Have gamers developed A.D.D?

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purefun65

Gawd
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I see a trend as to we as gamers are increasingly less likely to finish a game. Why is this? I am curious as to what are opinions of what is causing THIS? This is meant to be an open and honest discussion. Feel free and be honest.
 
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Dirk13 said:
It's because most games these days are shit.
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This plus a combination of all games being the same.. And nobody taking risk anymore with creative ideas. Well there is a few still.. But it is a small bunch..
 
Dion said:
This plus a combination of all games being the same.. And nobody taking risk anymore with creative ideas. Well there is a few still.. But it is a small bunch..
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I have seen post's from our own editor Kyle Bennett express his opinion on current games. I would as a enthusiast community feel we might be able to express our concerns and move to a solution to improve gaming.
 
Hey, there are other factors as to why we don't complete a game. Loss of interest, need for a more powerful system...
 
Kermie said:
Hey, there are other factors as to why we don't complete a game. Loss of interest, need for a more powerful system...
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valid points how as a community to make gaming a more satisfying experience. We have a voice and if we can offer positive suggestions, we can benefit us.
 
I still finish good games. There is a good reason why I am still half way through Duke Nukem Forever after a week.
 
Dirk13 said:
It's because most games these days are shit.
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This. There are so many games that just aren't worth playing, or even worth pirating. So many games actually have negative value, because they make you feel that your precious time has been wasted.

I can finish a game if it it's decent and takes less than eight hours long (Bulletstorm, Singularity, Red Faction Armageddon), or if it has a lot of stuff to do and places to see (Divinity 2, Two Worlds 2). Some games are just so terrible that I can't force myself past an hour (Portal 2, Darksiders).
 
COD has definitely reduced the attention-span of a lot of its audience. They can't go a few seconds without a nuke going off in their face before writing a game off and going back to the instant-gratification model that COD uses.

Having said that, some games tend to go too far the other way and force upon the gamer extended unskippable cutscenes (letting me move around a bit in a tiny room while someone waffles on before eventually telling me to "go here and do this" counts as unskippable cutscenes). Watching these once is all well and good but the player shouldn't be forced to do nothing for several minutes on every playthrough...Ubisoft games tend to be big culprits here.
 
Dirk13 said:
It's because most games these days are shit.
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I can't agree with this.

My reason of why people don't finish games? It's going to be a highly unpopular opinion, but...

Games are just too long. Sorry, I've stated before, and I'll state it again, the 40 hour gamer is more myth than reality. Until about the late 1990's, many games could be completed in under 10 hours. (I love adventure games, and can beat almost every adventure game I own before 1995 in under 3 hours. Without hints? Maybe 10 hours at most).

A good game should be fun from beginning to end. If you quit early, for almost any reason (sans your PC blew up, which has happened to me before), something is inherintly wrong with the game.

I tend to view game time as how long I'm willing to invest in it. Sure, the game might come with 200 hours of gameplay, but if I only play 10 hours, then it's a 10 hour game, because the rest of it, I'm not seeing.

People also have lives outside of video games. Yeah, I know it's hard to believe. But I heard it's true! Significant others, children, jobs (or school if you're younger or taking night classes), and all other things that could be classified as responsibility get in the way.

So how am I disagreeing with the above quote if I just stated most games are bad? Because I don't think that. They are poorly designed, but some can be fun at first. And honestly, it's not like the quality of games have dropped. People tend to love the games they grew up with. (Not necessarily through age though, but when they started playing). It falls under opinion. E.G.: Zelda OoT is viewed by many people as one of the greatest games ever. I personally find it dull and honestly, quite an overrated game. I love the earlier Ultimas, yet newer gamers find them as bad games. From about 1995-2008, I was in a gaming drought. I can count probably under 25 games which I found fun in that time span. (And trust me, I own quite a large collection of games, so unless it's an indie game by an unknown developer, there's a good chance I own the game or have at least played it).
 
Plague_Injected said:
COD has definitely reduced the attention-span of a lot of its audience. They can't go a few seconds without a nuke going off in their face before writing a game off and going back to the instant-gratification model that COD uses.

Having said that, some games tend to go too far the other way and force upon the gamer extended unskippable cutscenes (letting me move around a bit in a tiny room while someone waffles on before eventually telling me to "go here and do this" counts as unskippable cutscenes). Watching these once is all well and good but the player shouldn't be forced to do nothing for several minutes on every playthrough...Ubisoft games tend to be big culprits here.
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I see your point. I see this as a valid opinion. others may say this is the decision to a core audience My question is this the future? Is it because we are conditioned to a mindset of what we we want or what is perceived as it works for the masses?
 
