Falling out of love with gaming

My new rule is basically zero tolerance for anything that pisses me off. I'm not going suffer through a game just to complete it. As a result I have started and dropped a shitload of games in the last year or two, especially when I wasn't playing any MMORPG and had a huge void that I didn't know how to fill. I think I have deleted more games than I have finished over the past few years.

For example, if I had actually bought Max Payne 3, I'd have taken a shit on the disc and set it on fire and probably been tempted to find a Rockstar employee and beat him to death with a tire iron for putting "Max Payne" on the box of that piece of shit frustrating cover shooter. Mists of Panderia would go in that pile as well, because WoW has become a bloated, overtuned rage-inducing shitfest that tries to equally appeal to complete idiots and raging hardcore neckbearded uberdorks and forgets about the middle. Most recently I tried the "GOTY" Walking Dead point and click adventure, which bored me to death and was deleted within an hour. Ditto KOA, Darksiders 2, Borderlands, and a bunch of emulated console games that were swiftly declared intolerable crap. (how people enjoy the modern Zelda games with those fuckawful controls I'll never understand) Diablo 3 taught me how much I absolutely loathe the entire item-farm genre, and SC2 taught me that I don't care enough to keep up with the nerds while also caring too much to simply suck at it and still enjoy it. I was quite good at Brood War but now I just don't want to research and practice and work just to get to the point where playing a game starts to get fun.

I have a hard time playing fps online now because years ago I would play them to death and could dominate a match, usually to the tune of 20:1 or even not die at all. New games of course don't allow that - if you happen to walk across the sights of a paraplegic blind retard that is randomly clicking his chin-stick you'll probably die. So the combination of unreasonably expecting to win all time because I was good in past games, combined with the new style of "die to any weapon in .25s" can quickly make them frustrating. It just depends - sometimes I can have a shit match where I'm middle of the pack and still have a great time and feel as though I played well. Other times I can be in the lead and still get pissed about some cheap death, and cheap deaths are a constant reality in modern fps so I just have to stop and do something else. BF3 especially just became intolerable - every map has a million exploit spots people camp in, and your own ability to do much of anything is dictated by the quality of your team as a whole. (aka, every server your join is a one-sided ass fucking and guess which side had the open slot. Better hope the server scrambles teams every round!)

So, yeah, gaming has definitely lost its magic.

Last MMO I really played was WoW for a few months towards the end of Cata. I have friends who still raid in wow regularly; but I really just don't care for that kind of gaming anymore. I have been on a bit of a retro kick for a while. I like strategy/tactical rpg's. So that almost forces me to go oldschool. Besides XCOM and the upcoming Shadowrun reboot, that genre has been pretty poorly represented. (I did fund project eternity and it looks really good so far) I have been looking through the indie files for decent throwbacks.

But time is also a factor. When I was a kid I would play the shit out of a game. Find everything, 100% completion. Now I don't have that kind of time. So I just putter with a game for a while, get maybe halfway through, drop it for a few months, come back to it and finally finish it. I almost never play games straight through anymore unless they are really short and heavily story driven.

I liked when PS2 first came out. Everyone was still in scrub armor and gear and there were just tons of people. I putter around in Path of Exile as well. But other than that I haven't really played too many multiplayer games lately.

This is one of those things that you think to yourself, and then you think if anyone else thinks the things that you think. I mean obviously games are doing well. They get released all the time, they keep making new ones, and more upstart companies show up every day. Someone is keeping these companies in business, but it sure as hell isn't me.

I can recall bringing my computer over to my buddy's house every single weekend for like two years straight. A lot of the time, I would just leave it over there. We would play UT, EQ (Sullon Zek for life), BF2, Counter Strike, Diablo II, and when WoW launched we would do that for 48 hour stretches every weekend. I went and joined the army, and when I came back there was like no motivation to do that again. Nothing fundamentally changed. Our schedules and living situations were exactly the same, but I had no desire to bring my box over to his house and play a game. We did it once more when BF3 launched, and had fun with that for a weekend (trying to rekindle the BF2 magic), but it vanished in a few days. Anymore when I go over to his house, we flop on the couch and watch internet videos on the TV, or maybe a SC2 stream on twitch. I've spent a lot of time thinking about why this happened. What changed about the gaming landscape to remove any and all desire to play games.

