How much do you get out of Videogames today?

Comixbooks

Fully [H]
Joined
Jun 7, 2008
Messages
21,947
I get next to nothing out of most games today but still buy them. I think I need help. Maneater is the only game I got something out of recently Pathfinder Kingmaker was pretty good.

These so called Modern Games don't even comes close to the feels if Ultima Online or Dark Age of Camelot too much is supplied in the game where it bores in minutes.
 
Not a ton of time myself to play these days but the escape is why I play. Same as it ever was. Something else to put your mind on for a bit and relax. I don’t play anything super twitchy or competitive anymore. Coop is nice also. In games like Civ6 or total war series especially where the chatting and virtual hanging out is almost more important than the game itself.
 
More than the typical TV show produced now days. VR is still very enticing, get a hell a lot there, Beat Saber with Linkin Pak. Once I settle into a game, it becomes pretty good. I don't over do it either, a few intense days followed by other activities, balance.
 
Maybe branch out and try other genres?

Still enjoy many of the games I played. However most are indie games, don't play to many AAA.

Currently really enjoying Terraria (calamity mod).
 
As far as things go, it might be time to just take a break from gaming. But I also don't agree with the argument people make when they say modern games are better. Technology wise yes, but in terms of entertainment, games of different eras are different. And different people like different eras, and there's nothing wrong with that.

That said, I've bought way too many games lately, and bought too much hardware that I'll never really touch. I think I enjoy the buying process more than the actual games themselves. I can't even tell you the last game I really enjoyed, and I'm talking AAA, indie, etc.
 
Shit all. I don't know if it's because it's the same formulas re-hashed from the golden age of gaming, so we've seen it all done it all - over and over and over. There's no innovation because it's all about making money now. Any innovative develoeprs that are successful get bought out, put under stress and impossible deadlines, and told to conform to SJW and lowest common denominator audiences (kids).

That, or just as some of us age, we just find less interest in the 'virtual' time wastes for whatever reasons (doesn't apply to everyone of course and nothing wrong with adults being sucked in and enjoying video games like there's no tomorrow).

My person theory:
In the early days of computers, they were complicated to get to work (think IRQs, tweaking required, jumpers, errors to figure out, all the weird intricacies of Windows, or gosh forbid, DOS and its command line interface nature - little was 'plug n play' like it is today). Computers were also quite a bit more expensive than they are today for even base models, let alone high end parts for real 3D gaming in the early days. Although, with COVID shortages, that's climbing to nearly those levels again.

The knowledge/experience/skills/money/responsibility required to own a computer, especially one capable of playing video games, was much higher. That high skill and dedication ceiling meant it was an "adults only" territory by nature, for the most part. By this I mean, the ADD 10 year old who whines to mom all day to his mom for more MTX money, couldn't exist in the olden days ecosystem, at least not in the same large numbers they exist today - meaning they are THE influence driving development and target audience.

So the audience was mature. And develoeprs were mature even more so. It's easy to learn to do shit coding and game development using templates and whatnot these days (look at all the absolute JUNK 'indie' devs throw out on Steam every single day. How many 'good' games are there out of the millions that come out on mobile and PC platforms? Very little. It took a lot more skill and maturity and aptitude and knowhow to create video games back then.

Basically, video games were made by adults, for adults. Sure, lucky kids like me still enjoyed them back then. And big players in the field valued innovation. Now they value playing it safe and appealing to the mass audiences. That brings turds out. Back then it was less about profits and more about being innovative, fun, new mechanics, story lines meant for adults, and complex gameplay that would be hard for 10 year olds to really grasp their heads around.

tldr - games these days are meant for kids, made by large corporations catering to kids. If it sells and kids buy it, that's what they'll keep producing. And the small studios making quality games get quickly bought out (few can refuse millions of Dollars when offered, no matter where their personal interests lie), who then are forced to quit after a while or churn out the garbage EA and the likes make them.
The Commander Keens prevail over the Mysts and Quakes. It's the reality now with how affordable and accessible computers are.
Same reason the internet content went to shit once broadband and smartphones were ubiquitous starting in the late 2ks. Accessibility to the platforms, mass audience targets (children) and corporate greed ruined everything. I remember when reddit was filled with awesome, mature discussions. Then starting in the mid and late 2ks as more and more kids were able to get internet at home, it became a shithole overall. Kids swarmed and ruined the internet and gaming.

