I am out of patience. Your game must immerse me in 5 mins. or less. - Page 2

Ryslin · 06-19-2009, 06:02 PM

Try something entirely in a different direction? Played Ghostmaster?

theborbes · 06-19-2009, 06:24 PM

this thread reminds me of resistance 1. It didn't take me much longer than 5 minutes to realize that everyone who likes that game is wrong and probably just conspiring against me to make me waste my money

Tyjenks · 06-19-2009, 07:18 PM

My kids (8 and 3 years old) and wife are horrible at secrets. I am 98% sure they are getting a DS for Father's Day. Maybe it will re-awaken something. The PSP has been a downer as far as games are concerned. Not sure that is just me either.

Then, I can comeback and start a "Hey, I got a DS. What's good?!?!". Because we certainly do not have enough of those threads either.

RepoMan · 06-19-2009, 07:20 PM

I can relate to this, bigtime. I was on a major gaming binge for the last six months or so -- I put 100+ hours into Fallout 3, fercrissakes, and then I finished Defense Grid: The Awakening, got almost to the end of Dawn of War 2, and then Wolverine, Red Faction: Guerrilla, and Prototype all hit in rapid succession....

...and I'm still on the edge of taking a Big-Ass Break from gaming altogether. It's been a great streak, but man, I miss reading books. Being almost 40 as well (woo!) and having two young kids, the discretionary time is so scarce.

But hell, books can be just as bad -- sometimes I find myself not even able to decide on which book to read. They're so big, and it's such a commitment... yet I suspect that soon it will be Gaming Hiatus Time and Book Devourment Time! At least until I get bored again :-)

And I definitely think that some of the more hardcore games in my backlog, especially strategy games, are in danger of getting permashelved. Empire: TW I haven't even fucking launched yet. Sins of a Solar Empire, played it like three times. King's Bounty, drifted away after just a short while (well, it was because of Fallout 3, but still). Supreme Commander, HOMM 5, they have never even gotten installed!

Controlling just one dude (e.g. FPS, or action game, or non-party RPG) is about as much as I want to deal with lately. I have nebulous hopes that this will change once the kids get a lot older (like, teenagers) and I maybe even get lucky enough to cut back some hours at work. Of course this is like 14 years away, but hey, that's not too far ahead to anticipate... to anticipate having a whole day to get totally into a strategy game again....

Say, is it true? Anyone in this thread gotten past the kid-raising years, and found themselves with more time of their own again, and used it to get right the fuck back into gaming like the old days?

Tyjenks · 06-19-2009, 07:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RepoMan

But hell, books can be just as bad -- sometimes I find myself not even able to decide on which book to read. They're so big, and it's such a commitment... yet I suspect that soon it will be Gaming Hiatus Time and Book Devourment Time! At least until I get bored again :-)

I have the same problem with books and just whined about that in the book thread. I like the Erikson books, but that is some serious work. I have started maybe 5 novels in the last couple of months and finished one.

It must be a function of the work/kid schedule that so limits your free time. My energy used to be endless when I would sit down to play. I knew I could play for a while and then continue the next day or far into the night. Knowing I have 2 hours at best and any longer and I will be tired and less productive at work always kinda weighs in the back of my brain. Plus, I know the next evening even that length of time could be curtailed. I love my kids more than anything..even more than gaming. I just never thought I would have to choose. On the outside, it seems like the enjoyment out of each could co-exist, but maybe that is simply not the case.

I did take the time with King's Bounty and found it the most rewarding in the last year or so. HoMM 5, which is my favorite series of any on the PC, I only scratched the surface. And that one has been out a while. Maybe I should journey back to it...I felt too bad to ever uninstall it.

frank austin · 06-19-2009, 07:46 PM

Same problem.

I just tried to play MGS4 today for the first time. You can imagine how well THAT went.

CalvinGT · 06-19-2009, 09:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by frank austin

Same problem.

I just tried to play MGS4 today for the first time. You can imagine how well THAT went.

Man I completely forgot about that game. I was so turned off by the mediocre shooting, the terrible plot and writing, and the agonizing cutscenes that I ejected the disc after an hour and never looked back.

Also, I am with you guys regarding starting books being a full-time commitment and one to agonize over-and I'm not even that busy and don't have kids.

I think the reason I like the summer blockbuster type games, even the ones that require a bit more thought and planning (assassin's creed), or time and investment (mass effect), or reflexes (Call of Duty 4) is because they IMMEDIATELY grab you. They are intense, satisfying, exciting, they are supremely playable in bits and peices, and their presentation is top notch.

