Is gaming dead for you?

[sunsetspawn]

I hate when people nostalgia it up and say how gaming was better in "the old days" because there was still a fair amount of shit back then, we just remember the good stuff.

I hate it when people assume that there's no way someone could have actually truly preferred gaming in the old times. Nope, just nostalgia. Gaming is bets it's ever been and all you need to do to agree is take those rose-tinted glasses off.

Seriously, that attitude is just appalling. Not to say plain wrong. Sure, you might think so, good for you, just don't expect everyone else to agree with you.

I agree with everything this guy said.

Last year I played Gothic 2 and Deus Ex for the first time, and they were vastly superior to everything made in the past few years, except maybe for Mass Effect and Risen. The sense of wonder, exploration, discovery, DANGER, and immersion are something that game studios have forgotten how to make. This isn't nostalgia talking because I never played them before.

 

[Rose and Thorn]

I wouldn't be reading this topic in the Games Discussion forum if gaming was dead for me.

I like videgames. Very, very much so. In fact I might play a videogame soon. yeaahh

 

[TallanKhan]

Gaming is by no means dead to me (in some ways its never been better) however you did touch on a point close to my heart. Buggy releases. It seems these days its perfectly acceptable to release a game - at full price, with known bugs, sometimes even gamebreakers, and use the paying public as some sort of free beta testers. Then release a patch "some time later" that fixes the bugs, but only the ones that people shouted loudest about. It seems the advent of online updates for games has allowed developers to become sloppy with their release standards. And that just really grinds my gears....

 

[Epona]

Gaming is by no means dead to me (in some ways its never been better) however you did touch on a point close to my heart. Buggy releases. It seems these days its perfectly acceptable to release a game - at full price, with known bugs, sometimes even gamebreakers, and use the paying public as some sort of free beta testers. Then release a patch "some time later" that fixes the bugs, but only the ones that people shouted loudest about. It seems the advent of online updates for games has allowed developers to become sloppy with their release standards. And that just really grinds my gears....

To make matters worse, the people who paid launch price experience the most bugs but by the time the patches are released, they are finished with the game. The people who waited for a price drop are getting the better experience.

Not free beta testers, beta testers that pay $60 for the honor.

As for the OP, yes, gaming is dying for me. I look at the 360 with disgust seeing what it has become (an ad filled cable box) and I have no intention of giving Microsoft anymore money. Not for Live and not for the Adbox 8.

I look at the WiiU and I shake my head. I don't want a home version DSi. I hear about the PS4 possibly integrating commercials into my games, that's an absolute no-go.

PC gaming is great though.

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

Nope.

What's awesome is that there is always a genre that I enjoyed or have discovered to be entertaining and then just dive in to the various great games that are associated with that genre.

 

[lacktheknack]

If gaming is dead to you because of discussions of sexism/violence/etc... you're doing it terribly, TERRIBLY wrong.

 

[ReinWeisserRitter]

Video games have entered a direction I largely don't want out of video games. As they become more cinematic and attempt to push more and more toward this "video games as art" movement I hate so much, the games of reflexes, simple and engaging gameplay, and catchy tunes is getting left further and further behind.

I'm not saying the kinds of games I like are better, but they way they're largely turning out now isn't for me. Grittiness, realism, presentation, wow factor, plot, dramatic cut scenes, big budgets, and artsiness isn't what got me into video games, and now that they're favored over what I consider the real sustenance of a title - the gameplay, playing the actual freaking game being the primary draw - there may soon be a day where I don't feel the need to play a new video game ever again.

The games I do enjoy are still there though, still playable, and I'm still finding games of the past I never got to have a go at in their own time, and even one or two in the present that emulate their style, so there's still enough for me to play here and there. And don't get me wrong, not every modern game isn't something that I can't stand, but a trend has developed, and it's leaving me behind.

 

[tehweave]

Nope. In fact, gaming for me goes through phases where I barely play at all, then I play tons all at once. At the moment I'm re-visiting Fallout 3 before diving into New Vegas.

 

[Mortons4ck]

I'm with the "gaming is the best it's ever been" camp, for several reasons. If you don't like the big, mainstream AAA releases, they're easy enough to ignore. It's far easier to find and purchase alternatives now than it has ever been and there are still some real gems being released from all levels of the industry. On top of that it's also far easier than ever to go back and the classics of yore! With services like GOG providing us with hundreds of classic PC games and emulators allowing us to play games from any system up to and including the Wii on our computers it's never been easier to be a retro gamer.

Not only are there still fantastic games being released (in amongst a lot of crap, yes, but that crap has always been there) but we now have all the best games of yesteryear to play, too. We're more than a little spoiled for choice.

This. I don't usually like to post "this" comments. But this particular comment gets a serious, unequivocal "this."

Gaming before 2008 was a pain in the ass, especially when it came to getting older titles. We didn't have services like GOG peddling wares from the past. If you wanted something you had to track that shit down on ebay. Hell, I had to get a British pressing of the original Fall Out Trilogy from some rando on amazon, because no one else sold it. 4 years later, everyone and their brother is selling via Digital Distribution. It's fucking fantastic!

I'd say 5-6 years ago, the "indie" gaming scene was pretty much Geometry Wars and Spiderweb Software. That was it, that was all we had. Sure it they were fun, but it was no where near the plethora of indie developers that exist now.

