do you find it difficult to get into games? I’ve got Epic Games and Steam Games libraries chock-full of classic top-tier games along with many other newer games like Stray or 2077, and a bunch of indie titles. I just can’t be bothered to download and install them, much less try to get into the characters and storylines. Used to be I couldn’t wait to see what happened in the story, what new items you could collect, what new worlds the developers had created. Not anymore. I return to playing the same franchise for a quick FPS match or three and then I’m done.
Same here. Time is just more valuable now. Hopping into a few quick rounds just feels easier than starting something up and getting halfway through the beginning tutorial, before being interrupted by the kids or wife, and then feeling like you just wasted the hour or so you had to spare, because you didn’t even start playing the actual game yet.
Yup, the only game I play right now is factorio and that was a mistake. Staying up after the kids fell asleep and magically it’s 4 hrs later. PC broke and I’m finally getting proper sleep. Should have stuck with slay the spire and other 1 hr run type games
Exactly. I know I only have like an hour tops before need to do something and it’s just not enough time to truly immerse myself so I end up not even want to start the game.
Now I’m wondering when I’ll be 50 and the kids will be gone and have time again to play 8-10 hours straight. Maybe then.
The older I get, I find that I tend to default to two things:
- Games that I’ve played before that help me turn my brain off. Kind of like a form of meditation.
- Games that have a mechanic or a story that is genuinely new or engaging.
Same as above, as a kid (80s) games were new and interesting, even shovelware games you would get for free on C64 mags were interesting.
Over the years games have just become more and more streamlined, and action focused, it’s basically like Hollywood now where they just churn out nice looking mediocre films to make money.
The 2nd point though js why I responded as I really agree with the point on something new being what makes games interesting now. They don’t even have to be amazing, just offer a new experience.
For example when Dayz came out, that was a nice breath of fresh air, every time I loaded up the game with friends I never knew what was going to happen. Same sort of thing with Phasmophobia, was genuinely amazing for the first week we played it, just nothing else like it. Now you can’t move for DayZ style games or Phasmo ripoffs.
I am bored of playing the same sort of stuff, like I’m bored watching super hero movies, I want new experiences (VR has some good experiences).
For me, I’d like to add “games that let you set your own pace and objective and let you achieve things your own way” (obviously something like Minecraft, but I also enjoyed Tears Of The Kingdom because of that)
Or, if multi-player: Be co-op, make me do some crazy shit and make me laugh (e.g. Human Fall Flat)
I’m playing Tears of the Kingdom now and it’s the only game that’s kept my attention since Dark Souls 3. I am not generally a fan of open world games. Even as a huge souls fan I didn’t really care for Elden Ring. But this Zelda game is incredible. There is so much more going on than I expected and it is just plain fun.
My tastes have definitely changed.
I’m old and I’m busy. I don’t have time for fetch quests that are uninspired time sinks. I don’t have time to play through a game with janky mechanics just for a few bright spots. I don’t have time to farm repetitive shit just so I can do X thing.
I’ve found that most AAA games care more about the time you spend playing rather than whether the game is fun or not. Diablo IVs rapid fall from grace is a prime example of this. This will not stop; it is the end point of the business model. A fun game that people sink 40 hours into and drop is much less profitable than a mid-game that demands a perpetual 10 hours per week.
Others have already hit on it, but my best gaming experiences in recent years have been games that I didn’t buy on release and only found through online word of mouth and hype.
I kinda miss the nintendo/super nintendo times, where a friend would come over and you’d hand him a controller and then you would start playing. Gaming these days is more like: bro the game is cheap. Oh yes i forgot, you need these two dlc’s to play the good stuff, don’t worry, once you hit level 15 i’ll be good i swear, all we have to do is to grind a few levels by playing the same.thing over and over, but i swear, i will ve really good soon.
Years ago I made the decision to never play a game on launch, never buy a game full price, never play a game just because it was on the online buzz.
I decide what to play usually days in advance, carve out a chunk of my recreation time to explicitly play, as if it were going to a movie or a party with friends. It’s like a date with the game. I block a couple of hours to it. If the game is good, it will get a second date, if it bored me, we would break up.
I don’t buy on sales pressure either. If I decide I want to play a game, I would wait to buy it on the historical cheapest price. Only then would the game get schedule time to get played. That keeps the FOMO away.
It has made gaming super enjoyable and no longer the dopamine chase that publishers want to make to milk the most money out of me. As a result I usually enjoy my time way more, play older games more frequently, not out of nostalgia but because I never played then. I also spend less money, which lowers stress and anxiety. As a result I haven’t played a AAA game in a long while.
Time is scheduled for a game on what I’m interested in right now. But since the decision is always for a time far away in the future (up to a week in advance) I can make a more directed and intentional decision. Some weeks it’s thematic, some weeks it’s just genre based. Some weeks are retro. Some weeks are for comfort. All with small and concrete goals for each.
Yup. Just finally played through Skyrim, and starting fallout 3. They’ve been fun. Honestly didn’t game for the better part of the last 15 years, work and kids. Sunk hundreds of hours on Skyrim now done, fallout totally different and a predecessor yet familiar.
I go by the same rule, basically if people can still play and talk about something 10 years later it’s actually good.
