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?

[Eagle_of_Fire]

Diposting pertama kali oleh TGC> The Games Collector:

Diposting pertama kali oleh Crazy Tiger:

Heck, there is too many of them, whether they're older titles, current titles or yet to be released.

Apparently that's what makes it so hard to find a good game. There's so many you gotta dig deep into the pile.
And not every game that's advertised well is fun, just like fun games are often enough not well advertised.
Then there's also personal taste, making it even harder to refine the search.
It almost becomes a quest in itself. lol

As a general rule of thumb, well advertised games are never good to begin with. If they have to go full speed and spend all their money on advertisement then you know a gig is up.

[szatanica]

I don't know...maybe there are some "new old" titles, but its just not the same context...I remember I used to buy pirated copies of copies of copies of VHS tapes where the picture had wrong ratio and the sound was weird but still, watching Alien on VHS had something to it. Now it just wound't have the same feel to it. Or rather you'd cry for help after 10 minutes of this visual disaster. :P Same with games. If you never played Heroes of Might and Magic then it's over. You can try but its an exercise in futility. Although I could replay Discworld Noir to the end of time. The best story and dialogues in the history of gaming...:) And yes, I know it's a Casablanca rip off :))

[V3LTA]

Diposting pertama kali oleh szatanica:

I don't know...maybe there are some "new old" titles, but its just not the same context...I remember I used to buy pirated copies of copies of copies of VHS tapes where the picture had wrong ratio and the sound was weird but still, watching Alien on VHS had something to it. Now it just wound't have the same feel to it. Or rather you'd cry for help after 10 minutes of this visual disaster. :P Same with games. If you never played Heroes of Might and Magic then it's over. You can try but its an exercise in futility. Although I could replay Discworld Noir to the end of time. The best story and dialogues in the history of gaming...:) And yes, I know it's a Casablanca rip off :))

i still love heroes of might and magic 3 :C its my favorite game in that genre

[Blitzwing]

Diposting pertama kali oleh szatanica:

I don't know...maybe there are some "new old" titles, but its just not the same context...I remember I used to buy pirated copies of copies of copies of VHS tapes where the picture had wrong ratio and the sound was weird but still, watching Alien on VHS had something to it. Now it just wound't have the same feel to it. Or rather you'd cry for help after 10 minutes of this visual disaster. :P Same with games. If you never played Heroes of Might and Magic then it's over. You can try but its an exercise in futility. Although I could replay Discworld Noir to the end of time. The best story and dialogues in the history of gaming...:) And yes, I know it's a Casablanca rip off :))

I do very well understand it, some products are just very old , so they look ugly, run badly / laggy or gameplay is too slow and boring.

It might sound odd, but by a lot of RPG and Schooter games I just watch the Walkthrough on YouTube. And before I buy new games I do check their reviews on youtube too.

For older games there are HD, Mods and performance patches by the way.

If a game is not so fun for me, I do check out internet and moddb if there are some mods.


About the alien franchise well there is a common curse by sequels for genres, as the longer people work on the franchise there more it does deviate from the source material. By alien it did go from horror to action, into obscure. You kind of have to look for new things.
Try maybe dead space, its really good space horror.

[Gwynddraigon]

what i find helps is to look deeper than just the titles, if i scroll my library looking purely at the mass of titles then nothing appeals but pick some out, watch the trailer, look at the store page etc in a sense try to pretend you're a new buyer looking at the game for the first time, i find it helps

[Rabblevox]

Diposting pertama kali oleh 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?

Two things. Yes, it is you/us, we are frackin old and jaded and nothing will ever feel fresh and new again. Get used to it.

And yes, it is games. There used to be more space for weird passion projects that would pay the devs without being a cash-cow. (ref Assasin's Creed, Final Fantasy, Fortnite, etc.)

All of my favorite games (well, most of) are at least a decade old. I like shiny graphics, but it will never replace good gameplay.

[Valkyria]

I Don't think video games changed, just that people simply changed.

I've seen discussions taking place online lately, about how video games got worse etc.

I find that a lot these discussions come from people who are a bit older, that enjoyed playing video games during their childhood, teenage and into their earlier adult years.

It seems that many of these people have stopped enjoying video games as adults now.
That's perfect normal, a lot of gamers strongly long for the nostalgia of their childhood.

I experienced this myself, with me often remembering video games as being better than they actually was, with this being both in how they looked and how they even played.

I've been gaming since the late 1990's and I haven't ever stopped enjoying video games.

It seems, that a lot of people refuse to accept the fact that they grew out of gaming.
I've tons of nostalgia, but when I revisit those games; they just don't hold up the same.

Truthfully, I think a lot of people just don't understand this and want their childhood back.
When we was younger, most of us went into games fully blind and without any influences.

Today, we are subjected to endless YouTube videos, spoilers, commentaries and more.
I feel these have HEAVILY effected how we view video games, so much so that I stopped watching as much YouTube or listening to what people on YouTube thought before release.

(I found that I wasn't enjoying video games, tv or movies as much due to those YouTubers)

Let me give a example. In 2015 I was introduced to Dark Souls by a friend, I wasn't that into it and he gifted me Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin so that we could co-op it together.

