Struggling to enjoy gaming?

[Vegeta]

Hi guys,

So i'm 35 and have gamed most of my life until the last 5-6 years due to just life taking over. I was the generation that played Goldeneye 64 Mario 64 enjoyed games on Snes like Mario until the online games took over and played at a very high level at an old FPS shooter Kingpin then moved onto CS1.6 and BF3.

I have recently upgraded to a top tier PC and struggling to enjoy any games apart from Racing games and CS:go online - they feel cold they dont hold my interest and don't feel like im engaging in the story it still feels like a game I don't get lost in the game like I used to or like a movie.

Is this a reflection of my age or modern games? I wonder if anyone else is getting these sort of feelings. Unless its competitve and other people involved just feels sad me engaging with a computer system playing alone except racing games.

 

[wildest_jjk]

I have this feeling also and I personally think it's down to the games. I'm a console player but also dabble in PC occasionally.

You only have to look at the releases for the next gen consoles. Absolutely dire apart from a couple of exclusives for PS5. In terms of multiplayer games I can't find a reason to buy either console at the moment.

 

[LeMson]

There's a lot of trash these days, AAA formulaic rubbish :/

 

[jsmoke]

We grew up with stories, end boses and cheats, god mode etc, although the games were very linear, only one path to go. These all stopped around end of 2000s when bigger open worlds like farcry and crysis and multiplayer games had the tech to run them. So it's probably just a cultural thing, what your used too etc. Similar happened with music, it went manufactured, auto tuned etc.

Also age as well is going to play a part, I guess your adrenaline or seratonin levels aren't as powerful as what they once were.

 

[Vegeta]

I guess the older you get the experiences aren't new. I find online games still fine as the point behind it when playing against other people is knowing that you killed an actual person rather than a piece of software but that was never the issue with older games. GTA5 is becoming more alive now after having just started playing with Trevor.

 

[~>Dg<~]

the key is to find something different. not the same old thing. also try to play with others. often playing with other people can be more fun the actual game sometimes.

 

[Myaniad]

Perhaps you are playing games that are too familiar to you. I think its a reflection of age and therefore nostalgia. People can look back at their past experiences when they had different priorities and know it was good versus now when it doesn't have the same impact, so basically holding the present candle up to past times.

 

[Rroff]

Amongst other things I find it hard to enjoy a lot of more recent games because:

-Not enough attention paid to making bread and butter mechanics the best they can be - so it feels like there is a layer of awkwardness between me and the game.
-Unacceptable level of day one bugs without enough priority put into fixing them - no pride in the finished product, etc.
-Too many real world issue(s) agenda lead - I play games as much as anything for escapism and that completely destroys my immersion especially when it is entirely irrelevant to the content but shoehorned in.
-Far too much fluff content - I don't mind a bit of cosmetics, etc. but far too many games these days you have to wade through a fair bit of meaningless items and features that don't actually have any proper functionality in the game.

 

[chrcoluk]

Personally I feel detached to most modern games, the new style of gaming isnt compatible with me.
I also have found myelf not as willing to grind in games, I think this one is down to me been older and realising time is valuable, in my 20s I would think nothing of doing nothing but grinding for a month.

Otherwise I still enjoy gaming, but its mostly single player older style games. Most games I play are made before 2019. FF7 Remake is the only exception I can remember, I brought a Series S solely for its xbox 360 library.

 

[Rroff]

I also have found myelf not as willing to grind in games, I think this one is down to me been older and realising time is valuable, in my 20s I would think nothing of doing nothing but grinding for a month.

I think the style of grinding has changed as well - it seems far more superficial and far more in place of actual content these days than ever before - in earlier days of gaming it was often as much as anything in place of content due to technology limits, etc.

 

[chrcoluk]

I think the style of grinding has changed as well - it seems far more superficial and far more in place of actual content these days than ever before - in earlier days of gaming it was often as much as anything in place of content due to technology limits, etc.

In new games for sure.

In older games there was not randomised loot with endless possibilities. Personally not a fan of random loot, I feel its lazy from the dev side.

 

[loftie]

What games have you been playing that you've not got into?

 

[Deleted member 236143]

There is going to be a large market for elder gamers. Think about how many of us will still use smart phones, chill with a movie, and chill with a game. Things like perhaps Animal crossing etc.
Personally I hope to be playing GTA in my 70s.
Gaming is hammered just now with focus groups and marketing. It is huge money. EA and FIFA. Modern Warfare. Fortnite. Every kid wants to become a Ninja on stream.
Makes games vacuous too. Same format. Lovely graphics. Rushed stories. Rinse repeat NEXT!!!
Gaming studios take less risks or make horrific licensed mistakes like the avengers.
Small studios stick out. Playdead - Limbo and Inside are amazing.
Little Nightmares.

I also think Next Gen is just marketing now. It just means graphics look better. More things around. There has not been a Next Gen game for 16 years for me.

 

[Rroff]

Gaming is hammered just now with focus groups and marketing.

I think that is one of the things that puts me off - some of the bigger publishers/studios are putting huge amount of resources into understanding and manipulating player behaviour and while many younger and/or mainstream players don't even realise it I can (usually) sense it a mile off and it kills a game dead for me.

 

[Deleted member 236143]

One thing I have never understood totally is an FPS game selling you skins.
You can see it yes if you screenshot it etc
But it is an FPS so your enemy can see the wonderful thing you paid for as it kills them. Yes.
Why not then just kill them with the default skin to let your enemy know how much you loathe them.

I would be sacked from marketing.

 

[Kronos]

There's a lot of trash these days, AAA formulaic rubbish :/

So agree with this, so many games just do not hold my interest or are so repetitive, I give up on so many games these days, CoD Cold War, Assassins creed Valhalla, Serious Sam to name but three. The only relatively recent game that I have stuck with and am enjoying is Control

 

[sgavan]

I sometimes get like this, try something with more depth, Satisfactory, Factorio, Cities Skylines, these have a lot of re-playability and variations

 

[chrcoluk]

I think that is one of the things that puts me off - some of the bigger publishers/studios are putting huge amount of resources into understanding and manipulating player behaviour and while many younger and/or mainstream players don't even realise it I can (usually) sense it a mile off and it kills a game dead for me.

In the cyberpunk shareholder meeting that got leaked, the developers told their shareholders they had added features in the game to get players addicted. This was for a single player game, it must be considered an absolute high priority for games that are designed to last for years like fortnite.

The AAA devs there is a tendency now to just focus on IP's they know are successful and less diversity/risk taken.

I think the one thing I hate the most about modern gaming is the competitive aspect, mostly evident in the FPS genre and RTS genre.

 

[Spacedeck]

Some very good SP story driven games out there. I completed A Plague Tale: Innocence last night, excellent game. Try avoid online games, might be burning you out?

 

[Sp00n]

Same age as you, we play very similar games, I've always tended to stick to MP games as I find most SP very linear and seem lose interest quickly, that isn't a new/age related thing though. I do like large open world games though, fallout/gta/rdr/cyberpunk.

Now you mention BF, might reinstall BF4.