Do you ever get them for any reason? I know i do and there getting more frequent, sometimes i need something to inspire me to play a game oir any game or i myself have alot of interest in a title. The last time i really 'liked' a title was batman AA. so it s been along time
If your in one of these moods i'll call it a gaming crisis what do you do? mmy mainstay method is to play Suikoden.
Go back to square one. (Bust out the Tetris, mothafucka.)
Put on some behemoth and play sally's spa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38j-i8jH7xk
http://sallysspa-game.com//
I know the feeling. My gaming habits run in fits and starts, usually because work, socialsing and trying to get my leg over get in the way. One month I'll barely leave the house becuase I'm addicted to some game or another (I'm looking at YOU, Mass Effect) and others I won't switch on my console at all. By the time I come back to it, I find it almost an effort to re-absorb myself into the joys of virtual wish-fulfillment.
I find if I can devote a solid four hour block to game, I'll get sucked in. Don't get me wrong, my mind will wander during those first four hours and invariably I'll rely on herbal remedies to focus (cloud?) my mind, but after that I'll have been properly sucked in.
In short - block out some time and stick with it. If you're looking for something to play and you liked Batman: Arkham Asuylum, I highly recommned Splinter Cell: Conviction. I was having LOADS of fun with that little gem, before I got drawn in by the black hole that is Gaylo: Reacharound.
I'm getting it a lot lately. I went a few months recently, and that's with a HUGE backlog.
Like me or not. Understand me or not. I have been where you guys are at. I can see the signs. And I can tell you it will only get worse.
I have become more and more disenchanted with games over this and the last generation of hardware. This one being the worse, for me.
Playing old favs works for a little while, but then when new tech puts those old favs out to pasture, you will start to feel disconected and angry. Why don't they make good games(like old fav) anymore. They could, why WON'T they?
You will get more distance out of your games if your a SP player. If your into OMP, then less. The first time you realise you would like to reach through your TV and kill that 10yr old is not a good thing my friends. Its a sign.
I really don't think gamers will out grow gaming. But they surly will out grow the games themself. Its like taking your Golf as serious as a Pro, but then realizing you have been playing Put-Put all along. Its almost comical to listen to grown men talking about the merrits of Poke'mon. Or to disect the workings/strengths/weaknesses of one generic game after another. Haven't we all played all of these already?
No.
Because every year millions of kids turn ten for the first time. Play Zelda for the first time. Tops the leaderboard in his first match of Halo/CoD/BFBC2/whatever. Learns that he can best you, the old, established authority in the only world that matters to him ... the video game.
It just happens.
First you lose your edge, then you stop to care. But gnawing at your thoughts, somewhere deep down, is the understanding that you would still love to play games. Like you used to.
I found that changing what I was playing helped me a ton. Instead of JRPGs, I moved on to Diablo/Titan Quest. Instead of playing Halo/BF/CoD, I play WoW. Instead of playing FF Tactics/Competitive RTS I have settled on Civilization.
Instead of buying 60/usd on games that will soon boring(or anger) me, I have moved to Gamefly/renting. Instead of over hyped boxed games at the store, I pick up cheap downloadable games with much less investment and thus risk.
Trust me fellas, your not as far down this path as I am. But rest assurd, someday you will be. I will make room for your rocking chair on the porch of our hobby. You are welcome here, we have lots of room. Make sure you bring your stories of the golden age of gaming. We all like a good story.
I miss having actual genuine fun in a game. Zelda was fun, smash brothers was fun, everything nowadays gets taken so seriously. I wanted to throw my controller through the TV yesterday because I couldn't get 8 grenade kills in a single match on Halo Reach...but I couldnt stop trying. After an hour it finally happened...and I was GLAD to turn it off!
Theres no fun in that.
/rocks in his chair, sips moonshine and plays the banjo
Oh yea I got that way a while ago and it wasn't good for my trophy hunting competitive nature. All I could do was manage to play COD4 for a couple of games. I think it was just gamer fatigue.
Although I felt that way about playing anything on the 360 for the longest also. It happens but I also think its a sign that you need to get out the house. That works for me. A weekend away from gaming and I'm back on Monday ready for more trophy whoring :)
the only single time I felt like that was more than 3 years ago. and I didn't touch a single game for well over a year. in the end I myself realized that they're nothing like cinema or other similar medium, and that I've been playing something I truly have outgrown. and I don't mean 'outgrown' in the usual sense.. I mean I became a different person. I also realized that I will be playing the 'gamey' ones for the rest of my life lol. it led to drastic (I'd say dramatic even, rofl ) changes in my gaming choices, I practically stopped playing them for anything aside the gameplay. the only exceptions to that rule is when I try something just out of curiosity.
you should probably try playing something from the distant past.