Like I said, I'm not even that busy! I just don't have the interest or focus anymore to play games for hours at a time but for on rare ocassions. Most nights it would be a good gaming night if I played for an hour or hour and a half scattered around.

XtienMurawski · 06-19-2009, 10:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RepoMan

I put 100+ hours into Fallout 3, fercrissakes, and then I finished [REDACTED] and got almost to the end of [REDACTED] and then [MORE REDACTEDS] all came out at the same time...

...and having two young kids...*

Great googaly moogaly. What the fuck.

Sometimes I feel like I'm living in an alternate universe.

-amanpour

*Okay, it's possible some of that quote has been paraphrased.

"They're adults. They're allowed to have fun whenever they want. We're kids. We're supposed to work."

frank austin · 06-19-2009, 10:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CalvinGT

Man I completely forgot about that game. I was so turned off by the mediocre shooting, the terrible plot and writing, and the agonizing cutscenes that I ejected the disc after an hour and never looked back.

Man, fucking tell me about it. I just went back to it and invested a bit more time, and I'm really wishing I hadn't. I still want to finish it, to see what it's all about, but the amount of time I actually spend playing the damned thing vs. watching it is pretty low. On top of that, the time playing it just feels like a clunky shooter on top of a clunky stealth game. Maybe I don't want to see how it all turns out, after all.

DocLazy · 06-20-2009, 01:11 AM

It's not just you, and I'm in mid 20's so I don't think it's a getting old type of thing.

I think we have just seen it all before. Bioshock for example is basically a reskin of system shock 2, even down to the story. Replace "shodan" with "atlas" and you have bioshock. There really hasn't been much in the way of innovation over the last few years.

I'd second giving Ghostmaster a go, as well as Startopia.

BobJustBob · 06-20-2009, 01:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DocLazy

It's not just you, and I'm in mid 20's so I don't think it's a getting old type of thing.

I think we have just seen it all before. Bioshock for example is basically a reskin of system shock 2, even down to the story. Replace "shodan" with "atlas" and you have bioshock. There really hasn't been much in the way of innovation over the last few years.

I'd second giving Ghostmaster a go, as well as Startopia.

Wait, who said anything bad about Startopia? I'll cut the bitch!

FieryBalrog · 06-20-2009, 01:59 AM

I've had this problem since I was 17 (24 now), so ha.

The only thing that solved it was the DS. Too bad it got stolen a few months ago.

Spect · 06-20-2009, 02:21 AM

I'm having a similar situation Tyjenks, and I turned 41 this past year. I used to play the hell out of any RPG that came out on any system I owned. Even through some of the bad stories or lack luster game play. Now, if I'm not completely engaged in the game quickly, I have no interest in it. Even some of the games that grabbed me at first became dull and boring as the time I spent with them increased. I think it used to come and go when I was in my 30s, but now it's fairly consistant.

Unlike you, though, I have found more of a permanant home in WoW. I've been engrossed in the game (again) since WotLK came out, and I'm still going strong. I should be spending more time with other games that have come out recently but I just find I have very little desire to do so. I'm even beta testing 3 other games right now, but I'm finding I have little to no patience for them.

My overall feeling is that there's just nothing new anymore. For whatever reason, I did thoroughly enjoy Fallout 3 and I played it to the end. But cases like that are so far and few between these days. Maybe I'm jaded. Maybe my expectations have grown so high that nothing can satisfy my gaming needs now. Or maybe it's just a side effect of growing older.

EvilIdler · 06-20-2009, 06:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ryslin

Played Ghostmaster?

I bought it $3.75 (or something like that) on Steam, and it sucked...days of my life! Flawed, but recommended. I stepped on a Startopia disc the other day, but maybe it still works. Both are fun diversions.

Beta-surfing is also nice. Sign up for every beta ever, and you'll aleays have something new (although not always fresh).

cliffski · 06-20-2009, 06:51 AM

Very interesting thread, it's how I feel too. Which is probably a good thing, because if there are lots of gamers that feel the same way they hopefully the games I make will gel with those same people.
I get bored to tears by endless back story, cutscenes and anything that means I have to invest dozens of hours in a game before it starts being fun. Stuff like that has to compete with wine, donuts and sex which all provide fun from the very beginning.

