Poll of the Day > When, if ever, did your love of video games start to wane?

(+) Yeah! (+)

By "love of video games" I don't just mean that you like a game, or like a few games. I mean you follow industry news, and engage in community discussion. It's E3 stream talkback threads, hype trains, "most wanted in Smash" forum games, that kind of thing. If you ever enjoyed that stuff, and if you ever stopped enjoying that stuff, when was it? And what were the reasons?

For me I wanna say it was probably around 2014/2015. But it was on its way as early as 2013. Today I look at an industry that is too foreign for me to love.

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No Man's Sky burned me. I haven't felt excited for a game since.

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Probably when they moved away from handhelds, but I was never super into following the industry anyway. I loved the handheld side of things because it gave you a lot of freedom so I could game while out walking, on the go, etc. The DS was the last console to really deliver on that (since the 3DS's battery life sucked and then they kept trying to push larger systems), but at least the 3DS had the functionality. The Switch really isn't a handheld.

Home consoles I started to feel a bit more meh about in the late 00s when devs kept prioritizing graphics over content. I think towards the end of that decade was when my backlog really started to build and I haven't made much headway over the years.

That said, I'd get excited for a new Elder Scrolls game if they ever decided to stop remaking Skyrim or working on ESO, for a new SR if they'd do an actual game, and I always buy the mainline Pokemon stuff.

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Whenever a morbid-feeling disappointment was experienced

But hell, I was disappointed with some games as early as my youngest memories in childhood. I remember once trying to rent .... Something? The way I remember it was that I tried to rent one game, and it ended up being Superman for SEGA or something like that. I'm not sure what game(s) they actually were, but they put the wrong game in the box or someone switched the stickers and it was a big fuckup.

I remember buying Time Crisis II and the controller(s?) on PS2 and, while something of a fun experience, I beat the whole game the same day or in an hour or two or something like that and I just felt so robbed of potential enjoyment. It was just like "And that's it!"

So basically, any and every time something disappointed me, I got a little more distrustworthy of making any of those risky decisions without being sure I was going to enjoy the game first. I remember some of that Yugioh duelist tournament or whatever game on GBA I had though, that one was neat/not bad (why am I including something I didn't hate? I don't know, maybe I want to reshift the focus towards something I actually did have some fun with for just a second)

But the real culprit here is UNREALIZED IDEAS

Nintendo on some bullshit, uhh a lot of other developers are on some bullshit (SONICTEAM, etc) to where you could have some really kick ass ideas realized into reality and you're letting your mascots just sit around being stuck to the same usual formula or format you've been having and while that's "safe", hasn't yet prompted me to want to continue spending / amassing the money for your products because you never brought back the chao garden you idiots, kids were addicted to that shit, SA3 was never invented yet I had this one dream about what it basically would have been or was and it was amazing, you never went the extra mile for something amazing like a STH or Mario MMO, and I dunno why you don't just make something awesome we've already played all these other shits and no i never played mario and sonic at the olympic games I fell off before then

Or as Larry would say, not enough action

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I still love them. I don't have as much time lately to play them.

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Has anyone ever played Sonic Robo Blast II?

Tell me why that's something SEGA / Sonicteam (whoever's behind whatever) didn't put the work in for themselves?

Shit like that

I mean it's not super amazing but it's actually fairly entertaining it's a cool open source game with online play capabilities

Yet, I am a 3D addict, and Nintendo seems to keep going back to this retro old school style crap

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Soup_or_Science posted...

I remember buying Time Crisis II and the controller(s?) on PS2 and, while something of a fun experience, I beat the whole game the same day or in an hour or two or something like that and I just felt so robbed of potential enjoyment. It was just like "And that's it!"

It was a lightgun game. They're designed to be played in arcades, so they're all pretty short. Two hours would honestly be on the long side. Usually they're like 30-40 minutes. I think TCII was probably closer to 30 than 40.

The appeal there is the replayability. It's not a game meant to be beaten just once. I love the TC series and other lightgun titles. I just wish we'd see more of them. That was one of the big things that drew me to the Wii, but they didn't really do nearly as much (although REUC was amazing and, to its credit, they actually found a way to make it a longer game).


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Zeus posted...

Usually they're like 30-40 minutes. I think TCII was probably closer to 30 than 40.

oof

Yeah, no wonder I felt disappointed
Zeus posted...

I love the TC series and other lightgun titles. I just wish we'd see more of them. That was one of the big things that drew me to the Wii, but they didn't really do nearly as much (although REUC was amazing and, to its credit, they actually found a way to make it a longer game).

Yeah, they are a fun central gameplay mechanic, lightgun games are usually fairly entertaining and at that age I know me atleast I was a dreamer/enthusiast of outside-the-box(controller) gameplay mechanics. It's kind of strange that now that they are actually here (PSMove? other wii stuff? Kinect or whatever?) that I never actually got to play much of them (I've played wii but not much)

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I stopped playing video games between 2010 and 2019. No special reason, I just want that into it as a hobby. In '19, my gf and I picked up a Switch and it's refueled my love of video games. Mario Odyssey in particular blew my mind, and is my favorite game ever.

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Probably around 2014. Since then there's been fewer and fewer new games that I've liked. It was kinda waning still then but I had more hope for stuff to get better

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The kinda kicker is that there were hundreds of arcade lightgun games, but most haven't even been ported once. A lot of them -- like Ocean Hunter -- are available via piracy, but it's weird that nobody bothers to at least license them out so somebody can make an official port for people to buy.

It's also annoying because there are so many that I played but never beat and, unless I pirate, my only option is to watch playthroughs on YT. Granted, that's not always the case. Even some of the relatively obscure titles like Ninja Assault have sometimes received console ports.


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ItsKaljinyuTime posted...

