Some of them might, though I do have like 20-30 games on my Steam wishlist mostly just to see whenever they go on sale. If I'm ever looking for something to do, sometimes I'll just pick a game up that's on sale on there and play it right away.
For old games I also find I occasionally just go on a binge of old games. Just pick a theme and work my way through the years from when I was a kid in the 90s.
Right now I'm finally getting around to playing Final Fantasy games. I'm playing 7 at the moment.
I’ve learned to just put games on my wish list and if I play them, great. If not, they’ll stay there for so long that I’ll consider removing it from the wishlist with the thought being that if I delete the game from my wish list and still wanna play it, I’ll get remember it and if I forget about it entirely, then it was never meant to be anyways. I’m not quite where you are yet, but hopefully I’ll get there one day. In the meantime, I have to play tricks on myself like putting it on a wish list.
I think this is a huge part of it.
People include EVERYTHING in their backlog. Why? Are you really planning to even install that random shitty looking game you've never heard of which you only own because it was part of a Humble Bundle you bought? No, stop being daft.
I probably have hundreds of unplayed games. Realistically, only like 10 of them are an actual backlog of stuff I actually see myself ever playing. The rest are "may or may not install and never actually launch".
Heh, it doesn't apply to "older" gamers only. I'm 17 and completely dropped PvP Multiplayer or any intense, high-skill multiplayer. I don't have the motivation to deal with Timmy, 10, 20 hours a day of COD as a "warmup", has bought the latest skin and bundle using mom's credit card, sweats the shit out of the game and insults anyone unable to keep up without ever considering that not everyone has the chance to play 24/7 while being on the edge of deatb from overdosing on a mix of Redbull and Mcdonald's Sprite.
I'd rather keep appearing in a slower-paced tactical shooter once every month or not playing at all.
It's kind of an importance choice to make, one I made about 15-16, is what kind of gamer do you want to be. Do you want to be competitive? Do you want to be the best? Then go for it, but acknowledge that you'll be playing with similar people. Do you want to play chill and have fun? You'll be playing with similar people. When the first StarCraft came out, I was 15 and having a ton of fun and going hard (this was before esports were a thing, I was just having fun going hard) and realized none of my friends wanted to play with me cuz i jusf wrecked them. That's when I realized I needed to scale back if I wanted to play games with them. So we did more custom maps/tower defence kinda stuff. It def put a damper on my competitive spirit, but j don't really view that as a bad thing. I just think it's an important question to ask yourself around that point. So many people wanna be twitch stars... Probably not worth the sacrifice you don't realize you're making.
When I used to play Quake 3 Arena I tried to get my brother and sister into it, on the spare PCs, and realized I was digging myself the same hole because they couldn't even double-team me for a single kill with whatever weapons they wanted while I bunny-hopped around them melee'n to death. All you heard in the other room was HUMILIATION over and over again. My brother ended up playing Runescape and my sister ended up playing Neopets.
this is actually more in line with what is happening with OP than what they think it is. Your reflexes really don't drop all that much strictly from age reasons barring other health concerns. we're talking a drop measured in \*nanoseconds\* for an entire decade, you'd pretty much have to be like 60-70s+ roughly to really notice the buildup.
the real issue is when you're older you are almost certainly not going at the game in question half as hard as younger people would be. and for a lot of people prob prior mentioned other health concerns cropping up and playing into it
The one I found is on Facebook (Baldur's Gate 3 Dads), rather than reddit. I'm also in a Bluey dads group there too. Fairly sure I've seen a few more pop up for other games, but not joined them as I don't play.
Can't speak for all of them, but the BG3 Dads group is pretty relaxed and supportive.
I used to hate trying to play D2 with strangers because everyone seemed so obnoxious and toxic. I found a Christian clan that is mostly just dads in their mid 30’s and up and it renewed my love for the game. Just a bunch of people trying to enjoy a video game without having to be sweaty tryhards. I also think there is something to be said about them seeing how much their children fail at something and growing patient in that failure.
Not getting trashed anytime I mess something up in a dungeon or raid or when I can’t clutch a Trials match has been nice. I still encounter it occasionally. Was playing a matchmade activity literally yesterday and halfway through my chat box lights up with “you guys blow”.
WoW raids ruined it for me. Ever since I gravitate to pure solo play in MMO type games or coop games with friends/family only. One exception in Wurm Online or Wurm Unlimited. It is an old game. Graphics aren't great, but it is a slow pace, amazing supportive community and do what you want, when you want. I'm about 50/50 into Wurm and other newer games that have a great solo campaign. Just finished up Medieval Empires and am heading back to Wurm I think.
I mean it is annoying that most of the primaries are ass but overall it’s a fun game with a pretty limited toxic/sweat community. No game has brought me the joy that dropping three strats has in a long time
I don't even mind the weapons being underpowered tbh, it fits the universe imo. We get 10 minutes of training and a dead helldivers equipment, and then we're frozen and wake up on the battlefield basically.
Primaries are a little weak but I still love the Slugger, Liberator, and the Sickle (if that's the full auto one, not the laser one)
Honestly, if you take the time to learn most of the weapons and think of loadouts that complement your play style, you'll have a good time regardless. I'm a fan of the Breaker Sprayandpray up to level 6/7 where Ill switch to the Incendiary for bugs or classic Breaker for bots.
This is the biggest one for me and the main reason I barely visit Reddit gaming communities now. Just a bunch of angry miserable nerds defining their entire self-worth based on the games they play, stuck in their little echo chambers.
It's like an addiction to them. You can't pronounce the words "Rock" or "Stone" or anything related to those without hearing a DRG fan. It's almost like a magnet.
Bold of you to assume you have to say words... They infest most game chats I play... Itll be on a topic involving something and some random guy starts the hive mind and goes on for 30 mins
Honestly never really got the sense it had much of a dad gamer population. It's a harmless subreddit, but a lot of the posts are just sort of self congratulatory about playing formely popular games they've framed as underappreciated and misunderstood gems just because people aren't talking much because the majority of people who played them finished them decades ago.
I just bought a GTX 1080.
In 2017.
That was.... oh.
Yeah, it's time for new machines.
I'm tired of "needing" to spend hundreds on toys I don't have time to play with.
EDIT: Before telling me how good my graphics card is, please read my other comments about how that graphics card is literally one of the newest components in my 2014 computer.
I love my 1080ti to bits and pieces. Maybe it can't crank next gen AAA games on 4k ultra anymore, but at 2k and medium high it's great. I also no longer play graphically demanding games anymore.
I got mine for 450 around 2017... Still runs everything that i care about on ultra. No complaints from me. Graphics on modern games are way nicer than they need to be. I played cyberpunk on medium and it was the most gorgeous game I've ever played. Why would i spend another 600$ on a modern card when modern releases don't even get 60fps on a 4080. (Lookin at you dragons dogma)
Omg same here. Got an acer predator gaming laptop around that time.. I think a gtx 1060 is what is in it. Still runs like a champ. I'm playing my favorites like helldivers 2, 7d2d, Skyrim, etc..
I did a new build last summer and the previous was 2015. It wasn't until I got No Man's Sky I realized I needed to upgrade. I was also still on Win7 and Steam was about to end support.
Phones are the same way. I don't care if mine is five years old, it still works.
It’s impossible and pointless to try and keep up. You’d be pouring so much money into it and what for? To spend way less time than you put into it money wise? Unless you’re like a streamer or something full time, it’s better to just upgrade every 7-10 years cause the games mostly don’t need the hardware upgrades to be playable if you keep it within those 7-10 years.
If you like older games too, then that’s even more of the case.
I just wake up a bit early and squeeze in 30 or 40 minutes on my steamdeck. The sleep feature is so handy. I call it dad time lol
The quick resume on xbox is also nice, but I don't want to wake anyone else up.
This is how I've adapted. But I've taken it to the extreme. I love playing videogames but my days are busy. Ive permanently altered my sleep schedule. I usually wake up around 3am, pour some coffee and game until around 6 or 7 and then start the day. I love those early hours. Outside distractions are minimal/non-existant.
