How has your gaming taste changed with age?

[Zeckt]

So I was thinking today on just how different my taste in gaming is these days as opposed to my younger years, about how I loved video games with epic stories or ones I could simply get lost in. It's quite ironic how I used to play computer strategy games for hours and hours on end (old ones like warcraft 2 and lords of the realm 2 come to mind) and obsess over EVERY single jrpg I could get my hands on, even if it was lame as hell as secret of the stars. I was seriously obsessed with fantasy and its warfare. However, any game that was overly violent made me queasy. Action was not even close to my favorite genre.

Now? I freaking LOVE games with violence and literally cannot stand jrpg's as my disgust to the tales of graces trailer showed me. (not saying its a bad game) I love action games way more now, and can't get enough of the mindless ones like the dynasty warriors series. I think it came to a point where my imagination was not so over reactive anymore, and I crave the adrenaline a good challenging game can now give me and get bored to tears if I'm playing an overly easy rpg. What about you guys?

Edit : I realize I'm being hypocritical on jrpg's for being cartoony with a pony avatar, but um yeah I guess I am. Ponies just help to cheer me up.

 

[Kahunaburger]

My tolerance for grind has dropped like a rock over the years.

 

[Dandark]

Recently I have just botten so damn bored of two things, "realistic" modern war shooters and survival modes. Games like MW3 and BF3 just bore the hell out of me now. I still like shooters, I play Tribes: Ascend regularly, but I cannot stand modern war shooters anymore because they are so goddamn boring.

Should probably also mention that I used to love COD4 and Battlefield: bad company but now I can't stand them. I've also gotten more into RTS games, over the years my interest would fade in and out but after discovering LoL, I have found myself really getting into it.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

My tolerance for grind has dropped like a rock over the years.

Same here. I hate it when games waste my time. I can wait very patiently, but only if there's a point to it, not when it's just padding.

I used to love online multiplayer, now I dislike playing online with anyone but a few specific people. My favorite genres used to be FPS, RTS and jrpg. Now I'm more into wrpg, stealth games and various other types of action adventure games. I also learned to appreciate point&click adventures and puzzle games.

What hasn't changed is my love of platformers and my strong distaste of sports games.

 

[SckizoBoy]

*meh* Hasn't changed much at all...

Used to love strat games, FPS's & RPG's (so long as they have strong single-player modes)... still do... though add sandbox-actioners to the mix and that's my taste in games.

 

[RedFeather1975]

I've grown to hate grind too. Played mmorpgs for years, and ended up moving to Guild Wars and loving it for it's low level cap and the huge number of skills you can acquire.

Games I like right now seem to be about collecting things that you can experiment with and alter your playstyle with. For example, I like games with skill trees that offer tons of different kinds of skills.

Here's my favourite skill in Guild Wars.
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Signet_of_Illusions
It let me create all kinds of fun builds.

 

[Smertnik]

Not at all. I enjoy the same genres I liked, say, ten years ago. I actually replayed a few games I completed around that time just a short while back. And I'm pretty sure I would have liked the games I'm playing now back then.
I probably wouldn't have the patience to play through Contra now, though. And something like <url=http://retromedia.ign.com/retro/image/article/885/885666/boogerman-a-pick-flick-adventure-20080701044734665.jpg>Boogerman doesn't hold much of an appeal now anymore.

 

[endtherapture]

I can't play a game without an engaging story now - I don't see the point otherwise any more.

 

[Fappy]

It's matured as in playing more M-rated games, but honestly my tastes haven't changed that much. I still play tons of games from my childhood and some new ones that try to invoke that feeling.

 

[Indecipherable]

It's hard to say because I grew up when computer gaming was so new and I have basically witnessed its entire evolution.

I played Space Invaders on a monochrome monitor.

I played NES games which were predominantly platformers.

I went through a very long phase of shooters starting with Wolfenstein 3D, Spear of Destiny, Doom, Doom2, Quake, etc. I played Counter Strike when it was in beta 6.0, was a moderator on the official CS forums for years and received a free copy of Condition Zero from cliffe along with the other moderators. Over time I slowly moved away from competitive FPSers but I'm still pretty good at them after playing the life out of them for 10 years.