JakeSolomon · 06-20-2009, 06:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DocLazy

I think we have just seen it all before.

That's true, certainly, for a lot of titles. I get that same weary feeling when I fire up a game and run through the "Press Y to activate the intersting twist on shooters" button tutorial.

And as a longtime strategy guy, my patience with uber-complicated strategy titles and their anti-fun tutorials is near its end.

But I still think it's all about design. It's easier to hide a crappy game behind spectacle, nowadays, but if you've been playing games for a long time, spectacle is never going to be enough.

Left 4 Dead, Fable 2, Plants vs. Zombies, I still get downright addicted to games with great design. I just think it's harder to tell what games are actually going to be fun for me. Reviews can be downright deceiving when it comes to design.

Lorini · 06-20-2009, 07:19 AM

The other problem is that publishers overstate the actual interesting game play of a game. Too many games are loaded with story and grinding, none of which actually contributes to the fun of gaming. And the problem is that reviewers compound this, saying 'oh and it took me 30 hours to finish the game' without noting how much of that 30 hours was actually fun/interesting/non-grindy.

Ivan® · 06-20-2009, 08:20 AM

I think it's the same for all of us who played through 8-bit and 16-bit era when everything was about gameplay and grabed you immediately. I know this is not some old-man story, i perfectly understand new games too. I played everything that counts for past 20 years, but many of new games just don't have that simplest quality of just being a game, nothing more, nothing less. They try to be serious in very bad ways and fail SO HARD in my opinion. When we were younger, we couldn't see that, and now we clearly do. When i was i kid, every stupid story from any stupid game with a story was bigger than me, i couldn't understand it and of course i couldn't see how bad it was (english not being my native language only added to that). I just thought: so this is how it happens in computer world...mmmm, it rocks! :)

Nothing that is overcomplicated is ever fun, especialy if it's a game. Every good game or story (not only game story) is simple, but powerful. Everything needs to be accessible to even give you a chance to like it or not. Accessible doesn't mean dumbed down at all. Maybe it looks like those "serious" games are for older gamers, but i think it's just opposite: only someone young can even try to "play" in such a bad way.

The only problem is that we see and understand everything when we're older, and in industry like this, there's a lot to dislike at our age :).

Braid showed me that i'm right and reminded me why i fell in love with video games - so yes, it's still possible...

Shieldwolf · 06-20-2009, 08:34 AM

My suggestions is start playing board games. Once you get hooked on those you'll forget about games for bit. Then you can slowly come back and bask in the warmth of video game goodness.

psu_13 · 06-20-2009, 08:36 AM

You don't have to play video games for 20 years to realize there is never anything new. I played to occasional video game but never more than once every few years until a few years ago. Really it only takes about four or five years of serious work to get through basically everything that was ever good.

If the first hour or so of a game is a badly paced boring mess there is little reason to believe that it will get better. You may as well just sell it on ebay at that point.

Tyjenks · 06-20-2009, 09:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shieldwolf

My suggestions is start playing board games. Once you get hooked on those you'll forget about games for bit. Then you can slowly come back and bask in the warmth of video game goodness.

I would love this. My wife is no more into board games than she is into videogames. I have not looked very hard for a board gaming group, but then the folks at the local gaming stores do not appear to be "in the same place" as me. Or, they are in their late teens or early 20s and I am not sure a 39 year-old joining them for some Monster and gaming would quite be appropriate. THat said, I think it is an excellent suggestion and may be something for me to look further into. Board games do strip out more of the bad habits videogames fall into. They can still fall back into old and sometimes bad game mechanics, but I have been away from boardgaming so long, that, that might be a way out.

And back to WoW, I probably had some of the most fun of my gaming life playing that. Soloing initially and then joining the Drop Bears. I quir when I hit 60 with one character, but came back around TBC time. Did the same for WotLK. I think there is something for everyone in a game like WoW and there are a ton of great qualities. THe min/maxing that and faction grinding and achievement getting just was no longer for me. I am glad so many folks still like it. I miss hanging out with those folks and do long to get sucked back in, but the time required to get out of it what I would like is too much. Plus, I began to feel the tipping of the scales where the cost/benefit analysis is concerned.

Also, I am sure there ARE games out there for me and they have not all turned to poop or are retreads. Part of the lack of patience has to do with having to wade through the sheer volume of games. That is a good thing I just want a second version of me to stay home during the day, review every game, learn the good ones, and then I could do a Matrix upload of how to play when I get home...not the "I have the game mastered" upload, just the "Hey, here is how you play" upload.

