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is gaming going downhill or am I growing up?


Iamdan

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Over the years I have found that games I actually enjoy are becoming harder to find. I

Haven't payed for a game I haven't played first since css., because they're all so disappointing. (apart from tales of monkey island which was a day.1 buy because I'm a fanboy)

When I played games like monkey island, kotor and rayman 2 i couldn't wait to get back into it next when I stopped playing. I play most of the big titles and nowadays a struggle to find any that I can stand past a couple hours, let alone ones worth paying for.

 

Thinking back I'm struggling to think of 5 games released in the last 5 years that I enjoyed, yet my games folder is hundreds of gb.

 

 

This includes popular titles like oblivion, cod, bioshock, fallout 3, assassins creed etc that I couldn't play more than a few hours, so I'm wondering if it's me that's changed.

 

I guess I'm still chasing the old feeling I got when I played games like kotor, monkey island and hon.

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I feel the same way and even games that I enjoy, I only play for an hour, or two tops, and then put back down.

 

I think the reason (at least for me) is that I do more things these days. When I was a kid video games were all I did, and I played them constantly. Nowadays, my primary source of entertainment is music, then Magic, then facebook/TIF, then Stumpleupon, then other websites, and somewhere in there is video games. But it has to get balanced between all the other things I enjoy.

 

EDIT: That being said, Skyrim has gotten me more excited than any game in months. The last game I got super excited for was Pokemon White, which I played 100 hours in about a month and never touched again cause my friends stopped playing. But I always pours hours upon hours into Elder Scrolls games, so it will likely rekindle my love of gaming,

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I would put it as 60% nostalgia and 40% games getting worse. People change, tastes get more complex, and most importantly, the distribution of games got easier thanks to internet. Nowadays I can just youtube a walkthrogh in seconds and find out all about the game. But I remember before I had internet and knew how to download games, I would have to ask my mom to take me to the videogames store, sit in the back of the car, spend like half an hour in the store while my mom did the shopping, then read the entire box of the game, get home, read the manual while setting it up, and finally then playing it. It was almost impossible not to enjoy it.

 

Nowadays, I just set up a download in less than 10 minutes, leave it downloading overnight and ta-da I got the game. I'll play it for 20 minutes, get borred, uninstall. I'm pretty sure that if my memories got erased and someone gave me Ocarina of Time, I would end up dropping it before getting past the deku tree. It's not that the game is any different, its just that we've come to expect too much from them, which in result had the devs playing it safe with generic shooters.

I hope I didn't' ramble too much and that you get my point.

 

@Boros: Yeah, I upgraded my pc almost solely for Skyrim. There aren't many games that had me hyped for them like it.

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They are not going "downhill", it's just them evolving into something different and you having more responsibilitiesless free-time than before. There are as much great experiences this generation as during the previous ones, if not more. Plus, due to the internet, you can find games that match your own style of paying easier, n contrast to older times when you had to "take a chance" by buying something you were not sure what it was.

 

Plus, the boom of western games really helped push the industry forward, for better or for worse. Gaming is fine, people are just growing up.

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I don't think it has anything to do with growing up. As saying that makes it seem like those of us (like myself) who do play video games on a daily basis aren't mature, etc...(for the record, I'm 21). I'd have to agree with Boros in that gaming seems that way to you because you have more interests and most likely have several more hobbies than you once did back in "those days". This means, less time for video games, as well as leaving a sense of not wanting to play them as much if you enjoy your other activities as well (maybe even more so than gaming).

 

I used to play Runescape for a couple years, and I played often. My only form of excersize was my daily run. Same with when I played WoW for a year. Eventually I did get tired of both games, and just stuck to my ps3. A short while after getting the ps3 though, I got into learning industrial dance. So for the past 2 years, I've done far less gaming than I used to do.

 

tl;dr, More activities that catch your interest cause a decrease in wanting to game. Same happened to me when I picked up industrial dance. I play less than half as much as I use to.

"Don't get in my face, don't invade my space. I'll put you in your place.

I'll only tell you once, I'll never tell you twice. This is me being nice." ~Porcelain and the Tramps

 

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is gaming going downhill?

Yes.

 

Costs too much, companies are milking the crap out of them, and single player campaigns suck nowadays.

 

The most important feature in games I look at are replay value. Only a few single player games can do that for me now. Most linar-storyline RPG type ones end too quickly.

"The cry of the poor is not always just, but if you never hear it you'll never know what justice is."