I haven't reached any solid conclusions, but one of the big factors to consider is gaming evolution. We went from Doom2 to Half-Life 2 in ten years. That's fucking huge. Now we sit here, 10 years after Half-Life 2, and almost nothing has changed. I know graphics get better, and people tuck neat mechanics here and there, but we're seeing a lot of stagnation in the various genres. And this is an across the board thing. I mean shit, the only new innovation to come out of the RPG genre in years is the ability to fuck some of your NPC comrades. One of the few new concepts to emerge in the last decade of gaming has been the DIY games. Minecraft and Terraria are the big names for those, and yes those games provide an awesome platform for messing around, adventuring, playing with friends, and the like, but the problem there is that YOU as the player need to bring your own motivation and goals to the table to play them, because they are inherently directionless. That can make it hard to play one when you're looking for something "fun" because it puts the impetus on you to make your own fun. By no means am I saying that player-generated content is a bad thing. Hell no, it's one of the freshest things to hit games in a while. Rather, I'm saying that it takes a special drive or mood to want to undertake your own project in those games, and that's not always what people are looking for during their play time.

Bottom line, this "feeling" that a lot of us have probably has to do with a combination of different effects. There needs to be something different, because games these days are just spinning their wheels. This isn't some old faggot rant about how things were better "in my day" because we didn't need more than 8 bits to have a good time. Quite the contrary. I hate all those shitty ass indie projects that purposefully pick 8-Bit to either strike a nostalgia gold mine, or because they were too fucking cheap to hire an artist. Innovation is hard, and you can see that by looking at the gaming landscape. Nothing has really broken out in the last 5 years or so to change the way people look at games. There are peaks on the timeline: Mario, Final Fantasy, Mortal Kombat, Doom, Half-Life, Diablo, EQ, Baldur's Gate, WoW, Minecraft, GTA IV. Your list may vary, but the point is that there were games that made you say "Woah, I didn't know they could do that..."

I haven't said those words in years.

Don?t be an MMO apologist and argue that games are great but we?re just getting older and have other responsibilities. That?s a BS excuse that?s only valid for some people. Objectively new MMOs suck or are just rehashes of ones we have already played. The fact that players now a days are fine with playing an MMO for a month or two then quitting because you?re getting your money?s worth is a sad reflection on the state of the industry.

The thing is, I still do have the time. But I get bored so fast, even when playing something I like.

Underjoyed_sl said:

Don't be an MMO apologist and argue that games are great but we're just getting older and have other responsibilities. That's a BS excuse that's only valid for some people. Objectively new MMOs suck or are just rehashes of ones we have already played. The fact that players now a days are fine with playing an MMO for a month or two then quitting because you're getting your money's worth is a sad reflection on the state of the industry.

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Objectively you are full of shit. They are absolutely better now. Rift is and always was 10times better then WoW was for years. You can make the arguement of wow being better then rift after 3(4?) expansions. but before that? hell no.
the state of the industry change is there are alternatives. you quit rift, and you have 20 other mmos you can try out. with a new one or two coming out every 3 months.

The problem is YOU as a gamer grew up. you dont play games in the same way anymore. As a mature gamer, you should be moving on to more robust games, tailored for your preferences. But for some reason, a great deal of people just seem to refuse to do that. they stick with mainstream only. and then wonder why mass market products don't cater to them.


It really is the "the world seemed better then. because you were twelve"

WoW, UO, EQ
you didn't know any better. The myriad of shitty design flaws, you put up with. you didnt know of better UI's yet. you didn't know about any number of the features any given game will have now.
Your friends were playing, and it was also their first mmo. This is the single biggest. Want to know why any given mmo fails to be WoW since wow? "you play what your friends play." But now you are older, they are older. Getting everyone together to play that new mmo just isn't going to happen anymore. between your personal lives.
But even new generation of gamers. Again, competition. with UO there was 1 other mmo, with EQ there was 3 other mmos. with Wow 6? today there are more like 40 mmos.

I'm on the same boat as the OP. However, I've found that I've been Roleplaying more and joining roleplay servers from the get go. I'll blow through the content and then settle down at a roleplay hot spot and chill with the non-Erping/Furry Rpers. I know it sounds kinda sissy, but it fills in what the main game is missing. 10 years ago you wouldn't catch me dead hanging around RPers.