I did buy and have been playing Avernum 5. I do not look forward all day to getting home to play nor do I have a lot of trouble stopping at around 10:30 or so, but the simplicity of the gameplay presses some of the buttons. I think some of those buttons are pressed by WoW, I just want another game equal to WoW. :) That is not to ask of a game developer is it? ;)

I also really like DarkWind, just the waiting between races or Scout missions REEEAALLY starts to eat at me where the time constraints are concerned. I mean, the wait is not interminably long like preparing and gathering for a raid, but my irritable, impatience goes to work anyway. If work does ever slow to a normal pace, DW is one I will attempt to stick with.

EDIT: Man, I should probably spend some of this time learning how to play something new or reinstalling an old favorite rather than typing and griping. However, I am also trying to placate the 3-year old in between paragraphs.

Demorve · 06-20-2009, 10:07 AM

Tyjenks and those who are starting to feel like him.

You guys are reaching a point in your lives where work, kids and wife are all starting to demand a significant amount of time and your gaming time decreases significantly. I hit this stage about ten years ago and it is frustrating and depressing that you can't devote the amount time you want to gaming. You do get over it and the importance of gaming in your life decreases. I know this is blasphemous, but that is the way it is. What you will end up doing (at least for me) is setting aside an hour or two during work days, devoting a Saturday or Sunday to the wife and kids and the non devoted family day to your gaming habit. You become very picky about the games you buy and buy less because of it. When you find a game or 2 that you like you start to look forward to your gaming time in order to play them. I'm actually enjoying the games more now because I know I will be playing them all day Sunday and not all the time. Hope this helps you understand what might be going on. As you get closer to retirement your gaming habit will not increase much because there will be things you want to see and do that you don't have time for now. One more thing every evening always set aside some one on one time for the little woman. She'll love it and you might get lucky.

Tyjenks, if you start playing games that allow you to pause and save at any time you can handle the kids and game better.

WarrenM · 06-20-2009, 10:23 AM

I'm kind of in the same boat. I need a game to show me why it's interesting and cool in, and I'm a little more generous here, the first half hour. I need to see what it is that I'll be doing for fun for the rest of the game before I can commit. If half an hour goes by and I'm still not 'getting' your game, it's over.

Destarius · 06-20-2009, 10:25 AM

I still remember some insane MOO3 fanbois who were saying that people would like MOO3 if they would only play it for about 20 hours first.

Foxstab · 06-20-2009, 10:47 AM

Another stricken down fool here.

I used to play a lot of different genres, and varying degrees of complexity and now...each day I wake up and...get pissed, bored, displaying withdrawal symptoms you may even say.
I become agitated, pace to the kitchen, grab a drink, eat an apple, come back, get pins in my ass, get up and pace again, drop on the bed, growl...gaming is all my life, but for the life of me, I just can't seem to find anything enjoyable anymore.

Everything is the same. No game is different anymore. They're all just rehashes. I ain't got the patience to work through the trudge anymore to get to the "good stuff".
Hell, even I went around and hacked my way through boring parts, say in Baldur's Gate or Jagged Alliance to get to the "good stuff", it's still "SAME OLD" and just that thought alone turns me off. I need a NEW "drug". A new experience. Not to replay (relive?) a scene that I've played over tons of times.
Even Arcade stuff...replaying that, even say simple old platformers, well, I've done it already hundred of times, no surprise there...no drive to play it.
The only game that used to work for me was SubSpace (probably because it's so simple, action-y and entirely PvP), and since the SVS zone is pretty much dead I can't even play that anymore as the newb zones do nothing for me.
And SOE killed Infantry, so nothing to look there.

So I'm stuck.
Tried that Atlantica Online a year ago or half a year ago or so...yuck.
Tried that 2029 Online now...it basically got to "you gotta grind boring kill X of Y to get to level 40, only after you get to 40, you're a citizen with priviledges and allowed to begin to grind more shit so you can MAYBE have fun in big instanced DoTA scenarios or whatever BS we throw at you alongside the multitude of bugs".
Still playing Ikariam...not really sure why, game's boring feed-fest. Just keep eating until you over grow your pants size and expand and expand and...yawn a lot. The only reason anyone in my alliance still play is because of all the people in the alliance talking with extreme humour and vulgarity to keep shit interesting, we're all literally at the top of the game and got nothing to shoot for anymore other than tease each other up.

