What happened to gaming? No game is true fun anymore..

[szatanica]

I was scrolling through the immense list of games I managed to gathered over the years and for some reason (and I've been observing this for many years now) nothing really looks attractive and exciting anymore. Sure, there are so many "amazing" games out there, a lot of indie productions into which developers pulled their hearts and souls but somehow games don't give this "THING" that they used to. These oldies, with really bad graphics had something in them, something which makes me want to go back to them over and over (like first and second Fallout or Discworld Noir from the 90s , Fahrenheit, or first Neverwinter Nights, the list goes on). Like they lost something inherently special.Sure, there are some exquisit exceptions like Papers Please or Papetura or Mass Effect but it's a tiny percentage. The rest is just...meh...

Is it the games or is it us/me?

[V3LTA]

why if feels like there is nothing exciting?

Choice overload can cause us to delay decision-making, considering the many options available is taxing on our cognitive systems. Having more options also leads to decreased satisfaction, lower confidence in our choices, and a higher chance that we will regret our decisions.

why you want to go back to the old games all the time?

research suggests people often get nostalgic when they're feeling negative emotions or when they're lonely. It's sort of like going to your happy place! Nostalgia reconnects you to who you are, and that feels like returning somewhere safe.

// What is the Nostalgia Effect? The Nostalgia Effect is a cognitive bias where people tend to recall the past more fondly that the present, often remembering things better than they actually were.

and no you are definitely not the only one in this!
don't worry

pozdrawiam :)

[✨Saint✨]

The market is overly saturated with all sort of games these days. Finding one that keeps you interested can be as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack.
Personally, when it comes to games, I enjoy old games, but I do not put much expectations in what is to come.

[Ogami]

Too many games, too many samey games, at some point you pretty much have experienced everything gaming has to offer as a hobby and just play the same games again and again, just with a new coat of paint.
And even that constant chase after the next "graphic wonder" has become stale because every new generation gets less and less drastic graphic updates as we slowly reach the peak of whats possible without investing 10 years of work and thousands of people into a single game project.

So going back to the old and often simpler games of your youth makes you feel "good".
You get back a bit of the feeling you had when you played those games the first time.

V3LTA explained the "Nostalgia Effect" very well. Its something we all go through at some point and the older you get the more you will feel it. Time is a ♥♥♥♥♥.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Lady of the Lake]

They've lost something special? Yes, it's called carelessness due to being young, that's what made games better.

[Eagle_of_Fire]

It is not "nostalgia". It is "experience". There is a world of difference between the two.

Back in the days there was less choice but almost everything was new. Those clones of games? Yeah, we just avoided them as much as we could. Even then, there was that sense of discovery, that sense of feeling justified to try a game you did not like that much because you might actually discover or experience something amazing in the end. Almost everything was new and devs were not afraid to push the envelope to get something special going, considering that most of the time that's what made or broke a game in the first place back then.

Now? It is mostly cookie cutter. Games are produced with money in mind rather than focusing on gameplay or fun. Which end up with very samey games because publishers would rather have a bland game which will sell to two more customers than have something which is going to be held in high regard for the next decade. They prefer to butcher their devs work by adding dark and shadowy practices to squeeze every penny out of the costumers, sometimes butchering some part of some games only to plan to sell yet another DLC for something which should plainly have been included in the game at launch.

Nah. It is certainly not you. You just know what you want. This is experience.

[Tito Shivan]

Gaming burnout is a thing.

[Rumpelcrutchskin]

Nobody is making anything new anymore, everyone just copy each other with the same old design flaws that ruin the fun.
Been trying to get a good cozy farming game lately and everything is just copying the same ideas and same flaws of other games in the genre before. Or they are all half-finished and three years in early access.
Same godawful annoying inventory systems with billion tiny chests and running back and forth, same time restrictions forcing you to run around like madman instead of enjoying the game and actually doing something. Same overly restrictive stamina use. Same boring relationship systems with talking to people once a day and bribing them with gifts only to lead to boring and non-existent relationship later. Same terrible controls, sometimes even no mouse controls at 2024 and you are lucky if you have key rebinds at all.

[Pscht]

What happened to you, OP? THAT is the question you have to ask, and answer honestly.

[ꉔꏂ꒐꒒ꇙ]

Originally posted by szatanica:

What happened to gaming? No game is true fun anymore..

Well, there can be a lot said about this.

1, Think about how young you were, how you felt when you played your first game, up until now. You obviously grew up, learned stuff, had a bunch of different experiences, matured mentally etc.

As you grow or get used to something, things that you used to enjoy, you tend to enjoy a bit less. The excitement you used to get, becomes uneventful now. The graphics you used to enjoy, now you can barely stand it.

2. Fun = depends on the person. You might feel like no game is fun anymore (old stuff or future stuff, both?) but maybe it could be burn out (too much gaming) instead of the games not being fun, it is just you being tired of them.

