When you’re young, you’re often engaging in a common animal behavior known as “play”. This is essentially practice-mode for life, where you physically or mentally act out a lot of the abstract ideas you’ve been learning about over the years. This is critical, because our abstract ways of understanding and communicating advanced concepts are still fundamentally incomplete. You can, for instance, teach a kid to be honest, that honesty is important, etc. But then they get into a school environment, surrounded by real life situations. Will honesty always benefit them, like a “good” thing is supposed to? No.
Our abstract understanding of honesty and its importance is one thing. Putting it into effective practice is another, and fundamentally circumstantial.
“Play” is how animals bridge these two things with personal experience, while hopefully avoiding the consequences of actually trying for real and potentially having an accident. Like, an animal could abstractly learn about hunting by observing its mother. But until it actually physically practices these skills, it will be very bad at them. Us learning about “the importance of honesty” is no different.
Humans have a vastly, exponentially greater number of abstracts we’re required to understand in order to be effective citizens of the modern world. We tackle them in the same way, though, with play. Play, is practice.
So, if play is practice in an attempt to bridge some kind of abstract, incomplete learning, then what do you have to gain at this current phase of your life, from this “play”?
Your subconscious gets this. You don’t need to play anymore, you’re good enough for the real thing. So, why should your brain want to play at something? Especially when getting older also makes it clearer just how much incorrect information is being taught in gaming. Like, how many people try to use their CoD experiences to understand the Russo-Ukrainian War?
Anyways, it’s complicated.
edit: Thinking further on this, I would propose the following: In the same way that horniness is the mechanism by which your genes make you reproduce them, and hunger is the mechanism it employs to make you fuel their work, “fun” is the mechanism by which your genes make you practice whatever skills or experiences might improve your chances of passing them on, in an environment where it is safer to do so.
This is why play gets fundamentally less fun as you get older. It begins to lose its purpose, outside of handing those skills, and the techniques for practicing them, on to the next generation. We prefer to go back to those same games we played though, because we’re refining the lessons we learned from them. This has an evolutionary benefit as well, actually, as even our methods of “play” can be improved through long enough practice and iteration. These refined methods of play can then be handed down instead, which will likely be more efficient than previous iterations.
Come and goes for me, I try to play only one RPG or adventure type game at a time to remain hooked to the plot, several hours into Final Fantasy 8 on steam at the moment, played Xenogears on my steamdeck using emulation before it. I’m in my thirties for reference.
I don’t enjoy gaming anywhere near as much as I used to, and a lot of AAA games just don’t appeal to me anymore.
Indie games are where I get most of my enjoyment from gaming now and looking forward to Jusant, and the DLC for Lake in November. But apart from that, I’m not really fussed.
I kinda miss the nintendo/super nintendo times, where a friend would come over and you'd hand him a controller and then you would start playing. Gaming these days is more like: bro the game is cheap. Oh yes i forgot, you need these two dlc's to play the good stuff, don't worry, once you hit level 15 i'll be good i swear, all we have to do is to grind a few levels by playing the same.thing over and over, but i swear, i will ve really good soon.
True, gamer is become a consumer that’s need to grind for make the companies profit. Friends are just more consumers, invite a friend for receive a bonus, spread the addiction, make companies more riches.
Im 56 and loving the gaming time. In fact my kids are scattered and i play game with them at least every other week. We shoot the shit and just chill. No sweaty games as i dont have the reflexes anymore. I just wish there was more coop
I’m just no longer impressed with flashy graphics or games with tons of long cutscenes and stories. It takes up a lot of time, and it just feels tedious to me now.
Give me fun and challenging gameplay, and I’ll be very into your game though. All the FromSoft games, tactics/strategy, indie base-building or deck-building games, etc. Let me loose and challenge me. If you want me to watch a movie and follow a “to-do list” of waypoints, I’m going to be bored.
Agreed, the game just needs to play well with enough depth to really explore. The two I’ve put most time into over the last couple of years are Factorio and Rimworld and they’re far from flashy.
I’ve lost all patience for gaming. I tried play one of the Wolfensteins a few weeks ago. The beginning of the game is basically on rails, and I was required to put out a fires or something, I was like, uh I just want to shoot some fake people, to hell with this.
My taste in games has changed a lot over the years - I think to help accommodate adult life. As my time has gotten more spoken for I look for games that can quickly be picked up and put down. And as I’ve become more bitter and misanthropic, I’ve largely given up on multiplayer (except Tertis 99!). Basically things I can play when I’ve got any amount of downtime and I don’t need to follow a story line, or disappoint other people, or watch cut scenes, or even have my volume up.
I’m really into colony sim / base building / and automation types games now. Factorio, Dyson Sphere Program, and if I go more than 3 days without playing Oxygen Not Included I start to get the shakes. I also like low key survival games like Don’t Starve, Astroneer, and No Man’s Sky.
I’ve been playing (and enjoying) BG3 but I don’t have enough time to get immersed so I’m still in Act 2 on my first play through.
A gaming burn out you say? Yes, I only play co-op games anymore. I need a teammate to explore the game. Solo games are like getting into a television series that has 16 seasons. Just to much work ahead.
Agreed that it’s harder now that we’re older, especially if you work a lot or have kids/family responsibilities.
The most rewarding aspect of playing a game these days (IMO) is the social aspect of it. Whether that be playing with friends or sharing a ‘physical’ neutral space with other players like in an MMORPG. If you have a friend or a group of friends it’s fun to start random games together and experience them with someone. If you’re a solo gamer you need a much greater reason to start a new game, which is harder as you’ve described.
I don’t have many friends who game consistently, so I’m basically left to choose between going back to an MMORP like WoW (ugh), which after a while you realize is still lonely unless you really invest in making friends on your sever, or playing a new game at launch. Even if it’s a single player game there’s a lot to be said about playing a new game as soon as it releases. You get that collective sense of community because everyone is going in fresh and finding out secrets and solutions and sharing them with each other online. It doesn’t feel like you’re totally alone, and although it’s short lived it can feel rewarding. It’s like watching a weekly release show and joining in post-episode discussions online. You can’t recreate that experience after the fact.
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