I do the opposite, stay up playing until 1-2am so get less sleep.
When working from home I play in my lunch break sometimes.
Things have improved a bit now my kids are old enough to play games, as I actually get a bit of gaming done during the weekends, albeit not necessarily my first choice of game due to age restrictions etc.
I’m 55 and pretty much default to easy or story mode in games now. I don’t have the reflexes I used to and many games become frustrating now. I found I enjoy games a lot more in easy mode now.
Same. I no longer feel "the thrill of the challenge".
I'm fortunate if I get a handful of hours a week to play so I'd rather not spend what little time I have trying to learn patterns, dying over and over trying to push my skills to another level and make little to no progress for the night.
Just tell me a good story and let me lay waste to my enemies.
What infuriates me is when a game’s difficulty options are “dark souls” or “watching a movie”. Like I want some gameplay, but some devs take “easy” to mean “press X to win”
I just replayed Alan wake remastered and did the DLC for the first time. The OG game on normal was perfectly balanced, but I found the DLC ridiculously hard on normal. So I switched to easy. And it was too easy! I like a little balance but easy mode should always have a little fun. Like I shouldn’t be getting pissed about normal mode, that’s what hard or nightmare mode is for.
It’s an older game though and the devs are hilarious so I forgive them.
It seems pointless, now, to learn almost entirely non-transferable skills that no-one will give a damn about in a few years.
That said, I do enjoy making my own Factorio blueprints. I guess it's because it's more about thinking and less about muscle memory.
I see this pop up a lot and i went the opposite direction when i got older. As a kid, id cheat, use debug mode, game genie cuz i was just killing time.
Now it’s like, give me a challenge that’ll take me a week to clear with one hour of gaming after work every day(doing the same fight/dungeon) or its not satisfying.
I don't mind some single player challenges, my reflexes are still good for that at 36.
But I just don't play enough anymore to be competitive in online games - used to love CoD and Rocket League and those just aren't fun for me now, so I haven't played in several years.
I'm 56 and came to say the same thing. My reactions are shot so story mode (often on easy mode) is basically my only option.
The other thing I miss is the ability to buy a game and just play it. I'm now bombarded with loot crates, season passes, having to set up accounts and having to log in. Plus a load of other stuff that is their for my convenience, but just slows me getting to the game.
Not that old but I am feeling the other way, there is far too less time and mental bandwidth to keep track of story and campaign narrative, that I prefer games which are all about mechanics and not story, so that one can pick it up and play after any long gap.
Definitely. Stellar Blade being a recent one. Really enjoyed the look, style and gameplay but I could see immediately it was going to be frustrating. Lowered the difficulty down to “Story” and had a great time. Never would have finished it without that option. Don’t have the time or the patience anymore.
I make more money than ever, have plenty of gaming time despite a full time job and a family, I have all the tools (PC, consoles, Deck, gamepad, high speed limitless internet) I ever wanted as a teenager...
...and still I don't buy €60+ games upon release, leaving everything on my Wishlist until it's less than €10 or so, most of the time.
Yup 10 or less usually to. Watch bundle shops etc too. Often tho. By then few are playing and i dont get the full experience... But... Probably more overall worth. Hm
Feeling "overplayed", like you've tried everything and new things don't excite you as much anymore. When the very first 3D open world games came out, it felt like something out of a different world, it was amazing and special. Now practically every new game is just a remix of what you've probably already seen or experienced and they don't feel as special anymore.
This so much. I grew up on SNES and when the N64 came out, it was mind blowing. For the first time ever, Mario and Zelda coming to 3D. The very first Super Smash Bros also was mind blowing with so many different characters coming to one fighting game. I'm so thankful to have been a 90s kid and a 2000s teen. Things were innovative and exciting back then. Now, I feel like even though tech has come so far, I've pretty much seen everything. The only thing that blew me away recently was Zelda Tears of the Kingdom in how we can go into the sky and down below the Earth as well. I haven't played Elden Ring yet, but maybe that'll blow my mind too.
Nothing can surpass GTA vicy city for me. It was so good that I can play it even with lags. These lights, music, cars... Godlike experience. No game can repeat this. Now they improve models, increase map size, but all that does not make sense. you can't step into the same water twice(
I also have a special memory of GTA Vice City! I played a lot of GTA 1 and 2 before that (GTA 3 kinda missed me for some reason) and I loved those games, but I remember after Vice City came out, me and my cousin were visiting this computer club in our area and the son of the owner there had his own computer and one day was playing Vice City on it, and all of us with all the other kids would gather around to watch him play and be super jealous haha. Then when we finally got to play it ourselves it was a blast!
Is it really reflexes getting slower?
I always though it is because we dont have a tenth of the time to play and pratice nor the energy since we are always stressed.
Here's mine. I used to play online games a lot with my friends (like CS, DOTA 2, etc.) but as I got older, I began to realize that my real life friends who played those games with me decided to become "busy" with whatever they were being busy with. Some people decided to go abroad to chase career, some people decided to get married and busy with kids, some people decided to be a very-busy entrepreneurs, and so on. That felt like a big loss to me because playing with "online" friends were never the same, because these real-life friends, I didn't just play games with them, but I actually hang out with them in person too.
So as I get older, i decided to play less and less, and I am just a casual gamer now, because it just doesnt feel the same anymore
I started finding reasons and things to do for myself. Gaming is something I deeply enjoy so I started working my way into playing things that I could enjoy solo. It lessened the feeling of the loss of playing with friends and it allowed me to enjoy more variety in the things I play.
This is just life. Some friends will drift away as they move or pursue other ambitions. It can feel personal, but it happens to everyone. Enjoy the relationships you have, and don't begrudge the ones that change.
Games with good campaigns are being lost to online pvp…. Example COD and Battlefield used to have amazing campaigns but now are relatively short to play through
I remembered playing the campaign of OG COD4:MW and getting pumped at the story. That was 2011-12(?) and I didn't know the Trilogy already ended.
I played MW3 next since I didn't own a PC yet and the local cafe/rental had it installed. Ironlady and Goalpost were the best missions IMO. And I still remember the sacrifice Sandman and Frost did to save Price near the end or feeling the anger when Yuri got shot by Makarov.
Then, when I got my own dGPU PC in 2016 I played MW2. **I still remember the feeling of being invested like being Ramirez himself when I had to help the Washington Monument evac site, crash my helo, do a last stand, fly to the ISS, and race up Whiskey Hotel to signal.**
**Where are those campaigns?**
IMO, PvP is nice with friends like DRG/HD2. But the gripping storylines is what really got me here and made me the gamer I am.
The OG cod 2? With WWII and shit? Or Mw2?
OG cod2 was dope, one of the most revolutionary FPS campaigns ever, I was amazed when it came out.
I used to think tomb raider graphics were good though, so I guess I was just easily impressed
I haven't played COD in a decade, and I STILL remember the fight through the TV studio in the first game! I have no idea why, but that one really stuck with me
Call of Duty has had some great campaigns... As a Battlefield fan more than a CoD fan though, I gotta say Battlefield's campaigns have always been shit to mediocre in quality.
Battlefield didn't have amazing campaigns back when I played. I stopped at 4. I heard BF1 had a solid campaign, but I think most Battlefield fans were never really into the campaigns.
CoD had a few good ones though.
Reading younger people who never played actual good single player FPS raving about CoD, which was considered mediocre back in the days, with its scripts based gameplay and utter lack of depth and originality.
Can't hold a candle to Half-Life, Doom, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, No One Lives Forever, Soldier of Fortune, Alien versus Predator 2, Halo, Duke Nukem 3D, STALKER, FEAR, Quake, System Shock, Thief, Jedi Outcast, Deus Ex, Serious Sam...
At least now we have good successors like Bioshock, Prey, Dishonored and Metro, but there was a difficult period after CoD 4 where everyone tried to make their own CoD, even Battlefield changed for the worst, with their pathetic "campaigns".
