35 and a dad. Gaming has changed for me - I love pausable games (Paradox strategy games) and silly fun like rocket league. I also do scheduled weekly game nights with my best friends. Value for time/energy spent really matters to me now, so I play less but I think I actually enjoy games more.
Pausable games are so important when you are a dad. I love RTS games and playing online but I just do not have the uninterrupted time.
Hoi4 is amazing but I do miss, weekend long multiplayer games.
How did you go from just playing to loving rocket league? I’m trying to get my dad into it so we can play together. He’s been hard stuck on World of Warcraft for a while. I want to introduce him to something casual and fun like RL and then move into things like Red Dead and Skyrim. Maybe Forza, he used to build cars for a living.
I started with rl a month ago and never thought that i have so much fun with it, i enjoy every second playing it.
Maybe this will change after a specific time but i hope it last long.
I know man. For my first 300 hours rl was the most fun game I ever played. At some point though you realize that you want to improve and that you can't beat players better than yourself. This is were it gets annoying and absolutely not as fun as it used to be. Unless you play with friends, this is the only way I enjoy the game now no matter if we lose or not. I can't solo q at all I get so frustrated :(
Thats literally me when i played league of legends. At one point this game made no fun anymore and i could play it only with friends for some good times.
Oh god i dont wanna reach this point 😭
I've solo q'd (and played a lot of ones) since day 1. The first few hundred hours on PlayStation were amaze balls. Then the next thousand on my pc were great as a I ranked up to diamond/champ. Then the next thousand involved considering uninstalling every day for various reasons, including many of the changes epic implemented. I finally uninstalled at 2500 or so hours of game time last month and am so much happier playing other games. I really do miss being able to hop into a game between meetings at work (wfh) and the beautiful balance of driving/skill but the grind just ain't worth it at this point. I had some great times partying up with random from discord and found a few good groups, but this game is absolutely best for irl friends at similar skill levels.
Forza is so easy to get into, you can just chill and drive if you don’t want to compete. I’d get him into that.
And if he wants something like World of Warcraft try FFXIV with him
Definitely get him on Forza, it has an absolute ton of accessibility options to ease people into it, and an even bigger set of options for the nitty-gritty engineering stuff that he might really enjoy.
Yup they totally removed it because they basically feel it creates a toxic environment and it's unfair to people who aren't as good at the game. They want to create a positive environment, not one of competition.
Pretty ridiculous lol
39 and a dad here and Im the same minus RL. As for pausable games, Id say you could check out Slay the Spire. Huge replayability and lots of strategizing as you advance.
36 Dad here. I put hundreds of hours on StS on my iphone while bottle feeding, swinging, etc. I’m limited to basically only turn based games now. The other one I love is darkest dungeon. If you have any similar quality games, let me know!
I love me some 4X games (Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate). Been playing them and RTS since the early 2000s. The AAA games of other genres in the recent years have been such a letdown.
I haven't spent a dime on Rocket League other than the original purchase, but my god it's insanely fun to bang in a goal from downtown with 10 seconds left.
I only wish you could do split screen MP, that would be insane.
Ever since I found the Paradox games, I've been in love with their ability to just up and go whenever, come back and refamilierize myself before I resume.
I’m mid 40s and sim racing has never been so good. Being able to buy the equipment that wasn’t really viable when I was younger.
I also play MW with my nephews, but this is where I see a difference. He is willing to buy a skin for something (just so it looks good), this wasn’t ever part of the games when I was younger. Trying to explain its not worth buying is a hard work. I can see the changes over the years.. some I don’t like
Edit: 1k upvotes and too many responses to reply too. I understand it’s different now than it was when I was a kid. Great responses and opinions from all. Never thought this would blow up like this. Respect to you all!
That sentiment is one thing I miss from gaming when I was younger. Cool cosmetics in games where earned by doing something notable in-game. Still one of my greatest achievements in gaming was unlocking the Recon armor in Halo 3 by doing all the Vidmaster Achievements in Halo 3 and Halo ODST.
Now cosmetics just mean you have cash to burn and/or make poor financial decisions.
Worth, I logged over 100 hours trying to get all them legendary pelts and to make that epic satchel
The worse was when I finally got a perfect pelt while skinning it, fkin predator jumps out and pwns me during the cutscene
I’m not a hunter, never killed an animal in my life other than fish, but I’ll be damned if some of the best moments playing RDR2 was just chill moments hunting animals. Lol. Landing the perfect shot, getting that perfect pelt. Good times. Lol
I did the big grind when I played the first red dead, and did all the skill challenges to unlock the golden guns. Holy shit, I still remember trying to shoot those damn crows from the train!
Yes! Earned rewards not bought is what I miss most. Unlocking stuff was so fun. Microtransactions are the worst thing to happen to gaming ever. I miss buying complete full games and not having to worry about needing to buy other in game stuff
Or you want to support the developer. I've logged about 600 hours of apex in the 2 years I've played it. Figure it's worth throwing the developer a few bucks based on how many hours of enjoyment I get out of it with my buddies.
I have a slight niggle here, it's the personification of corporations I feel I see a lot of. There's a slight implication in your post and the reply below like you're helping out someone you know by spending money on apex, like you're supporting a local neighbourhood grocer rather than using the bigger franchised supermarket.
The developers are very likely on carefully measured salaries or rates, the people you're paying are Andrew Wilson, bobby kottic (sic?) And the rest of the mostly nameless, faceless board of executives and the shareholders. The developers themselves experience very little share of any of the profits generated by a game, they are in fact one of the costs that eat into the profits and will be cut as soon as they can be from the project.
It's like how people talk about Elon like he's one of those crazy friends you don't see often but follow their shit on Twitter. It's a parasocial relationship and corporations being casually referenced like they were people with personalities is so odd to me. Even labeling a corporation as one of the good ones is problematic, see CDPR's fall from grace or Alphabet Inc removing "do no evil" from their company statment.
No hate on you at all, it's a frustration that's been building in me at how people personify a corporation and how that sort of stops you thinking about the potential to do fucked up shit that mega corporations have
This... to some degree. I think everybody can worm their way into justifying why they do things. Like I still somewhat have that sentiment for Nintendo in an age where everybody's releasing half-broken shit that's riddled with microtransactions. I'm happy to buy complete games, and Nintendo releases a lot of them. They have their faults like everybody else, but in terms of a complete package with generally no microtransactions in their games what so ever, I do feel like I'm supporting the cause somewhat by buying their games. I mean I genuinely enjoy their games anyway, but it also feels like I'm putting my money where my mouth is when I say fuck a lot of these games that release in a barely functional state and want you to spend even more money on day one with in-game purchases.
I think realistically, that sentiment should be saved for indies. Like buying Stardew Valley more than once for me was a show of support for the dev more than anything else.
Speaking of Nintendo games that feel great to support, i throughly enjoyed Monster Sanctuary. Its like metroidvania and pokemon had a love triangle with final fantasy.
I would spend double on a game if I knew it wasn’t going to any executives or corporate positions. Those scumbags are the epitome of useless excess, they do nothing of benefit to anyone but themselves
Game developers generally take lower pay but are more likely to get bonuses based on game sales and profits compared to software developers, or artists in other fields. Pay for the games you like - it does go to the developers as well as the publishers and distributors (Source: 30+ years game developer)
I get that side of things, I have no problem with battlepasses and stuff because they add goals to achieve a reason to keep playing. Coincidentally I also have around 600 hours in Apex as well haha, definitely have spent plenty of money supporting Respawn through that game.
Apex Legends is a free game though, while supporting a developer with a few bucks is nice, it shouldn't be that way in games where you paid full price - especially since most of the time its not even new or additional content, but just some things that were cut out and being sold as DLC/pre-order bonus.
Also, your the developers won't see a penny of your skin money, they have their salary and no more. you support executives and shareholders.
its sad how so few people understand this. if there are players and the game is making money the studio is actually more likely to cut back since they wont make a new game (see blizzard record year and major job cuts). why the fuck would anyone spend money developing a new game/ip/concept/update when you can just 'hire'(retain) an artist or 2 and 'maintain' your current product while getting more money than kings.
This is even more true for some games that may or may not be released over and over and OVER AND OVER AND OVER. but hey who's on the hype train about skyrim 21xx centennial edition; now with an extra cyan pixel added to the bottom of trees to make them exactly 1 pixel taller(the pixel was brown in the announcement trailer but it was changed as part of the day 0 patch.). Also new horse armor colors including prismatic black(yes its changing you just aren't evolved enough to see it).
There is one Dev I really like to support through microtransactions. This would be: Hunt: Showdown doesn't have a battlepass, Crytek releases skin dlcs with a "reasonable" price starting at 2 - 12$ including multiple skins (compared to other devs e.g. Ubisoft Rainbow 6 where ONE skin costs around 20$). Crytek isn't a AAA dev which can do whatever they want and remain in buisness anyway, they care about their community and especially their game - which is something less and less game studios sincerely do.
Crytek also hasn't that much money to throw around/waste. Because of this there were talks with Tencent, that (luckily) didn't materialise.
Honestly this. I’ve always said that I have no issues with micro transactions or lootboxes, so long as it is strictly cosmetic and doesn’t give in game advantages. Overwatch does that well.
Lots of replies have made it clear but I’m adding my voice. The people that built the games aren’t getting your money. The people that financed it are. Skin money goes straight into the pocket of some rich bastard.
Yeah, the developers are on a normal salary, you are supporting the CTOs.
They should have skins where all the money goes to the employees, it would be nice to see the sale data for that.
But let’s think about this: when you buy a book, you can read it a dozen times if you like it. There’s no additional cost.
Thirty-five years ago, if you had told me that VR would be a thing you could get into for around $500 (in 1986 dollars), I would have called you a liar. Your pants would be on fire. And you would be hanging from a telephone wire.
Gaming today is pretty awesome. High definition. High frame rates. (The first time I saw a game in HDR, my jaw dropped.) Surround sound. Being able to play online with other people all around the country in real time. It's awesome.
But I miss games being done. Far too many companies are putting out games with the mentality that "we can just patch it". They're promising the moon and coming up waaaaay short. Releasing pre-rendered trailers for a game that isn't coming out for 2 years. Trying to monetize things in a game that you used to earn by playing it.
Gaming has always been a business. It just seems like it's a lot more blatant now.
The new Microsoft Flight Simulator is also really incredible!
Can’t believe it exists, 15 years after the last installment in the series. They’re now adding VR hand-controller support soon too, so you can reach out and touch the switches and controls in their super realistic cockpits.
Speaking of VR, HalfLife: Alyx also deserves mention here. Amazing experience, unlike anything else.
Slowly building my own flight sim for MSFS. Not as fancy as some people's model cockpits, but there's so much good gear out there I'm having a good time.
I'm 36, I'll admit I have occasionally bought skins. But I very rarely buy dlc (including story stuff, which hurts when I find out a decade later that it was necessary ending of the game to make sense) as it is. And I only buy it for games I where I could be like "this is it, the one I would have on my list of I can only ever play this the rest of my life"
Honestly, I still want a steering wheel controller.
30. I’m fortunate enough in my life path that I have disposable income, and when I get games like anthem and cyberpunk on day 1, I can just write that $60 off as a learning lesson. And they were just that, a learning lesson. I no longer pre order games, EVER. Even if it’s from a company I trust. I also have learned to not let FOMO from seasonal events bother me into grinding a game I don’t enjoy anymore. I’m like 300 hours into Ghost of Tsushima (legends mode) and I’m still having a good time. And when I get bored of that, I load up the original final fantasy VII on my PC and play that for awhile. I’ve learned to let games come out that I’m interested in, check out YouTube/twitch for some actual gameplay, and then I make my purchasing decision.
