Is it me, or the industry?

[Deleted]

Hi there,

I'm in this situation that some of you may have experienced, or are experiencing atm.
I'm in my early 20's, i've been playing quite a lot of video games since i was a kid, starting at +/- 1995.
I used to LOVE video games, spending hours and hours on my nintendo 64, ps1, ps2, then on PC.
I loved the feeling i got when (for example) i was in school and i knew in like 2 hours i would play pokemon for the entire evening.

But today...i don't have this feeling anymore.

I'm desperatly trying to, but I don't find any game that gives me this feeling again.

The thing is : I really want to play, I would love to find a fantastic video game, but i don't...

Every time a new game comes out and people are soooo excited about it, i'm like "meh...".
I won't go into details about each game, but i find today games as a whole boring, too easy, badly designed, where money takes a too big spot.

So my question is : did i grow up too much to play video games, or has the industry changed too much for me?
And if you know this kind of situation, do you know any game that could make me a 10 year old boy again?

People seem to be really excited about Guild Wars 2, but...after Aion, Rift, SWTOR all failing to beat WoW, i'm really skeptical.

[Newbryn]

I would say its a bit of both, I get the same feeling nowadays its hard for me to find a game that holds my attention, add to that I also feel the quality of games are declining.

[Deleted]

I'd hazard a guess that you're just burnt out, it's pretty common.

Take a break from video-games for a while and focus on a different hobby while your tolerance lowers.

If you don't have another hobby now is a great time to get one, reading and exercising are pretty baller as are instruments.

[Bitehattori]

http://snesbox.com/

and

http://nesbox.com/ - free to play and free to sign up. no downloading

Maybe you'll rekindle your memories here.

[Deleted]

It's the industry.

I've spent 5 years with NES in my childhood (23 atm). And i have the cure for your problems. Game Boy games. Yes, Game Boy...
GBC, GBA, GB games are awesome, try them with emulator.

Try indie Games - SPAZ, Starscape, Bastion, Terraria.

Good games are out there, believe me, its just that mainstream industry became pile of shit.

[Thelxi]

I feel like games in general don't feel as fresh and progressive visually as they did then.

[Newbryn]

I feel like games in general don't feel as fresh and progressive visually as they did then.

To add to this I don't care for aesthetics in current games anymore, I want something visually unique but yet stunning, realism in characters just isn't interesting to me anymore.

[Xalzel]

Games are just not the same. I still find my self playing Starcraft and my old PS2 games more than the new games I buy. Not sure why that is but that's just me.

[Deleted]

It's funny because I got that childish feeling last time when I downloaded monkey island 2 and 1 for my phone. And no, I hadn't actually played them before so it wasn't really nostalgia. Well, a bit because I guess the feeling of the games reminds me of the 90s.
Before that I think it was Red Dead Redemption who made me really feel. So I'd say it's generally the industry's fault. Game nowadays, just generally speaking, feel somehow less artistic. I know how you feel

[Gothicshark]

Hi there,

I'm in this situation that some of you may have experienced, or are experiencing atm.
I'm in my early 20's, i've been playing quite a lot of video games since i was a kid, starting at +/- 1995.
I used to LOVE video games, spending hours and hours on my nintendo 64, ps1, ps2, then on PC.
I loved the feeling i got when (for example) i was in school and i knew in like 2 hours i would play pokemon for the entire evening.

But today...i don't have this feeling anymore.

I'm desperatly trying to, but I don't find any game that gives me this feeling again.

The thing is : I really want to play, I would love to find a fantastic video game, but i don't...

Every time a new game comes out and people are soooo excited about it, i'm like "meh...".
I won't go into details about each game, but i find today games as a whole boring, too easy, badly designed, where money takes a too big spot.

So my question is : did i grow up too much to play video games, or has the industry changed too much for me?
And if you know this kind of situation, do you know any game that could make me a 10 year old boy again?

People seem to be really excited about Guild Wars 2, but...after Aion, Rift, SWTOR all failing to beat WoW, i'm really skeptical.

