Is Gaming fun anymore?

[ThePurpleStuff]

My love for modern gaming has wained since 6-7 years ago. I loved nintendo, but ever since they ruined my favorite series with Skyward Sword, I stopped buying products until Hyrule Warriors came out and I had the money to buy it. I'd get a wii u and 3DS for other games to just play it and smash bros if I could. Also a PS4 just to play littlebigplanet 3, but I can't play online anymore unless I pay for it... it all comes down to money.

Basically I don't have the money I used to to support my habits, and the interest in it just keeps going away with every negative story I read about triple A games.

You may bring up "play indie games, no triple A issues there" well I just don't care enough about them either. Exception with Starbound and Forge Quest, I play them a couple days then never pick them up again, just not enough to hold my interest for a long time.

It's really hard for me to put into words why I'm just not motivated to play games like I used to. Maybe I'm just getting older, or I just want a game to spend my spare time on for hours that is consistent and takes a long time to complete, rather than a few, like MMOs, I play those more than other games now. I'm sure if consoles still survive past this generation I'll have given up on games entirely before its even finished this new generation.

What are your thoughts on gaming now? Do you like how gaming has become than it was when you were a kid? I, deep down, do not.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

I'm not sure if its fun or not anymore. I certainly have games I hate, games I love and games I'm kinda' meh about. I just know I'm finding it easier and easier to come up with reasons to not play any of them.
Its tragic, isn't it? So many games I would have killed to play as a kid/college student. But now that I have the option to free up time to play, I just don't bother.

 

[Chester Rabbit]

I will be once I stop reading every over analytical/critical essay written up on here about it.

And once I forget what ludonarrative dissonance is.

 

[ThePurpleStuff]

Also the whole Gamergate nonsense kept me away from the escapist for however long it went on just to avoid the drama, anywhere I'd go on any gaming site they were talking about it. Who cares? Just play games, have fun, why does the community insist on throwing itself at the dumbest crap, pushing away actual fun things like discussing your favorite games and why you like to play them?

I didn't want to bring up the community since its all subjective how you feel about certain sub groups, not just all of gaming as a whole. But its just something that happened to me and I can't deny, I avoided all of gaming discussion on forums to stay as far from Gamergate as possible.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Yeah, I'm less enthusiastic about gaming than I was in the past, but that's because I was a kid back then and thus more enthusiastic about most everything; games, movies, my life.

Also, internet spoils a lot of the surprise and anticipation. Used to be you read a gaming magazine and the articles and screen shots sent your imagination into overdrive. Now, new game footage is readily available at the touch of a button, taken away that feeling of what could be.

I'm just getting older, and as I get older all things kinda lose their "magic".

 

[EternallyBored]

For me? Barring when I was a little kid and could entertain myself for hours doing any dumb thing in a game that I could think of, yeah, I'm having more fun with games than I've had in years. Being an adult and being able to buy any game I want certainly helps, but even the variety and content of games has become pretty exciting over the last few years. Genres I would have said were dead and gone four years ago are coming back to life. Telltale has brought back the point and click adventure games from the dead, kickstarter has helped resurrect the old school isometric rpg, not always to stunning results, steam, and digital distribution in general has brought me more great games than I ever would have thought possible 10 years ago when my only easy option was a single local gamestop.

Sure it's not all sunshine and roses, triple A and mobile freemium practices can get downright exploitative, but that hasn't stopped my phone from being full of awesome old games and good new mobile games as well. The current culture controversies don't really bother me that much, if the GG conversations get boring I can just go play some actual games where I've yet to have anyone try to talk about journalism ethics to me in game and most people don't know or care about it.

When I get home, my download of pillars of eternity should be finished, a kind of game that if you had asked me 3 years ago would ever exist again, I would have said there would be no chance. No, this is the most fun I've had with games in a long long time. That's my opinion at least

 

[Islandbuffilo]

Still is for me, more so than when I was younger and gaming was more of a way to get a template adventure for my action figure, or play out scenes on T.V shows. Now it's my primary source of entertainment.

 

[StatusNil]

Also the whole Gamergate nonsense kept me away from the escapist for however long it went on just to avoid the drama, anywhere I'd go on any gaming site they were talking about it. Who cares? Just play games, have fun, why does the community insist on throwing itself at the dumbest crap, pushing away actual fun things like discussing your favorite games and why you like to play them?

I didn't want to bring up the community since its all subjective how you feel about certain sub groups, not just all of gaming as a whole. But its just something that happened to me and I can't deny, I avoided all of gaming discussion on forums to stay as far from Gamergate as possible.

Well, some would argue that Gamergate is a reaction AGAINST people who campaign to make games "not fun" because "Art!" Like, say, "game journalists", who despise those awful gamers who want to enjoy the medium of games rather than the "industry" parties where they give their boozing pals awards for "Most Revolutionary Future of Games Achievement" for whatever they threw together that week in their rad 2 hour "game jam". But suit yourself.

 

[MerlinCross]

Well GG tends to stay in the huge topic. Gone are the days were we'd get a page of topics about it so don't worry about it. Welcome back to the site.

As for games, yeah it's still fun for me. Even if you play just a small number of games, do it. Play on with what you like.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

So don't play modern games then. I was playing on the SNES the other day, still as fun as it was 20 years ago.

 

[Vlado]

I am not big on recent games... Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is probably the last full game I've really enjoyed (Ground Zeroes was really a glorified demo).

But there are COUNTLESS amazing older games I haven't played yet! And the same is true for you! I have a massive backlog and lots of great games to enjoy in the future. So what if they are on PS1, PS2 or older PC titles like Deus Ex.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

I still have fun with it, yeah... but I'm a lot less enthusiastic about it than I used to be. Games have gotten so ridiculously streamlined that it's taken a lot of the challenge out of them for me. Most games are so ridiculously easy now even on their highest settings that I have a hard time justifying spending so much money on them, so I don't. I rarely get excited for new releases anymore, because I usually just wait for sale prices a few months down the line.