It's E3 stream talkback threads, hype trains, "most wanted in Smash" forum games, that kind of thing.

It could be because the Internet really didn't become huge until after I was already in my 20s, but I'd say none of the above were ever really things I did at any point.

I've definitely never given a shit about E3, because I've always seen it as sort of a joke. And I've never really been a fan of getting obsessed over pre-release hype because a) it's just setting yourself up for disappointment, and b) it's far better to just wait until after release to buy games worth owning anyway.

If anything, that sort of hype that kicks in years before a game gets released, pre-order culture BS, and the like is a large part of what's turning so many video game fans bitter these days.
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While I grew up with PC gaming and was somewhat used to load times (or disk swaps), I also grew up with the NES/SNES with zero loading times.

I really stopped liking most games in the late 90's early 2000's when it started taking 5 minutes to get from pressing the power button on the console to actually playing. The 10+ splash screens, the loading screen for each one, only to get to a menu screen, press start and hit another loading screen for the game to start. BORING!

It only got worse as the years have gone on and now there are incomplete games ("early access") and micro-transactions. You really have to wade through a lot of crap to find a gem any more.

In the way you describe, I never was that interested. I never really felt the need to keep up on all the video game news and in a given year I can count on one hand the amount of games I pay full price for. Hell, until Google News was a thing these message boards were my primary source of video game news. Which seems odd to say since I have about 1000 PC games both digitally and physically and several hundred more console games.

In the sense of "playing games way less then I used to"? Probably around 2015-2016. Although it comes in fits and spurts. If I am playing a game I enjoy, then I'll devote a good amount of time to it. If I am in a lull period, I'll be lucky to spend a few hours a week.

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kukukupo posted...

I also grew up with the NES/SNES with zero loading times.

I remember one guy was talking about when he first saw the Playstation and his brother was playing. And when the loading screen came up, he looked at him and said, What the hell is that?
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After they stopped making NCAA games and when the microtransactions became a thing. I miss the old days of the SNES, Genesis, N64, Dreamcast, etc when you bought a game at the store, took it home popped it in, and played without having to get updates and buy additional content.

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BUMPED2002 posted...

After they stopped making NCAA games and when the microtransactions became a thing. I miss the old days of the SNES, Genesis, N64, Dreamcast, etc when you bought a game at the store, took it home popped it in, and played without having to get updates and buy additional content.

I personally dont mind updates if theyre adding free stuff, or making something better. Id rather have updates that help rather than something thats always broken. And not all game require you to buy extra stuff. Most games, AFAIK, usually sell extra stuff you dont need...
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I like videogames a lot but all your examples are of things I never particularly liked at all and I personally don't think indicate a general love of games. I used to follow industry news because that was how to learn about new games to play. Now it's easier to just cherry pick announcements from Twitter. Message boards and social media have never been more terrible.

When it got to the point you can't find a decent mobile game that isn't at least 80% enjoyable without mtx and when most mainstream games have MTX thrown everywhere.

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Zeus posted...

I'd get excited for a new Elder Scrolls game if they ever decided to stop remaking Skyrim

Here's another thing to notice about the industry over time. There was a point in time where a bunch of developers/publishers were like "This is it, this is kinda the magnum opus of the franchise, we can just Half-Life 2 this for the rest of our lives." For Elder Scrolls, it was Skyrim. For Grand Theft Auto, it was 5. And notice these games were made around the same time.

I think some time after this point there was a shift in the industry, where it was better to ride the reputation of a single game.

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kukukupo posted...

While I grew up with PC gaming and was somewhat used to load times (or disk swaps), I also grew up with the NES/SNES with zero loading times.

I really stopped liking most games in the late 90's early 2000's when it started taking 5 minutes to get from pressing the power button on the console to actually playing. The 10+ splash screens, the loading screen for each one, only to get to a menu screen, press start and hit another loading screen for the game to start. BORING!

It only got worse as the years have gone on and now there are incomplete games ("early access") and micro-transactions. You really have to wade through a lot of crap to find a gem any more.

The load times are why I always favored the N64 to the ps1.

ItsKaljinyuTime posted...

Here's another thing to notice about the industry over time. There was a point in time where a bunch of developers/publishers were like "This is it, this is kinda the magnum opus of the franchise, we can just Half-Life 2 this for the rest of our lives." For Elder Scrolls, it was Skyrim. For Grand Theft Auto, it was 5. And notice these games were made around the same time.

I think some time after this point there was a shift in the industry, where it was better to ride the reputation of a single game.

The thing is that Bethesda has had a few titles they could ride for years. Morrowind was a hit, Oblivion was a hit, and then Skyrim was a mega-hit. They produce huge games they can cash for years until they do the next huge game. This cycle has definitely been longer, though.

I imagine part of the shift is the dev costs where some of these games cost far more to make (and take longer to make), but it's also a culture thing where they know they can get away with it. I own Skyrim on 3 different platforms, and I may someday buy it for the Switch as well.

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I've gotten into moods where I don't want to play anything.

Looking back now, I think I was just depressed.

I love video games. That'll never stop.

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hypnox posted...

When it got to the point you can't find a decent mobile game that isn't at least 80% enjoyable without mtx

theres a ton actually, they just have an upfront purchase cost or are behind a service like Apple Arcade

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hypnox posted...

When it got to the point you can't find a decent mobile game that isn't at least 80% enjoyable without mtx

Even some free ones with mtx are fun without actually spending money...
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None of the above, its just more of an oscillating thing now. Itll wane for a while then Ill be really in the mood again, etc.
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I still love video games as I read up about them and watch things but I haven't really sat down and played a video game to it's completion like I normally do for several months at this point. I still bought games and even a Switch though so that'll give me motivation to jump back into video games more.

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