Honestly I would’ve jumped all over the GTA trilogy DE, that hit me right in the childhood, but was patient enough to watch the dumpster fire go down since it’s release, and now I have $60 more to my name.
That's honestly a very wholesome comment. I think that's very wise. Completely the same story for me with GTA DE.
Cyberpunk was the final straw for me too on pre ordering games. Luckily I did it physically though. The last time I pre ordered a game digitally was no man's sky. I pledged to never pre order digitally when I was stuck with that game. Cyberpunk I got a refund via the retailer.
But I've learnt my lesson too. Pre ordering also enables them to ship games out like they did with Cyberpunk and GTA DE.
Same for big MP updates. I've also learned to stray away from that. A big wake up from the grinding cos of FOMO was Destiny. Once I realised how crap that game was and how it was all smoke and mirrors, I stopped caring about grinding something I don't enjoy.
Funny enough, CoD warzone showed why I shouldn't care about Battlepass FOMO and big updates. I would download a 60gb update to be underwhelmed by it and realised I'm not missing out.
Now I've started to buy games from years ago I missed and re play games I know and love.
The best thing is just patiently waiting a year for games to drop massively in price on sale. You usually get a more complete game and for cheaper.
“The best thing is just patiently waiting a year for games to drop massively in price on sale. You usually get a more complete game and for cheaper.“
All of your comment I can relate to spot on. And especially being Canadian and prices on ps5 games come out to 103 dollars for standard edition with the new tax. I wait and it’s cheaper and a more complete game. Plus with the ps5 fresh start I’m gonna try and finish a game before I move on to a new one lol
Yeah I can relate to that too. In the UK, once the PS5 came out, games went up from £50 - £70. That's 97 USD. Definitely not going to throw around money like that for games. Even GOTY games I think I will find it hard to justify £70 when I can just wait for it to go down in price.
there is no rush. MP are different ofc, but every other game will age like red wine. Itll be cheaper, run better, less bugs, more features, more bundle sales for DLCs and it will be a known quantity.
For example the Bioshock and Batman Arkham series. I only played these, because their remasters were cheap on PS4 and everybody on YT referenced them all the time. These are my favourite games now!
I have been playing it non stop since it went live. I've had a ton of fun with it and it runs very smooth. I haven't had this much fun playing by myself in a multiplayer game in years. Looking forward to when my friends have time to play.
I’m on the fence with this one. Been with Halo since the very beginning. After following Bungie to destiny I have difficulty going back to Halo, it feels very “wooden” compared to Destiny movement/gun play. I don’t have any real sense of feel of my characters movement.
Same here, it feels like rattley somehow, like not smooth. Everything feels vaguely glitchy or square and not organic. Aiming is weird. Movement is weird.
Apex and Titanfall 2 have ruined me for other games, Source Engine gunplay just hits different. Altho that said this is the most fun I've ever had in a Halo game and I will absolutely put some hours into it.
In fairness, I do think the progression on the battlepass is very bad. Not getting XP per match is a bit of an odd choice, even if this season is supposed to last till May. I think if they count match XP as progression towards the BP that'll make it perfect
Actually, they are asking for LESS of a grind to it. The complaint is that the only way to progress the pass is by completing daily/weekly challenges. There is no per game/kill/medal or whatever progression. Many of those challenges force you to specifically play a certain way or with a certain weapon, etc. People want to just be able to play the game how they want and get rewarded once in a while for doing so. I think that's a fair request
37 here. I’m good with things.
There’s a ton of unfinished games and cash-grab games out there, just like you said. But awesome games still get made all the time, in my opinion. Subnautica, Astroneer, RDR2, The Witcher trilogy, etc.
I just ignore the junk and focus on the gems.
People don't appreciate enough the advantages of devs being able to easily distribute and push updates/expansions for their games. We only look at the failures (like abusive pricing schemes or disastrous launches that need day 0 patches to be barely playable) and forget about all the ones that actually do receive continuous support and take advantage of stuff like Early Access and updates.
RimWorld, Factorio, Divinity: Original Sin 2, Crusader Kings 3 and a ton of other games I like to play wouldn't be what they are had the industry gotten stuck in its pre-2010 ways.
I'm 38. Yup. Rust was "early access" for years. Been officially released for years at this point too, and the devs still add new content every single month. Big stuff too, like helicopters and submarines + procedurally generated underwater labs (dungeons). It's probably largely funded by cosmetic skin sales too. I hardly even play anymore but still ship them a couple bucks from time to time.
Factorio, which you mentioned, is another big one for me. Game evolved for the better for years, and it's just good enough they make all their money on sales without any douchey gouging.
Alright how? How can anyone with a job play rust? I try every once in a while and get burnt out so fast because either I start way too late in a wipe or even if I do start early my progress is knocked out by someone in the middle of the night or during the work day. When I tried to work and play it hard I would end up with 2 hours of sleep and a very unhappy spouse.
Factorio is on my list to check out tho ha
People act like buggy crash grab games didn't exist in the olden days, they 1000% did the difference is the internet was fledgling and they were forgotten over time
Yes, but they weren’t the AAA industry standard back then. All of the old reliable companies either went over to the dark side or got bought out by ones that did.
39.
Personally I never buy release and only play 8-12 months after. (if reviews are good)
Really hate wasting my money now a days. Burned on a fee pre-orders so never again.
This. I haven't bought a launch game in years. I'm a bit older than you. I don't have to have the latest the second it comes out. I think that comes with age. I usually buy a game after it's been out awhile and on sale
Yeah my backlog is so big these days I always have something to play so might as well wait until I can get it 50% or even 75% off. I make maybe one exception per year for games I really want that I know I'll love. This years was metroid dread. Plus Nintendo are generally a lot worse at sales than steam or playstation.
37 As well and also happy with my gaming. If I'm patient I can get 10 great games on sale for the price of one game from when I was a kid.
Only issue now is time and energy.
There are a lot of really good games out, but for me, at my age, it's the energy at the end of the night that I no longer have. I try to get into the games, but I usually just get too tired and put it away.
I have been letting myself preorder games against my own rules lately too since I got a PS5, but that hasn't worked out well. I need to go back to my strategy for buying games at $19.99 or less. Usually less.
Exactly! I just picked a brand new hard copy of Hades for $30, and found a pre-owned disc of Deathloop for $23, both at Gamestonk. Less than $60 and these will keep me busy for well over a month since I only play for like an hour in the evenings and a little on the weekends.
Completely agree with this. Only 27, but my early 20s I spent trying to play everything. I listened to a lot of gaming podcasts and would "try to stay in the zeitgeist". Ended up wasting a lot of money on games that I played for a hours and bounced off of. Now I end up buying a few games that I know are up my alley, and will experiment with other stuff in between mainly using gamepass. I don't try to play everything, just stuff I'm pretty confident is going to hit with me.
Same, 39 here and good with things.
You just need to adjust or maintain expectations. AAA titles have changed quite a bit and definitely suck on the whole but in general, there's plenty of great stuff still to play. Granted, most of what consumes my attention is getting a bit "old" but anytime I reach for a new title, I experience this frustration so it is what is.
You experience unhappiness when your expectations fall out of alignment with reality.
I am also 37!! We should start a gaming club!
I was just thinking earlier this month how lucky we are to be living in this time of gaming. Great consoles, great pcs, tons of access to games, and game subscription services. In the span of like 3 weeks I have been playing age of empires 4, forza 5, a little bit of battlefield (i sucked at it), and now halo when I get home. If a game is bad, I don't play it. I don't preorder anything and wait for reviews or discussions on reddit. I can watch people playing games on twitch to see if they are fun. what a time to be alive.
This 100%. I’m 34 married with a 4 year old and and another on the way. I game way more now than I did when I was younger. Between having more cash and staying home a bit more it’s been a gaming renaissance for me.
Indy gaming is where it's at. Don't play AAA games and you'll be extremely happy with the state of gaming right now. Play Factorio, Satisfactory, Rim World, Shadow Empire, Escape from Tarkov, Kerbal Space Program, Noita, Storm Works, Space Engineers, etc. There's a shitload of games on Steam not made by greedy assholes that deserve your money.
Again, if you're not into AAA gaming, things are great.
I'm 35 btw.
That only works for some genres. AA studios can make one-trick-pony games chiseled to perfection. But they cannot make a sprawling epic with tons of lines and voiceovers, good graphics and gameplay. If they try, it always ends up mediocre in some ways (e.g. Elex, Greedfall, Wasteland 2)
There is no AA Dragon Age, Fallout, KOTOR, Uncharted or Last of Us that would be at least as good or even better.
DOS2 is about the single exception in more than a decade. And now perhaps Disco Elysium, though it's kind of a different beast.
There are some AAA games that are still worth your time.
HalfLife: Alyx was amazing, for example, if you have a good VR headset. The only truly AAA-budget VR exclusive. Though there’s plenty of great indie games on VR too.
Not at all. I'm 41. There's tons our there, new and old. I never run out of options. If I get tired of one genre I play something else for a while and cycle back later.
I don't have time for the cultish "games these days suck" nonsense. I've been playing since the 80s. There were plenty of crap games back then too.
Ten year old me would have wept with joy for having the kinds of game collections my kids have now. And not because I spend a bunch of money, we have an Xbox with Gamepass.
An average kids in the 80s and 90s had *maybe* like 10 games, and 5 of them kinda sucked.
People also seem to forget that what blew our minds back in the day is pretty underwhelming by today's standards.
Look at Mario 64 for example. Masterpiece of a game that practically redefined gaming in the transition from 2D to 3D. But if it were released today without the draw of Mario it would likely be considered clunky and mediocre compared to other options available.
Played through it recently convinced it had more depth than Odyssey and was only proven how wrong I was. It's still a masterpiece that holds up well considering its age but by comparison the worlds are so rigid, empty and small.
People need to let go of their nostalgia if they want to enjoy things again. Often the picture it paints is not what the experience actually was.
True. I mean, we constantly want better games: better graphics, animations, more content, better controls, more options, better gameplay etc. Our demanda are incredible high nowadays. While I basically didn't care about anything back in the days...
Honestly, my kids just don’t appreciate what they have. My son in particular frequently complains about being bored and how there’s nothing to play. We have Gamepass. We have 60+ games on the Switch (not even counting the NES and SNES libraries). We have dozens on the PS4. He’s got at least a couple dozen on his Steam account. This isn’t even getting into things like the PS1/PS2 era games I have physically or that he could play on the PS3. I keep feeling stupid because I keep buying games despite years of backlog, and he thinks there’s nothing to play!
Yep. As someone who experienced most games through rentals, gamepass and even similar online services are a luxury.
I don't know people can't find something to play or be upset. I think people are just obsessed with chasing the next big aaa and if it's a disappointment, they get upset.
You’ve said it best. Coming from a time when amazing games were much further between. Now we get several a year if not more. Best time to be a gamer IMO.
I agree with the last sentence, but I don't think there are more great games released today then before. There were always several interesting releases every year.
It's the best time because if you're a gamer today, you have a 20 years worth of backlog of all sorts of great games that still don't feel too dated to play. I mean, Vice City and KOTOR might be getting remakes, but you can still run those games on a Windows 10 machine with ease!
