Need help getting my gaming mojo back!

[Geosurface]

Hi all,

I'll be 32 in July and I have always loved games, started out on an Atari 2600 and a Commodore 64. Somewhere around 1993 I shifted my focus more to PC gaming than console, and though I've maintained an interest in both all along... I consider myself much more passionate about PC gaming.

But something's missing. I have 103 games on Steam, I just bought a new rig... I have a crap ton of console games in my "game drawer" and plenty of PC games not on steam (100's, if we're counting older, etc) ... but, so much of the time anymore I just don't have the desire to game.

This distresses me because I *want* this to keep being a significant part of my life. Don't get me wrong, it's not always a problem... when a real sexy game like Skyrim comes along, no problem. I imagine Diablo 3 will ignite my passions for a good while... StarCraft 2 still entertains me (though I never committed to playing it relentlessly as much as I would've imagined I was going to before it's release... there is no actual problem with the game, that I can think of... I just don't play it that much... i think the issue is with me.)

So yea I played like 200 hours of Skyrim. I know that probably makes it sound like there's no problem here. Or if there is a problem, it's exactly the opposite problem of what I'm talking about, ha. But seriously... I put this new rig together and I get real excited about installing all the games I think I might possibly want to play from Steam, and some non-Steam... and I get all my icons just right, lined up... I get everything patched... I set up my graphics options and controls the way I like...

and then I don't play them.

So many games I lose interest in... I've never been someone who finished every game I played, but I did used to be someone who got more enjoyment out of a higher percentage of the games I bought.

What is happening? am I getting too old for this shit as Danny Glover would say? That cannot be!

Are the games worse these days?

I enjoyed Deus Ex: Human Revolution quite a bit... ending kinda sucked.

I suppose a lot of you reading this are thinking "I don't think this guy really has the issue he thinks he does, there's always a lull between good releases" but I'm TELLIN' you, this problem is real.

I used to play hours and hours of Counter-Strike... or StarCraft 1... or WarCraft 3... of course WoW, ugh... but I *refuse* to go back to the MMO addiction as a way to pad my game-time. I can't do that... that's too much.

I need to rediscover how to really lose myself in the single player of games that currently aren't grabbing me, like FEAR 3, Alice: Madness Returns, Dungeon Siege 3... Serious Sam BFE... Dead Rising 2... Duke Nukem Forever. These are all games which I nibble on but never take a big bite. Help! I know some of them are kinda shitty but I know the old me would've still squeezed more enjoyment out of them than the current me is.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

It's not you, it's the games that suck balls. Skyrim was good, so was Deus Ex, but there's a lot of crap out there right now, most of the games we see today are horribly dumbed down console ports, that's just the truth of the matter, the recent generation of consoles has brought gaming into an all time new low of mediocre titles.

 

[gorcorps]

It's not you, it's the games that suck balls. Skyrim was good, so was Deus Ex, but there's a lot of crap out there right now, most of the games we see today are horribly dumbed down console ports, that's just the truth of the matter, the recent generation of consoles has brought gaming into an all time new low of mediocre titles.

That's not true at all... Especially since he doesn't even want to play the old ones.

You're getting old OP. It happens... Happening to me too. Not sure what it is but I'd rather watch shows on Netflix when I get home than play any game from any era. I've put more gaming time into flash games I stumbled than most of my games through stream. I actually finished Arkham City but it took me a while. Barely touched Skyrim even though I liked it. I probably won't even buy Diablo 3 because I know it'll just sit.

It happens and there's really no fighting it.

 

[Geosurface]

It's not you, it's the games that suck balls. Skyrim was good, so was Deus Ex, but there's a lot of crap out there right now, most of the games we see today are horribly dumbed down console ports, that's just the truth of the matter, the recent generation of consoles has brought gaming into an all time new low of mediocre titles.

Sigh.

I don't want you to be right, but I fear that you probably are.