I feel we're missing the communities we had of the early games like UO and EQ. The only way I've managed to get some of that feeling back is among roleplay communities. It's given reason to the gear I wear, the achievements I've accomplished and so on. Out on the normal game no one gives a shit what gear you have or what achievements you've made (aside from meta purposes such as gear score). Honestly, no one gives a shit about you. Pretty much everyone is out for themselves and it doesnt help that more games are catering to solo play. So the RP fills in where the community and game development lacks. Once the RP community dries up (or if a game lacks one), I pretty much move on.

STO kept me around for more than two years until I stopped playing as often do to work schedule issues. The RP groups in that game were awesome. Right now Neverwinter got my attention do to the foundry and the RP group I got involved with.

Adebisi_sl said:

Maybe we need to start a "new hobbies" thread.

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I'm a total retard when it comes to cars, never changed an oil filter and if you told me my engine needed a warp core overhaul I'd nod wisely and ask how much. Been thinking really hard of buying a scrapped 60s muscle car and rebuilding it, downloading tons of car show how-to torrents and working with a contractor to build a massive workshop/mancave on 5 free acres on my property. Be something really fun to do with one of my kids too if they get into cars. So yeah, maybe new hobbies is definitely the way to go, it excites me way more than Wildstar or PS4.

Mid 20s were a turning point for me with games. For the past 5 years, I definitely don't get sucked in the way I used to. Typically I'll play a game till I get what it is about and what it brings to the table.. and then move on. I don't think this is an MMO thing either, as I get way less sucked into single player games as well. I have plenty of time, but have been spending more of that doing various other hobbies while spending maybe a small fraction of my time online.

There will typically be 1-2 games that I will actually play a decent amount each year (20-50 hours) and then 10 games I'll play for a couple hours and that's pretty much it. My sister bought me Dishonored for Xmas and it seemed like a great game.. but after 1.5 hours I felt like I knew what was coming and haven't opened the game up again. Torchlight 2 was fun for 3-4 hours, Guild Wars 2 maybe 10 or so (hype/excitement carried me for a while). I've spent more time playing summoner wars on my ipad against people online than any game but Path of Exile this year. Hell, more than any game last year as well except for XCom.

Games were also a bit of an escape for me when I was feeling depressed at times when I was younger. Now I understand myself better and know how to avoid that (eat right, vitamin D, some other things) so I don't need the escape and don't go into video games nearly as deeply.

Vilgan_sl said:

Mid 20s were a turning point for me with games. For the past 5 years, I definitely don't get sucked in the way I used to. Typically I'll play a game till I get what it is about and what it brings to the table.. and then move on. I don't think this is an MMO thing either, as I get way less sucked into single player games as well. I have plenty of time, but have been spending more of that doing various other hobbies while spending maybe a small fraction of my time online.

There will typically be 1-2 games that I will actually play a decent amount each year (20-50 hours) and then 10 games I'll play for a couple hours and that's pretty much it. My sister bought me Dishonored for Xmas and it seemed like a great game.. but after 1.5 hours I felt like I knew what was coming and haven't opened the game up again. Torchlight 2 was fun for 3-4 hours, Guild Wars 2 maybe 10 or so (hype/excitement carried me for a while). I've spent more time playing summoner wars on my ipad against people online than any game but Path of Exile this year. Hell, more than any game last year as well except for XCom.

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I think this sums up my habits as of late almost perfectly. I've noticed a gradual trend of wanting to "game" less and less over the past 3 or so years. Every now and then a game will come along that can suck me in for 20+ hours, but they are very few and far between. On the MMO side, a large part of it is due to the fact that they require basically 0 social interaction anymore. I don't want that shit to be "forced" on the player at all(I've railed against it numerous times on RR and FoH), but MMOs nowadays literally never require you to engage another player at all. It isn't really a social experience anymore, it's almost purely a "gaming" experience, and most of these games absolutely suck. On the single-player side of things, it's more a case of games just not being what they were. The lore isn't as good, gameplay isn't as exciting, worlds not as engrossing, etc. I tend to get bored with them rather quickly.

On top of all that, you have the fact that as we get older and priorities change and shift, we just aren't using them as our only "free-time" activity anymore. There's actually an entire world out there to see, other things to do. And I'm the type of guy that once I set down a game for longer than a few days, I'll likely never come back to it. Every now and again I can, but once I put it down, I usually never pick it back up.

My gaming habits have changed greatly then when I was younger. I used to tear into every single player game and would beat it. Now I never game by myself. I always play with people in MMO's and always have fun no matter the flaws of the game. The only single player games that I play are usually those with stories like Mass Effect . Those are more like interactive movies then actual games for me. I can understand why most gamers are jaded. I just think too many people are trying to recapture their youth and nothing a game company can do will satisfy them.

