Gamers who have gamed for a long time

do you find it difficult to get into games? I’ve got Epic Games and Steam Games libraries chock-full of classic top-tier games along with many other newer games like Stray or 2077, and a bunch of indie titles. I just can’t be bothered to download and install them, much less try to get into the characters and storylines. Used to be I couldn’t wait to see what happened in the story, what new items you could collect, what new worlds the developers had created. Not anymore. I return to playing the same franchise for a quick FPS match or three and then I’m done.

Schlemmy,

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.

Lenny,

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.

houseofkeb,

I think there are a lot of reasons for this, but I’m in the same boat.

  • Most games tutotialize you like you have never played a game before
  • "Cinematic storytelling" is everywhere. I turned off the dialogue in Need for Speed Unbound, and the game is wayyyy more enjoyable without it. And its…a racing game.
  • There just are more games. Used to be I’d bring a physical copy of a game hope, and that’d be my game for a bit. Now I have thousands of games accessible at any moment. It’s hard to wait for a game to “get good” when I know that.

I’d also say that I feel no need to complete games or get further into them at this point. Especially seeing how people said Starfield is best in new game plus or whatever, that game barely has legs to stand on in a first playthrough. It’s not worth it for me to play a game for 60 hours for it to maybe get better, and I tend to know when I’m done with a game early now.

CrabAndBroom,

Yeah for me it’s the sheer number of games, plus the increasing enshittification of games and just being older and having less free time. I literally have like 200 games I’ve got for free across various platforms, so if I fire one up and it’s clearly not finished, or it’s immediately trying to sell me stuff or even if it’s just a bit boring and annoying I’ll dump it immediately and move onto the next one.

Whereas when I was a kid I had a SNES with about 10 cartridges and that was it, so I played the shit out of those even when they sucked lol

houseofkeb,

I know right! Every time I come back to a game and they’ve changed every thing about it again I wonder why I bother. I think that’s part of the reason Melee has survived for so long, the community establishes the meta more than someone whose incentive is to keep selling you things.

chilicheeselies,

The tutorial thing is huge. What a fucking slog getting through the tutorial. I hate witcher, 2077, etc for this reason.

justlookingfordragon,
@justlookingfordragon@lemmy.world avatar

100% agreed with all of these, but I would add one more factor: Limited spare time.

When I was a kid, it was a lot easier to spend a few hours in front of a console undisturbed, immersed and focused on the game. When you’re an adult and come home from soul-crushing work, hungry and exhausted, then your last bit of energy goes into household, pets, chores, family and the like and then it’s late at night already and if you don’t go to sleep soon then the next day will be worse. Where and how do you cram a couple of consecutive, undisturbend hours of playtime into such a schedule?

If a game isn’t immediatly interesting, fun or otherwise a good reality escape, it is not worth sacrificing time on it when you have to strictly ration your limited amount of spare time already.

houseofkeb,

Yeah totally. I’ve noticed everyone’s bandwidth dropping as capitalism worsens. It’s even more apparent when every live service game wants you to treat it like a job.

Agreed with your last point. I’m at the point where I can call how much is enough for me for any given title, and it makes me a lot happier than feeling obligated to finish games I don’t enjoy.

TrenchcoatFullofBats,

Yeah, the bar for should I buy this game is higher when you’ll be giving up sleep and/or rent money if you want to play it.

That being the case, truly excellent games can still clear that bar; ToTK easily siphoned a few cumulative months out of me, despite, well…gestures vaguely at everything.

I still have no desire to do the final boss fight at the end, though.

Maajmaaj,
@Maajmaaj@lemmy.ca avatar

It’s easier when you are single and refuse to have kids.

BeardedBlaze,
@BeardedBlaze@lemmy.world avatar

Or if you get your kids into gaming.

Maajmaaj,
@Maajmaaj@lemmy.ca avatar

https://lemmy.ca/pictrs/image/23029ec6-7895-44d3-9cb4-4db951566886.png

wjrii,
@wjrii@kbin.social avatar

I’m in my 40s, and in particular I don’t find I love the AAA, over the shoulder action games. Assassins Creed, Spider-Man, Jedi Outcast, all of them feel very samey to me and more like the evolution of Dragons Lair + SF2 special moves than anything else. I find the cinematic complexity of the actions caused by my simple button press actually disconnect me from the world. I don’t feel like the character is my avatar, more like an actor in my movie. And then it all usually happens with a lot more barriers and more linearity than the design implies, kinda the difference between playing make believe in the park, and visiting Galaxy’s Edge at Disney.

