Has your taste in video games ever changed?

[CaptJohnSheridan]

My first game system was a PS1 and Gran Turismo was my first video game. Throughout elementary, middle, high school, and up to my first year of college I played only FPS like Call of Duty, some Halo, and Medal of Honor as well as RTS like Command and Conquer, EndWar, Supreme Commander, and Halo Wars.

It wasn't until 2014 that I was finally sick of modern military shooters and my interest in RTS games had waned. I have always looked at video games as an art and I wanted to play games that prove the video game medium was a medium capable of telling good stories. My first choices were To The Moon and Mass Effect. The music, characters, and storylines of those games drew me in! I finally knew why people loved movies and shows like Star Wars and Game of Thrones. RPG games and story oriented games like Knights of the Old Republic, Banner Saga, Life is Strange, Broken Age, Final Fantasy, and Kingdom Hearts became my favorite genres.

I am so excited for Mass Effect Andromeda, Horizon Zero Dawn, Telltale's Guardians of the Galaxy, and Square Enix Avengers game!

Are we in a golden age of video games?

Has your taste in video games ever changed like this?

 

[Saelune]

Nope. When I like a game, I stay liking it. But I regularly go back and replay games from any time.

 

[Hawki]

Well, let's see...

First console I owned was a Megadrive (or Genesis, if you prefer), so started off mainly playing platformers - Sonic, Mario, etc. Lasted well into the 3D era, with Sonic remaining strong with me until Sonic Heroes (not the last 3D Sonic game I played, just the last one I truly enjoyed), with the likes of Crash, Banjo, and Spyro joining the mix, with Mario getting some limelight as well. Probably played my share of racing/kart/party games as well.

Wind back a bit to the late 90s and my tastes shift a bit, with a renewed emphasis on story - Ocarina of Time, Metal Gear Solid, StarCraft, etc. All of these games have solid stories, all were my first introductions to their respective franchises, StarCraft was the second RTS I played, but the one that succeeded in selling me on the genre.

2000s are hard to categorize. You could probably point to any genre and I ended up sampling it. In my top 10 games of all time, most of them do come from the 2000s period, with entries like Warcraft III, Resident Evil 4, The Wind Waker, etc. I know MMS games became big at this point, but I missed the boat on this one. I played and enjoyed the likes of Medal of Honour and WWII Call of Duty, but the Halo games were my FPS jam in this era. Also the fading out of platformers for me, as well as racing and fighting games (e.g. used to be big on Mortal Kombat in the 90s, and Soul Calibur in the 2000s.

Come the 2010s, and I'm much older than I was back in the early 90s (nah, really?). So, on one hand, my tastes are even more towards a focus on story (regardless of genre), and with greater purchasing power parity. On the other, not only do I have less time, but it's time spread evenly throughout other pastimes such as writing, reading, watching movies/TV series, wiki editing, etc. So, on one hand, it's the decade that delivered more entries in my top ten list such as StarCraft II and Xenoblade Chronicles. On the other, it's also the decade where I spend 20-30 minute sessions playing games like Heroes of the Storm - quick fixes rather than 'meaty' sessions, and where I'm far more wary about diving into games because of the time investment involved.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Depends. Does having genres morph themselves away from what you used to like count as taste in games changing? Because I've got stern words for jrpgs in that regard. Or EA for mucking up my sports games.

Past that, it's less that my tastes change and more that my acceptable floor for art direction keeps raising. For the most part, if a game was marketed as having "realistic" graphics, I basically can't play it unless it's less than 7 years old. Strong stylistic choices and mitigate or eliminate that, but... well, I've got a copy of Driver I'm never getting back to.

 

[Bilious Green_v1legacy]

I started in the early 80's, so I've seen most of the major evolutions in gaming, and as new styles and genres of games have emerged, I've found many I liked while old ones fell by the wayside. I'm into RPGs (tactical and action) and MMOs these days, but I used to be heavily into fighting games and shooters, neither of which I really play anymore.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Let see-

I was still playing SNES during the N64/ PS era cos I didn't had alot of allowance back then.