Ok a couple of things, as we get older and more responsible games in general lose appeal. This is normal and natural. The second thing I see here are a few expectations which are false. All games are for entertainment, they should be fun first. If you are maturing then games in general will not be as much fun as you where as a child. The next false expectation is that to be a successful and good game it has to some how hurt World of Warcraft. Which is just wrong. Think of it like this, For red bull to be a successful cola company Coca cola has to go bankrupt. /facepalm No Aion, Rift and SWTOR are the three top MMOs in the American and European Markets if World of Warcraft is not counted. They are all good games with appeal to a lot of people and they are making a lot of money.

So no Games are not any better or worse now than compared to the 90's when you ask a small child for an opinion. However you have gotten older and will not be able to feel the same way you did then.

[Chirri]

"Big" games are trying to please too many people.

Smaller, more specialized games ... well, they're only trying to please a certain type of player. And some of them deliver.

Blizzard's proven that video games actually can go mainstream (never mind all of the other MMO games for the masses like Farmville - because those count too!). A lot of companies want to cash in on that, but to do so they're having to shift their focus.

I enjoy games that give me more of a challenge, and many mainstream games don't have that. Sadwarrior and Bitehattori have a point - look to the games that aren't being marketed shotgun style, but rather sniper style.

Taking a break wouldn't hurt, either. ^_~ I've been reading a lot more again after scouring Amazon for free Kindle books and getting 2 free books through a publisher's promotion.

[Dedweight]

I'd say it's a bit of both, some people just grow out of some hobbies while others get burned out or bored for various reasons, one of which may simply be the industry not coming out with any really interesting products. I've been there, in fact I think I still am in a way, there's very few games that make me excited to purchase or hold my interest for more than a few hours.

People seem to be really excited about Guild Wars 2, but...after Aion, Rift, SWTOR all failing to beat WoW, i'm really skeptical.

Might be a stupid question but why does a game have to "beat" another within the same genre? Can't say much about Aion but Rift(the little I played during beta) and SWTOR are/were both great games and for those looking forward to GW2 I really hope it turns out as well as they hope(hype can really be a bitch sometimes).

It's the industry.

I've spent 5 years with NES in my childhood (23 atm). And i have the cure for your problems. Game Boy games. Yes, Game Boy...
GBC, GBA, GB games are awesome, try them with emulator.

Try indie Games - SPAZ, Starscape, Bastion, Terraria.

Good games are out there, believe me, its just that mainstream industry became pile of shit.

Also this, minus the emulator/roms assuming you have a few hundred dollars to spare of course, some of the best old Nintendo console games can be purchased from the Wii or DSi+ systems Virtual Console.

For reference here's a list of games available on the Wii on the VC:

http://www.nintendo.com/games/gameGu...wnload=classic

I was actually considering purchasing a Wii just for the VC but with the Wii U on the way I decided to hold out for that in stead.

[Deleted]

Play some Rayman: Origins, it gave me a pretty hefty nostalgia hit.

But mostly it is just you, your standards were lower when you were younger and as a child you were more open to games. Games being the key way a child will learn fast, and as an adult you feel the need to learn lessen, and you also find it harder to do so, which makes it frustrating.

EDIT: In fact, Rayman: origins had me feeling exactly how the games of old made me feel (Me being 21 years old). My palms were sweaty, my only goal in life for the hours i took completing it was to finish the next level and do it in good time. This game I know will forever stand out in my mind as a modern classic (later to become a solid classic). You may experiance different results but if you liked old Sonic, Mario, Rayman or any side scroller then you will enjoy Rayman: Origins.

[Newbryn]

I miss my dreamcast and Ps2 its definitely not nostalgia had a blast with those 2 consoles, still have my original pso dreamcast disc.

[Digglett]

People seem to be really excited about Guild Wars 2, but...after Aion, Rift, SWTOR all failing to beat WoW, i'm really skeptical.

GW2 is not aiming to 'beat WoW' I really hate when people try to force this on EVERY MMO coming out, yes I realize some companies do that (I'm looking at Rift's campaign) but GW2 has no interest in "dethroning" WoW.

[Highangel]

still remember the first time playing Command & conquer, Half-life, Counter strike, Diablo, Starcraft, Call of Duty, Warcraft, Halo... nowadays it's all about sequels, or sometimes it feels like it. BF 3, D3, MW 5 ?, Resident Evil 6, Max Payne 3 and so on.....