You always risk getting a bit of gamer apathy. I've been pretty satisfied the last few years, but if I don't really feel like diving into a game, and I still just need some quick entertainment, browser/flash/unity games are actually pretty great these days.
@OG Speak for yourself. It's easy to blame an industry for your growing bitter, but the fact is that the thrill of the gaming revolution back in the 90's was never gonna last.
The technology and the investments required to make a game today means the end of that, and the volume has gone down accordingly. But the notion that games have somehow been corrupted is bullshit. The shovelware industries of the 90's have died, and that means less cazy ideas get made, and sadly, have less of a chance of becoming gems.
Even back in the 90's, 60-70% of the games were crap. Every succes was franchised. There were just more of them to choose from.
Today it takes an immense ammount of understanding and talent just to succeed as an indie dev, and even then you'll need to make an investment. It was never like that back in the 90's. I know people who worked in database maintenance, who just started coding their own games from one day to another. It was so easy.
I think the Apple market is going places though, and with the new technologies accomodating casual games development, that's only likely to get bigger.
@ DSB, point well argued. I agree with your point about Apple; I think it's also aided by the platforms limited hardware. I mean sure, it's impressive what you can achieve on a handheld these days right? But by no means is that the focus on most games on the Iphone. Simple, effective, well implemented mechanics are what sell. Angry birds was not a graphical masterpiece like that Unreal demo I saw the other day, but it was fun, addictive and a really good game. More of that for consoles plx.
All you did DSB was describe an industry that is canibilizing itself. Trying to sustain the notion of bigger, better, prettier then the last game/system.
The industry is an ugly place today. So can the idea that it has somehow evolved into some higher form of itself.
Mircrotransactions. Online sub fees. Advertisments. Markeplacement. Hardware failures. Day One DLC/preorder incentives. A network of used game resellers that are litterly killing game devs/pubs. Insane development costs. We are drowning under a mountian of online mp shooters(that they can spoon feed us DLC map packs for 10-15bucks each). JP is on a Handheld fetish. 900lbs gorillas named Activision and EA thrashing anything else, and getting their fingers into everything else.
"The shovelware industries of the 90's have died, and that means less cazy ideas get made"
The Wii says Hi. The Wii, the worlds top selling home console.
I would say there is a lot to not like and speak out against. Of course we could all just be quiet. Maybe if we are lucky some day two generations from now we will be able to play CoD 23 and Halo 12, cause that would be cool. Oh and make sure those games cost about 200bucks each. Anything less would feel like stealing.
And before you give me the whole inflation and games actualy don't cost that much crap, Movies used to cost more back in those same days then they do now. I remember seeing the Beta Max and VHS movies for 50usd when they launched. They have come down a lot. Apples and oranges, I know. But there is only so much the massmarket can handle. If the industry can't make a game, and sell it for less and still make a profit, then we have a problem.
And we do have a problem btw.
That is why we have seen so many games heading out on XBLA, PSN, WiiWare, Steam, etc. I think we will continue to see strong growth in those ares right along with cell phones, ipads, etc.
I just don't believe in the whole doomsday scenario you're setting up.
Capital has become a neccesary part of building a game, but does that mean Joe Lead Designer can't grow a pair and do what he likes? Ken Levine hasn't stopped banging out masterpieces based on crazy ideas, why? Because he's just that competent. Clearly he can work the corporate game and the creative game at the same time, which is what is needed today.
I don't think we should be blaming the guys with the money. They're not the ones breeding the pig, they're just bringing it to the market. It's ultimately down to the developers, and how hard and how smart they want to fight for their creations.
I couldn't agree with you more on DLC, controversy-hype, product placement, or any other racket that's only there to serve investors, rather than paying customers. Those concepts belongs in the demented mind of a boardroom member, and nowhere else.
Movies have gone up and down as much as games have. Every time the format is changed, they slap on another ten to twenty bucks for a year or two. Games publishers don't have the luxury of blaming a format like that, so they have to do what they have to do, no matter how bad it looks. When your company loses 50% of it's value due to a bunch of kamikaze bankers, then you have to prove your viability all over again. The only way to do that is to downsize and raise prices. Economy 101. That's their job.
You could always argue that capitalism should keep it's greasy hands off the games industry, but then you can basically wave goodbye to any sort of innovation within the field. The talent might remain, but they would be using flint and sticks. We might love our old games, but they still don't do half the shit that games do today. I really think you take that for granted in the name of nostalgia.
