Does anyone feel this way about games?

[piemeup]

Over many, many years, we all have played hundreds of games, some good, some bad, and some are the most amazing thing you will ever play.

I used to find video games as a place where I could escape to have fun with programmed AI, But for some reason, it's just not the same any more. Does anyone have a feeling like this? Where new games are just first person shooters and games that can't hold attention? I bought Skyrim when it came out, I played it for a while but... something about it, just did not hold my attention. I mean, The game is great but, I just can't play it.

A lot of you will probably be like "SKYRIM IS THE BEST!" or "You just haven't given it enough time," but it is like this with other games, But I won't go into that I want to cut it short.

To sum up what I am saying is, Do you feel no fun/joy in gaming? I remember, One of my all time favourite games Animal Crossing (Game Cube) I used to play that game every day, I would wake up early to play it, I would go have fun it was amazing, But modern day games don't have that same feel, Anyone else feel that way?

Thanks for reading this and giving your own opinion. (If You Do)

 

[twocows]

No. There are still good games and bad games, and I still enjoy the good ones. I usually make a judgment call a few hours in as to whether I want to continue playing. As long as I'm able to have a lot of fun in some way, I'll usually keep playing.

With Skyrim specifically (and other Bethesda games), I can't play it without warping around using the console or it gets boring fast. Even fast travel's not enough for me; I'm the kind of person who needs constant action in a game. Call it a short attention span or whatever, I just can't be bothered to walk from A to B for 20 minutes just for one quest.

Most other genres have constant action so it's not a problem. RTS, FPS; even turn-based strategy games don't really have any down time unless you're playing with friends (and then the social aspect makes up for it). Older RPGs had random battles which also prevented downtime. It's just these latest open world RPGs where it seems to be a problem. Maybe it wouldn't be as bad if there were a lot more enemies on the map? I don't know.

Animal Crossing is a completely different genre. I'd say it's more similar to World of Warcraft than to Skyrim, though there are some similarities I guess. It shares a lot of the "mental trickery" that WoW uses to keep people drawn in; namely, collecting a ton of stuff and social pressure. Collecting stuff appeals to human nature. We love gathering up stuff because in the past, gathering a lot of useful stuff helped us to survive. It's evolutionary imperative. And the social aspect makes us feel bad if we try to leave; we feel like we're letting our friends down. Both Animal Crossing and WoW emphasize getting complete collections of things that take forever to accomplish and have the "friend" aspect where you feel like you're letting "friends" (fake ones in the case of AC) down if you leave.

Also, don't take that as an insult; all games are using some sort of mental tricks to keep you drawn in. I'm just saying the sort AC and WoW uses are very similar. Personally, I got sick of both AC and WoW pretty quickly. For whatever reason, I'm not big on collecting stuff for the sake of collecting it. I tend to do achievements (another "collectible"-type thing), but only because the process of getting the achievement is usually fun in itself to me. For instance, in AC, I got all the NES games because I like NES games. In WoW, I did a number of achievement things because stuff like getting a raid together to attack Stormwind is fun. I think the only game I ever got 100% achievements on was Portal. I just use achievements as a guide to fun things I can try once I've beaten the game. I usually get sick of WoW once I finish all the raid content, then come back for like a month or so when the next expansion or a few major patches come out.

I guess I went off on quite a tangent, but I didn't really know what else to say other than "no, I still feel joy in gaming." Heck, I got a new computer a few weeks ago after my laptop broke and I've been doing pretty much nothing but playing games for the past two and a half weeks straight.

 

[Luck]

I find games harder to enjoy overall since becoming overly critical of them, but I still have plenty of fun with great games. I did definitely go through that period of NO FUN ALLOWED, but you'll get over it.

 

[shininglatios217]

Strangely, this is happening with me and Pokémon Black. There is something that makes me stop playing the game, maybe it's because I can fill the Pokédex quickly or because I don't have anyone to play with.

 

[mondays suck]

This is definitely the case for me.
First, let's divide games in two kinds of games: The ones I have known for many years and the ones where that's not the case.
With the former kind of games, the problem is: I know not all but many of the mechanics of these games, playing them is more and more becoming a mathematical task. The fun has become work, even though I never, never, never play anything against real people.
With new games, I
1) am overly critical of them and am usually more looking for flaws than for fun, and
2) my attention span is not what it used to be, I can only maybe play for 15 minutes before starting to feel the need to do something else. When stuck in a situation that requires some tedious practice to get out of it, I might simply stop playing the game out of laziness - and then be just as bored as I would be when grinding and miss the potential good parts that come after the grinding.

So, regardless of whether a game is good or not, I can't enjoy them as much anymore is I could maybe 7 years ago. I don#t play games anymore because "it's fun", but because "I have nothing else to do with my time" - and that's not even true.

 

[pokesterific]

For me, I enjoy games today more than before. Mostly because it's more challenging and some are extremely complex. I like thinking and playing and not just playing. I do enjoy the occasional casual game, but it doesn't hold my attention that much.