Changing perceptions of gaming over time

[Zero]

Originally posted by pg
For me personally I think a lot of it has to do with the fact I am grown up in thought and thinking. I find most games easy to understand now and even in multiplayer there usually isn't a huge challenge. Back when I was younger I'd have to struggle to understand gameplay. I really think the experience I gained learning was a lot of the fun I had. Now most games come out and I understand them in a few minutes and there is usually no learning process. In most games now I feel like I'm going through the motions and have a good idea what the outcome is going to be. The only real interest I have left in a big way is multiplayer FPS vs very good players.

Theres no way you can just easily grasp how a MP gameplay is gonna play out right off the bat. For any game with any amount of depth...

if you think otherwise you should youtube some marvel vs capcom 2 matches and explain to me exactly what's going on between 2 players.

[DrSpike]

I'm glad I started this thread - it's elicited some interesting responses.

General consensus seems to be that the main factor is we are changing - getting older, more responsibilities, richer, and tireder.

But gaming is changing too. The wider market (more Sunday gamers, as some wise posters have been arguing for many years ) does mean less games 'built to last'. I agree the dynamic is shifting towards consoles and if anything that reinforces the effect.

I don't agree that games are less innovative today though - the only thing keeping me playing is that there are lots of great games still being released I don't want to miss.

[LDiCesare]

I don't know whether I spend less time playing games than I used to. Probably a bit less, since I spend more modding them, just for the sake of it.
However, 13 years ago, I bought Civ, MoO and MoM and happily rotated between these every month or two for a few years.
Nowadays, I play more games because I can't stay hooked by one game for one month. I've started playing PBEM (Dominions III) because that's more interesting than playing vs. an ai, and it doesn't eat all your time either. I never could go into MMO because I have a life and didn't want to spend tons of time there. Also a reason why I dislike many network or MP games you can play over the net: If you don't waste tons of time playing the game, you end up being bad and not having fun.
I like strategy games and sp role playing ones, and that's about it. Neither genre seems very developped these days.

[UnOrthOdOx]

I don't think so much that games aren't built to last. It's simply there are SO MANY DAMN GAMES coming out these days.

I watch my kids, and they drive me nuts. Kyle has beaten maybe 3 games. Why? Something new always comes out that he wants to do more than finish what he is on.

I was raised on the Atari 2600. Pac Man, space invaders, and asteroids were what we had to play that christmas we got the thing. The following christmas we added Yar's Revenge and Chopper Command. Yeah, we played the hell out of the things. And how can I forget the first and last movie tie in game I ever bought: Raiders of the Lost Ark...

When the NES came out, we didn't even bother getting a new game till Super Mario Bros had been beaten a few times. Then we got Ikari Warriors. Followed by Zelda, then Contra IIRC. There really weren't that many good games coming out, and we nearly always previewed before we bought. Whether through rental or a friend.

Now days, seems there's a top line game once a month, if not more. There just isn't time, or rather, there's no reason to spend as much time on one particular game.

[Harovan]

My perception of gaming has changed many times. And responsible for this were mainly the games themselves, and the circumstances under which I could play.

The first computer game I played around 1980, in a time, when the starter of this thread still did in his diapers , and others weren't even born . It was game of chess, or rather a series of games, played in Leningrad against a program on a russian computer called SM-4. I won them all, it wasn't yet the time where chess programs could beat an experienced player. Since I didn't own the machine and was seldom given the opportunity to use it, I could play only one afternoon every 2-3 months.

Throughout the mid-80's I played on several computers games written in FORTRAN and BASIC, I remember some silly moon landing, a landing simulation called Boeing 727 (where you had to set a plane on the landing strip at the right speed and angle under varying wind influence), and a text screen and/or printer based game named Star Trek, where you had battles against Klingons firing photon torpedoes and phasers, raising and dropping shields and navigating through the galaxy avoiding collisions with stars. There were more, I listed only those I remember right off the bat. I didn't own the computer either and could play only during night shifts, let's say an average of one night per week.