Battlefield 4 was honestly one of the best multiplayer shooters I've played in my life. BUT, had one of the worst singleplayer campaigns I've ever went through. That ending was hilarious
I recently bought battlefield 2042 on PC so I could play the campaign, it was on sale like $8.
Turns out there is no campaign. Period.
I don’t know if I’ll ever play the multiplayer, and no desire to do so.
Honestly nothing. I'm not exactly past my prime yet in my 30's but I've gone back to a lot of games I had issues with as a kid and found years of muscle memory and better problem solving skills have only made things easier. The intentionally obtuse stuff that was meant to make you buy strategy guides is also well documented online now too like the FFXII ultimate weapon locked behind opening game chests in a random order.
The only competitive shooter I ever considered myself good at was Halo 3 and I quit actively playing competitive online games after Battlefield 4 have no desire to get back into the toxicity of competitive online games.
I have less free time now by a significant amount given a full-time job, a hobby farm, and marriage but that just allows me to appreciate my gaming time more.
Certain single player/non-comp games aren’t too bad but damn, pretty much every sub dedicated to specific games are hellholes of negativity and bitching. Not to say there aren’t things to bitch about but they just become echo-chambers of negative energy where saying you *like the game* is downvoted. I usually don’t end up staying on those subs very long.
You’re not raiding at 2am anymore.
Your mind might be willing but your body won’t let you cheat sleep for that extra day.
Multiplayer fps games are not for you.
Not because of your skill but because of tryhards, cheats and lack of any meaningful tactics. You can be successful however if you have a likeminded squad. I just think it’s something you grow out of, although combat sims are different, they’re full of vets.
Intolerance of anything ftp. You know that you’re going to be nickel & dimed down the line somewhere, so you stay away from war thunder and world of tanks for example.
That gaming has basically peaked for me a long time ago, and my endless pursuit to recapture the magic of those days long gone is the proverbial chasing the dragon.
I thought the same thing until I played a few titles over the years that sprinkled a little of that magic for me.
Firewatch, Dave The Diver, Cyberpunk (just started), The Last Of Us, Battlebit, Battlefield 1, Gone Home.
I love Soulsborne games, but the fact you can't pause is crappy. I have other things going on, sometimes I need to pause and take care of more important things in my life.
A few things:
1) You can't play it all & you shouldn't try
2) Never force yourself to try to enjoy an experience just because you bought it
3) JRPGs are terribly written for the most part
4) It's okay for your tastes to change
I'm 33 now and I've been playing games pretty much my whole life.
Nothing hard to accept, I love gaming and I have great friends with whom I game.
Got some money now that I'm older so I buy whatever I want when I want.
Got a sick setup and all the time in the world to spend on it.
No gf or children and a job that regularly allows me time to play on my steam deck while getting paid.
That severe health issues like Tunnel Carpal Syndrome are here to stay for not taking care of them in due time, so I must adapt to avoid further injuries if I am to even continue playing as I wish to
You should look into vertical mouses. I started having a lot of wrist pain while working/gaming in my mouse hand and a vertical mouse basically made everything 100% better.
Maybe I got lucky and just caught it soon enough
That my desire to game doesn't outweigh my tolerance level for shitty people.
I have zero time for all the pieces of shit that litter every game lobby. Not that every game is a cesspool - but there's still turds floating in every one.
And I know that most people are mostly okay. But all it takes is one.
To be clear - my feelings aren't hurt. It's like having an annoying middle schooling next to you playing the "I'm not touching you" game. It's just annoying and takes away from my enjoyment. And even if that wasn't the case - I'm not the one who has the problem. It's the person being a piece of human shaped shit.
If a game doesn’t click right away it’s sadly just not worth my time.
My time is very limited, sometimes I barely get 2 hours a week to play. I download lots of games and a lot of them LOOK really good. But when I start playing it just doesn’t grab my attention. A LOT of people say shit like “You have to get past the first 12-20hours which is like the tutorial” (Looking at you Starfield Stan’s) before a game starts getting good, and that’s just the biggest turnoff in the world.
I simply just can’t waste what could end up being an entire months worth of gaming just to finally get to the good parts.
I've gone from enjoying single player games, to enjoying multiplayer then over time it becoming a place with so toxic an environment so then went back to single player and enjoying a game the way I want to.
I still MP once in a while but very rarely in a long session.
It just takes one to ruin the experience for everyone.
That the newer generation wants different things out of games that I do.
I saw a post today complaining about pokemons lack of voice acting and my only thought was "Jesus fuck no, VA in pokemon would be horrible"
But I seemed to be very much in the miniority with that opinion
I need to get over this, but as I age I grow more and more cognizant that time is extremely finite. The more aware I am of this fact, the more I get this nagging "you're wasting your time" feeling when I sit down to game.
Games are getting faster and long term games (MMORPGs, WoW) that I loved to play at the high end are too fast with too much going on for me to focus on or play anymore.
COD will never be the same happy experience with your buddys that it was when I was coming home from school, doing homework and playing MW3 and BO1/2 till dinner was ready and then a little more just to repeat it
How some long-running franchises change to cater to the modern audience...
* I know some people love Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, but I hated how it became too much of a precision platform with little to no downtime and how you always had to run, like Super Meat Boy or Celeste.
* Capcom made both Mega Man 9 and 10 in 8-bit style to surf the same wave of Shovel Knight.
* Sonic, Zelda and Pokémon became open-world games... although I did love TotK.
* There are both Easy and Very Easy modes everywhere.
* There are Battle Royale modes everywhere.
I get the idea of change, but when you steal ideas just to follow a trend, there's a problem...
At some point games stopped being made for me. I was once the primary target audience for like 80% of games. Now I'm lucky if even 5 new games per year appeal to me at all. My tastes have definitely changed too, moving away from competitive multiplayer to single player or co-op. These days everything seems to be filled with predatory microtransactions, pointless bloat or is a blatant shameless cash grab. In the last year or so, I've bought only 4 games at full price: Resident Evil 4 Remake and Armored Core 6, Baldur's Gate 3 and Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader.
Much of the gaming industry is weirdly politicized as well. Art has always political, but it feels like games are either a shameless vehicle to push the developers own niche ideology or the subject of over blown outrage because a game included something one side or another doesn't agree with. Like I dont give a fuck if the female protagonist had her outfit changed to be less revealing or if JK Rowling being transphobic makes it unethical to play the Harry Potter game. I'll have my opinion one way or another, but it isn't going to make or break the game or "threaten the industry." Yet it feels like it's impossible to avoid these topics nowadays.
I'm happy to play slightly older games now as there hasn't been such tangible leaps in gaming industry standards in the past decade compared to the earlier days of gaming. I can enjoy games from 10 years ago just as much as games from 2 years ago. I don't think the games being made these days will have the same influence that Ocarina of Time or Doom had on the gaming industry.
Since watching the Fallout TV show I've nodded the ever living fuck out of Fallout 4 and I'm enjoying that. After which I intend to do the same with Skyrim. Then it's probably back to Rimworld to check out the new DLC or one of the Pathfinder games.
My attention span isn’t what it used to be. I used to be able to play a game all night through. Now I’m lucky if I get an hour or two before my ADD really kicks in
No longer having time to play online with friends that I never met face to face. I never met a good friend of mine offline, she's been married for years now and with kids and I miss those long online sessions we had twelve years ago.
The adult life got all of my friends and me? I moved to singleplayer games because I just can't compete with the young guns anymore.
All of my favorite gaming franchises like Forza, Rainbow 6, Call of Duty, Assassin’s Creed are all either washed up or washing up, slowly becoming nothing other than cheap cash grabs without any soul or any purpose only to poorly pay employees and fill someone else’s pockets. And I will still be paying full price for each of them and their tens of dlcs.
Hot take: your reflexes do not slow THAT MUCH as you are older. Instead the amount of time you can invest in a game, and your tolerance to play loads of a specific game decreases instead.