Now I don’t think it’s bad on a philosophical level or anything, but it doesn’t work for me personally. I grew up with a very direct and often simple relationship what it means to control a game, even those SF2 style fighters; whatever is there to be done, you’re in complete control. I just get taken right out of it when “back + A” does a 360 spin melee while simultaneously targeting three enemies and summoning my helper NPC (I’m exaggerating, but you see the intended point).

Like others, I don’t really find as much time for gaming, what with work, family, and other hobbies, but when I do, I like retro gaming, RPGs with a fair amount of stat and inventory management, Minecraft (that blunt instrument of click to “mine”, rclick to “use” is the opposite of cinematic AAA actioners), and other stuff that naturally connects inputs to resulting actions, like driving games.

Blamemeta,

Modern AAA games? Yeah. But many smaller and indie games are still good. I loved Ion Fury and Turbo Overkill. Some of the best games in the past 5 years imo.

BudgetBandit,

Make it an appointment. Get ready to play the game on Saturday at 09:30 and stick with it until 15:30 give it 6 hours of your full attention. No phone within reach. Make sure to get the housework done by that so you can stay longer. That worked wonders for me. Oh, and play older games. I never played xbox360 or PS3 games (only CoD couch coop with friends) because I had a Wii and only recently got an old PS3 and the games are amazing.

Kolanaki,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

I’m totally not interested in the stories much at all anymore. Video game story-telling has always been pretty cringe, but as a kid and teen I didn’t think so. Go back and play some games I genuinely liked the story for back in the day and I can’t stand them now. I prefer games that are just fun to play. Most popular games these days are simply not fun to play. They are entirely focused on their storytelling and use light gimmicks or have repetitive gameplay that gets boring well before the story finishes, making it a chore just to hear the story.

radix,
@radix@lemmy.world avatar

I’ve got 5-6 games on rotation. Every year or two, a new one comes in and something drops off, but I’m long past the days of playing something new every couple months.

half_built_pyramids,

People grow out of stuff. Maybe try making games. Find a different type like ttrpg.

JustZ,

As I get older I find I have to know what I like and spend extra time selecting titles because I know that I won’t be buying that many games because I don’t have time to play all that much. I buy what I know I will like and that way I will finish it. I don’t want to feel like I’ve wasted time.

Sometimes I jump back and replay games that I really enjoyed. Even like an MMO, I’ll reactive my character after years of not playing.ast game I bought was Witcher 3 on Steam sale. Will be buying Cities 2 this week, after waiting for it for years and years.

MightyWeaksauce,
@MightyWeaksauce@lemmy.world avatar

I’m excited for Cities 2 as well but keep reading its poorly optimized. Let’s hope not 🤞

JustZ,

It’ll come around. I’m okay with it.

FrostbyteIX,

I find that as I get older, I struggle trying to keep up with players in high competition games…games like CoD, Halo, even Rocket League I simply cannot get better no matter how much I try. I used to enjoy those kinds of games when I was younger but it makes me a little sad to know I can’t play them…

So I play single player RPGs or Co-op…I’m an absolute sucker for Starfield and similar games

vagrantprodigy,

Trying a new game often feels like work as I get older. I find myself going back to the things I know already rather than new stuff.

rastilin,

I think it comes down to just knowing what is good. When you're young you don't have any experience to judge quality by. As you get older you can rapidly assess that something sucks, even if other people are pumping it up. Either in terms of gameplay or plot or whatever, now you have standards. Also, a lot of modern games just don't respect your time, and as you get older you realize your time is valuable so you just don't have the patience for that.

I'm in my 30s, I still game, but I'm a lot quicker to just go "this sucks" and move on to something else.

ExtraMedicated,

I kinda need to be in the mood to play a game. Usually, once I finally start playing something, it’s easy to keep going. But sometimes I’ll have to be pretty bored before I’ll play a new game. I still haven’t played RDR2, but I seem to be more eager to play metroidvanias and PS1-style indie horror games.

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