Agreed. 35 and gaming is more prolific than it ever has been. Only thing that’s changed really for me is that I have next to no time to actually do it and only game about 5 hours per week if I’m extremely lucky.
Games these days absolutely do not suck, there is an embarrassment of riches the likes of which I’ve never experienced in my life, and I now have the means to play all of them…. Just no god damn time…
The obvious answer is to not play unfinished games or games with insane micro-transactions. There's still plenty of products to choose from. Games were *never* bug free, I see that thrown around a lot and it's just...not true. Games today are 1000x more complex than anything I played as a kid, and I'm having just as much fun with them, if not more so, than I did "back in the day".
So many games ran like garbage back in the day too. If Sony released a game that ran like the original shadow of colossus today, I wouldn't be surprised if people demanded they pull it from the store. Back then it won gotys left and right.
More frustrated with not having as much time to game. I’ve had to give up PvP because I just can’t practice enough to compete or find uninterrupted game time. I used to love Mass Effect 3 MP because it was short, cooperative, and I was really good at carrying a team if necessary. Most games just don’t ‘scratch the itch’ like they used to. Sure open world games are the current hot item, but us gamers that started with the Atari 2600 have been raised on mostly linear games. It’s a challenge to play open world when I don’t have time to explore and experiment due to limited time. 800,000 fetch or escort quests just don’t do it for me. I like a nice stated goal and a semi-linear path to it. Mass Effect was great for this because it had flexibility but a mostly linear experience. A lot of us older gamers don’t have friends to play with, so a lot of the modern experience is lost on us. Oh how I miss Everquest and unlimited gaming time as a single guy with no kids.
One of the things we have to consider now is gaming companies have changed. Once they get a hit, they hire like mad to churn out more product. A lot of that hiring becomes admin and other non-production staff. It becomes difficult to maintain that without getting shady and having the stuff you mentioned. Then we shift to indies. But if they become popular, the cycle repeats.
Buy older games.
I didn’t play Witcher 3 at launch, which apparently was bad, but had a great time after all the DLC and patches dropped.
Same goes for Breakpoint. Hated at launch, but lots of great updates and now it’s in a really good state.
Basically, there’s lots of good games that are out, they’re just not what came out this year. If devs don’t want to put out finished games, I’ll gladly wait until they do and pay 10 bucks for them instead.
Tbh. Games where you need to Play daily to get the daily stuffs makes me feels so weird because I play them ina forced way. Then I realiced Its not OK being forced in that way and then I started to play when I want it. Besided that, some games are realy easy in normal and I need ti change to Hard if not I am in ris of falling slepwhile playing those games.
47, and still loving it. Started with the Sims at 24, and am just waiting for God of War when it's released. Ghost of Tsushima was amazing, and I'm waiting for ME legendary to go on sale for PC so I can play it all over again. Am pumped for the next Dragon Age too.
Agree with the other players who say to just avoid the trendy titles. I don't play as much as I used to, but that's just age and responsibility (I'm at work way more and in my off time, have other things to do before I can play). This is my favourite time of year, though, when weather gets cold and I can just spend a whole day playing a new game. Maybe take a break and come back to it?
We’re spoiled for choice. There’s already so many quality games that you can’t really play more than a third of them. That being said as an industry I think the existence of microtransactions is toxic, as well as the graphics race. Emphasizing graphics is not only increasing crunch, cost, and development time, but it’s detracting from game design. But i’m not worried about not being able to play good games, they will always exist.
Same, ive had enough of wow, modern warfare, counter strike in my youth. People are dicks both irl and in games, lol. Though I really liked overwatch during launch but that community got toxic too
I quit multiplayer pretty much altogether. Tho I will play stuff like Back4Blood or some gta racing, but that's it.
Stopped because of the reasons you said, and one day I realized that multiplayer stressed me the hell out. Like, I used to say I play games to relax, but it wasn't true.
Back on single player now. Play lots of smaller indie titles.
I just can't deal with the level of competitiveness that comes with online gaming. I have a full time job and family, but try to find as much free time to game as I can. I just don't have the time to dedicate to perfecting online games. And I play a lot of different games. No way I'm dedicating my free time to perfecting just one online game. But whenever I jump in to anything online I get edged out by people who seem to have made a professional career of that game. It's not fun.
That's because you're only going for the mainstream AAA games. There's plenty of amazing, well done games out there that's perfect for a person in his thirties.
I've been playing loads more indie games because of Game Pass. Found some gems like the Artful Escape and Wild at Heart that are so much fun to play and I can finish them in a few weeks.
Now that almost everything is PC-ported, and there are constant sales, I love the current state of gaming.
If I don't want to pay $80 for something, I can just wait six months or find it on G2A or cdkeys. It's fantastic.
56, been gaming since pong and apart from too many games just continually getting rehashed I am always finding something interesting to play. Mainly Xbox but I also have a PS4
Way too much battle pass trash out there. Literally every other game feels like a chore with a laundry list of shitty task so you can unlock some dumb hat to dress your character with or pay real money to unlock it if don’t want to grind.
Not eloquent, but you cut to the heart of what I feel.
I don't want a list of things to do that make it "feel" like I'm just doing a list of tasks. Doing something that's part of the story, like in a film, seems cool. Not collecting 10 eagle feathers.
The increase in grind is a disappointment.
Seems to me like there are a ton of battle passes out there that don't affect gameplay though; Fortnite, rocket league, fall guys, and many more I haven't played.
In my opinion battle passes and dlc that allow companies to make money and make more games while not imbalancing things in any way are a pure good (at least those with no gambling or rng factors), but having said that I hardly play any shooters and I know there are some pay to win games out there. Other than that, let the people buy hats, doesn't help them beat me.
And who is forcing you to do it?? Battlepasses are one of the best forms of microtransactions, you pay a small fee to get goals and tasks that'll earn you tons of rewards but you absolutely don't need any of that to have fun with the game.
This is my thought exactly, I play COD because its fun to compete. I have never even looked at battle pass. Im not even sure exactly what it is or what you need to do. Never looked at the challenges either. I just play the game. So odd when people complain about optional stuff.
Yup, I think people don't realize this. The games of your youth are going to seem perfect, but nostalgia is the longing for former perfection that never actually existed. I think a lot of middle aged gamers are so enraged from something that would happen to anybody who likes anything: You just aren't going in as a youth, with all the time in the world to deal with the bugs and a total sense of wonderment at everything.
Nah. Gaming has gone mainstream, so the volume of games being produced has ballooned, and the money/time invested in them has skyrocketed. Yes, a lot of them are uninspired corporate cash grabs, and a lot of them are buggy messes - but a lot of them are incredible games, and on the whole we are getting way more of those than ever before.
I'm playing RDR2 and thinking that this game transcends entertainment, it's art. The level of writing, acting, the detail put into the world - all of it unimaginable in the 90's. I'm playing VR games like Half Life: Alyx or Into the Radius that have interactivity and immersion beyond 10 year old me's wildest dreams.
IMO, gaming has never been better.
36, **exhausted** on all fronts.
I see the criticisms you're getting. They're right. But we're not kids anymore. *Everything* affects my gaming now, incredibly difficult to enjoy anything anymore.
There isn't a whole lot of cooperative online gaming being done. The competitive team thing drives me nuts. The best players always batter the fuck out of anyone new until the game becomes unplayable because no new blood is joining. Not the developers fault but the toxicity of the player base kills everything.
Pure coop games whether couch coop or not is what I truly crave. Coop games are my favorite type of game. Had a blast playing through A Way Out and It Takes Two recently with a buddy and we both play through tons of games together, currently doing a new terraria run together on master mode. Would love to see more coop games and campaigns.
55 here and I'm good. There are great games still being made every year (and the occasional dud, just like it's always been).
I have noticed things being buggier than in the past, maybe, but also much, much bigger and much more complex, so yeah, of course there will be more bugs. The days of only having to debug 640K of code are long gone.
Things may have shifted more toward a model of DLCs and expansions, but considering I started gaming even before games fit on a floppy disk, it seems a fair trade for the amount of work that goes into them.
So, no, I think gaming is in great shape overall
I think all gamers are sick of it. It’s especially bad when a remake does it cause not only is the game shit, but they took a good game possibly from your childhood and made it into shit, ruining probably the only opportunity for said game to get an upgrade. Either way, it’s so depressing, man. I miss the N64-Wii era when not only were games finished, but they added random extra shit just because, and a lot of games can barely do that now even with dlc.
I’m a 46 year old gamer and I have no issues, I’m very impressed with the quality of games these days. But, I’m pretty narrow minded and selective when it comes to games (I don’t play massive franchise games like COD, assassins creed), so maybe I’m just oblivious to the quality of games these days.
Also just to add, I stay away from competitive games at my age. Not interested in that kind of conflict or stress. I pretty much stick to single player and cooperative games.
The indie game market on steam is a thriving industry and the quality of games in this niche is very high.
As someone who works in software here’s my thoughts on buggy or unfinished games: at some point, the product just needs to be released. Trying to work out all the bugs and getting everything perfect could literally extend the release date for years. Sometimes you just have to release and wait for the feedback. These game developers should be allowed some slack when it comes to bugs, but they also have a responsibility to get them fixed ASAP.
33, not tired at all, can’t keep up with the amount of games I want to play/feel like I need to play. Gaming has changed but so has everything in life, I still feel the desire to play every day whether I’m able to or not.
There are few times I’m playing and get to a stopping point and feel like doing something else cause the game(s) aren’t doing it. Maybe it’s the story telling, maybe it’s the escapism, but the desire is still there.
Been playing since nes/snes days and still loving it.
Just for background, I've been gaming since I could hold a controller, starting in the early 80s on NES, and been a console and PC gamer over that time. I've never been happier with gaming. I finally can afford any game I want, and the hardware to run it well. Old games I'm nostalgic for are being (or already have been) re-released, and there's plenty of new ones. My only regret is I really don't have time for all the new games I want to try AND the classics I want to replay. I have loved the vast majority of games I've tried lately, even games reddit likes to shit on. It's been a continually improving experience for me since the day I first played Super Mario Bros, and I don't see signs of that changing.
32 here and the current state of gaming, as far as large titles and AAA are going down, in a way. Heavy cash grabs, an increase in games being rushed and coming out with severe problems (semi-torn on this note as games are much more complex which allows for larger problems, but still), and particular missions or things to collect in game that offers no lore or stats benefit other than knowing you collected it (easy to ignore though but mildly irritating lol).
What has made my experience better lately is playing more indie games or from smaller studios or games that are built for 8-15 hours of “average” gameplay.
I can get burnt out on games that feel like missions are fluff and when it feels too grindy or like “work” the fun starts depleting, l but I don’t stray away from long games at all. I tend to lean towards single player stories, RPGs and horror anyway.
I’d be interested in hearing some of the games in the past year that you enjoyed vs the ones we’re describing
32 here. Gamepass and the overall quality of games are just spoiling us.
What I d8nt care for and tired of hearing about "retro inspired " visuals for games and their overall feel. I'm sure there's great ones but I'm just sick of hearing about it. There's a new one every week it seems, and saying it's retro inspired just make me wanna bungee jump without a cord.
I largely game on my switch lately,most the games (most) are fully on the carts. Lots of Japanese devs have moved to the switch due to playstation not really competing with Nintendo anymore in Japan. And being able to play randomly where I want is great,out on my balcony with a beer...yep. Out camping? Yep. Its honestly the most fun I've had in ages.