I bought only 4 games for this Summer's Steam Sale. All of them were adventure games. That was absolutely unfathomable less than 5 years ago. Scrabbit is right, there has never been a better time to be a gamer.

 

[johnnnny guitar]

Nope if anything we are on the edge of the next step up for gaming we just got to wait it out for the next gen consoles and then everything will hopefully get brought up to standard although I could be wrong and it could just inflate budgets and make less intuitive games due to costs and development time.

 

[Rad Party God]

Nope. In fact, gaming is getting even more exciting than ever.

I know there is corporate bullshit, military shooter clones, draconian DRM and whatnot, but it's like looking at the worst of life, just because you saw in the news that somebody died in your state, it won't stop you from enjoying the things you like the most.

There's still many new games coming this year that I'm quite excited about.

Also, I'm excited about the indie scene and the free to play scene.

So, nope, gaming is NOT dead and it won't be for a long time.

 

[Atmos Duality]

So, this is really "Is gaming better or worse than it has been?"
Some things have become better some have become worse.

I'm not so naive as to assume it's the worse it has ever been, but nor am I so arrogant as to assume it's the best it has ever been as if it were indisputable fact.
(for those of you with differing OPINIONS, this is NOT AIMED AT YOU)

Tech has improved greatly...
...yet the time+cost to develop on it has risen correspondingly (at least at its highest echelons).

Needless-Complexity has been streamlined out of most game genres...
...but so has most genuine attempts at depth.

Multi-platform support is commonplace...
...but port-jobs remain largely sloppy (though this has been improving rapidly).

There are some truly awesome games floating around, the indie scene is on the rise...
...yet the AAA gaming scene is floundering, consolidating, and much of it still thinks it has the gall to fuck their customers over.

Digital distribution has made game shopping more convenient and direct than ever before...
...yet several companies see this as an opportunity to jam ineffectual, bullshit DRM down our throats for the purposes of market control.

Amateur developers have powerful programming and creation tools at their disposal for cheap or free...
...yet the AAA scene is diametrically opposed to the very notion of user-created-content if they cannot lay total legal ownership over it.

So, everything is in flux.
To ignore the good and focus on the bad is every bit as stupid as to assume the reverse.

To answer the original question (not that anyone gives a fuck): No, gaming is not "dead" for me.
It's simply less appealing than it used to be in many ways.

I could sit here and blame a number of factors, but why bother when I can only blame myself?
It is a matter of opinion, no?

Besides, I've rediscovered some old gems over this summer and am actually interested in a few games later on this year (the new XCOM, new Fire Emblem, and Borderlands 2. Maybe Orcs Must Die 2, depending) after the gaming drought is over.

 

[SuperScrub]

I'm pretty sure you're like the type of guy that talks about how "life sucks, the world sucks, and death is more fun than living" despite the fact that the guy apparently hasn't committed suicide yet. While gaming has its downs gaming can only get better and will continue to get better no matter what the naysayers have to say about the gaming industry the only thing that will change is if we look at the future of gaming with optimism and hope or whether we look at it like cynical douchebags. I don't know about you but I choose the former.

 

[n00beffect]

Pretty much, yes. I play very very VERY few new games these days, because I utterly despise the restricted gameplay that most new (and old) franchises have been applying more and more lately to their products. You know, the heavily-scripted sections, the bizarre and clunky controls, petty gameplay mecahnics - everything. Case in point: Spec Ops: The Line, for e.g. I miss the times when games had a lot more gameplay freedom and actually allowed the player to figure out shit for themselves, instead of designing the gameplay mechanics so that the player has a lot less input into the actions of the protagonist, and has to just sit and press one button at some certain point in time; making it insultingly easy and just plain boring. I'm not gonna say that gaming is dead as a whole - I'm just saying that personally I've grown a little weary of the way the industry has been treating its property lately. Unfortunately for me, I'm just gonna have to accept things the way they are and try and find solace in the few actually-good titles that are coming out these days. As for the sexism and all the other ism's that have been popping up lately in discussions - I'm not against them, but I'm also not much for them as well. Sexism lately has started being taken way too seriously, not just by the gaming community (if anyone reading this is a part of the free thought community on youtube, or elsewhere might know what I'm talking about), but I'm certain it'll blow over soon.

 

[kasperbbs]

It has never been better. It's just that i have played so many games that i rarely see anything new or exciting, plus it's not as easy to please me as before, when i was just a kid i could play the same repetitive thing for hours and it was fun, now things changed and gaming doesn't seem as fun, but it surely hasn't gotten worse.

 

[Blunderboy]

Gaming is so dead that I log onto a video game forum almost every day to discuss how dead it is.

Yeah me too. Everyday I load up and play games just to remind myself how shit they are as well.

 

[Scarim Coral]

No, otherwise I would had stop playing it altogether.

 

[Manji187]

I'm certainly gaming a lot less now, but I'm still in.

Basically this. I've become pickier in the games that I play, so I play less games overall. Some genres I downright ignore. Also, few games actually amaze me nowadays, especially story-wise.

 

[Master_Archer53]

gaming will never be dead for me!!! born a gamer die a gamer!!!

 

[votemarvel]

Gaming isn't dead for me but I am losing interest.

So many games are near identical in how they play, with everything seemingly wanting to be a first or third person shooter, and story seems to be taking a back seat as well.

Everything just feels like a homogeneous blob.