I pounce from one free MMOG to the next, and I'm disgusted with them all.

I look at all the games out there, they're mostly shooters too, and I say BWAH.

And even if they did make a Terminator game that didn't suck, then what? Okay, so I play a fun little shooter, end it in a day or few and then...it's back to the withdrawal until the next dose.
Or any kind of genre or game for that matter.

I'm just having less and less patience to accept this kind of pattern and putting up with it anymore...

But I can't cold turkey on gaming...and reading books is something I stopped long ago when my attention span became 5 minutes long.

If only I could be bothered to setup DOSBOX, maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to enjoy replaying Crusader No Regret, haven't done it in a long while, but then again, I can SEE in my memory every level, every secret passage, every mission...will it really be fun just repeating the old?

So off to bed, tomorrow we begin anew, the torture never ends.

AAAAAUGGH!!!

frank austin · 06-20-2009, 11:06 AM

For me, it's not so much a matter of other things taking up time in my life as it is a saturation of good media to pick from. Why would I want to waste 10-40 (or more) hours on a game that doesn't grab me in the first hour when there are plenty that will? I have backlogs up to my neck and no desire to sit through mediocre experiences.

Likewise, if a game doesn't mix things up enough in the first few hours, I will probably drop it. Once I feel like I've seen everything a title has to offer, I re-evaluate finishing it.

I know that games are not literature/music/etc, but they would certainly do better to emulate the "first five pages" rule or the "strong opening track" rule.

Dave Long · 06-20-2009, 11:26 AM

Videogames used to be made very different than they are now. You got a title screen, you pressed start, you played.

Fewer and fewer games are made that way these days, and it's contributing to your lack of available time to play because you're spending an inordinate amount of time getting to the fun stuff instead of just playing.

Get some WiiWare games, some XBLA titles. Stuff that's built like it used to be done, and you'll have a lot more fun. In fact, that DS you might receive is perfect that way. The games don't make you wait to play them by watching movies or sitting through lengthy tutorials. You just play.

Foxstab · 06-20-2009, 11:54 AM

Really now? Most FPSes are pretty much that, save that now you get an orientation tutorial to go through first and even StarCraft and Diablo are pretty much that same still.

I think it's really upto the designer. If they choose to fask around and make you jump through a trillion of hoops and read a manual to work their game then it's how the game's going to look like.
If they want you to jump in and figure out, easily or not, for yourself and run amoc and have fun then it's how it turns out like.

Eitherway, it still doesn't help me shake the feeling that everything is already familiar, already experienced, overdone, "we've been here before, we've already done it before...done to death" and that it's boring before I even ran the executeable or logged in or hit "new game" or whatever.

Tyjenks · 06-20-2009, 12:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave Long

In fact, that DS you might receive is perfect that way. The games don't make you wait to play them by watching movies or sitting through lengthy tutorials. You just play.

That is my hope. I thought maybe the PSP would do it, but I got it when the library peaked and I thought it was just on its way up.

I could also just be completely worn out and cranky from a very busy 6 months. Obviously, it is multiple factors that play into it for most of us or else it would just be a speed bump in our gaming rather than one seems to be an interminably long dry spell.

Foxstab · 06-20-2009, 12:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tyjenks

Obviously, it is multiple factors that play into it for most of us or else it would just be a speed bump in our gaming rather than one seems to be an interminably long dry spell.

More like a recurring cancer. Each time harder to beat back. Eventually, we'll give in and it'll overcome.

That day I'm likely to be wheeled away in a straitjacket.

06-20-2009, 10:07 AM	#52
Demorve Broad Band Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 240	Tyjenks and those who are starting to feel like him. You guys are reaching a point in your lives where work, kids and wife are all starting to demand a significant amount of time and your gaming time decreases significantly. I hit this stage about ten years ago and it is frustrating and depressing that you can't devote the amount time you want to gaming. You do get over it and the importance of gaming in your life decreases. I know this is blasphemous, but that is the way it is. What you will end up doing (at least for me) is setting aside an hour or two during work days, devoting a Saturday or Sunday to the wife and kids and the non devoted family day to your gaming habit. You become very picky about the games you buy and buy less because of it. When you find a game or 2 that you like you start to look forward to your gaming time in order to play them. I'm actually enjoying the games more now because I know I will be playing them all day Sunday and not all the time. Hope this helps you understand what might be going on. As you get closer to retirement your gaming habit will not increase much because there will be things you want to see and do that you don't have time for now. One more thing every evening always set aside some one on one time for the little woman. She'll love it and you might get lucky. Tyjenks, if you start playing games that allow you to pause and save at any time you can handle the kids and game better. Last edited by Demorve; 06-20-2009 at 10:09 AM.. Reason: No reason at all

06-19-2009, 06:02 PM	#31
Ryslin Good Shape Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 44	Try something entirely in a different direction? Played Ghostmaster?