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purefun65 said:
I have seen post's from our own editor Kyle Bennett express his opinion on current games. I would as a enthusiast community feel we might be able to express our concerns and move to a solution to improve gaming.
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It's called not buying it. :) That is the only way to stop it.
 
purefun65 said:
My question is this the future? Is it because we are conditioned to a mindset of what we we want or what is perceived as it works for the masses?
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I don't think there really is a specific future. Like evolution, nothing is set in stone, and the tastes and demographics of gamers (the masses) are unpredictable and varied. Using statistics pulled entirely from my ass just for argument's sake, let's say that 10% of the world's population plays video games on a regular basis. As new generations are born that are around technology all their lives (and poorer countries improve their quality of life), that number might rise to 70%, and there will be seven times as many gamers as before with seven times as many different tastes.

Maybe today's COD gamer will latch on to long RPGs, but only after a developer makes an open-world FPS RPG. Maybe western culture will start shunning people with simpler tastes and games will become more complex. Or perhaps different forms of entertainment like games and books will merge, or games and television. Government arts funding might increase, and high-quality games that a for-profit organization wouldn't come near might get released.

Anything, anything at all can happen, and none of us can foresee it.
 
Got older, work too much and have other things that have to be done. A 40 hour game was much easier to complete back in the day when I had 30 hours or so of middle school or so a week to complete and not much else to do.
 
If anything, there are more and more AAA games to play. Just lots less time to play them all.
 
There is truth to this. so I would agree. Have we lost attention or have we not been challenged? Perhaps both?
 
The internet has created a society and generation that thrives on instant gratification. If they are bored with a webpage or youtube video, they go to another page. If they are bored with a game, they go to another game.

Back in the pre-internet days, you were stuck with limited TV channels, having to sit through commercials, having to change channels but having to wait for more commercials again. You owned a PC or console and a handful of games you purchased at an actual store and you played those to death because you didn't have access too the infinity of entertainment that is the interconnective tubes of webs net
 
Spare-Flair said:
The internet has created a society and generation that thrives on instant gratification. If they are bored with a webpage or youtube video, they go to another page. If they are bored with a game, they go to another game.

Back in the pre-internet days, you were stuck with limited TV channels, having to sit through commercials, having to change channels but having to wait for more commercials again. You owned a PC or console and a handful of games you purchased at an actual store and you played those to death because you didn't have access too the infinity of entertainment that is the interconnective tubes of webs net
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So can it be a plausible explanation that because of this we have in some sense developed some form of A.D D? Honest question.
 
Well gamers at least who have been playing for 20+ years and are hitting there 30's now probably blame it on real life always interfering and I'd say in more recent times games are also shorter. I don't mind shorter games , I don't want every game to be Oblivion in length .. I'd never even justify a purchase if that were true.

I think it comes down to long time gamers being spoiled and always starving for innovation. Gaming is a serious , viable business model now and sadly that means Corporate America has pushed hard for the yearly , easy to develop recycled game (Hello Call of Duty) that most gamers feel safe buying without even bothering to find out the changes a head of time ..and that produce huge sales.

I think if you look for it you'll find a game that sticks out of the mold as a PC gamer. However if your a jaded asshole that does nothing but whine on forums and yearns for the "good old days" of purist PC gaming than you probably are one unhappy jaded asshole in the current gaming climate.
 
Godmachine said:
Well gamers at least who have been playing for 20+ years and are hitting there 30's now probably blame it on real life always interfering and I'd say in more recent times games are also shorter. I don't mind shorter games , I don't want every game to be Oblivion in length .. I'd never even justify a purchase if that were true.

I think it comes down to long time gamers being spoiled and always starving for innovation. Gaming is a serious , viable business model now and sadly that means Corporate America has pushed hard for the yearly , easy to develop recycled game (Hello Call of Duty) that most gamers feel safe buying without even bothering to find out the changes a head of time ..and that produce huge sales.

I think if you look for it you'll find a game that sticks out of the mold as a PC gamer. However if your a jaded asshole that does nothing but whine on forums and yearns for the "good old days" of purist PC gaming than you probably are one unhappy jaded asshole in the current gaming climate.
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I understand that point. I am 46 and I feel that we aren't

in my sense challenged. It's possible that I feel I am dying breed. Possibly innovation has stagnated.
 
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Two contributing factors.... one is real life and it's responsibilities. I personally had the time to spend 50-100 hours on games 10 years ago, but not anymore. I still do it, once in a while, but I am definitely in a place where I now prefer shorter games over longer ones. My time is a lot more valuable to me now. The other reason I would say is that we are completely spoiled for choice these days. With places like gog.com, Steam sales with insanely discounted games, quick price drops on new releases plus the huge rise in the number of high profile games coming out (especially if you are a multiplatform gamer), it's come to the point where I (along with many others I'm sure) have got unmanageable backlogs. This means that if there is some game that doesn't manage to completely catch my attention, I'll just end up moving on to the next one on my list in the hope of a better experience.
 
fellow members thank you. I want input as to my lack of understanding of not being in sync. I dont feel clear on whats changing in the gaming industry. I believe I will continue to game. I needed some insight as to understand my confusion.
Edit : Thank you again . I appreciate your help. Peace out!
 