In that case, maybe the better way to ask it is... can you suggest some game(s) to play between now and Diablo 3 which are likely to satisfy?

Here's my steam game list to help: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197964113231/games

mind you, there are some on there I haven't finished so... suggestions could be ones I already have, or ones I don't.

 

[thejunglegod]

Congratulations OP, you are now a pro gamer and from now on you are only going to like games that are either exceptional or genre-bending. I instatnly realised what you're going through when i read Fear 3 amongst the games you played. Heck, even Skyrim disappointed me. All i do now with Skyrim is to listen to its OST.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

That's not true at all... Especially since he doesn't even want to play the old ones.

You're getting old OP. It happens... Happening to me too. Not sure what it is but I'd rather watch shows on Netflix when I get home than play any game from any era. I've put more gaming time into flash games I stumbled than most of my games through stream. I actually finished Arkham City but it took me a while. Barely touched Skyrim even though I liked it. I probably won't even buy Diablo 3 because I know it'll just sit.

It happens and there's really no fighting it.

I am getting old which just means my tolerance for shit gets lower, but objectively we've seen practically no growth in the games industry since the xbox360 and PS3 came out, the simple fact is they have stifled growth, today we're still seeing crap like CoDMW21 and Assassin's Creed 83 and they've not improved since the originals 6 years ago.

Yet I can still appreciate a really well put together game like Deus Ex Human Revolutions, Skyrim, Dragon Age Origins, we've seen some really brilliant games over the last few years, but they make up about 1% of all the titles released unfortunately.

I'm personally pumped for Planetside2 right now, why? Because 1000's of players on a battlefield? YES PLEASE! First time it will be done in gaming, because we now have the processing power and bandwidth to support fights like that, so we can experience something new and cool. When was the last time that happened on the PC despite having 6 years of hardware growth...(about 3 generations of hardware, approximately 8x faster than console hardware)...hint...it basically hasn't happened...despite amazing growth in hardware we've not seen games reciprocate, the shit we play today is basically the same stuff from 6 years ago.

 

[Geosurface]

Yet I can still appreciate a really well put together game like Deus Ex Human Revolutions, Skyrim, Dragon Age Origins

Is Dragon Age really that good? I only fiddled with it for a few min. I've had a hard, hard time getting into Bioware games. I played some Mass Effect 2, that's the one that grabbed me the most... but I still lost interest. I keep meaning to revisit it.

I was really left cold by Neverwinter Nights, and Baldur's gate 1 + 2 did nothing for me. I got them at the same time as Fallout 1 and 2 in bundles back in 2000. *Loved* Fallout, did not care for Baldur's.

If Dragon Age is honestly good, I'll try to get over the hump.

 

[CPA]

Early thirties is when my focus started going elsewhere too, especially since I had a house. I wanted to build real-life things, fix real-life problems.

That said, there are periods where the gaming bug comes back strong and I will spend a lot of time playing for a period of 6 months or so, but then I'll start losing interest and go back to doing something else for a while. I'm almost at that point now, but Legends of Grimrock came out and that's holding my interest so far.

 

[gorcorps]

I am getting old which just means my tolerance for shit gets lower, but objectively we've seen practically no growth in the games industry since the xbox360 and PS3 came out, the simple fact is they have stifled growth, today we're still seeing crap like CoDMW21 and Assassin's Creed 83 and they've not improved since the originals 6 years ago.

Those are just examples of decent games that have been dragged out to the point of being sad. AC1 had a lot of huge hype behind it, but ended up being disappointing. AC2 was a huge improvement on the overall gameplay, and ever since they figured out what made the game good they've copied it. That jump from AC1 -> AC2 was huge though.

Same can be said to CoD to a point. CoD2 (the first CoD of this gen IIRC) had a pretty solid single player campaign but wasn't THAT wildly popular compared to CoD now. CoD4: MW was a huge jolt to the fanchise and a pretty big shift in shooter focus. "What? You mean it's NOT WWII? Is that even allowed?" Had wildly popular MP that has been adapted in other shooters. Then that whole system was ground into the dust by yearly refreshes.

