.

Can timschafer really outclass grimfandango by his new game?
Can beyond good and evil 2 become instant classic again OR we are gong to get artificially excited on the pretense of their past ventures?


I hate how gaming hasn't changed much in development times, same 3 to 4 year routine, same last quarter release dates for major titles. This whole wait bothers me too, atleast one major title is must per month but they keep them for last months again for money.

There is always debate , are games art?
Ans > No games are total business.

[therabidfrog]

Originally Posted by nomadsoul

Very nice topic, since ps1 i have been enjoyng pirate games which are legal in many countries including my country. Everyone was after modded consoles and pirate games, both on consoles and PC, so it was like very cheap affair you buy anything that feels cool on cover on that time there was only mag as source to enlighten you about software, no net and videos. So i got many , experimented many and found many rare gems which never made headlines or front covers, but those game were gems, so i always believed in taking extra step to TRY , feeling it could might turn worthy and 90% of the time i got experience of lifetime, memorable games.

I hate to admit it, but I used to pirate games a lot after I went broke, but it had it's own sort of negative effect (beyond having to get creative with fighting viruses) in that having anything I wanted for free meant I had too many options, and never finished a game. Today I would rather buy a game cheap or hunt around.

But it is true there is a lot of uninspired clones and pure trash that come up, but I guess that's the same for pretty much every form of entertainment. Personally I wish companies would push more quality than constantly just trying to push the technology forward. Still I much prefer the modern production values. I'm not nostalgic about gaming.

[nomadsoul]

Originally Posted by therabidfrog

I guess that's the same for pretty much every form of entertainment

Thats also one of the thing i learned and actually changed my feelings towards games, i don't pigeonhole games as JUST entertainment. Its a much more complicated medium for me inspiring way more complicated emotions.

More games more choice and more fun, restricted choice and availability only restricts ability to TRY and learn.

[sysryn]

a brilliant topic!

When i just started PC gaming i had a P3 with 667mhz that could run
pretty much everything at that time.

Funny thing is that each game i installed had that peculiar feeling of something
"new", and something "exciting". Weather that is Red Alert, Age of empires, Diablo or Broken sword.

I don't know if that has to do with age, but today i don't get that feeling any more. Maybe 2 years of MMORPGs spoiled me but i just can't find myself playing a single player game more then an hour. RPGs don't make sense to me if they're not online, strategy games are boring (and i used to LOVE them. Cossacs or age of empires), racing games are repetitive (wrrroooom around in circles) etc etc.

I know i don't have much free time as i used to back then (with a job and 2 active bands around), but somehow games don't bring me that much excitement any more

Feels like i've seen them all

[Ninja Dodo]

That sense of wonder can be hard to recapture. It's even worse if you're a developer... you often end up analyzing instead of enjoying.

Recently the only games that really grabbed me in that way were Shadow of the Colossus, Portal and the first Phoenix Wright... also parts of Assassin's Creed. There's something very special to having this all new world to explore.

[therabidfrog]

Originally Posted by sysryn

a brilliant topic!

When i just started PC gaming i had a P3 with 667mhz that could run
pretty much everything at that time. Funny thing is that each game i installed had that peculiar feeling of something "new", and something "exciting". Weather that is Red Alert, Age of empires, Diablo or Broken sword. I don't know if that has to do with age, but today i don't get that feeling any more.

Originally Posted by Ninja Dodo

That sense of wonder can be hard to recapture. It's even worse if you're a developer... you often end up analyzing instead of enjoying.

I absolutely agree and I think it does have something to do with age. Age and the fact that over time you get more jaded as you've seen formulas and ideas repeated, and wrapped in shinier packages.

It's kind of like when you were a little kid at Christmas (well if you were like me) you would lunge like a puma at your gifts and dismantle them will all due haste, but then you get older and you sort saunter over to the tree and slowly unwrap the first package, folding the wrapping, and then take your time to read the box before moving to the next present.

And I can defiantly imagine Ninja Dodo. It's got to be even worse for developers. Ahh to be a kid again.

[MdaG]

I've widen my interest as I've gotten older. When I once only played point and click adventures I now play everything except sports games.

My newly acquired favorite game is probably also my favorite game ever, Rock Band 2. It's just pure genius. It unfortunately costs a lot of money, but it sure gives loads of fun for months (and probably years) to come. Few things can beat an all nighter where you're a full band trying to gold star your favorite songs.

[QDream]

It changed kinda drastically over the past 3 years. I remember 3 years ago I was checking out almost every other adventure and fps game but for instance last year, I played like 2 games, one of them adventure - Sinking Island and I don't remember the other one but I deleted it right away.

Also there is a fact that my PC is very old now and maybe if I had a more up to date rig I'd check more games.

Right now I'm checking only for adventure games but given the fact that there are slim to none being released lately, gaming is extremely secondary in my list of hobbies

P.S. I'm 21

[Gabe]

As a vet. gamer i really enjoyed pc gaming last year after a long time,with lot of new titles like A.Creed, Mass E.,Witcher EE,Bioshock,HL2E2 that made me play second times and Nba 2k9 next-gen finally kicking.I agree that difficult to enjoy gaming over time but i think todays good games far more enjoyable with their atmosphere than pasts good games.