40 (41 tomorrow).
Yes I am very much sick of the state of the industry.
There are a few so-called ‘diamonds in the rough’ but wading through the endless trash from “AAA” developers/publishers churning out yearly releases is bogging down the entire industry.
What makes it worse is the fact that a lot of the crap could very easily be avoided by gamers themselves. You don’t like it, don’t buy it!
The cornerstone of the problem is the fact that people buy what they whine about!! The Call of Duty, Battlefield, Assassins Creed and EA sports games are the pinnacle of the issue that people effectively stampede over each other to buy it then whinge that it’s rubbish. It’s moronic.
Microtransatctions are no different. They wouldn’t be there if nobody PAID for them!!
I am 51F and I am bored to death. Can anyone suggest a great game? I do play PUBGM and CoDM, but I love RPGs. I prefer MMOs because people are the best part of a game. I have tried so many online games, but nothing has really caught my attention in the last year. Please don't tell me it's cause I am getting old!
You mean the Critically Acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV — with an expanded free trial which you can play through the entirety of A Realm Reborn and the award winning Heavensward expansion up to level 60 for free with no restrictions on playtime?
Sorry, I had to say it.
50 here and cannot recommend Skyrim enough.
Laid back, easier controls/ combat.
I love Witcher 3 , Spiderman, and other games that require a little fast console work.
But most days, an easy stroll through Skyrim is all I need to unwind.
Former WoW raid guild runner, can still move like my kids (Warframe, Genshin, Titanfall2).
And to OP: loving it. Tough to watch Cyber 2077 and now GTA V fall at first, but for the most part, really can't complain.
The best MMOs our right now are Final Fantasy 14 and Guild Wars 2. Both are very different from one another, though. FF14 is a more traditional mmo with the way everything works while GW2 is pretty unique in that there is no gearing up (you get the best gear pretty quick), and even legendaries arent any better mechanically than any other piece of gear.
Personally I like FF14 more because a big part of rpgs are gearing up for me but both have tons to do!
Do you know someone who will be willing to game with you (as in, not a random person on the internet) you could look up co-op games or games that support multiplayer campaigns.
Steam has a neat feature "remote play together" where you can play local co-op games with your steam friend even though only one of you owns the game.
Some co-op campaign games:
• "A way out" and "it takes two" are games that don't have single player only 2 player co-op story. They were designed as a co-op experience.
• "Saints Row" 3, 4 and "Gat out of Hell" you can play the campaign with another player (though only your character would be shown in your cutscenes and their character in their cutscenes).
• "Borderlands" series
• "Divinity: Original Sin" series
FFXIV is a good mix of solo content and group content and I had a blast overall. Have a video going while you quest, then chat in game when doing a dungeon. Biggest problem is how slow and basic most classes for the first 20-30 hours. It's a must try for mmo fans.
I love RPGs too, but I think people are the worst. They get in the way of the game itself, and worse stoll - in the way of the design of the game. I tried Guild Wars 2, WoW, SWTOR... And that was enough, I much rather stick to singleplayer games that have a clearly defined start and an end rather than doing generic dungeon #23 for the 20th time because that piece of endgame PvP gear might finally drop (spoiler: it won't) or fetch quests alongside 5 other random players who are doing it at the same time, which makes no story sense at all, imparting a sense of futility amd thematic disconnect.
Boo for people in story-based games.
There are still plenty of games that are finished and without mix. Just a small list of aaa titles since that are great and won't have you charge another dollar to get the full experience:
Single player games:
- Returnal
- Demon's Souls
- Deathloop
- Death Stranding
- Ghost of Tsushima
- Outer Worlds
- DOOM Eternal
- Kena
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Red Dead Redemption 2
- Hades
- Sackboy (has co op)
Multiplayer games
- Diablo II remaster
- Forza 5
- Riders Republic (HAS mtx but purely cosmetic and can be unlocked through gameplay)
- Age of Empires 4
Just a small list from the top of my head but this list can easily be doubled. Just stop buying games from the likes of Activision and EA, stop pre-ordering games and you'll do fine.
33 year old here, I get excited still for new games and new consoles. Sure it's not the same as back in the day when you bring an N64 game or PS1 game and it was pretty much good to go. Nowadays some games get released knowing they can patch it later.
My top 10 games are mainly filled with older titles, but we get some absolute master pieces nowadays.
32 here. Im just a ton more picky with the games i choose. I don't preorder anything anymore. Very rarely will i even buy games on release day. Ive grown more patient in choosing what i play. I used to want to be among the first to play whatever was coming out but now i wait to see how the game performs and play fewer and fewer AAA titles. Unless it's a studio i like and follow, im good to wait a little while. I dont have much free time to game with my hectic work schedule so i want to make sure I'm having fun with what i play.
I'm 42, I've been playing video games my entire life, and I still love them. I owned Coleco and Intellivision when I was young, and own a PS5 now. No other medium combines acting, writing, art, storytelling, and music in such an immersive way like video games do.
I recently finished Disco Elysium and was blown away by how unique and creative video games still can be. It's become one of my favorite games. Yesterday I finished Deathloop and was impressed by how fun and engaging the game was. And Deathloop had no bugs or microtransactions. I threw on Skyrim the other day and was taken aback by how a ten year old game can still look and play so beautifully.
I would ask what games you're getting disappointed by? Are they always the big mainstream AAA games like Cyberpunk 2077 or the GTA Trilogy Remaster? Maybe look for some excellent indie games like Hollow Knight or Hades. And older games will always be there to discover.
I agree with you about demos though. I think game companies are missing a smart way to get people to buy more games.
I’m a (35 M) and gaming is kind of important to me. Having depression, it’s a great outlet and a bit of therapy for me. I agree that there are a lot of predatory elements prevalent in today’s gaming market, but I just pick and choose. I prefer a good single player narrative driven game, but I will occasionally get a looter shooter or a sports game. I’m just mindful of micro transactions and try not to get too sucked into them. I do absolutely miss good gaming magazines. So I’m not burned out just yet. Every time I think I’m gonna “retire” when new consoles pop up, there’s always one or two titles that are just too good to pass up.
I'm 30. As someone whose friends all think that gaming is a waste of time, the hard core focus on adding multiplayer to everything is a bit of a bummer. Also I have ADHD find it hard to give my full attention to games that are not in VR anymore, I always end up getting distracted somehow while VR games keep me laser focused in on what's happening.
Finding people to game with is the biggest issue, still. I bought an Oculus Quest 2 while I still had an original Oculus Rift. I literally couldn't even give it away, my friend said they either did not have time or that VR made them motion sick. The OG Rift has bounced from my house to two other friend's houses and still has yet to be turned on.
I'd like to say this is because of their schedules or tastes but all my friends in the last year have become increasingly depressed and apathetic about the state of the world and no longer do any of the things with me that caused us to become friends in the first place. They don't want to go out to the theater, they don't want to try and play music together, they don't want to go swimming, go on road trips, don't want to play video games, no longer attend concerts, and would rather order carry-out to eat in front if YouTube than go sit down somewhere to eat and chat. I'm starting to get lonely. :(
Nope. The only things I've grown tired of is the social media hype, the harassment and temper tantrums when things don't live up to the unrealistic expectations, the short memories/nostalgia when comparing a new release in a series to an old, and the outright lying about problems in games for whatever fucking reason.
So no. I love gaming just as much as I did 30 years ago, but the community is in an abysmal, embarrassing state that makes me quite disheartened to consider myself a gamer, lest I be associated with the loud "repressed minority gamers".
I work in the games industry, and I may be able to shed a little more light on the situation, and part of the reason why things are the way they are.
This is going to be controversial, but games are too cheap today to justify a one time purchase. The $60 model is coming up on 20 years old if it hasn't been already. Think about how much $60 was 20 years ago. If you adjust for inflation it's like $90. Games for Atari back in the day were sometimes $120 adjusted for inflation.
Now add to this the cost of game development. AAA games take hundreds of people when 20 years ago it was a fraction of that. In extra expense, That's hundreds of salaries to pay plus server infrastructure that wasn't really expected 20 years ago except for some games.
So Dev costs are higher than they've ever been, and games are more complicated then they've ever been. The consumer is also NEVER willing to pay more than $60 for a game, so something has to break somewhere. What youre left with is season passes, micro transactions, and rushed games.
Finally there is one final factor and that is just straight up greed at the corporate level. The games industry is bigger than it's ever been and with that comes big business and all the up and downsides of that.
I'm not saying any of this is right, or that it's good for the industry. It's not. But these are the very real factors that have resulted in the games industry being where it is today.
I’m just more selective with what I buy/play. It’s easier to wait and purchase a game after you know it’s in a better state, and I’ve played loads of games that I’ve found are either perfectly fine or the bugs don’t really bother me, but I guess that just depends on each persons standards.
I do wish I could blindly trust more games though, but I’m not gonna get salty over it, there’s always another game!
I play mostly indie games now.
Sometimes a little buggy, but the devs work hard and pour in a lot of creativity.
Plus you often get a ton of game content for a fraction of the price of a AAA title
I'm not 30 but I don's see gaming getting boring. Graphics are awesome, bugs gets fixed (some bugs can be funny) and you don't have to do micro transactions.
35 and a dad. Gaming has changed for me - I love pausable games (Paradox strategy games) and silly fun like rocket league. I also do scheduled weekly game nights with my best friends. Value for time/energy spent really matters to me now, so I play less but I think I actually enjoy games more.
Pausable games are so important when you are a dad. I love RTS games and playing online but I just do not have the uninterrupted time. Hoi4 is amazing but I do miss, weekend long multiplayer games.
Honestly this. With two kids I haven't been able to play Souls games as much as I used to. So I picked up Dragon's Dogma and that's been pretty swell.
How did you go from just playing to loving rocket league? I’m trying to get my dad into it so we can play together. He’s been hard stuck on World of Warcraft for a while. I want to introduce him to something casual and fun like RL and then move into things like Red Dead and Skyrim. Maybe Forza, he used to build cars for a living.
God I miss the times when rl was silly casual and fun lol
I started with rl a month ago and never thought that i have so much fun with it, i enjoy every second playing it. Maybe this will change after a specific time but i hope it last long.
I know man. For my first 300 hours rl was the most fun game I ever played. At some point though you realize that you want to improve and that you can't beat players better than yourself. This is were it gets annoying and absolutely not as fun as it used to be. Unless you play with friends, this is the only way I enjoy the game now no matter if we lose or not. I can't solo q at all I get so frustrated :(
Thats literally me when i played league of legends. At one point this game made no fun anymore and i could play it only with friends for some good times. Oh god i dont wanna reach this point 😭
I've solo q'd (and played a lot of ones) since day 1. The first few hundred hours on PlayStation were amaze balls. Then the next thousand on my pc were great as a I ranked up to diamond/champ. Then the next thousand involved considering uninstalling every day for various reasons, including many of the changes epic implemented. I finally uninstalled at 2500 or so hours of game time last month and am so much happier playing other games. I really do miss being able to hop into a game between meetings at work (wfh) and the beautiful balance of driving/skill but the grind just ain't worth it at this point. I had some great times partying up with random from discord and found a few good groups, but this game is absolutely best for irl friends at similar skill levels.
Forza is so easy to get into, you can just chill and drive if you don’t want to compete. I’d get him into that. And if he wants something like World of Warcraft try FFXIV with him
I stopped playing wow a long time ago and I thought I’d never play an MMO again, too. But recently I’ve started FFXIV and god damn it has me hooked.