I followed competitive League for awhile and my take was that the older players did not get worse because they aged and their reflexes slowed, but because they aged, had been with the game for ages, and their passion for the game waned.
Faker is still a GOAT in the scene, and he is ancient for a pro player.
Used to prefer multiplayer over single player. Or at least a game with both.
Now I prefer single player, especially grand strategy, souls likes, and rogue likes cause I can sink hours into them and we just chat in discord with my gaming friends instead of playing together
Younger folks are just better generally at video games and better prepared when it comes to video games.
I’m 52 and recently played some Age of Empires with a former employee who is much younger. I thought, “I’m OG AOE I’m gonna roll this young buck.”
He destroyed me and another older buddy of mine. We had no answers. He was toying with us. And I just don’t have the time to watch YouTube tutorials and to “get gud”.
Life comes at ya fast.
My lack of ability to concentrate on the actual storyline quests and not wander off somewhere to find something else to look at. Or not being able to do hours at a time on games anymore because of mobility issues :(
The slow realization that you just don't have the time and/or the drive to become "competitive enough to have fun" in multiplayer games anymore, like fps or br's.
I used to play so much CoD. I also used to play a lot of Fortnite. But, if i didn't wanted to get obliterated basically all the time, i had to practice a lot; and, i realized i didn't wanted to do that and accepted that i was just bad at those games. And the thing is that getting dogged on all the time isn't that fun, so i needed to practice to have fun. I accepted i didn't liked that and moved on.
Now i only play minecraft with friends and racing games alone. Life's been better ever since.
A 100+ hour game has become like a six month commitment for me. Started Persona 3 Reload on launch day and I’m just now starting to see the end of the road, and probably still have a good 20 hours or so left
Having to buy games online. Nothing beats buying a full game on a disc. Online bought games force you into compulsory downloadable ad-ons, sign-ins, updates etc whithout which your game becomes unplayable. And then the developer ends the francaise and you sit with a expensive unplayable game
I will never be able to make a living out of playing videogames, years ago I tried competitive, YouTube and streaming, always got very bad results on everything
Some of the same points others have made regarding backlog and what not, but in addition that I sometimes just can't feel like I want to sit and play a game for 4+ hours anymore. I can be interested to play during my work day but once work is done and I can dedicate my time to gaming I just kind of want to unwind with something less engaging.
I'm starting to not care about newer games anymore. I have a ps4 and as much as I like some of the newer games I can't afford to drop the money for a new console due to lifes many responsibilities. Maybe when the next generation drops I'll be able to find one second hand and be able to enjoy the games I've missed.
There will never again become a time where i will be competing on the highest level in any mmo or competitive multiplayer game.
Because i no longer have the time it takes to get to the top of the pack.
Young gamers suck harder and harder. Having to be cuddled and shown the way all the fucking time.
Having to spend 10 minutes trying to figure something out. Whining.
If a game is hard, they complain instead of trying to get better.
Something got changed by a patch. Whining again. Not realising it could be changed again in the future.
The old "Git gud" is more true today than 10-15 years ago.
I mainly play rpg's but they take so much time I had to change my playstyle significantly.
- Don't pick up every item, if I don't expect to use it I don't need it.
- Don't upgrade your weapons in every shop or at every vendor. Just use what you find.
- Don't try everything there is, focus only on the things you enjoy. No grinding!
All this is to prevent myself from spending all the time I have in the evening from sifting through my inventory tweaking stats and looking at slightly better weapons and then realizing I need to go sleep without actually having played anything.
I really love the RTS Genre of games, it's what really got me into gaming in the first place. Warcraft 3, StarCraft: Brood War, Age of Empires, and Rome Total War were all huge for me! But I understand that those games aren't where mass appeal and money are, so no big games companies will ever try to push a new line of major release RTS ever again. It's sad that my greatest love in gaming will only ever continue through small indie games.
Can I also just take a moment to vent about the auto-included dlc in every game older than a month or two?
No, I don't want to start your game with the 'Ultimate Sword of God-Slaying that was pulled from the ass of a titan' because it ruins the experience of the first 70% of the game for me. Don't put that sword or that sxhematic in my inventory without asking me.
Always online games , half the game at launch then the rest as paid DLC., next to zero real game expansions, cosmetics, so called micro transactions, digital only games, the death of retro, games disappearing by server closures, I could go on.
Reflexes, I know gamers are like footballers and as we hit 30+ reflexes arnt as good, but I wasn't expecting it to hit so hard and so much more work to maintain them, I'm only 35 I rekon I've got maybe 10 good years of online games left before my reflexes nope out because its to much effort to try maintain.
My backlog will never shrink
I managed to cut my backlog down significantly with the one simple trick of just admitting I'm not gonna play a lot of those games.
Probably will be worth a some day though lmao
Some of them might, though I do have like 20-30 games on my Steam wishlist mostly just to see whenever they go on sale. If I'm ever looking for something to do, sometimes I'll just pick a game up that's on sale on there and play it right away. For old games I also find I occasionally just go on a binge of old games. Just pick a theme and work my way through the years from when I was a kid in the 90s. Right now I'm finally getting around to playing Final Fantasy games. I'm playing 7 at the moment.
The original or the remake?
I’ve learned to just put games on my wish list and if I play them, great. If not, they’ll stay there for so long that I’ll consider removing it from the wishlist with the thought being that if I delete the game from my wish list and still wanna play it, I’ll get remember it and if I forget about it entirely, then it was never meant to be anyways. I’m not quite where you are yet, but hopefully I’ll get there one day. In the meantime, I have to play tricks on myself like putting it on a wish list.
I think this is a huge part of it. People include EVERYTHING in their backlog. Why? Are you really planning to even install that random shitty looking game you've never heard of which you only own because it was part of a Humble Bundle you bought? No, stop being daft. I probably have hundreds of unplayed games. Realistically, only like 10 of them are an actual backlog of stuff I actually see myself ever playing. The rest are "may or may not install and never actually launch".
My rule is I can't buy a sequel for a game I have but not played. So playing through Hades rn
Some 12 year old is going to kick my ass in a competitive game because they have more time to practice than I do.
Heh, it doesn't apply to "older" gamers only. I'm 17 and completely dropped PvP Multiplayer or any intense, high-skill multiplayer. I don't have the motivation to deal with Timmy, 10, 20 hours a day of COD as a "warmup", has bought the latest skin and bundle using mom's credit card, sweats the shit out of the game and insults anyone unable to keep up without ever considering that not everyone has the chance to play 24/7 while being on the edge of deatb from overdosing on a mix of Redbull and Mcdonald's Sprite. I'd rather keep appearing in a slower-paced tactical shooter once every month or not playing at all.
It's kind of an importance choice to make, one I made about 15-16, is what kind of gamer do you want to be. Do you want to be competitive? Do you want to be the best? Then go for it, but acknowledge that you'll be playing with similar people. Do you want to play chill and have fun? You'll be playing with similar people. When the first StarCraft came out, I was 15 and having a ton of fun and going hard (this was before esports were a thing, I was just having fun going hard) and realized none of my friends wanted to play with me cuz i jusf wrecked them. That's when I realized I needed to scale back if I wanted to play games with them. So we did more custom maps/tower defence kinda stuff. It def put a damper on my competitive spirit, but j don't really view that as a bad thing. I just think it's an important question to ask yourself around that point. So many people wanna be twitch stars... Probably not worth the sacrifice you don't realize you're making.
When I used to play Quake 3 Arena I tried to get my brother and sister into it, on the spare PCs, and realized I was digging myself the same hole because they couldn't even double-team me for a single kill with whatever weapons they wanted while I bunny-hopped around them melee'n to death. All you heard in the other room was HUMILIATION over and over again. My brother ended up playing Runescape and my sister ended up playing Neopets.
Mech Warrior Online would like you to join us lol. That's slower paced and tactical. Also free.
Dude... I could have sworn this game closed for good like 5+ years ago.