3, You can see the shift in gaming. Now, Devs just want to drain your wallets with Microtrans while overcharging full price for their game/DLCs. They want to stick shiny graphics in your face without giving you a worthy story or so to add to that.

Life changes, people change, everything doesn't stay the same as before. I'm tired so, did I make sense? idk.

Edit: believe me, I too changed. New games hardly interest me now (especially when so many are remakes/remasters/overpriced cash grabs Brand Names)... want to continue re-buying the same games again for slight additions/differences while being charged a lot for it?

Until Dawn Remaster, I am looking at you. Barely anything can keep my interest or keep me hooked until the end now.

[crunchyfrog]

It's triple A.

Said this many times, but my situation is slightly unusual. First off, I'm old enough to have been gaming since the very start. I was into electronics as a kid and got into the first kit computers offered in the 1970s. Through friends and later myself, I quickly got hooked on them and never looked back.

Then the explosion of the ACTUAL home computers increased things - many sleepless nights gaming on these before going to work. Many weekends travelling to my close seaside town to get up on the latest arcade games.

On top of all this, I kept all my computers, consoles and games and still played them. And that still continues. I've written for gaming magazines too and done some small amounts of testing for a few game companies and auxiliaries.

And I like all platforms for their features. I don't have a particular bias though I do have some I like more than others.

In short, I still play any age of game, and play them all. So I don't have any particular bias, and have an up to date knowledge of how they play today with little in the way of rose tinted specs.


Now, that said, you are correct.

There have been times that I've been a little less in love with gaming. For example, during the late 1980s, partly because of being busy with other things, and partly because I didn't like beat em ups and some of the directions being taken then, I was less involved.

But on the other hand, when the PS1 came out, I got into it very heavily as I saw a new explosion of different gaming experiences and genres, similar to the early 1980s where new games like PacMan just appeared. I find eras like the PS2 particularly great because that had a sweet spot between reasonable budgets and experimentation and tech. So you had tons of great experimental games.

But nowadays, thanks to the triple A industry ballooning costs, never learning from their mistakes, and chasing rampant greed for as little effort as possible, we not only have burned out and abused staff, but banal, samey crap and trend chasing.

So you're not wrong - loads of people are fedup with this absolute rubbish.

But there is a silver lining - indies. Indies have always been where the true experimentation comes from. Since the early days of computing where you had decent arcades ports on computer from the major houses, you always had adverts in the back of magazines, or home made packages in stores that offered something new.

Nowadays, we thankfully have sites like Steam or even the Nintendo store that offer them.

But triple A games are awful.

This is the first generation in history where I've not bought either of the forerunning consoles simply because they have no games I want on them.

And I'm not the only one.

[Star©]

Somewhat older gamer here. For me personally, I enjoy a good survival/crafting game. Despite w/e flaws they may have, games such as Valheim, 7 Days to Die, Sons of the Forest, even Conan Exiles (modded) are still fun for me especially with gaming buddies. However I prefer a slower pace not rushing to end game and usually my regular gaming buds tend to want to rush a bit more than me. It's starts to get less fun when they get bored & stop playing, but I do still enjoy the games, some newer & some older. I run my own servers so that helps me to be able to pop back into whichever one when I want, even if solo. Sorry for all the extra talk, but for me that is a particular genre that I enjoy more than others. Is it possible for you to explore other types of games & maybe find something that you really enjoy that you may not have previously given any thought to?

[TGC> The Games Collector]

Experimentation in gameplay is scary for AAA publishers these days, because it might risk having 1 game that sells badly. As if they would suddenly become bankrupt after 1 bad title.
So you end up with nothing standing out as being novel. Just the same stuff with a different wrapper.

[V3LTA]

Originally posted by TGC> The Games Collector:

Experimentation in gameplay is scary for AAA publishers these days, because it might risk having 1 game that sells badly. As if they would suddenly become bankrupt after 1 bad title.
So you end up with nothing standing out as being novel. Just the same stuff with a different wrapper.

true asmongold fan :p

[ꉔꏂ꒐꒒ꇙ]

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

Nowadays, we thankfully have sites like Steam or even the Nintendo store

But triple A games are awful.

Nintendo Store? you need to own an Nintendo product for that and to play their games. Steam is for everyone.

I think it depends on the game and that's a personal preference. I enjoyed Cyberpunk 2077, love Baldur's Gate 3, Elden Ring is fun and others. Sorry if you didn't/couldn't find a good triple A game to enjoy.


Most are overpriced for overpriced sake (and because people keep buying them at full price) but Indika is $25+tax and you can find many more that aren't highly priced.

[ReBoot]

There's a huge bunch of absoluteoy awesomely amazing games. Even with the current situation of the A market being creatively bankrupt tons of indies not being better, generally a heap of glut of barely-worth-the-time cash grabs, there's still a huge heap of great games. Speaking from experience, I still struggle to play all that great stuff I keep buying and that's waiting for huge discounts.

So either you lost your videogames hobby (and got time for another) or you need to learn to look for interesting games.