I'd never seen or even heard of the 2nd entry in the series. I hadn't seen so much as a single screenshot, video, gameplay or truthfully had any idea that it existed. I was completely blind.

I ended up having so much fun, that it is still my favorite game in the Soulsborne games.
That experience made me a die-hard Souls fan and I started doing this with other games.

Truthfully, I found myself enjoying games on a level that I simply hadn't in many years.

Overall, Id say it is a mixture of people growing out of video games and going into these games spoiled that has significantly impacted how people view and enjoy video games.

[Blitzwing]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Valkyria:

I Don't think video games changed, just that people simply changed.

I've seen discussions taking place online lately, about how video games got worse etc.

I find that a lot these discussions come from people who are a bit older, that enjoyed playing video games during their childhood, teenage and into their earlier adult years.

If I do look into the actual game reviews on steam,
it's mostly related to technical issues, bad designs and lack of content.

That's not age specific.

[Valkyria]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Blitzwing:

Diposting pertama kali oleh Valkyria:

I Don't think video games changed, just that people simply changed.

I've seen discussions taking place online lately, about how video games got worse etc.

I find that a lot these discussions come from people who are a bit older, that enjoyed playing video games during their childhood, teenage and into their earlier adult years.

If I do look into the actual game reviews on steam,
it's mostly related to technical issues, bad designs and lack of content.

That's not age specific.

I don't mean reviews, just spoilers and gameplay etc.

[Crazy Tiger]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Valkyria:

I Don't think video games changed, just that people simply changed.

I've seen discussions taking place online lately, about how video games got worse etc.

I find that a lot these discussions come from people who are a bit older, that enjoyed playing video games during their childhood, teenage and into their earlier adult years.

Correct, because people are clinging to their nostalgic feelings and the like. Industries and target demographics change as do people and sometimes those changes mean that a hobby/interest doesn't match as much anymore. It sadly happens.

Plus that some people never really learn that they don't *have* to play every game.

[Blitzwing]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Crazy Tiger:

Diposting pertama kali oleh Valkyria:

I Don't think video games changed, just that people simply changed.

I've seen discussions taking place online lately, about how video games got worse etc.

I find that a lot these discussions come from people who are a bit older, that enjoyed playing video games during their childhood, teenage and into their earlier adult years.

Correct, because people are clinging to their nostalgic feelings and the like. Industries and target demographics change as do people and sometimes those changes mean that a hobby/interest doesn't match as much anymore. It sadly happens.

Plus that some people never really learn that they don't *have* to play every game.

We have now more people than ever to use steam.


https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/52dtd3/anyone_has_data_of_the_growth_of_the_steam_users/


2007 (Dec 8): 13 million

2010 (Feb 24): 25 million (STEAM UPDATE ANNOUNCED — PUBLIC BETA OPEN NOW). *

2010 (Oct 18): 30 million (Steam Surpasses 30 Million Account Mark)

2011 (Feb 28): 30 million (Valve Brings More Steam to GDC)

2012 (Aug 16): 40 million (Valve Announces Beta for Steam Community Update)

2013 (Aug 29): 50 million (GREENLIGHT'S FIRST ANNIVERSARY)

2013 (Oct 30): 65 million (Steam Passes 65 Million)

2014 (Jan 15): 75 million (Valve Kicks Off Steam Dev Days)

2014 (Sep 23): 100 million (Valve Launches Steam Discovery Update, Personalized Shopping)

2015 (Mar 4): 125 million (Valve Announces Link, Source 2, SteamVR, And More At GDC)

All these numbers are active accounts. At least 1 game and logged in the last month.

Today, it has 132 million monthly active People.


Despite more people we see the industry to sell less and fewer games,
that should be a clear sign that the games qualities got worse.

[TGC> The Games Collector]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Blitzwing:

Despite more people we see the industry to sell less and fewer games,
that should be a clear sign that the games qualities got worse.

Pretty sure that whole "games as a service" crap is also a reason they sell less games. If you constantly have to update your online game riddled with microtransactions to milk it dry, you simply don't have the time to design a new game.

[Crazy Tiger]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Blitzwing:

Despite more people we see the industry to sell less and fewer games,
that should be a clear sign that the games qualities got worse.

It doesn't. Games nowadays have much longer lifespans than in the past, due to the service models and MP oriented games lasting a very long time.

Sales also were higher during the covid periods due to people being at home more. It's only logical that sales drop after such periods.
Having more people participate in a hobby also does not necessary equate to more sales. Many games are F2P, many gamers are "casuals" who don't spend much money or have limited time.

Besides that, all that sales numbers really show is popularity, not quality. Never confuse something being popular with something being "good".

All this "games are worse" is just standard regular subjective opinions, nothing factual no matter how much people want their opinion to be "factual". There are so many fun and good games coming out, it sometimes feels as if people are just blinding themselves if they cannot see that.

[Software22]

AAA games are dead, boring and lazy games, always more of the same.
Indie devs are our salvation.

[L1qu1dator]

I feel the same, and I'm thinking it comes with aging.