I used to love real time strategy, I was introduced to it in the original Warcraft. I tried the original Dune but wasn't a fan. I played a stack of Command and Conquers (the original), Warcraft II (to absolute death), and Starcraft. I generally just played them casually and I don't have the will to really get deep into them.

I have always played a lot of RPGs. From Faxanadu on the original NES to the Fallouts, Arcanum, NWN, etc. etc. All western RPGs. I've done a lot of MMO RPGs recently, generally a heap of PVP in those.

So yes, I guess it has changed, but so has the whole gaming scene. Platformers just aren't like what they used to be, and FPS's no longer hold my interest. I can't play them night and day like I used to on my 56kbps modem after high school. I will still play pretty much any genre except sports games which somehow are a blight to my gaming fun.

 

[roushutsu]

Growing up, I was never really into shooter games (1st or 3rd person) and usually stuck with RPGs and platformers. Nowadays I still like to play platformers regularly and to me it feels as if it's hard to find a damn good RPG anymore. Good ones pop up from time to time, but not as frequent as before.

Just this past year alone, I've found myself playing more shooting games, namely Team Fortress 2, Bioshock, the Mass Effects, the Portals (I know, technically not a shooter but still). That's caught me by surprise the most because I always thought I'd never get into those kinds of games AT ALL. Right now I'm not big into the war-games or CoD knock-offs, but who knows if that will change in the years to come.

 

[Zhukov]

Used to be all about the action and excitement.

Now I crave good writing and characters... which I can hardly ever find.

Also, thoroughly sick of shooters and fantasy RPGs. Can we make something else now? Please?

 

[Zantos]

Now I'm older I can afford to buy more games. That's about it. I still play games like I used to when I was younger. Hell, I still play exactly the same games I used to, I love to crack on the Spyro or the Crash.

 

[General_Mills44]

That's a tough question and I think the best way to answer is that my tastes have matured.Early on I had whatever non-gaming PC my family had and consoles such as NES,Sega Genesis, N64, and then GameCube. I loved pretty much any genre but never had access to many RPGs until I bought myself an Xbox. From there I fell in love with the KOTOR series and Jade Empire. Eventually as I got a little bit older and had my own source of income I started buying more and more RPGs. Now i pretty much enjoy any genre but specifically RPGs. So I wouldn't say I really changed at all but just developed with the times. My older consoles and crappy PC didn't really give me access to the deep and thought provoking or visually stunning, or what was thought to be at the time, games that I so readily play nowadays.

 

[MrShowerHead]

Not much, I've come to enjoy tactical or "realistic" FPS games a lot more. By realistic, I don't mean stuff like COD or Medal of Honor. More like ArmA and Operation Flashpoint (The original one, not the new ones, ugh...)

Also, I used to be the type of gamer who didn't care about the story at all. Just ran through the game, skipping every cutscene just so I could pewpew more. Not sure what game changed this, but nowadays, I focus on story a lot. I'm one of the guys who reads all the codex pages in ME and DA games.

 

[Gerishnakov]

I grew out of platformers somewhere in my early teens, but then their golden age ended around then anyway. I also don't like FPS anywhere near as much as I used to. I only play Battlefield 3 now.

I've definitely gotten much more into RPGs in the past 5 years. Games like Mass Effect and Fallout 3 played a big part there.

Some things have remained constant though. I still love Zelda, and turn based strategy.

 

[TheDharmaFox]

I thought shootey actioney games were the bee's knees, beat 'em up wahey!

But there was a turning point, RE4, yes Resident Evil 4 turned me right around and introduced me to my favourite franchise. I played half an hour of a buddies copy, loved it, then we popped in the REmake. And I fell in love. I guess it was curiosity that got me hooked, I just wanted more. The gameplay sure was clunky, but hell I got past it and it blows my mind with how much fun I have.

So I guess as I got older, my tastes turned towards survival horror and actually pacing things, because it's not always a race.