Some of them are quality games, but it feels like you tried it all before, i wish there where more innovation and risk taking in the gaming industry, and not all about the money.

[Deleted]

The other thing that a LOT of players seem to forget is that they have, through experience become more fussy. Whilst I am not trying to say games these days are any where near perfect they are still a lot of great games.

People conveniently ignore ways games have improved when it suits them, you could draft quite a big list but some examples off the top of my head would be:
Storytelling, whilst generally not being on par with literary classics a lot of games rival films for storylines

Interaction - Even games that are said to be "on rails" often play like sandbox games in comparison to games I played as a child which would not even recognise parts of the environment as something the player's character was aware of.

Sound - World of warcraft has a great musical score and some of the effects pulled off by the audio engine in Battlefield 3 are extremely impressive on a good sound system.

Nostalgia - Seriously lets not forget this. The games you played as a kid looked terrible, a lot of them also had awful interfaces, dreadful AI and sound effects that make a cheap casio keyboard look like cutting edge kit. I still love Fallout 1 and 2 but I don't pretend that certain aspects of the game are outdated by todays standards

The main thing I am seeing these days is aspects of games that are horribly implemented/balanced and I just can't help shout at times "Did no one play test this? Was this not brought up as being massively unbalanced?"

As at least one other person mentioned Indy games are certainly a nice change of pace and can offer some freshness in terms if ideas. Bastion easily makes it into my top 5 games of all time.

Finally I do accept that certain aspects of the gaming industry these days can leave a sour taste in peoples mouths. Things like DLC, which to a large extent I would argue is akin to the expansion packs we used to happily pay for. I will not accept day 1 DLC but I do appreciated that games these days cost a tremendous amount of money to make in comparison to smash hits like Worms that came out of nowhere and cost next to nothing to make. I also say that intrusive DRM is unacceptable, I buy every game I play but refuse to buy games I may be locked out of without even playing.

Going to stop now at the risk of derailing the thread. Suffice to say I think people are too unforgiving of new games. Currently playing DayZ mod for Arma2 and despite being buggy(it is an alpha) is worth persevering through all the glitches. Especially given that it was developed by one person it gives a lot of hope for what modders can do when they put their minds to it.

[Wynnyelle]

GW2 is not aiming to 'beat WoW' I really hate when people try to force this on EVERY MMO coming out, yes I realize some companies do that (I'm looking at Rift's campaign) but GW2 has no interest in "dethroning" WoW.

Not sure why an MMO has to "beat" WoW to be considered a good game, anyway...

Anyway, OP, you should try some indie games. I've found a lot of great games through Steam that I normally wouldn't have known about because they aren't advertised nearly as heavily as say, Bioware, Blizzard, or Valve games are. Personally, I think the industry is fine and I'm still having a blast with games going on 20 years now. Try something you wouldn't normally try. You might like it.

Some examples of games I've played recently:
Terraria
Super Meat Boy
Binding of Isaac
Bastion
VVVVVV
BIT.TRIP RUNNER

All fantastic games. All cheap.

[Ferocity]

It's mainly due to industry. Good games are rare gems now.

There are some very good games out there (some are a bit old though), which are completely unknown to many players simply because of not enough marketing/advertisement being made for them (or because other game companies with their huge promotions simply pushed smaller game developers away from market). Same Arcanum - a lot of Fallout fans don't even know about existence of this game, and Fallout was made by some former Fallout developers.

And if you know this kind of situation, do you know any game that could make me a 10 year old boy again?

Runic Games are about to release Torchlight 2 (late July, early Autumn). It looks very warm, and made with heart (and some developers are former Diablo I, II developers), great ARPG, if you don't mind "cartoony" style. Wouldn't advice Torchlight 1 though, it is lacking in some departments (TL2 is great improvement in everything).

[Rukh]

One of the biggest things to me is games used to require a certain amount of imagination. Because the graphics weren't photo realistic, companies had to bridge that gap in other ways and fill in the rest with your imagination. And, it's hard to build a world as awesome as the one in your head.