Fuck, I'm only 31 years old and I speak like the stereotype angry old man waving his stick at kids from his lawn.. I need help.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Playing different genres helps but still not guaranteed. I try to dabble in a lot of different types of games to help. For example I completed Arkham Knight & Arkham City this year they were lovely I had a great time. I mess with Marvel vs Capcom Infinite, Mortal Kombat 11, Street Fighter V, Injustice 2 for some fightimg action. Madden, F1, NBA2K, Fifa for sports are good. Play some Hitman 2 for some good hitman action. Overwatch is fun Star Wars Battlefront II is awesome so much fun if you like Star Wars. That's just to name a few library has over 100+ games but as most have said not enough time I have most of the new AAA titles just no time or desire to dive into them considering Cyberpunk even though It's more hype than anything.
 
tldr - games these days are meant for kids, made by large corporations catering to kids. If it sells and kids buy it, that's what they'll keep producing. And the small studios making quality games get quickly bought out (few can refuse millions of Dollars when offered, no matter where their personal interests lie), who then are forced to quit after a while or churn out the garbage EA and the likes make them.
Not sure about that, I think computer game made for a nicher computer expert community versus a console+more mainstream PC audience is more the difference.

The adult gaming audience is giant:
esa-on-games.jpg


ESA-Age-Breakdown-Video-Game-Players-Aug2020.png


And most big game had them in mind (outside Nintendo that have kids more in minds)

If you look at the giant budget (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_video_games_to_develop), Read Dead redemption, GTA, The Witcher, Cyberpunk, Battlefield, Call of Duty, Star Citizen, Tomb Raider, Mass Effect, Watch Dogs, Gear of Wars, Ghost Recon, LA noire, Half Life or the 90s Nostalgia side of things it is not specially made for the kids audience and their money.

You can say that it is for manchildren but that is more subjective.

And the indie genre, easy development and distribution exploded the offer for all target audience, but if you are not Nintendo and spending a giant amount of money on a game, almost certainly you will have the majority of the market in mind and that is by a giant amount 18+ people (almost 4 to 1 in a market like the US).
 
I think one big and obvious difference is ourself, playing games has a kid was a very different experience and term of "dreaming"-"fantasying" about it, it was game back tend had a much more simpler representation and open to filling up the gap in our minds (from the extreme Zork but in general, you had to make up in your mind what the Fire spell in final fantasy was doing to the enemy and so on, everything were simple avatar-icon level representation of the world) but that a child mind do tend to be more imaginative and enjoying that part, I could imagine today child having very similar experience to our experience in that regard.
 
I'm in my 50s and for the last 25+ years, I've strongly preferred some type of multiplayer fps that was more on the team side (Tribes, Planet Side,Battlefield, Apex Legends) Guild Wars 1/2 was a departure and I played the Elderscrolls games but single player games tend to bore me - I usually find a way to get too rich or powerful and then the game is boring / broken.

When I was a kid, the Ultima series was my favorite, hands down, with the Bards Tale a distant second.
 
I'm not in my late 50's, so yes I still enjoy gaming. Dispite garbage miners from hogging all of the videocards.
This fiasco may end up being a game changer that bites the entire gaming industry on the sack if it drags out too long and discourages enough people.
 
I'm a die-hard FPS guy but decided to try something new, to spice things up. The Ascent. Having a blast!
 
Not sure about that, I think computer game made for a nicher computer expert community versus a console+more mainstream PC audience is more the difference.

The adult gaming audience is giant:
esa-on-games.jpg


ESA-Age-Breakdown-Video-Game-Players-Aug2020.png


And most big game had them in mind (outside Nintendo that have kids more in minds)

If you look at the giant budget (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_video_games_to_develop), Read Dead redemption, GTA, The Witcher, Cyberpunk, Battlefield, Call of Duty, Star Citizen, Tomb Raider, Mass Effect, Watch Dogs, Gear of Wars, Ghost Recon, LA noire, Half Life or the 90s Nostalgia side of things it is not specially made for the kids audience and their money.

You can say that it is for manchildren but that is more subjective.