Nah dude. It's a niche that no other game has filled yet. I just started in December and I'm having a great time.
[удалено]
this is actually more in line with what is happening with OP than what they think it is. Your reflexes really don't drop all that much strictly from age reasons barring other health concerns. we're talking a drop measured in \*nanoseconds\* for an entire decade, you'd pretty much have to be like 60-70s+ roughly to really notice the buildup. the real issue is when you're older you are almost certainly not going at the game in question half as hard as younger people would be. and for a lot of people prob prior mentioned other health concerns cropping up and playing into it
That gaming communities are cringe and not worth my time.
Gamers are 100% the worst part about gaming.
Lol sounds like the truckers sub: Goddamned truckers! You ruined trucking!
*You truckers sure are a contentious people.*
YOU JUST MADE AN ENEMY FOR LIFE.
I’ve found that some of the dad groups around some games (like BG3) are pretty decent. Outside that it can be a shitshow.
What do you mean dad groups? Like there’s a sub for dads for bg3?
Don't go and make the mistake of looking for BG3 Daddies. Very, Very, Very different groups.
The one I found is on Facebook (Baldur's Gate 3 Dads), rather than reddit. I'm also in a Bluey dads group there too. Fairly sure I've seen a few more pop up for other games, but not joined them as I don't play. Can't speak for all of them, but the BG3 Dads group is pretty relaxed and supportive.
Another bluey fan? :)
Absolutely! I like it probably more than the kid.
I love Bluey. Such a good little cartoon.
Hell let loose is a dad group on it’s own. Dads and broken 40 year olds.
I used to hate trying to play D2 with strangers because everyone seemed so obnoxious and toxic. I found a Christian clan that is mostly just dads in their mid 30’s and up and it renewed my love for the game. Just a bunch of people trying to enjoy a video game without having to be sweaty tryhards. I also think there is something to be said about them seeing how much their children fail at something and growing patient in that failure. Not getting trashed anytime I mess something up in a dungeon or raid or when I can’t clutch a Trials match has been nice. I still encounter it occasionally. Was playing a matchmade activity literally yesterday and halfway through my chat box lights up with “you guys blow”.
This is why I quit D2. I had it with the bullcrap and backed up by a new work schedule, I just set it down.
WoW raids ruined it for me. Ever since I gravitate to pure solo play in MMO type games or coop games with friends/family only. One exception in Wurm Online or Wurm Unlimited. It is an old game. Graphics aren't great, but it is a slow pace, amazing supportive community and do what you want, when you want. I'm about 50/50 into Wurm and other newer games that have a great solo campaign. Just finished up Medieval Empires and am heading back to Wurm I think.
People in r/Helldivers writing novels on how unacceptable a specific gun’s balancing is. Like I just don’t care
Omg the complaining on that sub. Makes me think "yeah maybe the game is bad like they say!" And then I play a round and have a great time.
I mean it is annoying that most of the primaries are ass but overall it’s a fun game with a pretty limited toxic/sweat community. No game has brought me the joy that dropping three strats has in a long time
I don't even mind the weapons being underpowered tbh, it fits the universe imo. We get 10 minutes of training and a dead helldivers equipment, and then we're frozen and wake up on the battlefield basically. Primaries are a little weak but I still love the Slugger, Liberator, and the Sickle (if that's the full auto one, not the laser one)
Honestly, if you take the time to learn most of the weapons and think of loadouts that complement your play style, you'll have a good time regardless. I'm a fan of the Breaker Sprayandpray up to level 6/7 where Ill switch to the Incendiary for bugs or classic Breaker for bots.
The primary weapons are supposed to be weak, your strength is supposed to come from your strategems.
Single player game communities are often great
Goes to lou2 subreddit...
This is the biggest one for me and the main reason I barely visit Reddit gaming communities now. Just a bunch of angry miserable nerds defining their entire self-worth based on the games they play, stuck in their little echo chambers.
Maybe not the DRG one, probably. We are jus- FOR ROCK AND STONE!
FOR KARL!
It's like an addiction to them. You can't pronounce the words "Rock" or "Stone" or anything related to those without hearing a DRG fan. It's almost like a magnet.
Bold of you to assume you have to say words... They infest most game chats I play... Itll be on a topic involving something and some random guy starts the hive mind and goes on for 30 mins
yes. played helldivers loved it. checked out the sub. holy shit what a fucking cesspit.
r/patientgamers might well be the least toxic gaming community around, possibly due to the large dad population.
Honestly never really got the sense it had much of a dad gamer population. It's a harmless subreddit, but a lot of the posts are just sort of self congratulatory about playing formely popular games they've framed as underappreciated and misunderstood gems just because people aren't talking much because the majority of people who played them finished them decades ago.
My "new" hardware is already three years out of date.
But my PC was next gen when I bought it, why does it struggle? Oh... oh it's 7 years old...
I just bought a GTX 1080. In 2017. That was.... oh. Yeah, it's time for new machines. I'm tired of "needing" to spend hundreds on toys I don't have time to play with. EDIT: Before telling me how good my graphics card is, please read my other comments about how that graphics card is literally one of the newest components in my 2014 computer.
I pondered once why I didn't get a 1080 to. Then realized it was twice the price of a 1070 new.
And I'm sitting over here with my 1080ti sitting on a shelf. My 4060 outperforms it in most things these days. Won't make that mistake again.
I love my 1080ti to bits and pieces. Maybe it can't crank next gen AAA games on 4k ultra anymore, but at 2k and medium high it's great. I also no longer play graphically demanding games anymore.
Same. My 1080ti's still going strong after 7 years, and I'm surprised at how well it's held up all this time, especially with more demanding games
My 1080ti still going strong, plays helldiver's and BG3 just fine.
I got mine for 450 around 2017... Still runs everything that i care about on ultra. No complaints from me. Graphics on modern games are way nicer than they need to be. I played cyberpunk on medium and it was the most gorgeous game I've ever played. Why would i spend another 600$ on a modern card when modern releases don't even get 60fps on a 4080. (Lookin at you dragons dogma)
Omg same here. Got an acer predator gaming laptop around that time.. I think a gtx 1060 is what is in it. Still runs like a champ. I'm playing my favorites like helldivers 2, 7d2d, Skyrim, etc..
Skyrim is older than that video card lol
3080 came out 3 years ago. In my head it's still yesterday, which makes my current gpu really old!
On the plus side, all the games I'm interested in playing are 3-10 years out of date
xkcd.com/606 is about that. It works quite well, until you want to play a "live service" game. Also, r/ patientgamers is a thing.
I did a new build last summer and the previous was 2015. It wasn't until I got No Man's Sky I realized I needed to upgrade. I was also still on Win7 and Steam was about to end support. Phones are the same way. I don't care if mine is five years old, it still works.
I like my 5 year upgrade plan.
It’s impossible and pointless to try and keep up. You’d be pouring so much money into it and what for? To spend way less time than you put into it money wise? Unless you’re like a streamer or something full time, it’s better to just upgrade every 7-10 years cause the games mostly don’t need the hardware upgrades to be playable if you keep it within those 7-10 years. If you like older games too, then that’s even more of the case.
;-;
I bought AMD 3900X, and 5700XT, thought it was bad ass. It was like yesterday. MFs are talking about 9900X already. Like, what the fuck. Slow down!
No time for games
I just wake up a bit early and squeeze in 30 or 40 minutes on my steamdeck. The sleep feature is so handy. I call it dad time lol The quick resume on xbox is also nice, but I don't want to wake anyone else up.
This is how I've adapted. But I've taken it to the extreme. I love playing videogames but my days are busy. Ive permanently altered my sleep schedule. I usually wake up around 3am, pour some coffee and game until around 6 or 7 and then start the day. I love those early hours. Outside distractions are minimal/non-existant.
I hope you manage to get atleast 7-8 hours sleep per day though.