06-19-2009, 06:24 PM	#32
theborbes Spinning Toe Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 661	this thread reminds me of resistance 1. It didn't take me much longer than 5 minutes to realize that everyone who likes that game is wrong and probably just conspiring against me to make me waste my money

06-19-2009, 07:18 PM	#33
Tyjenks World's End Supernova Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: In my head and it is pretty filthy in here. Posts: 15,064	My kids (8 and 3 years old) and wife are horrible at secrets. I am 98% sure they are getting a DS for Father's Day. Maybe it will re-awaken something. The PSP has been a downer as far as games are concerned. Not sure that is just me either. Then, I can comeback and start a "Hey, I got a DS. What's good?!?!". Because we certainly do not have enough of those threads either.

06-19-2009, 07:20 PM	#34
RepoMan New Romantic Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Playing the "New Dad" game 24/7 for the win. Gamertag: Rodeolio Posts: 7,954	I can relate to this, bigtime. I was on a major gaming binge for the last six months or so -- I put 100+ hours into Fallout 3, fercrissakes, and then I finished Defense Grid: The Awakening, got almost to the end of Dawn of War 2, and then Wolverine, Red Faction: Guerrilla, and Prototype all hit in rapid succession.... ...and I'm still on the edge of taking a Big-Ass Break from gaming altogether. It's been a great streak, but man, I miss reading books. Being almost 40 as well (woo!) and having two young kids, the discretionary time is so scarce. But hell, books can be just as bad -- sometimes I find myself not even able to decide on which book to read. They're so big, and it's such a commitment... yet I suspect that soon it will be Gaming Hiatus Time and Book Devourment Time! At least until I get bored again :-) And I definitely think that some of the more hardcore games in my backlog, especially strategy games, are in danger of getting permashelved. Empire: TW I haven't even fucking launched yet. Sins of a Solar Empire, played it like three times. King's Bounty, drifted away after just a short while (well, it was because of Fallout 3, but still). Supreme Commander, HOMM 5, they have never even gotten installed! Controlling just one dude (e.g. FPS, or action game, or non-party RPG) is about as much as I want to deal with lately. I have nebulous hopes that this will change once the kids get a lot older (like, teenagers) and I maybe even get lucky enough to cut back some hours at work. Of course this is like 14 years away, but hey, that's not too far ahead to anticipate... to anticipate having a whole day to get totally into a strategy game again.... Say, is it true? Anyone in this thread gotten past the kid-raising years, and found themselves with more time of their own again, and used it to get right the fuck back into gaming like the old days?

06-19-2009, 07:46 PM	#36
frank austin Social Worker Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: oakland Posts: 2,929	Same problem. I just tried to play MGS4 today for the first time. You can imagine how well THAT went.

06-20-2009, 01:11 AM	#40
DocLazy Goodluck!! Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Auckland Posts: 88	It's not just you, and I'm in mid 20's so I don't think it's a getting old type of thing. I think we have just seen it all before. Bioshock for example is basically a reskin of system shock 2, even down to the story. Replace "shodan" with "atlas" and you have bioshock. There really hasn't been much in the way of innovation over the last few years. I'd second giving Ghostmaster a go, as well as Startopia.

06-20-2009, 01:59 AM	#42
FieryBalrog Goodluck!! Join Date: Jul 2008 Posts: 142	I've had this problem since I was 17 (24 now), so ha. The only thing that solved it was the DS. Too bad it got stolen a few months ago.