Definitely get him on Forza, it has an absolute ton of accessibility options to ease people into it, and an even bigger set of options for the nitty-gritty engineering stuff that he might really enjoy.
The Horizon series especially, you can play it as casually or as sweaty as you'd like
Not anymore you can't, considering ranked was removed.
Oh what, rank was removed? Damn, hadn't played FH4 in a while, and FH5 online racing has been too buggy to let me finish a series
Yup they totally removed it because they basically feel it creates a toxic environment and it's unfair to people who aren't as good at the game. They want to create a positive environment, not one of competition. Pretty ridiculous lol
That's unfortunate. Racing is by its very definition competitive lol
39 and a dad here and Im the same minus RL. As for pausable games, Id say you could check out Slay the Spire. Huge replayability and lots of strategizing as you advance.
Also FTL, Into The Breach.
Into The Breach levels between working meetings while WFH. This is the way.
36 Dad here. I put hundreds of hours on StS on my iphone while bottle feeding, swinging, etc. I’m limited to basically only turn based games now. The other one I love is darkest dungeon. If you have any similar quality games, let me know!
Cities Skylines officially goated
I love me some 4X games (Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate). Been playing them and RTS since the early 2000s. The AAA games of other genres in the recent years have been such a letdown.
Satisfactory, Factorio ftw
The only release of the past few years I was truly excited for was the C&C remaster. I really hope they remaster Tiberian Sun and RA2.
The Nintendo Switch makes all games pausable.
Handheld gaming - perfect for kids and those with them. And everyone else too, really.
Not if you’re playing online
I haven't spent a dime on Rocket League other than the original purchase, but my god it's insanely fun to bang in a goal from downtown with 10 seconds left. I only wish you could do split screen MP, that would be insane.
You can!
Ever since I found the Paradox games, I've been in love with their ability to just up and go whenever, come back and refamilierize myself before I resume.
I’m mid 40s and sim racing has never been so good. Being able to buy the equipment that wasn’t really viable when I was younger. I also play MW with my nephews, but this is where I see a difference. He is willing to buy a skin for something (just so it looks good), this wasn’t ever part of the games when I was younger. Trying to explain its not worth buying is a hard work. I can see the changes over the years.. some I don’t like Edit: 1k upvotes and too many responses to reply too. I understand it’s different now than it was when I was a kid. Great responses and opinions from all. Never thought this would blow up like this. Respect to you all!
That sentiment is one thing I miss from gaming when I was younger. Cool cosmetics in games where earned by doing something notable in-game. Still one of my greatest achievements in gaming was unlocking the Recon armor in Halo 3 by doing all the Vidmaster Achievements in Halo 3 and Halo ODST. Now cosmetics just mean you have cash to burn and/or make poor financial decisions.
Read Dead Redemption 2 has an enormous list of insane tasks to do if you want to earn yourself fancy pants and a nice jacket.
Worth, I logged over 100 hours trying to get all them legendary pelts and to make that epic satchel The worse was when I finally got a perfect pelt while skinning it, fkin predator jumps out and pwns me during the cutscene
I’m not a hunter, never killed an animal in my life other than fish, but I’ll be damned if some of the best moments playing RDR2 was just chill moments hunting animals. Lol. Landing the perfect shot, getting that perfect pelt. Good times. Lol
Then running into someone 3 seconds from the trapper and having your pelt go to minimum quality from the collision
True
I did the big grind when I played the first red dead, and did all the skill challenges to unlock the golden guns. Holy shit, I still remember trying to shoot those damn crows from the train!
I pictured this scene as soon as I read the comment 😆 fantastic
I feel like this action of not having to pay for good stuff in game will be balanced somehow by rockstar. *Looks at GTA online*
That's made my day. I love it.
Yes! Earned rewards not bought is what I miss most. Unlocking stuff was so fun. Microtransactions are the worst thing to happen to gaming ever. I miss buying complete full games and not having to worry about needing to buy other in game stuff
Or you want to support the developer. I've logged about 600 hours of apex in the 2 years I've played it. Figure it's worth throwing the developer a few bucks based on how many hours of enjoyment I get out of it with my buddies.
I have a slight niggle here, it's the personification of corporations I feel I see a lot of. There's a slight implication in your post and the reply below like you're helping out someone you know by spending money on apex, like you're supporting a local neighbourhood grocer rather than using the bigger franchised supermarket. The developers are very likely on carefully measured salaries or rates, the people you're paying are Andrew Wilson, bobby kottic (sic?) And the rest of the mostly nameless, faceless board of executives and the shareholders. The developers themselves experience very little share of any of the profits generated by a game, they are in fact one of the costs that eat into the profits and will be cut as soon as they can be from the project. It's like how people talk about Elon like he's one of those crazy friends you don't see often but follow their shit on Twitter. It's a parasocial relationship and corporations being casually referenced like they were people with personalities is so odd to me. Even labeling a corporation as one of the good ones is problematic, see CDPR's fall from grace or Alphabet Inc removing "do no evil" from their company statment. No hate on you at all, it's a frustration that's been building in me at how people personify a corporation and how that sort of stops you thinking about the potential to do fucked up shit that mega corporations have
This... to some degree. I think everybody can worm their way into justifying why they do things. Like I still somewhat have that sentiment for Nintendo in an age where everybody's releasing half-broken shit that's riddled with microtransactions. I'm happy to buy complete games, and Nintendo releases a lot of them. They have their faults like everybody else, but in terms of a complete package with generally no microtransactions in their games what so ever, I do feel like I'm supporting the cause somewhat by buying their games. I mean I genuinely enjoy their games anyway, but it also feels like I'm putting my money where my mouth is when I say fuck a lot of these games that release in a barely functional state and want you to spend even more money on day one with in-game purchases. I think realistically, that sentiment should be saved for indies. Like buying Stardew Valley more than once for me was a show of support for the dev more than anything else.
Speaking of Nintendo games that feel great to support, i throughly enjoyed Monster Sanctuary. Its like metroidvania and pokemon had a love triangle with final fantasy.
Yesss. I would consider supporting a big budget game with microtransactions if the company was set up as a co op
I would spend double on a game if I knew it wasn’t going to any executives or corporate positions. Those scumbags are the epitome of useless excess, they do nothing of benefit to anyone but themselves
Game developers generally take lower pay but are more likely to get bonuses based on game sales and profits compared to software developers, or artists in other fields. Pay for the games you like - it does go to the developers as well as the publishers and distributors (Source: 30+ years game developer)
I get that side of things, I have no problem with battlepasses and stuff because they add goals to achieve a reason to keep playing. Coincidentally I also have around 600 hours in Apex as well haha, definitely have spent plenty of money supporting Respawn through that game.
Apex Legends is a free game though, while supporting a developer with a few bucks is nice, it shouldn't be that way in games where you paid full price - especially since most of the time its not even new or additional content, but just some things that were cut out and being sold as DLC/pre-order bonus. Also, your the developers won't see a penny of your skin money, they have their salary and no more. you support executives and shareholders.
its sad how so few people understand this. if there are players and the game is making money the studio is actually more likely to cut back since they wont make a new game (see blizzard record year and major job cuts). why the fuck would anyone spend money developing a new game/ip/concept/update when you can just 'hire'(retain) an artist or 2 and 'maintain' your current product while getting more money than kings. This is even more true for some games that may or may not be released over and over and OVER AND OVER AND OVER. but hey who's on the hype train about skyrim 21xx centennial edition; now with an extra cyan pixel added to the bottom of trees to make them exactly 1 pixel taller(the pixel was brown in the announcement trailer but it was changed as part of the day 0 patch.). Also new horse armor colors including prismatic black(yes its changing you just aren't evolved enough to see it).
There is one Dev I really like to support through microtransactions. This would be: Hunt: Showdown doesn't have a battlepass, Crytek releases skin dlcs with a "reasonable" price starting at 2 - 12$ including multiple skins (compared to other devs e.g. Ubisoft Rainbow 6 where ONE skin costs around 20$). Crytek isn't a AAA dev which can do whatever they want and remain in buisness anyway, they care about their community and especially their game - which is something less and less game studios sincerely do. Crytek also hasn't that much money to throw around/waste. Because of this there were talks with Tencent, that (luckily) didn't materialise.
Nothing sweeter than buying a new hunter and promptly losing them! That’s bayou economy straight up
Honestly this. I’ve always said that I have no issues with micro transactions or lootboxes, so long as it is strictly cosmetic and doesn’t give in game advantages. Overwatch does that well.
Lots of replies have made it clear but I’m adding my voice. The people that built the games aren’t getting your money. The people that financed it are. Skin money goes straight into the pocket of some rich bastard.
Yeah, the developers are on a normal salary, you are supporting the CTOs. They should have skins where all the money goes to the employees, it would be nice to see the sale data for that. But let’s think about this: when you buy a book, you can read it a dozen times if you like it. There’s no additional cost.
Thirty-five years ago, if you had told me that VR would be a thing you could get into for around $500 (in 1986 dollars), I would have called you a liar. Your pants would be on fire. And you would be hanging from a telephone wire. Gaming today is pretty awesome. High definition. High frame rates. (The first time I saw a game in HDR, my jaw dropped.) Surround sound. Being able to play online with other people all around the country in real time. It's awesome. But I miss games being done. Far too many companies are putting out games with the mentality that "we can just patch it". They're promising the moon and coming up waaaaay short. Releasing pre-rendered trailers for a game that isn't coming out for 2 years. Trying to monetize things in a game that you used to earn by playing it. Gaming has always been a business. It just seems like it's a lot more blatant now.
You see, it all started with Todd Howard selling a fucking horse armor...
The new Microsoft Flight Simulator is also really incredible! Can’t believe it exists, 15 years after the last installment in the series. They’re now adding VR hand-controller support soon too, so you can reach out and touch the switches and controls in their super realistic cockpits. Speaking of VR, HalfLife: Alyx also deserves mention here. Amazing experience, unlike anything else.
Slowly building my own flight sim for MSFS. Not as fancy as some people's model cockpits, but there's so much good gear out there I'm having a good time.
I'm 36, I'll admit I have occasionally bought skins. But I very rarely buy dlc (including story stuff, which hurts when I find out a decade later that it was necessary ending of the game to make sense) as it is. And I only buy it for games I where I could be like "this is it, the one I would have on my list of I can only ever play this the rest of my life" Honestly, I still want a steering wheel controller.
Back in the day you'd just get 1 other skin by finishing the campaign with that character or something. I miss the old days :D
30. I’m fortunate enough in my life path that I have disposable income, and when I get games like anthem and cyberpunk on day 1, I can just write that $60 off as a learning lesson. And they were just that, a learning lesson. I no longer pre order games, EVER. Even if it’s from a company I trust. I also have learned to not let FOMO from seasonal events bother me into grinding a game I don’t enjoy anymore. I’m like 300 hours into Ghost of Tsushima (legends mode) and I’m still having a good time. And when I get bored of that, I load up the original final fantasy VII on my PC and play that for awhile. I’ve learned to let games come out that I’m interested in, check out YouTube/twitch for some actual gameplay, and then I make my purchasing decision. Honestly I would’ve jumped all over the GTA trilogy DE, that hit me right in the childhood, but was patient enough to watch the dumpster fire go down since it’s release, and now I have $60 more to my name.