The point is that this gen has had good ideas that were kind of fresh at some point, but that success is just exploited. It's not a console thing though... how many WoW clones have popped up and folded over the past 5 years or so? A metric shitload, that's how many. Even before this gen, do you remember how many isometric dungeon crawlers that were pumped out? Most were shit but for some reason people only remember the good ones and think gaming used to be nothing but solid gold.

 

[Geosurface]

Hadn't heard of Grimrock til you just mentioned it. Was just researching it... looks cool. Is the Steam 10% off sale still going on? and how much is it currently on Steam if you don't mind me asking?

I would check myself but I cannot from this PC.

 

[dascoyne]

Sounds like you need to discover LSD.


j/k I know it's harder nowadays to find a gane you cam get "lost" in. It's a difficult thing to (re)capture. Give Guild Wars 2 a shot when it comes out.

 

[obidamnkenobi]

Early thirties is when my focus started going elsewhere too, especially since I had a house. I wanted to build real-life things, fix real-life problems.

That said, there are periods where the gaming bug comes back strong and I will spend a lot of time playing for a period of 6 months or so, but then I'll start losing interest and go back to doing something else for a while. I'm almost at that point now, but Legends of Grimrock came out and that's holding my interest so far.

Can vouch for this. Often find it more satisfying messing around in my "workshop" (i.e garage) or doing my homebrewing than playing games. I used to get sucked into 2 hr stints of bad company 2, and then think "what did I achieve?" With single player I can at least feel like advanced the story. But I lost interest in dragon age and mass effect after a while, same with starcraft 2 and deus ex. They sit there unfinished and haven't touched either in 6 months+. Maybe I've just outgrown single player stories..?

Only thing I've found that can keep me interested are larger strategy games. Civ 4 always sucks me in more than I think it will. Same with europa universalis 3 and crusader king 2 recently. I sit down and don't think I want to play civ4, but once I fire it up I get stuck for hours.

Maybe you need to check out some different genres? But it sounds like you have a pretty wide range already.

Although, your 200 hrs in skyrim is more game time than I've had in total since skyrim came out!

 

[CPA]

Hadn't heard of Grimrock til you just mentioned it. Was just researching it... looks cool. Is the Steam 10% off sale still going on? and how much is it currently on Steam if you don't mind me asking?

I would check myself but I cannot from this PC.

I think the sale is going on. Either way it's less than $15. It's a modern day Eye of the Beholder - best I can describe it.

 

[Iron Wolf]

I'm not holding out much hope for D3, but I am looking forward to GW2.

I'm 45, and like you OP, I feel like I have seen it all. But every once in a while a game come along that grabs me. Right now, I am playing and mildly interested in SWToR, but there are a lot of games on Steam that I want to try, including Grimrock, Avernum, Lunar Flight, Hack, Slash, Loot, and Wargame: EE, all of which are on sale on Steam right now.

Keep looking, I'm sure you will find something to keep you going until the AAA titles are released.

 

[Via]

Message for young gamers: Enjoy your "golden" years; it seems like they'll last your entire life, but they don't.

OP: if you don't mind dated graphics the Gothic complete pack might be a good place to get your mojo back. But only if you feel like you have patience because it'll take some.

Gothic's graphics aren't ancient VGA style, but they're a little blocky (not as bad as SS2 or Deus Ex though). And you have to practice hitting CTRL to perform any action. It's really satisfying once you get the hang of it. You'll learn combos as your experience grows. It's still the most "alive" world I've experienced in gaming; it made Morrowind feel like an amusement park full of artificial people, and I liked Morrowind.