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is gaming going downhill?

Yes.

 

Costs too much, companies are milking the crap out of them, and single player campaigns suck nowadays.

 

 

And this is also true. CoD: Black Ops is a very good example of this. I do however like to think there are a good deal of companies that don't do this though. But, with the concept of DLC being born, gaming overall has changed forever I think. Now it's just whether the company overdoes it (like Treyarch) or are partially fair with it (Not Capcom in general, but Street Fighter 4 is actually relatively fair).

 

I'm sure there are other examples of fair and unfair DLC milking, but those are just 2 games I personally own.

"Don't get in my face, don't invade my space. I'll put you in your place.

I'll only tell you once, I'll never tell you twice. This is me being nice." ~Porcelain and the Tramps

 

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is gaming going downhill?

Yes.

 

Costs too much, companies are milking the crap out of them, and single player campaigns suck nowadays.

 

 

And this is also true. CoD: Black Ops is a very good example of this. I do however like to think there are a good deal of companies that don't do this though. But, with the concept of DLC being born, gaming overall has changed forever I think. Now it's just whether the company overdoes it (like Treyarch) or are partially fair with it (Not Capcom in general, but Street Fighter 4 is actually relatively fair).

 

I'm sure there are other examples of fair and unfair DLC milking, but those are just 2 games I personally own.

Fair would be if it actually adds great new features, such as the Fallout New Vegas DLCs (but not at those prices). Unfair would be like map-packs, which should of been included with vanilla. Adding them in free DLCs would be the next fair thing.

 

 

Either way, if kids can beg their parents to buy them this crap, companies are going to respond by raising the price on DLCs and games themselves. The ones to blame here are the "gamers": people who buy buy buy and don't really give a damn about it. My friends' little brother, for instance, asks his parents to buy all the special edition crap, DLCs, strategy guides, etc., and for what? The story and artistic elements of a game completely bypasses him and all he ever talks about is game mechanics and achievements, rating them as "totally awesome" or "sucks".

 

It's pretty much the same as people judge/analyze an entire movie on it's acting cast. Directors or writers? Nope. Story, concepts, teachings? Even less.

"The cry of the poor is not always just, but if you never hear it you'll never know what justice is."

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is gaming going downhill?

Yes.

 

Costs too much, companies are milking the crap out of them, and single player campaigns suck nowadays.

 

 

And this is also true. CoD: Black Ops is a very good example of this. I do however like to think there are a good deal of companies that don't do this though. But, with the concept of DLC being born, gaming overall has changed forever I think. Now it's just whether the company overdoes it (like Treyarch) or are partially fair with it (Not Capcom in general, but Street Fighter 4 is actually relatively fair).

 

I'm sure there are other examples of fair and unfair DLC milking, but those are just 2 games I personally own.

Fair would be if it actually adds great new features, such as the Fallout New Vegas DLCs (but not at those prices). Unfair would be like map-packs, which should of been included with vanilla. Adding them in free DLCs would be the next fair thing.

 

 

Either way, if kids can beg their parents to buy them this crap, companies are going to respond by raising the price on DLCs and games themselves. The ones to blame here are the "gamers": people who buy buy buy and don't really give a damn about it. My friends' little brother, for instance, asks his parents to buy all the special edition crap, DLCs, strategy guides, etc., and for what? The story and artistic elements of a game completely bypasses him and all he ever talks about is game mechanics and achievements, rating them as "totally awesome" or "sucks".

 

It's pretty much the same as people judge/analyze an entire movie on it's acting cast. Directors or writers? Nope. Story, concepts, teachings? Even less.

 

 

I personally see nothing wrong with special editions and the sort. It's when, as you said, a game like CoD puts out map-packs back to back to back to back as they are doing and charging for it. lol.

 

Also, when it comes to movies, acting has to be decent. If you aren't looking for the acting (on top of other concepts in the movie), just read a book.

"Don't get in my face, don't invade my space. I'll put you in your place.

I'll only tell you once, I'll never tell you twice. This is me being nice." ~Porcelain and the Tramps

 

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I personally see nothing wrong with special editions and the sort. It's when, as you said, a game like CoD puts out map-packs back to back to back to back as they are doing and charging for it. lol.

This. But they know people will buy it, so it probably won't change any time soon :wall:

It's probably a combination of both growing older and games changing/getting worse. Online multiplayer is in now, and if you don't play online, you lose. Story often takes a backseat to multiplayer these days as well.