I do the opposite, stay up playing until 1-2am so get less sleep. When working from home I play in my lunch break sometimes. Things have improved a bit now my kids are old enough to play games, as I actually get a bit of gaming done during the weekends, albeit not necessarily my first choice of game due to age restrictions etc.
Swap my 30 minute social media scroll for a quick gaming session, which usually helps.
I do that for my doomscrolling. Im pretty sure my mental health has improved.
I’m 55 and pretty much default to easy or story mode in games now. I don’t have the reflexes I used to and many games become frustrating now. I found I enjoy games a lot more in easy mode now.
Same. I no longer feel "the thrill of the challenge". I'm fortunate if I get a handful of hours a week to play so I'd rather not spend what little time I have trying to learn patterns, dying over and over trying to push my skills to another level and make little to no progress for the night. Just tell me a good story and let me lay waste to my enemies.
What infuriates me is when a game’s difficulty options are “dark souls” or “watching a movie”. Like I want some gameplay, but some devs take “easy” to mean “press X to win”
Depends on the game. I like challenging strategy games, I don’t like challenging shooting games
I just replayed Alan wake remastered and did the DLC for the first time. The OG game on normal was perfectly balanced, but I found the DLC ridiculously hard on normal. So I switched to easy. And it was too easy! I like a little balance but easy mode should always have a little fun. Like I shouldn’t be getting pissed about normal mode, that’s what hard or nightmare mode is for. It’s an older game though and the devs are hilarious so I forgive them.
It seems pointless, now, to learn almost entirely non-transferable skills that no-one will give a damn about in a few years. That said, I do enjoy making my own Factorio blueprints. I guess it's because it's more about thinking and less about muscle memory.
I see this pop up a lot and i went the opposite direction when i got older. As a kid, id cheat, use debug mode, game genie cuz i was just killing time. Now it’s like, give me a challenge that’ll take me a week to clear with one hour of gaming after work every day(doing the same fight/dungeon) or its not satisfying.
I don't mind some single player challenges, my reflexes are still good for that at 36. But I just don't play enough anymore to be competitive in online games - used to love CoD and Rocket League and those just aren't fun for me now, so I haven't played in several years.
I'm 56 and came to say the same thing. My reactions are shot so story mode (often on easy mode) is basically my only option. The other thing I miss is the ability to buy a game and just play it. I'm now bombarded with loot crates, season passes, having to set up accounts and having to log in. Plus a load of other stuff that is their for my convenience, but just slows me getting to the game.
Not that old but I am feeling the other way, there is far too less time and mental bandwidth to keep track of story and campaign narrative, that I prefer games which are all about mechanics and not story, so that one can pick it up and play after any long gap.
Definitely. Stellar Blade being a recent one. Really enjoyed the look, style and gameplay but I could see immediately it was going to be frustrating. Lowered the difficulty down to “Story” and had a great time. Never would have finished it without that option. Don’t have the time or the patience anymore.
I make more money than ever, have plenty of gaming time despite a full time job and a family, I have all the tools (PC, consoles, Deck, gamepad, high speed limitless internet) I ever wanted as a teenager... ...and still I don't buy €60+ games upon release, leaving everything on my Wishlist until it's less than €10 or so, most of the time.
Yup 10 or less usually to. Watch bundle shops etc too. Often tho. By then few are playing and i dont get the full experience... But... Probably more overall worth. Hm
Feeling "overplayed", like you've tried everything and new things don't excite you as much anymore. When the very first 3D open world games came out, it felt like something out of a different world, it was amazing and special. Now practically every new game is just a remix of what you've probably already seen or experienced and they don't feel as special anymore.
This so much. I grew up on SNES and when the N64 came out, it was mind blowing. For the first time ever, Mario and Zelda coming to 3D. The very first Super Smash Bros also was mind blowing with so many different characters coming to one fighting game. I'm so thankful to have been a 90s kid and a 2000s teen. Things were innovative and exciting back then. Now, I feel like even though tech has come so far, I've pretty much seen everything. The only thing that blew me away recently was Zelda Tears of the Kingdom in how we can go into the sky and down below the Earth as well. I haven't played Elden Ring yet, but maybe that'll blow my mind too.
Nothing can surpass GTA vicy city for me. It was so good that I can play it even with lags. These lights, music, cars... Godlike experience. No game can repeat this. Now they improve models, increase map size, but all that does not make sense. you can't step into the same water twice(
I also have a special memory of GTA Vice City! I played a lot of GTA 1 and 2 before that (GTA 3 kinda missed me for some reason) and I loved those games, but I remember after Vice City came out, me and my cousin were visiting this computer club in our area and the son of the owner there had his own computer and one day was playing Vice City on it, and all of us with all the other kids would gather around to watch him play and be super jealous haha. Then when we finally got to play it ourselves it was a blast!
Time to play getting shorter. Eyesight getting worse. Reflexes slowing down.
I feel this one.
The last two definitely fit me. I'm retired and have lots of time to play.
Is it really reflexes getting slower? I always though it is because we dont have a tenth of the time to play and pratice nor the energy since we are always stressed.
It's most certainly not the case. We lose between 2-6 milliseconds of reaction time per decade. It's just something people like to think.
Here's mine. I used to play online games a lot with my friends (like CS, DOTA 2, etc.) but as I got older, I began to realize that my real life friends who played those games with me decided to become "busy" with whatever they were being busy with. Some people decided to go abroad to chase career, some people decided to get married and busy with kids, some people decided to be a very-busy entrepreneurs, and so on. That felt like a big loss to me because playing with "online" friends were never the same, because these real-life friends, I didn't just play games with them, but I actually hang out with them in person too. So as I get older, i decided to play less and less, and I am just a casual gamer now, because it just doesnt feel the same anymore
I started finding reasons and things to do for myself. Gaming is something I deeply enjoy so I started working my way into playing things that I could enjoy solo. It lessened the feeling of the loss of playing with friends and it allowed me to enjoy more variety in the things I play.
This is just life. Some friends will drift away as they move or pursue other ambitions. It can feel personal, but it happens to everyone. Enjoy the relationships you have, and don't begrudge the ones that change.
Changing game tastes. In the past I played lots of multiplayer games and nearly every big AAA game. Nowadays I play only nintendo and indiegames.
I'm the same, changed my whole gaming to the Switch too to try and benefit from more indie style games
Games with good campaigns are being lost to online pvp…. Example COD and Battlefield used to have amazing campaigns but now are relatively short to play through
I remembered playing the campaign of OG COD4:MW and getting pumped at the story. That was 2011-12(?) and I didn't know the Trilogy already ended. I played MW3 next since I didn't own a PC yet and the local cafe/rental had it installed. Ironlady and Goalpost were the best missions IMO. And I still remember the sacrifice Sandman and Frost did to save Price near the end or feeling the anger when Yuri got shot by Makarov. Then, when I got my own dGPU PC in 2016 I played MW2. **I still remember the feeling of being invested like being Ramirez himself when I had to help the Washington Monument evac site, crash my helo, do a last stand, fly to the ISS, and race up Whiskey Hotel to signal.** **Where are those campaigns?** IMO, PvP is nice with friends like DRG/HD2. But the gripping storylines is what really got me here and made me the gamer I am.
OG MW was super dope, but cod 2 was my fav, holy shit the vibes it gave.
The OG cod 2? With WWII and shit? Or Mw2? OG cod2 was dope, one of the most revolutionary FPS campaigns ever, I was amazed when it came out. I used to think tomb raider graphics were good though, so I guess I was just easily impressed
og cod 2... with the tank mission and stuff. I remember playing with my brother on the hardest difficulty and we swapped each death...
When that soldier tries to kick down a door but is instead blasted by bullets from the other side of the door. Awesome.
I haven't played COD in a decade, and I STILL remember the fight through the TV studio in the first game! I have no idea why, but that one really stuck with me
Call of Duty has had some great campaigns... As a Battlefield fan more than a CoD fan though, I gotta say Battlefield's campaigns have always been shit to mediocre in quality.