During the late 80s I had an Atari 800XL, and about 100 games, may be more, all of them stolen/cracked (some of them I cracked myself). I would have loved to buy them, but alas, I lived behind the iron curtain and we didn't exactly have a lot of games in our stores, at least not for our money. I owned the computer and played daily, 3-4 hours a day when I was in the military college (had my own room and lots of lonely evenings) and only 1-2 hours at home, because my wife couldn't stand the often repetitive soundtracks, and without the sound the games weren't half as good. The games were shallow (with rare exceptions) and it rarely took more than 1-2 hours to get through, often only several minutes. I hence played up to ten different games every day. I had my favorites, sure, but I didn't get sick of them because I overplayed neither of them.

The 90s brought my first PCs, a 286, 386, 486, then a Pentium-90 and finally a Pentium II with, IIRC, 240 MHz or so. The games got more and more complicated and much more time consuming. Main games were TBS (Colonization, Civ2, CivCtP) and RPG (mainly the Ultima series). A lot of these games weren't playable in one day anymore, I remember Civ games over several sessions (not as epic as today, though, as the maps still were small), and the main plot of Ultima VII Serpent Isle took several weeks to complete (without a walkthrough anyway), i.e. you needed a much longer attention span than before, and much more than kids today can/want to bring up, I may ADD (pun intended). I played several times per week sessions of 2-3 hours, that's all I could spare as a family father.

2000 my life fundamentally changed. We moved to former western Germany, my son left home and all of a sudden I had my own room and lots of time at hand (every day after eight, when wife begun to watch silly TV shows). Since I had made my hobby (software and driver programming) my profession, I was looking for a new one and didn't find it. So I increased my gaming time to astronomical dimensions, up to 50-60 hours per week. I remained faithful to TBS and RPG, and spent days and nights playing CtP2, Civ3, PtW and Neverwinter Nights, all games for people with some stubbornness and a long attention span.

Given my history I should have played Ultima Online, but I didn't for some reason. Instead I played EverQuest, again a time sink extraordinaire. I liked "big" games, with depth and immersion, and still do. No quick in, get the good stuff, and out in a month or two. But alas, we have become a minority. With Vanguard's failure became clear, a gaming company can't live off only us anymore. This means, games become again more shallow, much easier, less grind, more candy. Reward but no risk. Well, this has been discussed to death and I don't really want to stir up that **** again. In my opinion, the peak of game depth was in the years around 2000. It had raised before, and is declining now.

My cited sentence "I decided to never sell my soul to a game anymore" has a simple reason, no modern game is worth it. Last autumn I was in MMO mood again. I signed up to EverQuest II, a game I have played previously. When I entered it, I was hit like with a club right in the face. What had been a game with depth and immersion, has been streamlined and simplified beyond belief in only 2 years. Where the hell is my stinky, misty, creepy Nektulos Forest, filled with skeletons, owlbears and glowing bats, where a mere level 20 could be glad to pass through without being butchered? What I see today, is Happy Forest, bright, sunny, and hardly a mob in sight. What was 80% group and 20% solo content, is vice versa now. Outland zones are entirely soloable, only dungeons are for groups and can easily be skipped.

I'm still at my computer 50-60 hours per week, I have no other interests, I have the room and I have the time. I have moved around a lot throughout my life, who I call a friend is living elsewhere, at my current place I have no friends. So I play, but I don't play games exclusively anymore. In my MMO I only raid, which takes 4-5 hours thrice a week. We're progressing slowly through Rise of Kunark (the 4th expansion, which is utterly amazing). Other players level alts between the raids. I can't do this, for some reason, no fun to see the same streamlined low level **** from just another angle. So I'm playing other games inbetween, some HOI2, a little Civ, some NWN or other game nostalgy trips. Some own modding of games. Some fooling around. Sometimes just browsing news or arguing in message boards.

I once had a longer attention span, and probably still have. Thing is, there isn't much worth my attention anymore.