I started to played RTS mainly C&C and Total Annihilation when I had my brother pc.

When me and my bro chipped in for a Gamecube, I was finally at the current gamine trend.

When I bought my first pc, I got some games for it.. I only became more serious pc game when I build my own pc due to it having a better graphic card.

These days I had totally shifted toward android/ tablet base games now that I'm addicted to my tablet. Ironic that I only bought it so I can used the wifi when over the weekend at my brother wedding.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Well, I still really enjoy FPS (except MMS), WRPG and platformers, so that hasn't changed. Neither has my general dislike of most fighting, racing and sports games.

I used to be into RTS but somewhere around C&C3 my interest in the genre petered out.

I also played a lot of JPRGs and TPS games, but lately I rarely get interested in those anymore.

 

[The Madman]

Well I used to play way more shooters, whereas nowadays it's mostly strategy and rpg games which occupy my gaming time. There are exceptions but even most of those are kinda old: The STALKER series and UT2004 primarily, with the only new on and off shooter being Overwatch which I'll sometimes play if I see friends online.

I think the last new shooter I actually completed was Wolfenstein, and as good as that game was it took me forever to get around to beating for one reason or another. Guess it's just not my genre these days.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

I used to love open-world games, but now I just cannot tolerate them.

 

[Tanis]

I used to LOVE grinding in (J)RPGs, but as I've gotten older...not too much.

I also liked FPS, but as time went on...meh.

 

[distortedreality]

My tastes have expanded over the years for the most part - the only genre I don't really get into these days is MP FPS, and it takes a really good campaign for me to play through SP.

 

[SmallHatLogan]

My tastes have only really changed in the sense that I've become more picky/critical about certain things. Mainly in regards to games that don't do a good job at making story and gameplay complement each other (in games where story is relevant) and games that don't do a good job at giving me a sense of player agency. It mostly applies to JRPGs but some action games have these issues too.

 

[BrawlMan]

My tastes have only really changed in the sense that I've become more picky/critical about certain things. Mainly in regards to games that don't do a good job at making story and gameplay complement each other (in games where story is relevant) and games that don't do a good job at giving me a sense of player agency. It mostly applies to JRPGs but some action games have these issues too.

EDIT:

This. Back then I was an semi-all variety guy in the early to mid 90s. The late 90s and early 200s I played few RPGs here and there, but I stopped caring for them around 2006 or so. Some survival horror (mainly RE, Silent Hill, and Fear Effect), and then I lost interest in those too. My play style mainly consisted of arcade style games, which are sorely lacking in the AAA industry today. I was never big on shooters or realistic shooters in general, so that more or less stayed the same. The only difference now is that I'm more appreciative of the FPSs of yesteryear that actually tried to be unique even if it wasn't perfect. Back in gen 7, too many developers were trying to be COD whether it made sense or not; even if the game or franchise in question was never even a FPS to begin with. Thank God, this practice is finally dying off now. Nowadays, I only pick games that interest me, doesn't matter if it's "popular" or not. If I don't like it, then I don't like it. My time and money is valuable so I am not going to waste $60 bucks up front for some overpriced multiplayer only game, or any game where the content was cut out for a few extra bucks; doing your research always helps. It is something I learned during the PS2 era.

 

[laggyteabag]

I used to be all over open world games, specifically by Bethesda, like Oblivion, and Skyrim, but as my spare time has dwindled, I've grown to prefer well-paced linear games, much more.

Its cool and all to just pick a direction and go, but at the same time, the antagonist seems a hell of a lot less powerful and pressing when you can just go "Hold up a second, im just gonna go and build a house and maybe join this mysterious murder cult."

Another one is Pokemon. I used to live off of those games when I was a kid, but these days, they're just too grindy. Battles take too long, and this is much more obvious when you're trying to level up your team. They've improved it with the shared XP now, but still, I just want a fast-forward button, or an auto-resolve, or whatever.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

I think it depends how much you do it. Constantly gaming is going to numb those reward pathways effectively and feeling any pleasure will be on a scale of diminishing returns. Kind of like the spiral into a drug addiction, legal or illegal. What used to be fun now doesn't quite give the same joy, so you seek better ones, something fresher and exciting, but once you get those, your mind becomes used to the experience and the wonder fades once more. Eventually the glimmer of excitement becomes a dull disappointment and cynicism takes hold as you find less and less of these moments. Taking a break for weeks, months even, then coming back and allowing the activity some moderation does alleviate these somewhat and it's surprising how much more enjoyable they can be then.