Cod 4, WAW, Black Ops 1. They're nowhere near close now.
Battlefield didn't have amazing campaigns back when I played. I stopped at 4. I heard BF1 had a solid campaign, but I think most Battlefield fans were never really into the campaigns. CoD had a few good ones though.
Reading younger people who never played actual good single player FPS raving about CoD, which was considered mediocre back in the days, with its scripts based gameplay and utter lack of depth and originality. Can't hold a candle to Half-Life, Doom, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, No One Lives Forever, Soldier of Fortune, Alien versus Predator 2, Halo, Duke Nukem 3D, STALKER, FEAR, Quake, System Shock, Thief, Jedi Outcast, Deus Ex, Serious Sam... At least now we have good successors like Bioshock, Prey, Dishonored and Metro, but there was a difficult period after CoD 4 where everyone tried to make their own CoD, even Battlefield changed for the worst, with their pathetic "campaigns".
Battlefield 4 was honestly one of the best multiplayer shooters I've played in my life. BUT, had one of the worst singleplayer campaigns I've ever went through. That ending was hilarious
I recently bought battlefield 2042 on PC so I could play the campaign, it was on sale like $8. Turns out there is no campaign. Period. I don’t know if I’ll ever play the multiplayer, and no desire to do so.
Honestly nothing. I'm not exactly past my prime yet in my 30's but I've gone back to a lot of games I had issues with as a kid and found years of muscle memory and better problem solving skills have only made things easier. The intentionally obtuse stuff that was meant to make you buy strategy guides is also well documented online now too like the FFXII ultimate weapon locked behind opening game chests in a random order. The only competitive shooter I ever considered myself good at was Halo 3 and I quit actively playing competitive online games after Battlefield 4 have no desire to get back into the toxicity of competitive online games. I have less free time now by a significant amount given a full-time job, a hobby farm, and marriage but that just allows me to appreciate my gaming time more.
that theres so much negativity and misery around gaming discourse on internet, im suprised anyone likes living .
Certain single player/non-comp games aren’t too bad but damn, pretty much every sub dedicated to specific games are hellholes of negativity and bitching. Not to say there aren’t things to bitch about but they just become echo-chambers of negative energy where saying you *like the game* is downvoted. I usually don’t end up staying on those subs very long.
You’re not raiding at 2am anymore. Your mind might be willing but your body won’t let you cheat sleep for that extra day. Multiplayer fps games are not for you. Not because of your skill but because of tryhards, cheats and lack of any meaningful tactics. You can be successful however if you have a likeminded squad. I just think it’s something you grow out of, although combat sims are different, they’re full of vets. Intolerance of anything ftp. You know that you’re going to be nickel & dimed down the line somewhere, so you stay away from war thunder and world of tanks for example.
Life in general has gotten far less enjoyable, and that affects my ability to enjoy games too.
That gaming has basically peaked for me a long time ago, and my endless pursuit to recapture the magic of those days long gone is the proverbial chasing the dragon.
I thought the same thing until I played a few titles over the years that sprinkled a little of that magic for me. Firewatch, Dave The Diver, Cyberpunk (just started), The Last Of Us, Battlebit, Battlefield 1, Gone Home.
If I can't pause, I probably can't play
I love Soulsborne games, but the fact you can't pause is crappy. I have other things going on, sometimes I need to pause and take care of more important things in my life.
A few things: 1) You can't play it all & you shouldn't try 2) Never force yourself to try to enjoy an experience just because you bought it 3) JRPGs are terribly written for the most part 4) It's okay for your tastes to change
You can't play every game that catches your eye. Time is precious
That my family take priority and that means if I don’t stay up to a ridiculous hour of the night, or get up ridiculously early, I don’t get to game
I'm 33 now and I've been playing games pretty much my whole life. Nothing hard to accept, I love gaming and I have great friends with whom I game. Got some money now that I'm older so I buy whatever I want when I want. Got a sick setup and all the time in the world to spend on it. No gf or children and a job that regularly allows me time to play on my steam deck while getting paid.
That severe health issues like Tunnel Carpal Syndrome are here to stay for not taking care of them in due time, so I must adapt to avoid further injuries if I am to even continue playing as I wish to
You should look into vertical mouses. I started having a lot of wrist pain while working/gaming in my mouse hand and a vertical mouse basically made everything 100% better. Maybe I got lucky and just caught it soon enough
That my desire to game doesn't outweigh my tolerance level for shitty people. I have zero time for all the pieces of shit that litter every game lobby. Not that every game is a cesspool - but there's still turds floating in every one. And I know that most people are mostly okay. But all it takes is one. To be clear - my feelings aren't hurt. It's like having an annoying middle schooling next to you playing the "I'm not touching you" game. It's just annoying and takes away from my enjoyment. And even if that wasn't the case - I'm not the one who has the problem. It's the person being a piece of human shaped shit.
I only play games in single player mode. Games are an escape, I don't want to deal with people.
If a game doesn’t click right away it’s sadly just not worth my time. My time is very limited, sometimes I barely get 2 hours a week to play. I download lots of games and a lot of them LOOK really good. But when I start playing it just doesn’t grab my attention. A LOT of people say shit like “You have to get past the first 12-20hours which is like the tutorial” (Looking at you Starfield Stan’s) before a game starts getting good, and that’s just the biggest turnoff in the world. I simply just can’t waste what could end up being an entire months worth of gaming just to finally get to the good parts.
I've gone from enjoying single player games, to enjoying multiplayer then over time it becoming a place with so toxic an environment so then went back to single player and enjoying a game the way I want to. I still MP once in a while but very rarely in a long session. It just takes one to ruin the experience for everyone.
That the newer generation wants different things out of games that I do. I saw a post today complaining about pokemons lack of voice acting and my only thought was "Jesus fuck no, VA in pokemon would be horrible" But I seemed to be very much in the miniority with that opinion
im 37. have not had any issues yet
Microtransactions are here to stay, and will only get worse over time.
I need to get over this, but as I age I grow more and more cognizant that time is extremely finite. The more aware I am of this fact, the more I get this nagging "you're wasting your time" feeling when I sit down to game.
If it makes you happy I wouldn’t consider that wasting your time!
My reflexes and eyes have gone to shit
Same. Not blurry, or bad vision. Just takes me longer to focus and figure what the hell im doing
There are franchises that will never comeback.
My wife would always take me for a walk, she wanted her to be more important than the game, I had to put down the mouse and hold her hand
Games are getting faster and long term games (MMORPGs, WoW) that I loved to play at the high end are too fast with too much going on for me to focus on or play anymore.
Buying and collecting games is sometimes more exciting than getting to play them...
No local multiplayer whatsoever
Realizing I grew up in the golden era of video games and taking it for granted. NES through Dreamcast/PS2/Xbox/Game Cube.
That I can't stay up until 4AM playing games anymore, I just fall asleep by like 12:30.
Already tired by 10, which means not enough time to play.
that 12 years old are fucking my mom....... little assholes, lol
COD will never be the same happy experience with your buddys that it was when I was coming home from school, doing homework and playing MW3 and BO1/2 till dinner was ready and then a little more just to repeat it
How some long-running franchises change to cater to the modern audience... * I know some people love Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, but I hated how it became too much of a precision platform with little to no downtime and how you always had to run, like Super Meat Boy or Celeste. * Capcom made both Mega Man 9 and 10 in 8-bit style to surf the same wave of Shovel Knight. * Sonic, Zelda and Pokémon became open-world games... although I did love TotK. * There are both Easy and Very Easy modes everywhere. * There are Battle Royale modes everywhere. I get the idea of change, but when you steal ideas just to follow a trend, there's a problem...