Either way, we're going to remember the games that got us into gaming a lot more fondly than any new game today.

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I think it's mostly just you growing up or growing out of games. Perhaps it could also be an interest/preference issue. Maybe the games don't suck, they're just not releasing many that cater to your preference or play style. It's true there are a lot of crap/clone games out there so that is part of the problem, but I wouldn't say it's the primary reason.

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The whole creative thought process they once used to craft classics has been replaced with profit formulas. "What sells?" I don't know, retards... how about giving the audience something that hasn't been replicated in the same old stale fashion 100+ times.

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The whole creative thought process they once used to craft classics has been replaced with profit formulas. "What sells?" I don't know, retards... how about giving the audience something that hasn't been replicated in the same old stale fashion 100+ times.

I agree, which (IMO) is why MineCraft has been so successful. It's radically different from other things on the market.

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I've noticed that the older I get and the busier I get the less time I have to put into playing video games. As a result you tend to be very selective about which games you purchases because you want to maximize your experience. So opposed to when I was in high school when I used to purchase almost everything that came out, nowadays I only pick up the best of the best.

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I would put it as 60% nostalgia and 40% games getting worse. People change, tastes get more complex, and most importantly, the distribution of games got easier thanks to internet. Nowadays I can just youtube a walkthrogh in seconds and find out all about the game. But I remember before I had internet and knew how to download games, I would have to ask my mom to take me to the videogames store, sit in the back of the car, spend like half an hour in the store while my mom did the shopping, then read the entire box of the game, get home, read the manual while setting it up, and finally then playing it. It was almost impossible not to enjoy it.

 

Nowadays, I just set up a download in less than 10 minutes, leave it downloading overnight and ta-da I got the game. I'll play it for 20 minutes, get borred, uninstall. I'm pretty sure that if my memories got erased and someone gave me Ocarina of Time, I would end up dropping it before getting past the deku tree. It's not that the game is any different, its just that we've come to expect too much from them, which in result had the devs playing it safe with generic shooters.

I hope I didn't' ramble too much and that you get my point.

 

@Boros: Yeah, I upgraded my pc almost solely for Skyrim. There aren't many games that had me hyped for them like it.

 

Ahh i remember the good ol days of using strategy guides and friends to beat games. Now it's all about Gamefaqs.

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In my opinion, the Gaming industry is just going through an evolution like the Music Industry is.

 

All of the big companies are waiting for the next big thing in terms of console power, whereas they should be focusing more, again in my opinion, on developing unique game play experiences.

 

It also doesn't help when consoles are underestimated or given a certain stereotype on its games. Means a lot of great games go missed for years.

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  • 6 months later...

Well, you certainly aren't growing up, so I guess that just leaves the latter option, doesn't it?

 

Seriously, if you're having trouble finding pleasure in games, look somewhere else. I grew up on titles like Sly Cooper, Jak and Daxter, and Ratchet and Clank. Since these games defined gaming for me, nothing will ever really touch the other-worldly satisfaction I got from them. Even playing Runescape as a kid was pretty amazing, if only because it was an entirely new experience.

 

That's the thing, though - if you really want to have fun, try something completely different. I spent a long time fooling around with these arcade-style, community driven games (TF2, Wii with my bros) before recently stumbling across an opportunity to use a PS3, where I discovered some quality in a return to the powerful plot-driven games I loved so much when I was younger. Recently, I've been no-lifing the new Batman game and loving it. Soon, I hope to get Heavy Rain, as it strikes me as gaming's doorway into the fine art world. Really, it's the excitement of something different that drives me.

 

This is why people who play these repetitive games (MW, MW2, MW3, gimme a break) claim gaming is going downhill. Of course it's stale. Take a risk. Try something new.

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You just bumped a year old topic Dupin. Shame on you.

 

Though seriously as you get older your tastes mature. Even my favorite game, Chrono Trigger, seems relatively simple by today's standards. Stories have evolved, graphics have gotten better, games have gotten longer, systems have got more powerful, and gameplay has changed. If I was just looking at it today for the first time, I doubt i'd have been so taken with it, i'd have seen it before. But back in like '99 when I first played it, it was amazing, it was new, and i'd never seen anything near that level. Though it's still an amazing game to me and no game has oust-ed it as my favorite game so far.

 

Part of it is nostalgia, but part of it is also, not gaming going downhill, but gaming stagnating.

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