Anyway, my tastes change all the time. It's hard to keep it up. Used to like old Resi evil, but going back to them now just annoys me. Final fantasy games would have probably been liked if I played them as an impressionable teenager who didn't care for character as much as style, but luckily dodged that nostalgic bullet. Time is suddenly more precious as the feast before the maw of oblivion draws closer and closer.

 

[sanquin]

I used to be all about FPS games. Quake, doom, a LOT of CS 1.6, call of duty 1 and 2 Half life 1 and 2, etc. But at some point that just stopped. I think it was around the time I started playing WoW back in Vanilla. Over a timespan of...maybe a year I started to like rpg's/adventure games more and more. Now I mostly play those and survival/crafting games. Though I do still play some FPS like Doom 2016 and Planetside 2.

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

Hell yeah, I mean I've been playing games on and off since I suppose the late 80's. I've never really been interested in games as a whole but played them because they have been a way of experiencing other things I'm into.

E.g. when I was a little kid in primary school I played various simple flight sims or similar themed games on my friends BBC computer because we were both into WWII, Battle of Britain, painted little model aeroplanes etc.

I got my first computer at about 12/13ish, an Amiga 500 and me and same friend were both into Aliens so I bought both Alien Breed and Alien Breed 92 and we played a lot of that 2 player. There were loads of copied platformers that I got given but they weren't really my thing, I just played them on cheats because they were free and it passed time.

Got a SNES a couple of years after it came out for Streetfighter 2 to play with friends. This was the local multiplayer era. A mate of mine had a multitap so it was things like bomberman, mariokart, smash tennis etc.

Playstation/N64 carried on with the multiplayer but went more into the clubber/boy racer gamer style. Worms, Tekken, Gran Tourismo, Rage Racer, Wipeout, Goldeneye etc.

Then I stopped playing games for several years. I was too much into other things, though it was kind of thanks to Music on the Playstation showing me that making music on a computer wasn't as hard as the couple of times I'd tried wrestling with Cubase with no instructions.

Then I went back to uni in the late 2000's and got a PC. At this point I didn't really know anyone who played games but I had been into Warhammer/40K as a youngster and I found out about the DoW games etc and have pretty much been into Warhammer games since then as a way of playing Warhammer but without all the time consuming painting and learning the rules. From that I also got into turn based strategy games. I also play a decent amount of RPGs but there's only a couple that really worked for me, most get given up on shortly after playtime reaches double digits.

 

[Zen Bard]

Yeah. I was a rabid PC gamer. But I got tired of swapping out my motherboard and upgrading my OS every 18 months when the cool new games came out. So I switched to a console and haven't looked back since.

Unfortunately, that killed my love of RTS games. I find the unit management system a little more challenging with a controller than with a keyboard.

I also used be a fiend for FPS games. Started out with classics like Wolfenstein, Doom and Hexxen. Give me a BFG, some cut 'n' paste corridors and disposable enemies and I'm a happy man. Then I played Jedi Knight II: Outcast which ruined everything for me. Brightly colored environments, cool guns AND Force powers?! After that, other FPS games just seemed dull by comparison (although Bioshock came close).

Nowadays, I'm all about the RPGs, the action adventures and the time-waster casual games.

 

[maninahat]

I used to be pretty open to all games, but due to time constraints, I only play two particular kinds. Either I play really short, story intense, artsy games, or I play endless, creative/strategic games that I can just dip in and out of. Things that fall in between (Like 8-12 hour FPSs) tend to not get a look in anymore. One day it might be a whole episode of Kentucky Route Zero, another it might be a few hours spent trying to build an exact replica of a WWII U-boat in From the Depths.