[Jon Miller]

I currently play EVE + WOW for a few hours a week. I try to do other things with some of my time though, including exercise, work, playing board games + pen and paper RPGs, and I would really like to do more other things. A couple of weeks aog I played 20+ hours of WOW + EVE, but last week I only spent 4 hours or so...

If you want a nonstream lined MMO, EVE is one... although it isn't an epic PvE experience (rather being an epic PvP experience).

JM

[ZEE]

I guess i was not very thread-specific in my answer b4, but here is my current state of mind involving games. Keeping in mind i hate typing long posts and my incredibly short attention span, i will do my best.

actually my last point holds valid to this discussion. Back in the 80's-90's i had amazing creativity, i could dive into a game, any game, or a tv show or anything and totally immerse myself into it. I played D&D and watched WWF wrestling and placed Old Sid Meier games and the whole 9 yards. I played Wolfenstein and Air-combat games for literally days at a time with no regard to real life.

I really don't know what happened in my early 20's. Maybe it was because i started taking hard-core drugs. I moved out when i was 18 and had a miserable life forever after living in the worst parts of this city with the worst type of people. Games became less of a recreation and more of an escape. I also was taking very powerful anti-psychotics at the time, combined with other hard core drugs, and my mindstate was in a constant warped reality. Around this time i was hooked on Daggerfall (TES2) and Civ 3 and Alpha Centauri. I would wrap myself in these games while completely zoned out on painkillers, hardcore drugs, and anti-psytotic medication. Everybody i lived with in the hood just blew me off as a hopeless junkie and ev1 i hung around were of course hopeless junkies. Point it this is how i enjoyed my games (and my friends). i could not play games sober. i needed... no let me rephrase that. I NEEDED these drugs to survive and to enjoy my games.

Then i moved out of the hood. I caught a few breaks and i dipped. i bounced. Me and a few friends of mine found a place in a good neighborhood and that was that. My life (and my gaming perspective) has been different ever since. My interest in games dropped radically after i stopped all the drugs. I could not enjoy myself and play games like i used to, i just simply lost interest. Most of my life during this time was playing D&D and EA Sports games. In fact i played EA Sports games (NBA, NFL) for years after. I just enjoyed the fact i could build my team and take them through a season (or several) and watch them grow and really dive into my league. I started to get that feeling that i had as a kid of really immersing myself into them without the help of drugs and stuff.

Then i got old. I am 30 now. I do not play EA Games anymore as they have become a monotonous remake of a remake with no support for their PC platforms. So i boycotted the series. I cannot play Civ anymore as i am burned out beyond burned out. I never got into FPS's like my brother did, and it is too late now for me to get into them. The only exception now is DuesEX series. I will buy DuesEx3 as i believe it to be the best FPS series ever made. I do not like racing games or flight sims anymore. Nothing holds my interest at all.

Except Oblivion. That is the lasting series (TES) that has survived the ages for all the reasons i described in my post above. Still i do not play for more than an hour at a time, maybe 3 or 4 times a day max. Mostly i just laze-ass on the internet. So what changed?

The industry (EA) and me (Civ) and my environment as well (Drug dependency.) I still drink from time to time, sometimes heavily, but i am not entirely DEPENDANT on it like i was the drugs in my early life and i do not get drunk before every game i play. I so desperately want to get into a game like i did all those years ago, but i just cannot do it. Perhaps i simply burned myself out, all things considered.

So that is my story.

[Quillan]

In a way, I am an exception. I still play plenty of games at the age of 42, however, it's a gap-filling thing. I am unmarried and have no kids, so I have more spare time than some of you. Anytime I'm not working or out socially, I'm either reading, watching a movie, or playing a game.

That said, gaming has changed quite a bit. It's become mainstream. Mainstream instead of niche focus has resulted in heavier advertising of games. Advances in technology have raised the capability of computers, and the games have expanded to take advantage of those capabilities. The rise in advertising plus the more complex games have raised the development costs tremendously, resulting in higher financial requirements for the game. This makes the publishers less willing to gamble on questionable titles, resulting in the mass of sequels and general dumbing down of games to appeal to the mass audience.