[JemyM]

As I have less time to play now than I used to, my interest in shorter and "easier to digest" games have increased. I tend to spare the longer titles until summer or winter when I have more time.

[therabidfrog]

Originally Posted by Gabe

As a vet. gamer i really enjoyed pc gaming last year after a long time,with lot of new titles like A.Creed, Mass E.,Witcher EE,Bioshock,HL2E2 that made me play second times and Nba 2k9 next-gen finally kicking.I agree that difficult to enjoy gaming over time but i think todays good games far more enjoyable with their atmosphere than pasts good games.

I definitely prefer modern productions values. Yes games are easier as some lament, but they're more enjoyable. Now that games have come so far there's not need to make a game incredibly difficult so that a two hour game takes two weeks to finish.

[ggreen737]

Yeah, the older I get the less variety of games I play in general. I know what I like, and I only want to "waste" my time on HIGH quality games.

[mszv]

I still like adventure games for the story, and for the going slow part, and I'll still play them sometimes. Sadly, I admit it - I don't like puzzles very much. I like the nintendo DS better for "point and click" - I don't know, it just seems funner. I still cheat and look up the solutions to the puzzles, mostly.

I also realized that I like games for being in the world, for who I meet, for what I find, for what happens, but I don't like what you have to do in a game, for the most part. I sort of like what you do in an RPG - since it's right on the screen and I can do it - casting a spell, wacking a sword. Action games don't work all that well for me (though perhaps they'd work better with a console) because I don't like to go that fast - and I'm sure not good at it.

I also discovered that I like being in world with actual people, on my terms. I like Guild Wars, an MMORPG (sort of) because there is a lot of instancing. I only meet people in the towns or my alliance guild halls. When I'm in an area solving a quest I'm by myself or with whoever I take with me, the area is "instanced" . It's not a common MMO design but it works for me, because there are people when I want to see them, but no one interferes with my fun.

I read about games, I talk about games, and I play games - trying to do more of that - but I'm really not that good a gamer. I don't think I ever was.

And - oh yeah - easy is fine with me. I am so OK with easy.

[ILoveYou]

I've totally given up on FPS genre in the past two years. And I've become more critical towards any game I'm playing but especially adventures. I'm more puzzle-orientated and find illogical puzzles very annoying. The genre being what it is, I've focused on finding classics I haven't played and re-playing some of my favorites every now and then instead of trying to find a good game in the endless pile of rubbish; the latest games.

I'm not a fanboy anymore either. I used to write the developers emails to tell them I really loved this and that and asked, no, begged they'd make a sequel. Usually they only got annoyed with it, so I gave up. Although it's quite funny when some of them make a statement saying that they're not going to make a sequel because they're taking a new direction, then a few years later they actually announce that the sequel is on it's way.

[MikeLXXXVIII]

Originally Posted by Ninja Dodo

I think for me it's been a combination of having less time overall and a considerable expanding of my interests.

Yeah I agree that it has something to do with that. Before I got hooked to the internet,music,instruments and other things I used to just play videogames in my sparetime or watch the tv. But nowadays I am mostly on the computer and ironically enough even if I don't feel like playing videogames as much as I used to I do check frequently videogame news/previews/videos . It is much easier to discuss games than to invest time in them!

Another problem is the availability to videogames today. I never had that many games at certain times but luckily when I had they were mostly excellent games. Maybe some due to luck (disney licensed capcom games were amazing at the time etc..), but the good thing back then was that every experience was new and always encouraged for multiple playthroughs. I have a problem with getting too many games and playing them at the same time which is not as fun as investing my time on just one. So it becomes like a forced habit that you have to run through one game in order to try out the thousands of others you have lying around. Patience has decreased too due to the fact I can get worn out by playing mainly one genre for 20 hours.

Truth be told I have been feeling nostalgia for old adventure games ,but when i am trying then out these days I am pissed off at the stupid puzzles and pixel hunting. What was once forgiven in the past due to the awesome story and presentation is a major drawback for the experience these days.

When going back to other classic games today it feels like a chore to play Super Mario Bros 3, which is probably my most played game ever. I never felt that way in the past even if I mastered the game. Nowadays when knowing almost everything about it, it is not as fun to play. Like if I play Super Adventure Island which I was never good at I found it much more enjoyable due to the fact that I wasn't that good at the game in the past.

So at times I wish I was like many new gamers today where everything becomes so magical. Magical experiences can still be felt today but to a lesser extent than in the past when you have already played one of the most groundbreaking amazing games ever.

So I try to look for unique gaming experiences these days.

When it comes to genres I haven't really abandoned many genres. I can still play all of them ,but there are some that I used to play more in the past like FPS. The same with platforming games ,but I am hardly to blame for the those genres losing their creative spark by becoming really generic and too basic for their own good.

In the end it seems the most enjoyment I get from games today is playing old never released outside japan fan translated rpgs from the snes era. Which is pretty sad to think about ,because these games don't cost a dime (out of production) compared to those new ones with a lack of quality. I still think older games had much better quality than these days (they took more chances). Graphics on steroids doesn't make games more fun.

I suppose I shouldn't forget to say that I have become a portable gamer by the years and lost faith in the console market.