If you want to obsess about a utopia where all the talent and the hardware and all the software is available to everyone, fair enough, but it's only gonna bum you out. Short of the Apple/DS/Indie/Small games revolution, those days are gone.
If you're gotten to the point where gaming has little draw for you all of a sudden, there's a number of possibilities as to why.
The most common I find is simply being burnt out from playing them too often. I use a number of hobbies to keep me occupied between regular gaming. I am amateur photographer, and I also like to write.
The other problem I've identified from my own experience is simply boredom caused by repetition. You see the same ideas so many times, rehashed so often, that each subsequent experience becomes less and less unique and interesting. I find the easiest way to stop that is by either broadening your tastes in games and giving new genres a try, or going back to a old game that reminded you of why you loved gaming so much in the first place.
Gaming for me has always been about those rare gems that are so engaging, so deep in gameplay or challenge or lore, that you get completely lost in them, and don't escape out of the experience until you finally reach the end goal. Those games are super-rare (the most recent to give me that feeling was Dragon Age), but they're out there if you keep a broad mind.
If you simply find the hobby boring and every gaming experience dull and uninteresting... you're just being blinded by your own cynicism and rose tinted nostalgia for the past.
I find video gaming is so consistently fresh, so diverse in the breath of the experiences to be discovered, I doubt I'll ever become bored of it. With games as unique and beautifully polished as Vanquish, LittleBigPlanet 2, Lord of Shadows, and many others on the way, I find it impossible to ever feel disillusioned or bored with the hobby, honestly.
I've had a few ideas on how to get past this current one, lets see what you think however whether i do any i'm unsure
Play the entire .hack series
Play the Shadow Hearts series
Play the suikoden series
Play the shin megami tensai series
play the breath of fire series
yes i know all jrpgs, i do play other genres btw, just these sprung out at me, if none of the above any suggestions?
as much as I don't want to, I have to agree with what Older said about the industry. corporate conveyors don't drive innovation btw, entrepreneurs do.
anyway about the OP's question, why jrpgs, did you start with that genre? I don't know.. i 'd probably pick Shadow Hearts from that list, couldn't bring myself to finish those .hack games back in the days btw, stopped playing after the third one. I thought they should've released them as a single game.
Corporations don't exist without entrepreneurs. You can argue semantics as much as you want, but games cost horrible ammounts of money to make today. That's the price of progress.
So either you have the talent, the skill and the work ethic to somehow create a fortune on your own, which allows you to ignore investment, like Valve or Popcap (Although even Valve are looking into going public at the moment) or you deal with suits who want results.
That's the price for brains and technology, and I don't accept that as an excuse for making shit games. Good games are always going to sell more than shit games, you just have to beat that into the thick fucking skull of people who live in a world made of mahogany meeting rooms.
Why sell popart for a dollar, when you can sell Michelangelos for a million? That's the message that Levine and others succeed in making understood.
If someone fails to push their creative vision, I don't accept blaming the boardroom. Executives are what they are - autonomous black holes who just need to be fed. They don't have a brain or a heart, and they only understand numbers in red and black. That's their sole function.
The ones who need to rise above that are the developers, and I blame those developers for being pussies, or simply being too incompetent to hold the position they do.
terrible example with Michelangelo, but I can agree with what you've said.
you misunderstood me however, I was saying there're companies run by entrepreneurs, and there're the ones run by corporate folks. the former are similar to tribes, the latter are like mini countries.
That's certainly true, but there's nothing romantic about running a business. It doesn't matter if it's a mom and pop tea shop or a multi-national.
Big businesses are increasingly run by politics rather than impulse, but no matter how well your intentions, the demands of profit are virtually the same. Keep costs down, keep revenue up, and keep risks acceptable.
I think entrepreneur is a wide term though, that's anyone who wants to put in the work and create a healthy business. I'd call Kotick or Ricitiello entrepreneurs, whether I like them or not. I think visionary is a more exclusive word for the guys who make something out of nothing.
I'm way too tired for deep discussion, though :P The Michelangelo thing wasn't meant to be apt, just quick and effective.
@DaMan jrpgs are my favourite genre and are what made me a hardcore gamer as it were
few more to the list
Kingdom hearts series
fire emblem series
shining series
I would play Shining Force.
My 360 gaming has almost completely dried up recently, because as an online gamer, the people that I prefer to play with have been online less and less. Also, when I sign in to XBL I'm always getting invites from annoying people that I don't want to play with, so I end up appearing offline a whole lot.
I've been playing loads and loads of StarCraft 2, which is probably because I'm relatively new to the RTS genre, so it's almost like discovering gaming all over again.
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