My own tastes have changed a bit as I got older. I don't in much for the multiplayer FPS scene anymore, as my reflexes aren't up to competing with the 12 year olds. I tend to go in for single player or coop multiplayer now.

[Ninot]

I'm slowly seeing my taste in gaming evolve. My teen years I was a pure PC gamer. It was all RTS and TBS, mostly civ. I haven't really lost my taste for those, but I've gotten more and more bored with playing those style of games single player, and unless i have friends who enjoy playing them, I dislike multiplayer, due to the elitist nature of them.

Couple of years ago I picked up an Xbox360. Now my games of choice are mostly sports games, which I love just being able to sign into xboxlive and play multiplayer in no time. I also own Rock Band, which I picked up so I could have an entertaining in house party activity. Gaming has become much more of a leisurely passtime thing that I do an hour or 2 a night, rather than something I do for hours on end on nights and weekends.

[LDiCesare]

I feel a lot like Sir Ralph I believe. Most of todays mainstream games do not appeal me very much, but there are indy games too that are worth trying (Dominions III, Space Rangers...). Or even oldies like NetHack or ADOM that' I play from time to time.
It's harder to find the games that are worth playing because there's more offer and my tastes are kind of niche but it's possible to find some of them, quite often games which are made playable by modders.

[Zero]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph

My cited sentence "I decided to never sell my soul to a game anymore" has a simple reason, no modern game is worth it.

interesting. As a PVPer, my viewpoint are completely different. But I can agree on that statement above. No modern game is worth it.

[lord of the mark]

Im rather different in my pattern than anyone else here, but I think you know that already spikey.

I didnt start "gaming" on anything electronic. I started played board games as a teen in the 1970s - avalon Hill and SPI, war historical or "simulation games" as we called them.

Except for dropping by the college gaming club once or twice, and some king maker while gradual school, I basically put gaming aside at age 18. Not counting playing and kibbitzing at the dorm arcade machines (pac man, space invaders, asteroids, and joust)

When we were shopping for our first PC in the mid 90s I heard about Simcity, decided it was cool, and got it shortly after we got the PC. An acquaintince (a dad of a grade school classmateof POTM) led me to Age of Empires, and looking on USENET for a game to get after AOE led me to Civ2, and Civ2 led me here, and well, you kinda know the rest.

Ive found gaming quite compatible with family - but thats in large part a function of POTM being in gifted programs with lots of homework - I can be around when she needs me, but not be in her face, playing a game in the next room. This works out (within limits) for all of us. Since I started playing PC games at age 35, I never played that intensively. Ive always stuck to SP with the scheduling flexibility that allows, and prefer the leisurely pace of TB or slower paced RT, to the more actiony games. However the fact that I do have family, and also cant play late into the night, limits how much I play. One of the reasons Id never acquire games - I simply dont NEED that much gameplay in a year. And since Im always behind the current gaming era, I dont really pay terribly much for the games I get.

The kinds of games Ive played have mainly been ones that tie into other interests of mine, mainly history, and not gaming for the sake of competition. Nor do I require the latest graphics. I can be as interested in a little novelty like Age of Sail as in some AAA game. So Id say my gaming tastes are mellow - kinda tweed jacket historical. I will delve into other areas now and again, as much to be learn more about gaming itself as for any other reason. Lifetime gaming, as it were.

As for Civ, Ive skipped Civ3. Partly this is because I think that Civ2 was unique - its generic civs were perfect for expressing a geographically determinist view of world history Ive commented about in the past. Also because I didnt get a machine that was capable of playing Civ3 till Id piled up a backlog of other games I wanted to play first, one Im only now really getting through. I expect to buy Civ4 in some form fairly soon, but I dont expect to play it as intensely as Civ2 - which was probably the one game I came close to "selling my soul to"


Carry on.