Compare that to when I was in high school. I got an afterschool job at a Best Buy just so that I could take advantage of their amazing employee discount to buy all of my new releases on day 1.

There's also a lot less variety to what I play these days. Back then, I played everything. These days... not so much. In the past month the only games I've played are Path of Exile and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer with some friends from my college days.

EDIT:
I guess I also played Tales From the Borderlands episodes 1 and 2... but I'm not sure I'd even really call those games.

 

[Hero of Lime]

First off, I can honestly say the Zelda series wasn't ruined by Skyward Sword. Not because I liked it personally, but because it never sought to erase any other Zelda game. If there is an installment in a series you don't like, just disregard it. The rest of the games still exist, just replay them and you'll be happy. If this was the case, I could not play any other Paper Mario games after having been severely disappointed with Sticker Star.

Anyway, I still get excited about new games, but mainly only the stuff I really like. In the last few years I've sort of retreated to sticking with games and developers I really like, and I'm still happy with games in general because of it. I also replay older games constantly, so I'll still have my old favorites to have fun with when there is nothing new to play.

 

[Bizzaro Stormy]

Gaming isn't fun, it's a way of life!! Really games can still be fun, especially on older systems. You should try looking into games that got bad reviews because they were "more of the same, repetitive, or irrelevant." I've found that usually those are ones where the game designers focused on fun more than anything else. Heck, try zoning out for a while with a casual game. Those things do nothing but entertain with little stress. I think that's why so many gamers hate them.

 

[Darth Rosenberg]

Another one of these threads? Fair enough... although I think I should prepare a template I can just copy/paste in the future.

Nope, I've been gaming since the mid '80's, and I've rarely found gaming more enjoyable, more diverse, or more satisfying. It may sound odd, but 'fun' in and of itself has never really been how I define my interaction with the medium. It's obviously a part of it, sure, but I want good stories, characters, provocative ideas. And so as a medium that provokes and makes me think, and connects to me, emotionally? I don't think it's ever been better.

And no mention of gamergate or anyone proclaiming The Death Of The Gamer has changed one thing about me and gaming.

Also, as others have mentioned or alluded to; there's no need to somehow retain an interest at a given level over years. People go through phases, and that's fine. Maybe you just need a break for a while, play less, or mix up what you play (or all of the above).

 

[DementedSheep]

Also the whole Gamergate nonsense kept me away from the escapist for however long it went on just to avoid the drama, anywhere I'd go on any gaming site they were talking about it. Who cares? Just play games, have fun, why does the community insist on throwing itself at the dumbest crap, pushing away actual fun things like discussing your favorite games and why you like to play them?

I didn't want to bring up the community since its all subjective how you feel about certain sub groups, not just all of gaming as a whole. But its just something that happened to me and I can't deny, I avoided all of gaming discussion on forums to stay as far from Gamergate as possible.

Nothing was ever actually stopping people discussing "fun things".

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I think you're falling into the "getting older" area, as you said. It happens to the vast majority of people who play games. Time becomes more valuable, life gets in the way, situations change. The desire and even ability to sit in front of a game for hours as a kid on the weekend is slowly dissolved, replaced with work, hanging out with friends or family, and that all too familiar train of thought, "Geez, that's going to take a LOT of time to beat. Do I have that much time to spare?" At least, that's what happened to my friends, and to me. I still play a lot, and I still have fun, but there are more and more times where the idea of starting a new game sounds more like a chore because my free time is less than it used to be.

 

[Rad Party God]

I still love my vydja gaems, but lately I've been having a few bumps IRL and I find myself just sticking to simpler stuff, so I can get my gaming fix in short bursts.

Also, I tend to focus on having fun and not take part in petty controversies I don't give a crap about.

 

[StreamerDarkly]

Also the whole Gamergate nonsense kept me away from the escapist for however long it went on just to avoid the drama, anywhere I'd go on any gaming site they were talking about it. Who cares? Just play games, have fun, why does the community insist on throwing itself at the dumbest crap, pushing away actual fun things like discussing your favorite games and why you like to play them?

I didn't want to bring up the community since its all subjective how you feel about certain sub groups, not just all of gaming as a whole. But its just something that happened to me and I can't deny, I avoided all of gaming discussion on forums to stay as far from Gamergate as possible.

Wait a second. Games haven't been fun for you for 6-7 years, but Gamergate had something to do with that? You might want to recalibrate your timepiece as it seems to be exhibiting acausal behavior. As for dominating the discussion on every gaming website, that's hard to believe since very few sites actually allowed discussion on the topic, and those that didn't employed a fast and heavy hand to stamp it out.

And I really don't follow the assertion that GG was the "dumbest crap pushing away fun like discussing your favorite games"? Excuse me, but regardless of how much you believe in the ethics in games journalism side of it, the movement has been very consistent in promoting the fun side of games and why we play them as opposed to the politically driven pseudo-intellectual analyses increasingly served up by certain gaming sites.

In response to your main post, it's not uncommon for interest in gaming to fade over time. It doesn't mean there's anything necessarily wrong with the industry. It's never going to be as magical as those days you first picked up the controller/mouse. Vaguely pointing to 7 or 8 different things that might-sort-of-maybe be causes of your discontent isn't going to lead to an accurate diagnosis.

 

[Signa]

So don't play modern games then. I was playing on the SNES the other day, still as fun as it was 20 years ago.

This. I've gone though the same phases, questioning my age and all that, and it just comes down to games being shallow, hollow experiences these days. I can go back and play some AMAZING games from 20 years ago.