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purefun65 said:
So can it be a plausible explanation that because of this we have in some sense developed some form of A.D D? Honest question.
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Not ADD, a lower tolerance for crap. Now, people cannot even sit still in their damn chairs at a dinner table. No, they shift around, argue, and thump their feet if they don't have something they like to distract them. No more doing what you don't like :p Hey, back then, there just weren't that many games, and no internet to bash the bad ones :D
 
jeremyshaw said:
Not ADD, a lower tolerance for crap. Now, people cannot even sit still in their damn chairs at a dinner table. No, they shift around, argue, and thump their feet if they don't have something they like to distract them. No more doing what you don't like :p Hey, back then, there just weren't that many games, and no internet to bash the bad ones :D
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I found that back then I only played games for 1 hour per day because that's only what I was allowed to but in that one hour I was one dedicated player and I also played the same game until it was finished. And then sometimes over and over again but then that was only when I got like 2 games per year so I didn't have much choice. These day's I have too many games and prefer to spend a lot of my time that could be otherwise used for gaming on something else. Or I just play extremely long games like Oblivion and Fallout and never finish the other ones.
 
Dirk13 said:
It's because most games these days are shit.
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BOOM, first reply dead on the money.

We're in the age of games built to cater primarily for casual gamers, it's basically flushed away a lot of the quality we were used to.
 
The 'games are shit today' qualm I do not get.

If people acknowledge that games are sub-par why are they still blindly buying them? I thought PC gamers are supposed to be the smarter kind -- knowing that (in one's opinion) games are unsatisfying these days why do not people wait for reviews/try out at a friend's place/search out for info from people who have had first hand experience/etc. instead of rushing out on purchases raging, whining on forums, and not finishing the game?
 
I attribute my personal decrease in finishing games is simply having too much else to do. Back in the day I used to finish a game in the space of a couple of days to a week and I'd be going to school and occasionally chatting about different games with my friends. These days it'll take me a couple of weeks to finish a short game and maybe a month or two to finish a longer game because I dont have the time to put into it anymore. Then there'll be whole weeks where I dont have the time to game and dont even think about gaming and if I were in the middle of a game during that period I'm pretty unlikely to get motivated to try and remember where I was up to and get back into it.

Games haven't gotten worse over time, though I do think peoples' expectations are higher and the internet provides an outlet for endless bitching about it. Every new game has to bring something new to the table and be better than its predecessors and after 20 or so years of mainstream gaming that hasn't left us anywhere much to go.
 
Tudz said:
Games haven't gotten worse over time, though I do think peoples' expectations are higher and the internet provides an outlet for endless bitching about it.
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This is my feeling also. I've been playing games since back in the 90's. I remember my dad used to bring home his laptop from work and I would play away on Comander Keen, Wolfenstein and Doom. They were really good in the days but the overall gaming experience today is light years from what it was back then.With such immersif universes, stunning artwork and graphics fidelity like nothing before. Games as a whole have certainly not got worse -- in my opinion they are more entertaining than ever.
 
purefun65 said:
I see a trend as to we as gamers are increasingly less likely to finish a game. Why is this? I am curious as to what are opinions of what is causing THIS? This is meant to be an open and honest discussion. Feel free and be honest.
Click to expand...
The only trend I see in the gaming industry is that over the past 10 years, games have gotten increasingly easier to beat. I also see more reward for less effort.

Whether gamers have A.D.D. or not, I don't know. Game developers sure are designing games that way though.
 
Although I don't finish a lot of single player games, campaign modes, story modes, etc--I'm not sure I would call it A.D.D. I just spend a lot more time and attention on the multiplayer aspect of games and have since the late '90s.

It probably started around early 1997 when I first got Diablo. While I did play a lot of singleplayer I have more memories of doing direct landline connections with friends. Got worse when Starcraft was released. And then I started playing Ultima Online, which was my ultimate multiplayer game when I first got it. Slowly more and more of my gametime went toward MMOs and playing other games online and less singleplayer.

Been doing a bit more singleplayer lately as I can't invest as much time in MMOs and sometimes need to walk away from the computer frequently and lengthy periods that make it a pain in some type of multiplayer games. But I enjoy my game time more when its multiplayer.
 
I think its just too damn time consuming for developers to release games like Dragon Age: Origins. I mean that game was in development for ages. It doesn't make a lot of financial sense to craft games like that when you can put out the same game 10 times in 2 years and make a killing on each of them *Glares at CoD*
 
Tudz said:
Games haven't gotten worse over time, though I do think peoples' expectations are higher and the internet provides an outlet for endless bitching about it. Every new game has to bring something new to the table and be better than its predecessors and after 20 or so years of mainstream gaming that hasn't left us anywhere much to go.
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Game improvements aren't keeping up with the hardware improvements, we've got so much GPU power spare on the PC right now that people are running 7MegaPixel+ screen resolutions across 3 1080p monitors and still getting good frame rates.

The whole industry with only minor exceptions is stagnating, basically because lowest common denominator design philosophy.
 
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