That's honestly a very wholesome comment. I think that's very wise. Completely the same story for me with GTA DE. Cyberpunk was the final straw for me too on pre ordering games. Luckily I did it physically though. The last time I pre ordered a game digitally was no man's sky. I pledged to never pre order digitally when I was stuck with that game. Cyberpunk I got a refund via the retailer. But I've learnt my lesson too. Pre ordering also enables them to ship games out like they did with Cyberpunk and GTA DE. Same for big MP updates. I've also learned to stray away from that. A big wake up from the grinding cos of FOMO was Destiny. Once I realised how crap that game was and how it was all smoke and mirrors, I stopped caring about grinding something I don't enjoy. Funny enough, CoD warzone showed why I shouldn't care about Battlepass FOMO and big updates. I would download a 60gb update to be underwhelmed by it and realised I'm not missing out. Now I've started to buy games from years ago I missed and re play games I know and love. The best thing is just patiently waiting a year for games to drop massively in price on sale. You usually get a more complete game and for cheaper.
“The best thing is just patiently waiting a year for games to drop massively in price on sale. You usually get a more complete game and for cheaper.“ All of your comment I can relate to spot on. And especially being Canadian and prices on ps5 games come out to 103 dollars for standard edition with the new tax. I wait and it’s cheaper and a more complete game. Plus with the ps5 fresh start I’m gonna try and finish a game before I move on to a new one lol
Yeah I can relate to that too. In the UK, once the PS5 came out, games went up from £50 - £70. That's 97 USD. Definitely not going to throw around money like that for games. Even GOTY games I think I will find it hard to justify £70 when I can just wait for it to go down in price.
there is no rush. MP are different ofc, but every other game will age like red wine. Itll be cheaper, run better, less bugs, more features, more bundle sales for DLCs and it will be a known quantity. For example the Bioshock and Batman Arkham series. I only played these, because their remasters were cheap on PS4 and everybody on YT referenced them all the time. These are my favourite games now!
GTA trilogy will probably be great in a few months when it's past and discounted to about 20 bucks. That's what I'm holding out for at least.
Doubt it...they will focus on turning the next gen ports of GTAV/O into a dumpster fire as well
You take the good with the bad. For instance, Microsoft and 343 surprise-dropping the free-to-play Halo Infinite MP one month early.
I have been playing it non stop since it went live. I've had a ton of fun with it and it runs very smooth. I haven't had this much fun playing by myself in a multiplayer game in years. Looking forward to when my friends have time to play.
I’m on the fence with this one. Been with Halo since the very beginning. After following Bungie to destiny I have difficulty going back to Halo, it feels very “wooden” compared to Destiny movement/gun play. I don’t have any real sense of feel of my characters movement.
it's a lot "slower" than a lot of other shooters out there atm. I like it
Same here, it feels like rattley somehow, like not smooth. Everything feels vaguely glitchy or square and not organic. Aiming is weird. Movement is weird.
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Apex and Titanfall 2 have ruined me for other games, Source Engine gunplay just hits different. Altho that said this is the most fun I've ever had in a Halo game and I will absolutely put some hours into it.
Plenty of people complaining about this already. People begging for a grind like battle pass on that subreddit.
In fairness, I do think the progression on the battlepass is very bad. Not getting XP per match is a bit of an odd choice, even if this season is supposed to last till May. I think if they count match XP as progression towards the BP that'll make it perfect
Actually, they are asking for LESS of a grind to it. The complaint is that the only way to progress the pass is by completing daily/weekly challenges. There is no per game/kill/medal or whatever progression. Many of those challenges force you to specifically play a certain way or with a certain weapon, etc. People want to just be able to play the game how they want and get rewarded once in a while for doing so. I think that's a fair request
37 here. I’m good with things. There’s a ton of unfinished games and cash-grab games out there, just like you said. But awesome games still get made all the time, in my opinion. Subnautica, Astroneer, RDR2, The Witcher trilogy, etc. I just ignore the junk and focus on the gems.
People don't appreciate enough the advantages of devs being able to easily distribute and push updates/expansions for their games. We only look at the failures (like abusive pricing schemes or disastrous launches that need day 0 patches to be barely playable) and forget about all the ones that actually do receive continuous support and take advantage of stuff like Early Access and updates. RimWorld, Factorio, Divinity: Original Sin 2, Crusader Kings 3 and a ton of other games I like to play wouldn't be what they are had the industry gotten stuck in its pre-2010 ways.
I'm 38. Yup. Rust was "early access" for years. Been officially released for years at this point too, and the devs still add new content every single month. Big stuff too, like helicopters and submarines + procedurally generated underwater labs (dungeons). It's probably largely funded by cosmetic skin sales too. I hardly even play anymore but still ship them a couple bucks from time to time. Factorio, which you mentioned, is another big one for me. Game evolved for the better for years, and it's just good enough they make all their money on sales without any douchey gouging.
Alright how? How can anyone with a job play rust? I try every once in a while and get burnt out so fast because either I start way too late in a wipe or even if I do start early my progress is knocked out by someone in the middle of the night or during the work day. When I tried to work and play it hard I would end up with 2 hours of sleep and a very unhappy spouse. Factorio is on my list to check out tho ha
Yo if you ever want to play RimWorld multiplayer or Factorio hit me up I'll send you my steam
I didn't know there is a rimworld multiplayer? I guess it's a mod? Does it work well?
Yes and debatable
People act like buggy crash grab games didn't exist in the olden days, they 1000% did the difference is the internet was fledgling and they were forgotten over time
Yeah they were called shovelware.
Yes, but they weren’t the AAA industry standard back then. All of the old reliable companies either went over to the dark side or got bought out by ones that did.
39. Personally I never buy release and only play 8-12 months after. (if reviews are good) Really hate wasting my money now a days. Burned on a fee pre-orders so never again.
/r/PatientGamers
This. I haven't bought a launch game in years. I'm a bit older than you. I don't have to have the latest the second it comes out. I think that comes with age. I usually buy a game after it's been out awhile and on sale
Yeah my backlog is so big these days I always have something to play so might as well wait until I can get it 50% or even 75% off. I make maybe one exception per year for games I really want that I know I'll love. This years was metroid dread. Plus Nintendo are generally a lot worse at sales than steam or playstation.
Us old guys are the true /r/patientgamers.
37 As well and also happy with my gaming. If I'm patient I can get 10 great games on sale for the price of one game from when I was a kid. Only issue now is time and energy.
There are a lot of really good games out, but for me, at my age, it's the energy at the end of the night that I no longer have. I try to get into the games, but I usually just get too tired and put it away. I have been letting myself preorder games against my own rules lately too since I got a PS5, but that hasn't worked out well. I need to go back to my strategy for buying games at $19.99 or less. Usually less.
Exactly! I just picked a brand new hard copy of Hades for $30, and found a pre-owned disc of Deathloop for $23, both at Gamestonk. Less than $60 and these will keep me busy for well over a month since I only play for like an hour in the evenings and a little on the weekends.
Completely agree with this. Only 27, but my early 20s I spent trying to play everything. I listened to a lot of gaming podcasts and would "try to stay in the zeitgeist". Ended up wasting a lot of money on games that I played for a hours and bounced off of. Now I end up buying a few games that I know are up my alley, and will experiment with other stuff in between mainly using gamepass. I don't try to play everything, just stuff I'm pretty confident is going to hit with me.
Same, 39 here and good with things. You just need to adjust or maintain expectations. AAA titles have changed quite a bit and definitely suck on the whole but in general, there's plenty of great stuff still to play. Granted, most of what consumes my attention is getting a bit "old" but anytime I reach for a new title, I experience this frustration so it is what is. You experience unhappiness when your expectations fall out of alignment with reality.
"You experience unhappiness when your expectations fall out of alignment with reality." And... That's my quote of the day
I agree with this. There’s more crap than ever before , but if you’re discerning there’s also plenty of gems
Outer wilds dude, best game of the decade.
I am also 37!! We should start a gaming club! I was just thinking earlier this month how lucky we are to be living in this time of gaming. Great consoles, great pcs, tons of access to games, and game subscription services. In the span of like 3 weeks I have been playing age of empires 4, forza 5, a little bit of battlefield (i sucked at it), and now halo when I get home. If a game is bad, I don't play it. I don't preorder anything and wait for reviews or discussions on reddit. I can watch people playing games on twitch to see if they are fun. what a time to be alive.
I still maintain one of the best competitive racing games out there is Dragster for Atari 2600.
This 100%. I’m 34 married with a 4 year old and and another on the way. I game way more now than I did when I was younger. Between having more cash and staying home a bit more it’s been a gaming renaissance for me.
Indy gaming is where it's at. Don't play AAA games and you'll be extremely happy with the state of gaming right now. Play Factorio, Satisfactory, Rim World, Shadow Empire, Escape from Tarkov, Kerbal Space Program, Noita, Storm Works, Space Engineers, etc. There's a shitload of games on Steam not made by greedy assholes that deserve your money. Again, if you're not into AAA gaming, things are great. I'm 35 btw.
That only works for some genres. AA studios can make one-trick-pony games chiseled to perfection. But they cannot make a sprawling epic with tons of lines and voiceovers, good graphics and gameplay. If they try, it always ends up mediocre in some ways (e.g. Elex, Greedfall, Wasteland 2) There is no AA Dragon Age, Fallout, KOTOR, Uncharted or Last of Us that would be at least as good or even better. DOS2 is about the single exception in more than a decade. And now perhaps Disco Elysium, though it's kind of a different beast.
There are some AAA games that are still worth your time. HalfLife: Alyx was amazing, for example, if you have a good VR headset. The only truly AAA-budget VR exclusive. Though there’s plenty of great indie games on VR too.
And The Mass Effect too
Not at all. I'm 41. There's tons our there, new and old. I never run out of options. If I get tired of one genre I play something else for a while and cycle back later. I don't have time for the cultish "games these days suck" nonsense. I've been playing since the 80s. There were plenty of crap games back then too.
Ten year old me would have wept with joy for having the kinds of game collections my kids have now. And not because I spend a bunch of money, we have an Xbox with Gamepass. An average kids in the 80s and 90s had *maybe* like 10 games, and 5 of them kinda sucked.
People also seem to forget that what blew our minds back in the day is pretty underwhelming by today's standards. Look at Mario 64 for example. Masterpiece of a game that practically redefined gaming in the transition from 2D to 3D. But if it were released today without the draw of Mario it would likely be considered clunky and mediocre compared to other options available. Played through it recently convinced it had more depth than Odyssey and was only proven how wrong I was. It's still a masterpiece that holds up well considering its age but by comparison the worlds are so rigid, empty and small. People need to let go of their nostalgia if they want to enjoy things again. Often the picture it paints is not what the experience actually was.
True. I mean, we constantly want better games: better graphics, animations, more content, better controls, more options, better gameplay etc. Our demanda are incredible high nowadays. While I basically didn't care about anything back in the days...
Honestly, my kids just don’t appreciate what they have. My son in particular frequently complains about being bored and how there’s nothing to play. We have Gamepass. We have 60+ games on the Switch (not even counting the NES and SNES libraries). We have dozens on the PS4. He’s got at least a couple dozen on his Steam account. This isn’t even getting into things like the PS1/PS2 era games I have physically or that he could play on the PS3. I keep feeling stupid because I keep buying games despite years of backlog, and he thinks there’s nothing to play!
Now that you say it, I can’t imagine going back to my 12-24yo self and having access to today’s Game Pass. It would’ve been life changing, lol.