06-20-2009, 02:21 AM	#43
Spect Spinning Toe Join Date: May 2008 Location: Florida Posts: 811	I'm having a similar situation Tyjenks, and I turned 41 this past year. I used to play the hell out of any RPG that came out on any system I owned. Even through some of the bad stories or lack luster game play. Now, if I'm not completely engaged in the game quickly, I have no interest in it. Even some of the games that grabbed me at first became dull and boring as the time I spent with them increased. I think it used to come and go when I was in my 30s, but now it's fairly consistant. Unlike you, though, I have found more of a permanant home in WoW. I've been engrossed in the game (again) since WotLK came out, and I'm still going strong. I should be spending more time with other games that have come out recently but I just find I have very little desire to do so. I'm even beta testing 3 other games right now, but I'm finding I have little to no patience for them. My overall feeling is that there's just nothing new anymore. For whatever reason, I did thoroughly enjoy Fallout 3 and I played it to the end. But cases like that are so far and few between these days. Maybe I'm jaded. Maybe my expectations have grown so high that nothing can satisfy my gaming needs now. Or maybe it's just a side effect of growing older.

06-20-2009, 06:51 AM	#45
cliffski Social Worker Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Deepest Wilt-shire in the United Kingdom! Posts: 2,908	Very interesting thread, it's how I feel too. Which is probably a good thing, because if there are lots of gamers that feel the same way they hopefully the games I make will gel with those same people. I get bored to tears by endless back story, cutscenes and anything that means I have to invest dozens of hours in a game before it starts being fun. Stuff like that has to compete with wine, donuts and sex which all provide fun from the very beginning.

06-20-2009, 07:19 AM	#47
Lorini New Romantic Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Pasadena, Ca Posts: 7,113	The other problem is that publishers overstate the actual interesting game play of a game. Too many games are loaded with story and grinding, none of which actually contributes to the fun of gaming. And the problem is that reviewers compound this, saying 'oh and it took me 30 hours to finish the game' without noting how much of that 30 hours was actually fun/interesting/non-grindy.

06-20-2009, 08:20 AM	#48
Ivan® Funky Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 5	I think it's the same for all of us who played through 8-bit and 16-bit era when everything was about gameplay and grabed you immediately. I know this is not some old-man story, i perfectly understand new games too. I played everything that counts for past 20 years, but many of new games just don't have that simplest quality of just being a game, nothing more, nothing less. They try to be serious in very bad ways and fail SO HARD in my opinion. When we were younger, we couldn't see that, and now we clearly do. When i was i kid, every stupid story from any stupid game with a story was bigger than me, i couldn't understand it and of course i couldn't see how bad it was (english not being my native language only added to that). I just thought: so this is how it happens in computer world...mmmm, it rocks! :) Nothing that is overcomplicated is ever fun, especialy if it's a game. Every good game or story (not only game story) is simple, but powerful. Everything needs to be accessible to even give you a chance to like it or not. Accessible doesn't mean dumbed down at all. Maybe it looks like those "serious" games are for older gamers, but i think it's just opposite: only someone young can even try to "play" in such a bad way. The only problem is that we see and understand everything when we're older, and in industry like this, there's a lot to dislike at our age :). Braid showed me that i'm right and reminded me why i fell in love with video games - so yes, it's still possible...

06-20-2009, 08:34 AM	#49
Shieldwolf Mad Chester Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 1,384	My suggestions is start playing board games. Once you get hooked on those you'll forget about games for bit. Then you can slowly come back and bask in the warmth of video game goodness.

06-20-2009, 08:36 AM	#50
psu_13 Broad Band Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 212	You don't have to play video games for 20 years to realize there is never anything new. I played to occasional video game but never more than once every few years until a few years ago. Really it only takes about four or five years of serious work to get through basically everything that was ever good. If the first hour or so of a game is a badly paced boring mess there is little reason to believe that it will get better. You may as well just sell it on ebay at that point.

06-20-2009, 10:23 AM	#53
WarrenM How To Go Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Raleigh, NC Posts: 11,478	I'm kind of in the same boat. I need a game to show me why it's interesting and cool in, and I'm a little more generous here, the first half hour. I need to see what it is that I'll be doing for fun for the rest of the game before I can commit. If half an hour goes by and I'm still not 'getting' your game, it's over.

06-20-2009, 10:25 AM	#54
Destarius Social Worker Join Date: May 2003 Location: The Bottomless Pit of Despair Posts: 2,462	I still remember some insane MOO3 fanbois who were saying that people would like MOO3 if they would only play it for about 20 hours first.