I was kind of going though a gaming lull whe I first discovered Gothic in 2004 or 2005, and that game (along with Gothic 2) re-energized me for a few years.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

The Witcher 2

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Early thirties is when my focus started going elsewhere too, especially since I had a house. I wanted to build real-life things, fix real-life problems.

Kinda weird reading that. 31 here and this describes my life perfectly at this time.

 

[Hammyton]

I agree with other posters here when I say that I don't think it's an issue of the games... it's more likely that we are just outgrowing games.

At least for me it seems like my fondest gaming memories are those of really old school games (betrayal at krondor, commander keen, shit like that). I don't think games were any better-made back then, just that I enjoyed them that much more because I was a kid.

 

[Sulaco]

I'll join the therapy session.

I'm becoming the same way. Been playing games since I was literally 3 years old. It has always been my favorite hobby growing up and even as an adult.

But lately, even during my free time, I have almost no desire to play. At all. And it's not as though I have any other important projects or things to be doing late at night. I've got dozens of untouched games, literally, on my shelf and in STEAM. Greats like Deus Ex HR, Mass Effect 2, Skyward Sword, GTA IV, Fallout New Vegas, etc that just haven't been touched.

I *WILL* however occasionally go on "binges", where I'll be rather obsessed with a certain game or genre for awhile. Right now it's strategy games, and I'm spending hours just messing around with different strat games, trying to figure out which one I REALLY want to play before sinking hours and hours into it. So far, it seems like Europa Universalis 3 is winning.

But honestly, and this is sad, I probably spend more time talking and reading about games than I do actually playing them. I feel like some sort of old, curmudgeon sports writer who used to play in college, but now spends more time analyzing games rather than spending their free time playing.

Bleh.

 

[waterstain]

*Raises hand to speak*

In my mid-forties, and the last game that REALLY-REALLY got me silly-excited was STALKER:SoC, back in the summer of '08. That game just pushed all the right buttons for me. When I reached the (false!) ending in my first play-through, I was so hungry for MORE!

Now I still look forward to buying new games during the big steam sale events, … but then they just sit untouched in my library for months!

 

[power_hour]

Take a break. Do something else for a bit. You might be over analyzing this..

 

[Geosurface]

I took some advice here and got Legend of Grimrock, which I haven't spent much time with yet but which seems very promising.

I remembered I'd grabbed Civilization V on a Steam sale a while back and decided to install that, I think someone mentioned it here? maybe? Well either way, I got really hooked on it over the last day. I played 11 hours, all in one game. It was fun. Not sure when I'd go back to it... might be a while. I played the original Civilization quite a bit back when I was young, but I don't remember a lot about it other than that it was pretty similar to this. I also played Colonization back then too. I enjoyed both.

I grabbed the Gothic pack (I did own Gothic 1 on CD somewhere, but had never played it) so we'll see if I end up doing anything with that. Pretty sure Grimrock is my next task. I still need to go back to Amnesia

 

[epidemis]

Planescape: Torment

 

[Stringjam]

*Raises hand to speak*

In my mid-forties, and the last game that REALLY-REALLY got me silly-excited was STALKER:SoC, back in the summer of '08. That game just pushed all the right buttons for me. When I reached the (false!) ending in my first play-through, I was so hungry for MORE!

Now I still look forward to buying new games during the big steam sale events, … but then they just sit untouched in my library for months!

I had a similar experience. I'm 32, and it seems like games that grab me are few and far between. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was one of them that when I started playing, I absolutely couldn't stop. Metro2033 was another.

An interesting story with a captivating environment + the right gameplay mechanics will always drag me in.

 

[Martimus]

The Witcher 2 and Legend of Grimrock are really fun games. X3 was extremely addicting once I figured out how to play.

As I got older (I am the same age as you) I found games to be more of a part time hobby, but the biggest reason is I am a single dad so I do what I can for her until she goes to bed then play a game for a couple hours before I go to bed. You probaby just have more important priorities in yoir life.