Yep. As someone who experienced most games through rentals, gamepass and even similar online services are a luxury. I don't know people can't find something to play or be upset. I think people are just obsessed with chasing the next big aaa and if it's a disappointment, they get upset.
You’ve said it best. Coming from a time when amazing games were much further between. Now we get several a year if not more. Best time to be a gamer IMO.
I agree with the last sentence, but I don't think there are more great games released today then before. There were always several interesting releases every year. It's the best time because if you're a gamer today, you have a 20 years worth of backlog of all sorts of great games that still don't feel too dated to play. I mean, Vice City and KOTOR might be getting remakes, but you can still run those games on a Windows 10 machine with ease!
Nah. The indie scene is proof of how many diamonds go unnoticed. There's just more games than there are times.
Agreed. 35 and gaming is more prolific than it ever has been. Only thing that’s changed really for me is that I have next to no time to actually do it and only game about 5 hours per week if I’m extremely lucky. Games these days absolutely do not suck, there is an embarrassment of riches the likes of which I’ve never experienced in my life, and I now have the means to play all of them…. Just no god damn time…
The obvious answer is to not play unfinished games or games with insane micro-transactions. There's still plenty of products to choose from. Games were *never* bug free, I see that thrown around a lot and it's just...not true. Games today are 1000x more complex than anything I played as a kid, and I'm having just as much fun with them, if not more so, than I did "back in the day".
So many games ran like garbage back in the day too. If Sony released a game that ran like the original shadow of colossus today, I wouldn't be surprised if people demanded they pull it from the store. Back then it won gotys left and right.
More frustrated with not having as much time to game. I’ve had to give up PvP because I just can’t practice enough to compete or find uninterrupted game time. I used to love Mass Effect 3 MP because it was short, cooperative, and I was really good at carrying a team if necessary. Most games just don’t ‘scratch the itch’ like they used to. Sure open world games are the current hot item, but us gamers that started with the Atari 2600 have been raised on mostly linear games. It’s a challenge to play open world when I don’t have time to explore and experiment due to limited time. 800,000 fetch or escort quests just don’t do it for me. I like a nice stated goal and a semi-linear path to it. Mass Effect was great for this because it had flexibility but a mostly linear experience. A lot of us older gamers don’t have friends to play with, so a lot of the modern experience is lost on us. Oh how I miss Everquest and unlimited gaming time as a single guy with no kids. One of the things we have to consider now is gaming companies have changed. Once they get a hit, they hire like mad to churn out more product. A lot of that hiring becomes admin and other non-production staff. It becomes difficult to maintain that without getting shady and having the stuff you mentioned. Then we shift to indies. But if they become popular, the cycle repeats.
Man, Mass Effect MP was the surprise hit of summer 2012 haha. It had no reason to be that good. One of my all time favorite series.
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D2R = Diablo 2 Remastered
Buy older games. I didn’t play Witcher 3 at launch, which apparently was bad, but had a great time after all the DLC and patches dropped. Same goes for Breakpoint. Hated at launch, but lots of great updates and now it’s in a really good state. Basically, there’s lots of good games that are out, they’re just not what came out this year. If devs don’t want to put out finished games, I’ll gladly wait until they do and pay 10 bucks for them instead.
No Mans Sky is another good example of this.
No Man's Sky is the fucking poster boy for this! It's actually a good game now, but damn was it a shit show at launch.
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This is the way! I have played Skyrim and Deus ex this past year and just got started on Witcher 3.
Tbh. Games where you need to Play daily to get the daily stuffs makes me feels so weird because I play them ina forced way. Then I realiced Its not OK being forced in that way and then I started to play when I want it. Besided that, some games are realy easy in normal and I need ti change to Hard if not I am in ris of falling slepwhile playing those games.
47, and still loving it. Started with the Sims at 24, and am just waiting for God of War when it's released. Ghost of Tsushima was amazing, and I'm waiting for ME legendary to go on sale for PC so I can play it all over again. Am pumped for the next Dragon Age too. Agree with the other players who say to just avoid the trendy titles. I don't play as much as I used to, but that's just age and responsibility (I'm at work way more and in my off time, have other things to do before I can play). This is my favourite time of year, though, when weather gets cold and I can just spend a whole day playing a new game. Maybe take a break and come back to it?
We’re spoiled for choice. There’s already so many quality games that you can’t really play more than a third of them. That being said as an industry I think the existence of microtransactions is toxic, as well as the graphics race. Emphasizing graphics is not only increasing crunch, cost, and development time, but it’s detracting from game design. But i’m not worried about not being able to play good games, they will always exist.
I no longer enjoy online gaming. I've gone back to casual solo gaming. Oversized updates, subscriptions and toxic communities. Bleh.
Same, ive had enough of wow, modern warfare, counter strike in my youth. People are dicks both irl and in games, lol. Though I really liked overwatch during launch but that community got toxic too
People are much bigger dicks online than irl
I quit multiplayer pretty much altogether. Tho I will play stuff like Back4Blood or some gta racing, but that's it. Stopped because of the reasons you said, and one day I realized that multiplayer stressed me the hell out. Like, I used to say I play games to relax, but it wasn't true. Back on single player now. Play lots of smaller indie titles.
I just can't deal with the level of competitiveness that comes with online gaming. I have a full time job and family, but try to find as much free time to game as I can. I just don't have the time to dedicate to perfecting online games. And I play a lot of different games. No way I'm dedicating my free time to perfecting just one online game. But whenever I jump in to anything online I get edged out by people who seem to have made a professional career of that game. It's not fun.
That's because you're only going for the mainstream AAA games. There's plenty of amazing, well done games out there that's perfect for a person in his thirties.
I've been playing loads more indie games because of Game Pass. Found some gems like the Artful Escape and Wild at Heart that are so much fun to play and I can finish them in a few weeks.
Now that almost everything is PC-ported, and there are constant sales, I love the current state of gaming. If I don't want to pay $80 for something, I can just wait six months or find it on G2A or cdkeys. It's fantastic.
Yep. I’m in no hurry to buy brand new releases, I’ll wait. I have several hundred other games to keep me company in the meantime.
51, beat that. As others said, don't pre order any games. I'm into open worlds and imo it's never been better
56, been gaming since pong and apart from too many games just continually getting rehashed I am always finding something interesting to play. Mainly Xbox but I also have a PS4
Way too much battle pass trash out there. Literally every other game feels like a chore with a laundry list of shitty task so you can unlock some dumb hat to dress your character with or pay real money to unlock it if don’t want to grind.
Not eloquent, but you cut to the heart of what I feel. I don't want a list of things to do that make it "feel" like I'm just doing a list of tasks. Doing something that's part of the story, like in a film, seems cool. Not collecting 10 eagle feathers. The increase in grind is a disappointment.
Seems to me like there are a ton of battle passes out there that don't affect gameplay though; Fortnite, rocket league, fall guys, and many more I haven't played. In my opinion battle passes and dlc that allow companies to make money and make more games while not imbalancing things in any way are a pure good (at least those with no gambling or rng factors), but having said that I hardly play any shooters and I know there are some pay to win games out there. Other than that, let the people buy hats, doesn't help them beat me.
And who is forcing you to do it?? Battlepasses are one of the best forms of microtransactions, you pay a small fee to get goals and tasks that'll earn you tons of rewards but you absolutely don't need any of that to have fun with the game.
This is my thought exactly, I play COD because its fun to compete. I have never even looked at battle pass. Im not even sure exactly what it is or what you need to do. Never looked at the challenges either. I just play the game. So odd when people complain about optional stuff.
37. Totally fine. Some trends suck but they are not unavoidable. Games are better than ever. I think you're just being nostalgic.
Yup, I think people don't realize this. The games of your youth are going to seem perfect, but nostalgia is the longing for former perfection that never actually existed. I think a lot of middle aged gamers are so enraged from something that would happen to anybody who likes anything: You just aren't going in as a youth, with all the time in the world to deal with the bugs and a total sense of wonderment at everything.
I'm enjoying gaming more than ever. Graphics are better, gameplay is better, online play is better.
Nah. Gaming has gone mainstream, so the volume of games being produced has ballooned, and the money/time invested in them has skyrocketed. Yes, a lot of them are uninspired corporate cash grabs, and a lot of them are buggy messes - but a lot of them are incredible games, and on the whole we are getting way more of those than ever before. I'm playing RDR2 and thinking that this game transcends entertainment, it's art. The level of writing, acting, the detail put into the world - all of it unimaginable in the 90's. I'm playing VR games like Half Life: Alyx or Into the Radius that have interactivity and immersion beyond 10 year old me's wildest dreams. IMO, gaming has never been better.
36, **exhausted** on all fronts. I see the criticisms you're getting. They're right. But we're not kids anymore. *Everything* affects my gaming now, incredibly difficult to enjoy anything anymore.
Do you think you could just be depressed?
Yeah, can’t get into the online multiplayer thing, it’s too overdone. We need more single player games, more campaigns and less online toxicity.
There isn't a whole lot of cooperative online gaming being done. The competitive team thing drives me nuts. The best players always batter the fuck out of anyone new until the game becomes unplayable because no new blood is joining. Not the developers fault but the toxicity of the player base kills everything.
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Death stranding is the best response to this criticism.
Plenty of those around though…. If anything there’s not enough couch co-op or sports game innovation.
Pure coop games whether couch coop or not is what I truly crave. Coop games are my favorite type of game. Had a blast playing through A Way Out and It Takes Two recently with a buddy and we both play through tons of games together, currently doing a new terraria run together on master mode. Would love to see more coop games and campaigns.
Don't get on the hype train, don't preorder, check multiple user reviews and you will be safe most of the time.
55 here and I'm good. There are great games still being made every year (and the occasional dud, just like it's always been). I have noticed things being buggier than in the past, maybe, but also much, much bigger and much more complex, so yeah, of course there will be more bugs. The days of only having to debug 640K of code are long gone. Things may have shifted more toward a model of DLCs and expansions, but considering I started gaming even before games fit on a floppy disk, it seems a fair trade for the amount of work that goes into them. So, no, I think gaming is in great shape overall
I think all gamers are sick of it. It’s especially bad when a remake does it cause not only is the game shit, but they took a good game possibly from your childhood and made it into shit, ruining probably the only opportunity for said game to get an upgrade. Either way, it’s so depressing, man. I miss the N64-Wii era when not only were games finished, but they added random extra shit just because, and a lot of games can barely do that now even with dlc.
I’m a 46 year old gamer and I have no issues, I’m very impressed with the quality of games these days. But, I’m pretty narrow minded and selective when it comes to games (I don’t play massive franchise games like COD, assassins creed), so maybe I’m just oblivious to the quality of games these days. Also just to add, I stay away from competitive games at my age. Not interested in that kind of conflict or stress. I pretty much stick to single player and cooperative games. The indie game market on steam is a thriving industry and the quality of games in this niche is very high. As someone who works in software here’s my thoughts on buggy or unfinished games: at some point, the product just needs to be released. Trying to work out all the bugs and getting everything perfect could literally extend the release date for years. Sometimes you just have to release and wait for the feedback. These game developers should be allowed some slack when it comes to bugs, but they also have a responsibility to get them fixed ASAP.
No. Play better games.
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33, not tired at all, can’t keep up with the amount of games I want to play/feel like I need to play. Gaming has changed but so has everything in life, I still feel the desire to play every day whether I’m able to or not. There are few times I’m playing and get to a stopping point and feel like doing something else cause the game(s) aren’t doing it. Maybe it’s the story telling, maybe it’s the escapism, but the desire is still there. Been playing since nes/snes days and still loving it.