06-20-2009, 10:47 AM	#55
Foxstab Neo Acoustic Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 1,888	Another stricken down fool here. I used to play a lot of different genres, and varying degrees of complexity and now...each day I wake up and...get pissed, bored, displaying withdrawal symptoms you may even say. I become agitated, pace to the kitchen, grab a drink, eat an apple, come back, get pins in my ass, get up and pace again, drop on the bed, growl...gaming is all my life, but for the life of me, I just can't seem to find anything enjoyable anymore. Everything is the same. No game is different anymore. They're all just rehashes. I ain't got the patience to work through the trudge anymore to get to the "good stuff". Hell, even I went around and hacked my way through boring parts, say in Baldur's Gate or Jagged Alliance to get to the "good stuff", it's still "SAME OLD" and just that thought alone turns me off. I need a NEW "drug". A new experience. Not to replay (relive?) a scene that I've played over tons of times. Even Arcade stuff...replaying that, even say simple old platformers, well, I've done it already hundred of times, no surprise there...no drive to play it. The only game that used to work for me was SubSpace (probably because it's so simple, action-y and entirely PvP), and since the SVS zone is pretty much dead I can't even play that anymore as the newb zones do nothing for me. And SOE killed Infantry, so nothing to look there. So I'm stuck. Tried that Atlantica Online a year ago or half a year ago or so...yuck. Tried that 2029 Online now...it basically got to "you gotta grind boring kill X of Y to get to level 40, only after you get to 40, you're a citizen with priviledges and allowed to begin to grind more shit so you can MAYBE have fun in big instanced DoTA scenarios or whatever BS we throw at you alongside the multitude of bugs". Still playing Ikariam...not really sure why, game's boring feed-fest. Just keep eating until you over grow your pants size and expand and expand and...yawn a lot. The only reason anyone in my alliance still play is because of all the people in the alliance talking with extreme humour and vulgarity to keep shit interesting, we're all literally at the top of the game and got nothing to shoot for anymore other than tease each other up. I pounce from one free MMOG to the next, and I'm disgusted with them all. I look at all the games out there, they're mostly shooters too, and I say BWAH. And even if they did make a Terminator game that didn't suck, then what? Okay, so I play a fun little shooter, end it in a day or few and then...it's back to the withdrawal until the next dose. Or any kind of genre or game for that matter. I'm just having less and less patience to accept this kind of pattern and putting up with it anymore... But I can't cold turkey on gaming...and reading books is something I stopped long ago when my attention span became 5 minutes long. If only I could be bothered to setup DOSBOX, maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to enjoy replaying Crusader No Regret, haven't done it in a long while, but then again, I can SEE in my memory every level, every secret passage, every mission...will it really be fun just repeating the old? So off to bed, tomorrow we begin anew, the torture never ends. AAAAAUGGH!!!

06-20-2009, 11:06 AM	#56
frank austin Social Worker Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: oakland Posts: 2,929	For me, it's not so much a matter of other things taking up time in my life as it is a saturation of good media to pick from. Why would I want to waste 10-40 (or more) hours on a game that doesn't grab me in the first hour when there are plenty that will? I have backlogs up to my neck and no desire to sit through mediocre experiences. Likewise, if a game doesn't mix things up enough in the first few hours, I will probably drop it. Once I feel like I've seen everything a title has to offer, I re-evaluate finishing it. I know that games are not literature/music/etc, but they would certainly do better to emulate the "first five pages" rule or the "strong opening track" rule.

06-20-2009, 11:26 AM	#57
Dave Long How To Go Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Reading, PA Posts: 14,166	Videogames used to be made very different than they are now. You got a title screen, you pressed start, you played. Fewer and fewer games are made that way these days, and it's contributing to your lack of available time to play because you're spending an inordinate amount of time getting to the fun stuff instead of just playing. Get some WiiWare games, some XBLA titles. Stuff that's built like it used to be done, and you'll have a lot more fun. In fact, that DS you might receive is perfect that way. The games don't make you wait to play them by watching movies or sitting through lengthy tutorials. You just play.

06-20-2009, 11:54 AM	#58
Foxstab Neo Acoustic Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 1,888	Really now? Most FPSes are pretty much that, save that now you get an orientation tutorial to go through first and even StarCraft and Diablo are pretty much that same still. I think it's really upto the designer. If they choose to fask around and make you jump through a trillion of hoops and read a manual to work their game then it's how the game's going to look like. If they want you to jump in and figure out, easily or not, for yourself and run amoc and have fun then it's how it turns out like. Eitherway, it still doesn't help me shake the feeling that everything is already familiar, already experienced, overdone, "we've been here before, we've already done it before...done to death" and that it's boring before I even ran the executeable or logged in or hit "new game" or whatever.

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I am out of patience. Your game must immerse me in 5 mins. or less.