And the indie genre, easy development and distribution exploded the offer for all target audience, but if you are not Nintendo and spending a giant amount of money on a game, almost certainly you will have the majority of the market in mind and that is by a giant amount 18+ people (almost 4 to 1 in a market like the US).
Great and fair examples on the big budget games you listed. Not sure what to say other than those may be a small drop in the bucket compared to the other big money rakers, but perhaps I really am way off base. However I definitely wouldn't put much stock in the 'Marketing Charts' age chart. 4000 is a small sample, and the people agreeing to/care to take these types of surveys typically aren't the 10 year old ADD kids I feel are the majority of gamer/target audience these days - an adult would be more likely and willing to take a survey like this than a child I would guess
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I really enjoy World of Warcraft just as I have over the course of most of the last 16+ years. While I enjoy the game itself, it's also the community aspect that keeps me playing. Being part of a guild, being part of a raid team, etc, feels very rewarding as far as games go. I know several people who have met their spouse playing WoW. The times when I have taken a break over the years are usually if/when my guild disbands and I don't feel like starting over with a new guild at that point so I quit the game until the next expansion pack. In terms of hours played, this probably makes up 98% of my gaming.

Beyond that I love good RTS games, especially the Total War series as well as oldies like Supreme Commander. I can get really caught up in it and next thing I know 8 hours have gone by.

I also like open-ended games like GTA. I usually spend more time just messing around in the open world compared to strictly following the campaign, but I usually do complete the campaign eventually.

I have mostly lost interest in most first-person shooters, although I do play them occasionally. I'm not big into the Pay2win micro-transactions and rampant cheating.
 
Last edited:
More than ever. Games are much more immersive and realistic nowadays. It almost makes old games look like jokes. It was a means to wasting time, but we rarely got anything meaningful out of them. And before you start with but muh xy game and how amazing it was and it beats everything today. What you experience is the nostalgia factor, remembering the game evokes emotions that you experienced at that time. Had it been any other game that you played that would be the hot shit. So it's not the game, it's your overall memories from that time period that make you see old things through rose colored glasses.

I'm not suggesting that old games are bad, just different. And of course there are exceptions where old games could be immersive too, but most of them relied almost exclusively on gameplay. The narrative was irrelevant and forgettable at best, or completely non existent sometimes. And as such I'd say that gaming has never been better, and will only get better. The only thing that can throw a wrench in that is cancel culture and the church of woke that seems to have infiltrated most prominent game development companies.
 
More than ever. Games are much more immersive and realistic nowadays. It almost makes old games look like jokes. It was a means to wasting time, but we rarely got anything meaningful out of them. And before you start with but muh xy game and how amazing it was and it beats everything today. What you experience is the nostalgia factor, remembering the game evokes emotions that you experienced at that time. Had it been any other game that you played that would be the hot shit. So it's not the game, it's your overall memories from that time period that make you see old things through rose colored glasses.

I'm not suggesting that old games are bad, just different. And of course there are exceptions where old games could be immersive too, but most of them relied almost exclusively on gameplay. The narrative was irrelevant and forgettable at best, or completely non existent sometimes. And as such I'd say that gaming has never been better, and will only get better. The only thing that can throw a wrench in that is cancel culture and the church of woke that seems to have infiltrated most prominent game development companies.
What drugs are you on and are they legal? :LOL:
 
What drugs are you on and are they legal? :LOL:
They say technology sufficiently above yours will seem like magic. Well it seems points flying sufficiently above your head will seem like they were made on drugs :LOL:
 
The book by Ralf Koster " A Theory of Fun" the lead Designer on Ultima Online he pretty much talks about what makes a game good. When you have a game like Fortnite which throws that formula out the window.
 
The book by Ralf Koster " A Theory of Fun" the lead Designer on Ultima Online he pretty much talks about what makes a game good. When you have a game like Fortnite which throws that formula out the window.
What does it mean to be good?

There's what makes a game fun, and there's what makes a game addictive, and the two aren't necessarily the same. And I think that's a problem with what we're seeing today. Games are being designed to be addictive.
 
Basically the same cliché game mechanics are repeated over so your brain memorizes everything so you don't get anything out of it. Ultima Online was perfect I think the best thing the game had going for it was all done is 2-D sprites the 3-D aspect just ruined everything. So it took maybe 15 or maybe when Divinity Original Sin launched years for Isometric games to get good again because of having to adapt to 3-D polys.
 
Maybe you're just growing apart from the hobby. At the very least, if you feel like you are buying too many games but not enjoying them, it'd be best to research more extensively before buying. I know people who still preorder games based on little to no information and are angry when they don't like it. Like...???
 
Honestly I don't get much out of video games nowadays. I been playing video games for over 30 years at this point. I don't even know why I spend so much money on building a gaming machine. I beat maybe 4 games in the past 2 years. I get excited for a game coming out but more times then not I play it the day I get it never touch it again afterwards.
 