I am enjoying the trend of more sandbox type games like Minecraft. I think these games will end up appealing more and more to the aging gamer. Games on rails just don't cut it anymore for most people in their 30's and 40's.

chorboy_sl said:

I'm 18 and have been in out and of different mmo's vindictus,eq2,guildwars,diablo,wow... they all fucking suck.

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I feel so bad for you.

I have played more board games with close friends in the past 4-5 months (Puerto Rico, Dominion, Ascension, 7 Wonders, Agricola, etc) than video games by far. I think there is just such an over saturation and over hype of everything that comes out, that there's no real way your expectations can be met, and you're let down in some form or another (for most games anyway). At least we're saving money on all the new games out there.

I have been playing really casually on the Emerald Dream Vanilla WoW server, other than that its just NBA 2k13, GTA 4 and recently started a fresh L.A. Noir. Really waiting for GTA 5 to come out, only game I care about getting.

I fall in love with all the walkthrough videos on youtube, that is it, lol.

Kreugen_sl said:

The thing is, I still do have the time. But I get bored so fast, even when playing something I like.

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Yup, my attention span isn't what it used to be. Also, I tend to hate most grinds. I actually have far more time today than when I played EQ. There's just nothing that gives me the desire to play until 2 AM.

The only recent RPG that I've played more than once and enjoyed was Dark Souls. This is interesting because I really didn't care for Demon's Souls. It also isn't revolutionary, but somehow it clicked with me. The 4X games all suck now. Civ 5 is fun but bores me to tears after beating it 50 different ways. Tropico 2,3,4 were all briefly fun but now seem tedious. RTS all bore the fuck out of me. Korea take them all.

All MMOs seem like grindy carrot on a stick rinse and repeat adventures. When I get the urge to play one I login to the plethora of F2P for an hour here or there, or better just come here and listen to Ut tell me they all suck over and over and it kills the urge.

I tend to read a lot more and just download series to watch via Netflix or Amazon. Find me an MMO experience better than watching Game of Thrones, and I might be excited to play it.

Caliane_sl said:

Objectively you are full of shit. They are absolutely better now. Rift is and always was 10times better then WoW was for years.

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Rift literally put me to sleep while playing the game. I couldn't wait to stop playing that game after forcing myself to play up to level 20 to give it a chance. I'm still amazed it did as well as it did. (retaining about 40% of its subs after a year) I guess a bug free client and polished UI pays off. But I play games for the gameplay, not for pretty menus.

Adding one or two gimmicks on top of a WoW clone still makes it a WoW clone. 10 times better? You are subjectively full of shit.

Caliane_sl said:

you quit rift, and you have 20 other mmos you can try out. with a new one or two coming out every 3 months.

The problem is YOU as a gamer grew up. you dont play games in the same way anymore. As a mature gamer, you should be moving on to more robust games, tailored for your preferences. But for some reason, a great deal of people just seem to refuse to do that. they stick with mainstream only. and then wonder why mass market products don't cater to them.

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20 other WoW clones you mean. They are all crap. Please do tell me where I can find the EQ 1 classic successor that is so tailored to my preferences.

Caliane_sl said:

It really is the "the world seemed better then. because you were twelve"

WoW, UO, EQ
you didn't know any better. The myriad of shitty design flaws, you put up with. you didnt know of better UI's yet. you didn't know about any number of the features any given game will have now.
Your friends were playing, and it was also their first mmo.

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The only games since WoW classic that I really got into for more than a month were classic EQ emus/eqmac and diablo 2 ladder resets. (and d3 for 3 months only because I was making money) The nostalgia argument is complete nonsense. When I first started up on p99, I played that game hardcore for almost a year. It was far more entertaining than any modern game I've played. Then again on red99 for a few months, then eqmac for another few months. EQclassic.org's emu is the only game I'm looking forward to right now aside from maybe EQN.

The 'new features' you would claim I wouldn't live without are features that are complete deal breakers for me. I refuse to play a game with instancing, dungeon finder, etc. If the game makes me click on NPCs with !s over their heads who tell me to click on sparkly shit on the ground and reward me with a +X gooder item that had nothing to do with the 'quest' then I refuse to play it. Now go ahead and tell me I'm a tiny masochistic minority because I don't like what you do.