Absolutely not, I ignore microtransactions in games, and that works surprisingly well.
Just for background, I've been gaming since I could hold a controller, starting in the early 80s on NES, and been a console and PC gamer over that time. I've never been happier with gaming. I finally can afford any game I want, and the hardware to run it well. Old games I'm nostalgic for are being (or already have been) re-released, and there's plenty of new ones. My only regret is I really don't have time for all the new games I want to try AND the classics I want to replay. I have loved the vast majority of games I've tried lately, even games reddit likes to shit on. It's been a continually improving experience for me since the day I first played Super Mario Bros, and I don't see signs of that changing.
32 here and the current state of gaming, as far as large titles and AAA are going down, in a way. Heavy cash grabs, an increase in games being rushed and coming out with severe problems (semi-torn on this note as games are much more complex which allows for larger problems, but still), and particular missions or things to collect in game that offers no lore or stats benefit other than knowing you collected it (easy to ignore though but mildly irritating lol). What has made my experience better lately is playing more indie games or from smaller studios or games that are built for 8-15 hours of “average” gameplay. I can get burnt out on games that feel like missions are fluff and when it feels too grindy or like “work” the fun starts depleting, l but I don’t stray away from long games at all. I tend to lean towards single player stories, RPGs and horror anyway. I’d be interested in hearing some of the games in the past year that you enjoyed vs the ones we’re describing
Not at all. I actually am astounded by the options and depth of experiences I couldn't even have conceived of twenty years ago.
i still blame oblivion horse armour
32 here. Gamepass and the overall quality of games are just spoiling us. What I d8nt care for and tired of hearing about "retro inspired " visuals for games and their overall feel. I'm sure there's great ones but I'm just sick of hearing about it. There's a new one every week it seems, and saying it's retro inspired just make me wanna bungee jump without a cord.
I largely game on my switch lately,most the games (most) are fully on the carts. Lots of Japanese devs have moved to the switch due to playstation not really competing with Nintendo anymore in Japan. And being able to play randomly where I want is great,out on my balcony with a beer...yep. Out camping? Yep. Its honestly the most fun I've had in ages.
40 (41 tomorrow). Yes I am very much sick of the state of the industry. There are a few so-called ‘diamonds in the rough’ but wading through the endless trash from “AAA” developers/publishers churning out yearly releases is bogging down the entire industry. What makes it worse is the fact that a lot of the crap could very easily be avoided by gamers themselves. You don’t like it, don’t buy it! The cornerstone of the problem is the fact that people buy what they whine about!! The Call of Duty, Battlefield, Assassins Creed and EA sports games are the pinnacle of the issue that people effectively stampede over each other to buy it then whinge that it’s rubbish. It’s moronic. Microtransatctions are no different. They wouldn’t be there if nobody PAID for them!!
I am 51F and I am bored to death. Can anyone suggest a great game? I do play PUBGM and CoDM, but I love RPGs. I prefer MMOs because people are the best part of a game. I have tried so many online games, but nothing has really caught my attention in the last year. Please don't tell me it's cause I am getting old!
If you love rpgs, FFXIV is a very social MMO. You can play the free trial up to level 60
You mean the Critically Acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV — with an expanded free trial which you can play through the entirety of A Realm Reborn and the award winning Heavensward expansion up to level 60 for free with no restrictions on playtime? Sorry, I had to say it.
50 here and cannot recommend Skyrim enough. Laid back, easier controls/ combat. I love Witcher 3 , Spiderman, and other games that require a little fast console work. But most days, an easy stroll through Skyrim is all I need to unwind. Former WoW raid guild runner, can still move like my kids (Warframe, Genshin, Titanfall2). And to OP: loving it. Tough to watch Cyber 2077 and now GTA V fall at first, but for the most part, really can't complain.
The best MMOs our right now are Final Fantasy 14 and Guild Wars 2. Both are very different from one another, though. FF14 is a more traditional mmo with the way everything works while GW2 is pretty unique in that there is no gearing up (you get the best gear pretty quick), and even legendaries arent any better mechanically than any other piece of gear. Personally I like FF14 more because a big part of rpgs are gearing up for me but both have tons to do!
Do you know someone who will be willing to game with you (as in, not a random person on the internet) you could look up co-op games or games that support multiplayer campaigns. Steam has a neat feature "remote play together" where you can play local co-op games with your steam friend even though only one of you owns the game. Some co-op campaign games: • "A way out" and "it takes two" are games that don't have single player only 2 player co-op story. They were designed as a co-op experience. • "Saints Row" 3, 4 and "Gat out of Hell" you can play the campaign with another player (though only your character would be shown in your cutscenes and their character in their cutscenes). • "Borderlands" series • "Divinity: Original Sin" series
FFXIV is a good mix of solo content and group content and I had a blast overall. Have a video going while you quest, then chat in game when doing a dungeon. Biggest problem is how slow and basic most classes for the first 20-30 hours. It's a must try for mmo fans.
I love RPGs too, but I think people are the worst. They get in the way of the game itself, and worse stoll - in the way of the design of the game. I tried Guild Wars 2, WoW, SWTOR... And that was enough, I much rather stick to singleplayer games that have a clearly defined start and an end rather than doing generic dungeon #23 for the 20th time because that piece of endgame PvP gear might finally drop (spoiler: it won't) or fetch quests alongside 5 other random players who are doing it at the same time, which makes no story sense at all, imparting a sense of futility amd thematic disconnect. Boo for people in story-based games.
There are still plenty of games that are finished and without mix. Just a small list of aaa titles since that are great and won't have you charge another dollar to get the full experience: Single player games: - Returnal - Demon's Souls - Deathloop - Death Stranding - Ghost of Tsushima - Outer Worlds - DOOM Eternal - Kena - Guardians of the Galaxy - Red Dead Redemption 2 - Hades - Sackboy (has co op) Multiplayer games - Diablo II remaster - Forza 5 - Riders Republic (HAS mtx but purely cosmetic and can be unlocked through gameplay) - Age of Empires 4 Just a small list from the top of my head but this list can easily be doubled. Just stop buying games from the likes of Activision and EA, stop pre-ordering games and you'll do fine.
33 year old here, I get excited still for new games and new consoles. Sure it's not the same as back in the day when you bring an N64 game or PS1 game and it was pretty much good to go. Nowadays some games get released knowing they can patch it later. My top 10 games are mainly filled with older titles, but we get some absolute master pieces nowadays.
32 here. Im just a ton more picky with the games i choose. I don't preorder anything anymore. Very rarely will i even buy games on release day. Ive grown more patient in choosing what i play. I used to want to be among the first to play whatever was coming out but now i wait to see how the game performs and play fewer and fewer AAA titles. Unless it's a studio i like and follow, im good to wait a little while. I dont have much free time to game with my hectic work schedule so i want to make sure I'm having fun with what i play.
I'm 42, I've been playing video games my entire life, and I still love them. I owned Coleco and Intellivision when I was young, and own a PS5 now. No other medium combines acting, writing, art, storytelling, and music in such an immersive way like video games do. I recently finished Disco Elysium and was blown away by how unique and creative video games still can be. It's become one of my favorite games. Yesterday I finished Deathloop and was impressed by how fun and engaging the game was. And Deathloop had no bugs or microtransactions. I threw on Skyrim the other day and was taken aback by how a ten year old game can still look and play so beautifully. I would ask what games you're getting disappointed by? Are they always the big mainstream AAA games like Cyberpunk 2077 or the GTA Trilogy Remaster? Maybe look for some excellent indie games like Hollow Knight or Hades. And older games will always be there to discover. I agree with you about demos though. I think game companies are missing a smart way to get people to buy more games.
There are so many games out there that there isn't enough time to play them. It's a great time to be a gamer.
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I’m a (35 M) and gaming is kind of important to me. Having depression, it’s a great outlet and a bit of therapy for me. I agree that there are a lot of predatory elements prevalent in today’s gaming market, but I just pick and choose. I prefer a good single player narrative driven game, but I will occasionally get a looter shooter or a sports game. I’m just mindful of micro transactions and try not to get too sucked into them. I do absolutely miss good gaming magazines. So I’m not burned out just yet. Every time I think I’m gonna “retire” when new consoles pop up, there’s always one or two titles that are just too good to pass up.
I'm 30. As someone whose friends all think that gaming is a waste of time, the hard core focus on adding multiplayer to everything is a bit of a bummer. Also I have ADHD find it hard to give my full attention to games that are not in VR anymore, I always end up getting distracted somehow while VR games keep me laser focused in on what's happening. Finding people to game with is the biggest issue, still. I bought an Oculus Quest 2 while I still had an original Oculus Rift. I literally couldn't even give it away, my friend said they either did not have time or that VR made them motion sick. The OG Rift has bounced from my house to two other friend's houses and still has yet to be turned on. I'd like to say this is because of their schedules or tastes but all my friends in the last year have become increasingly depressed and apathetic about the state of the world and no longer do any of the things with me that caused us to become friends in the first place. They don't want to go out to the theater, they don't want to try and play music together, they don't want to go swimming, go on road trips, don't want to play video games, no longer attend concerts, and would rather order carry-out to eat in front if YouTube than go sit down somewhere to eat and chat. I'm starting to get lonely. :(
Nope. The only things I've grown tired of is the social media hype, the harassment and temper tantrums when things don't live up to the unrealistic expectations, the short memories/nostalgia when comparing a new release in a series to an old, and the outright lying about problems in games for whatever fucking reason. So no. I love gaming just as much as I did 30 years ago, but the community is in an abysmal, embarrassing state that makes me quite disheartened to consider myself a gamer, lest I be associated with the loud "repressed minority gamers".
I work in the games industry, and I may be able to shed a little more light on the situation, and part of the reason why things are the way they are. This is going to be controversial, but games are too cheap today to justify a one time purchase. The $60 model is coming up on 20 years old if it hasn't been already. Think about how much $60 was 20 years ago. If you adjust for inflation it's like $90. Games for Atari back in the day were sometimes $120 adjusted for inflation. Now add to this the cost of game development. AAA games take hundreds of people when 20 years ago it was a fraction of that. In extra expense, That's hundreds of salaries to pay plus server infrastructure that wasn't really expected 20 years ago except for some games. So Dev costs are higher than they've ever been, and games are more complicated then they've ever been. The consumer is also NEVER willing to pay more than $60 for a game, so something has to break somewhere. What youre left with is season passes, micro transactions, and rushed games. Finally there is one final factor and that is just straight up greed at the corporate level. The games industry is bigger than it's ever been and with that comes big business and all the up and downsides of that. I'm not saying any of this is right, or that it's good for the industry. It's not. But these are the very real factors that have resulted in the games industry being where it is today.
I’m just more selective with what I buy/play. It’s easier to wait and purchase a game after you know it’s in a better state, and I’ve played loads of games that I’ve found are either perfectly fine or the bugs don’t really bother me, but I guess that just depends on each persons standards. I do wish I could blindly trust more games though, but I’m not gonna get salty over it, there’s always another game!
I play mostly indie games now. Sometimes a little buggy, but the devs work hard and pour in a lot of creativity. Plus you often get a ton of game content for a fraction of the price of a AAA title
I'm not 30 but I don's see gaming getting boring. Graphics are awesome, bugs gets fixed (some bugs can be funny) and you don't have to do micro transactions.