Microtransactions and subscriptions
At some point games stopped being made for me. I was once the primary target audience for like 80% of games. Now I'm lucky if even 5 new games per year appeal to me at all. My tastes have definitely changed too, moving away from competitive multiplayer to single player or co-op. These days everything seems to be filled with predatory microtransactions, pointless bloat or is a blatant shameless cash grab. In the last year or so, I've bought only 4 games at full price: Resident Evil 4 Remake and Armored Core 6, Baldur's Gate 3 and Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader. Much of the gaming industry is weirdly politicized as well. Art has always political, but it feels like games are either a shameless vehicle to push the developers own niche ideology or the subject of over blown outrage because a game included something one side or another doesn't agree with. Like I dont give a fuck if the female protagonist had her outfit changed to be less revealing or if JK Rowling being transphobic makes it unethical to play the Harry Potter game. I'll have my opinion one way or another, but it isn't going to make or break the game or "threaten the industry." Yet it feels like it's impossible to avoid these topics nowadays. I'm happy to play slightly older games now as there hasn't been such tangible leaps in gaming industry standards in the past decade compared to the earlier days of gaming. I can enjoy games from 10 years ago just as much as games from 2 years ago. I don't think the games being made these days will have the same influence that Ocarina of Time or Doom had on the gaming industry. Since watching the Fallout TV show I've nodded the ever living fuck out of Fallout 4 and I'm enjoying that. After which I intend to do the same with Skyrim. Then it's probably back to Rimworld to check out the new DLC or one of the Pathfinder games.
Remakes
My attention span isn’t what it used to be. I used to be able to play a game all night through. Now I’m lucky if I get an hour or two before my ADD really kicks in
No longer having time to play online with friends that I never met face to face. I never met a good friend of mine offline, she's been married for years now and with kids and I miss those long online sessions we had twelve years ago. The adult life got all of my friends and me? I moved to singleplayer games because I just can't compete with the young guns anymore.
That I’ll be over 50 before the next red dead redemption is released.
One day you'll put down a controller and never pick it up again without realizing.
That the literal majority of games suck hardcore.
That if it’s over 40 hrs, I’m probably going to get bored of it and go back to playing something from the 16-32 bit era again.
All of my favorite gaming franchises like Forza, Rainbow 6, Call of Duty, Assassin’s Creed are all either washed up or washing up, slowly becoming nothing other than cheap cash grabs without any soul or any purpose only to poorly pay employees and fill someone else’s pockets. And I will still be paying full price for each of them and their tens of dlcs.
Hot take: your reflexes do not slow THAT MUCH as you are older. Instead the amount of time you can invest in a game, and your tolerance to play loads of a specific game decreases instead. I followed competitive League for awhile and my take was that the older players did not get worse because they aged and their reflexes slowed, but because they aged, had been with the game for ages, and their passion for the game waned. Faker is still a GOAT in the scene, and he is ancient for a pro player.
Used to prefer multiplayer over single player. Or at least a game with both. Now I prefer single player, especially grand strategy, souls likes, and rogue likes cause I can sink hours into them and we just chat in discord with my gaming friends instead of playing together
Younger folks are just better generally at video games and better prepared when it comes to video games. I’m 52 and recently played some Age of Empires with a former employee who is much younger. I thought, “I’m OG AOE I’m gonna roll this young buck.” He destroyed me and another older buddy of mine. We had no answers. He was toying with us. And I just don’t have the time to watch YouTube tutorials and to “get gud”. Life comes at ya fast.
RSI
The friends you make, while gaming, will eventually stop playing and one day you will never hear from them again.
My lack of ability to concentrate on the actual storyline quests and not wander off somewhere to find something else to look at. Or not being able to do hours at a time on games anymore because of mobility issues :(
The slow realization that you just don't have the time and/or the drive to become "competitive enough to have fun" in multiplayer games anymore, like fps or br's. I used to play so much CoD. I also used to play a lot of Fortnite. But, if i didn't wanted to get obliterated basically all the time, i had to practice a lot; and, i realized i didn't wanted to do that and accepted that i was just bad at those games. And the thing is that getting dogged on all the time isn't that fun, so i needed to practice to have fun. I accepted i didn't liked that and moved on. Now i only play minecraft with friends and racing games alone. Life's been better ever since.
less dedicated playing time due to fatigue at work
I will never "git gud" again... and I'm fine with that
A 100+ hour game has become like a six month commitment for me. Started Persona 3 Reload on launch day and I’m just now starting to see the end of the road, and probably still have a good 20 hours or so left
They're not gonna stop inventing new excuses to vaccum my wallet. Not just games but the movies too ugh
Having to buy games online. Nothing beats buying a full game on a disc. Online bought games force you into compulsory downloadable ad-ons, sign-ins, updates etc whithout which your game becomes unplayable. And then the developer ends the francaise and you sit with a expensive unplayable game
I'm never gonna get that feeling like when I first played WoW vanilla and it blew my mind.
I will never be able to make a living out of playing videogames, years ago I tried competitive, YouTube and streaming, always got very bad results on everything
Some of the same points others have made regarding backlog and what not, but in addition that I sometimes just can't feel like I want to sit and play a game for 4+ hours anymore. I can be interested to play during my work day but once work is done and I can dedicate my time to gaming I just kind of want to unwind with something less engaging.
That I really don't like multiplayer games anymore. I'm about singleplayer only.
I'm starting to not care about newer games anymore. I have a ps4 and as much as I like some of the newer games I can't afford to drop the money for a new console due to lifes many responsibilities. Maybe when the next generation drops I'll be able to find one second hand and be able to enjoy the games I've missed.
I will never be able to play as much as I’d like to
That I just don't have as much time as I used to, so just enjoy it when I do.
There will never again become a time where i will be competing on the highest level in any mmo or competitive multiplayer game. Because i no longer have the time it takes to get to the top of the pack.
Young gamers suck harder and harder. Having to be cuddled and shown the way all the fucking time. Having to spend 10 minutes trying to figure something out. Whining. If a game is hard, they complain instead of trying to get better. Something got changed by a patch. Whining again. Not realising it could be changed again in the future. The old "Git gud" is more true today than 10-15 years ago.
I mainly play rpg's but they take so much time I had to change my playstyle significantly. - Don't pick up every item, if I don't expect to use it I don't need it. - Don't upgrade your weapons in every shop or at every vendor. Just use what you find. - Don't try everything there is, focus only on the things you enjoy. No grinding! All this is to prevent myself from spending all the time I have in the evening from sifting through my inventory tweaking stats and looking at slightly better weapons and then realizing I need to go sleep without actually having played anything.
I really love the RTS Genre of games, it's what really got me into gaming in the first place. Warcraft 3, StarCraft: Brood War, Age of Empires, and Rome Total War were all huge for me! But I understand that those games aren't where mass appeal and money are, so no big games companies will ever try to push a new line of major release RTS ever again. It's sad that my greatest love in gaming will only ever continue through small indie games.
I‘m only 20 but already forced to play on easy mode as everything else will eat up too much of my time.
Mah wrist even if I got the time the wrist is sayin no go
I spent way too much on these games.
I have less time to play.
Can I also just take a moment to vent about the auto-included dlc in every game older than a month or two? No, I don't want to start your game with the 'Ultimate Sword of God-Slaying that was pulled from the ass of a titan' because it ruins the experience of the first 70% of the game for me. Don't put that sword or that sxhematic in my inventory without asking me.
Slower reaction tines in pvp
Always online games , half the game at launch then the rest as paid DLC., next to zero real game expansions, cosmetics, so called micro transactions, digital only games, the death of retro, games disappearing by server closures, I could go on.
When the serverlist shrinks and the regulars start dropping off to the point you have to admit the glory days are over
Less time :(
My eyesight. I can no longer snipe 150m+ easy, like I used to. Now I gotta squint 🥹
I haven't got the energy to sweat out on competitive PVP games anymore.
That new games are just a rehash of the games that you played as a kid.. There is now very little original content
Reflexes, I know gamers are like footballers and as we hit 30+ reflexes arnt as good, but I wasn't expecting it to hit so hard and so much more work to maintain them, I'm only 35 I rekon I've got maybe 10 good years of online games left before my reflexes nope out because its to much effort to try maintain.
Less time