Not much, but its because I barely have the time. I'm also seeking other hobbies.
 
I enjoy playing games as much as ever. In some cases more. I'd say that if you're not getting anything out of current games, you should probably look to different genres.
 
If it's a game I like I've found that I'll put around 500 hours into it before stopping. Most games are a one-and-done for me, though. I still play games at least 20 hours a week as I'm approaching 40 years old.
 
4000 is a small sample,
Not it is half well done, it is a really big sample (if it would actually be random it would even be overkill, when you go above 3,000 on a random sample you can quite effectively survey the entire USA) and I imagine you could be right about the Minecraft-Fortnite side of gaming that is completely obscure to me, but if you look at consoles owner-steam users age distribution, the adult market is the dominant one.

One element that can give you that impression, is just how much kids-young culture became less and less important in the 2000s, when Shrek was release I remember people point out how nice it was that a kid movie thought of the parents, now that virtually always the case for anything with a large budget, the Star Wars and superheroes affair went from kids stuff to 4 quadrants has the share of the kid audience declined abruptly (now some Pixar movies does not just have easter eggs for adult to enjoy but are mostly for them), when at the same time the 50+ year's old audience increased a lot, canada and usa market for example:

c-g2.3-eng.gif


2021.02.26_BrookingsMetro_InvestingInChildren_Fig1.png



Western world tend to have aging population to the point that the average gamers is 35 in the USA now.
 
For me, they provide a mental release. I can forgot about the outside world when I turn the machine on and slip the cans over the ears.
 
Like most of the entertainment indusustry, games are shit now days. The last game I was fully involved in was The Witcher 3. A good place to end if I do say so. I mostly play retro games now & its a lot of fun finding games that you missed when you were growing up.
 
When I was young (the early 80's), I remember my parents constantly complaining that TV, movies, and (especially) music were garbage and everything was better only a few years ago. Glad to see that my generation is apparently still normal. "It'll happen to you!"
 
When I was young (the early 80's), I remember my parents constantly complaining that TV, movies, and (especially) music were garbage and everything was better only a few years ago. Glad to see that my generation is apparently still normal. "It'll happen to you!"
The thing is, it probably will happen to you. That's where I think some negativity between generations occurs. You either change with the times or are left to be forgotten. But we're hard wired this way. Change is basically natures way of saying sayonara to the last generation and hello to the new one. It's just that when you're the current generation being catered to, it's near impossible to imagine otherwise. But it will happen sooner or later.
 
When I was young (the early 80's), I remember my parents constantly complaining that TV, movies, and (especially) music were garbage and everything was better only a few years ago. Glad to see that my generation is apparently still normal. "It'll happen to you!"
People in the 80s being the broken clock that was probably quite right.
 
Play VR games, you'll get more out of it. I play a lot of VR games and the thrill I get is excellent.
I can't find fun in regular games... I never tried VR. Now after your comment I really want to! But I have AMD 6800 which I heard isn't anywhere near as good as nVidia for VR :asad:
 
I can't find fun in regular games... I never tried VR. Now after your comment I really want to! But I have AMD 6800 which I heard isn't anywhere near as good as nVidia for VR :asad:

I highly recommend an Oculus Quest 2, and play the standalone games on it. Much better experience being tetherless, plus it has VR over wifi that's pretty good the last few times I tried. It also has 120Hz support, which is awesome for motion sickness.

I mainly play Eleven Table Tennis, and Battle Talent (a fantasy clone of Gorn that's free to play), and soon to play a bunch of free VR shooters once my rifle stock arrives.
 
I highly recommend an Oculus Quest 2, and play the standalone games on it. Much better experience being tetherless, plus it has VR over wifi that's pretty good the last few times I tried. It also has 120Hz support, which is awesome for motion sickness.

I mainly play Eleven Table Tennis, and Battle Talent (a fantasy clone of Gorn that's free to play), and soon to play a bunch of free VR shooters once my rifle stock arrives.
OQ2 sounds a bit too casual for my tastes but after you got me thinking about it, I think I'll wait for the next gen/version of Valve Index and make the plunge then (y)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
OQ2 sounds a bit too casual for my tastes but after you got me thinking about it, I think I'll wait for the next gen/version of Valve Index and make the plunge then (y)

You better save up some more and eye the Kat Walk C3 in that case
:LOL:
 
Back
Top