I've been gaming for 22 years. There was a defining period where almost all of my gaming was at the arcade. I didn't want Street Fighter/Mortal Kombat at home, I wanted the arcade joystick/button layout and setting quarters down to play winner and feel the rush of the competition. Then the arcades started disappearing (and I started wanting solitary experiences), so I only ever play a few DDR/Pump it Up songs if I'm out and run into a machine.
I don't play multiplayer as much as I did back in the Quake/Unreal Tournament days. TF2, Planetside, COD, I've tried em' and I guess it's not in me anymore. If I play an FPS there has to be a deeper, overarching thing going on, like Bioshock.
I care much more about video calibration and sound compared to a large chunk of the years. If I start a game I've been waiting years for, I'll still spend time getting the brightness just right, making sure there's 16x AF, AA even if I have to force it, etc. I'll try to find a good pair of headphones or at least have the volume on the speakers loud enough that I get all of the stimuli and can immerse myself better. I guess now it's harder for me to just load it up and instantly "be" the character these days.
I use to be a horror/survial junkie. I've got SH 1-4 and beyond, RE, Haunting Ground, Fatal Frame and so on sitting next to me, and it's so hard these days. When I was younger they were just mesmerizing, and now they exacerbate anxiety issues and make me really depressed. Maybe that means they're even more powerful, but my time is much more limited these days and if I spend my free time playing, I'd like for it not to crush my soul before I go to bed.
I was also a JRPG nut. I saved up allowance money for months in order to buy Chrono Trigger for like $70 on the SNES, and asked for nothing more than FFVII once I had a Playstation. I learned this very recently, but I just do not have the patience for the tropes anymore. I downloaded the demo of Ni No Kuni, and by all rights I should adore this fucking game. Art style by a team I consider brilliant geniuses, and game by a team that brought us Dark Cloud 1/2 and Rogue Galaxy. But I couldn't even finish the demo. Watching the same animation play after every battle, waiting for the screen to tell me what loot I got, hearing the same attack noises over and over again. Oh look, an overworld where I'm as big as the cities with enemies all over the place. Screen wipe, attack, attack, attack. Borrow a guard's enthusiasm to share it with another guard so he's happy enough to open a gate? Clearly Miyazaki wasn't writing this thing. I realized that it just plays very closely to the Dragon Quest/FF 1-4/Blue Dragon school of JRPG thought, and it seemed daunting to me. I doubt I can go back and play a lot of the games I considered classics for years, and it actually makes me sad. Chrono Trigger still totally holds up to me, though. It was very much ahead of its time and there's still things it does that haven't even been emulated. IMO, if Lost Odyssey hadn't come out this generation would be a complete JRPG crapshoot for me, and even then the random battles bugged me. The attack "ring" was at least enough to make that interesting.
This post is probably already too long, but I feel I should note that I enjoy MMOs now. When Ultima Online, Everquest, etc came out, I didn't see the point in a game you couldn't finish. I couldn't imagine what sense of accomplishment you could get without getting to see the credits, or how awesome you could feel when you can watch thousands of people do exactly what you're doing. But I was addicted to WoW for like 2 years, and after a 4 year hiatus I'm responsibly enjoying TOR (the Jedi Knight class is the best KotOR 3 we're gonna get, and I do find it fun). I play GW2 when I'm in the mood for the PvP as that's what I really get out of that one.
I apologize for the long post, but this was a good topic, OP. It was nice to look back and think about all this.
I don't play multiplayer as much as I did back in the Quake/Unreal Tournament days. TF2, Planetside, COD, I've tried em' and I guess it's not in me anymore. If I play an FPS there has to be a deeper, overarching thing going on, like Bioshock.
I care much more about video calibration and sound compared to a large chunk of the years. If I start a game I've been waiting years for, I'll still spend time getting the brightness just right, making sure there's 16x AF, AA even if I have to force it, etc. I'll try to find a good pair of headphones or at least have the volume on the speakers loud enough that I get all of the stimuli and can immerse myself better. I guess now it's harder for me to just load it up and instantly "be" the character these days.
I use to be a horror/survial junkie. I've got SH 1-4 and beyond, RE, Haunting Ground, Fatal Frame and so on sitting next to me, and it's so hard these days. When I was younger they were just mesmerizing, and now they exacerbate anxiety issues and make me really depressed. Maybe that means they're even more powerful, but my time is much more limited these days and if I spend my free time playing, I'd like for it not to crush my soul before I go to bed.
I was also a JRPG nut. I saved up allowance money for months in order to buy Chrono Trigger for like $70 on the SNES, and asked for nothing more than FFVII once I had a Playstation. I learned this very recently, but I just do not have the patience for the tropes anymore. I downloaded the demo of Ni No Kuni, and by all rights I should adore this fucking game. Art style by a team I consider brilliant geniuses, and game by a team that brought us Dark Cloud 1/2 and Rogue Galaxy. But I couldn't even finish the demo. Watching the same animation play after every battle, waiting for the screen to tell me what loot I got, hearing the same attack noises over and over again. Oh look, an overworld where I'm as big as the cities with enemies all over the place. Screen wipe, attack, attack, attack. Borrow a guard's enthusiasm to share it with another guard so he's happy enough to open a gate? Clearly Miyazaki wasn't writing this thing. I realized that it just plays very closely to the Dragon Quest/FF 1-4/Blue Dragon school of JRPG thought, and it seemed daunting to me. I doubt I can go back and play a lot of the games I considered classics for years, and it actually makes me sad. Chrono Trigger still totally holds up to me, though. It was very much ahead of its time and there's still things it does that haven't even been emulated. IMO, if Lost Odyssey hadn't come out this generation would be a complete JRPG crapshoot for me, and even then the random battles bugged me. The attack "ring" was at least enough to make that interesting.
This post is probably already too long, but I feel I should note that I enjoy MMOs now. When Ultima Online, Everquest, etc came out, I didn't see the point in a game you couldn't finish. I couldn't imagine what sense of accomplishment you could get without getting to see the credits, or how awesome you could feel when you can watch thousands of people do exactly what you're doing. But I was addicted to WoW for like 2 years, and after a 4 year hiatus I'm responsibly enjoying TOR (the Jedi Knight class is the best KotOR 3 we're gonna get, and I do find it fun). I play GW2 when I'm in the mood for the PvP as that's what I really get out of that one.
I apologize for the long post, but this was a good topic, OP. It was nice to look back and think about all this.
