I am finding games dissapointing because i'm getting older or because they aren't as good?

[Duck Sandwich]

Spoiler: Long, winding rambling

As I've gotten older, my standards for gaming have gotten much higher. I used to love Diablo 2. Now, I can't stand the game because of its combat system and its insistence that I kill the same monsters repeatedly so that I can get the Uber 1337 Sword of 1337ness to replace my Weak Club of Weakness.

I remember loving Skies of Arcadia, even though I would always run away from random battles because I found them boring.

I've never really gotten into a lot of mainstream games (Any Halo after 1, Call of Duty, Bioshock, Fallout, etc), but I doubt that really has anything to do with me getting older.

The last time I've had that "OMG THIS IS AWESOME" feeling was when I played Starcraft 2, especially when playing 2v2 with a friend. But now that I've beaten the campaign about 8-10 times on Brutal, and the only friend I have that played the game regularly no longer plays it, I'm kind of hesitant to get back into it. 1v1 Quick Matches are fun, but not if you're getting curbstomped because you're not playing as well as you normally do.

Most of my favourite games are relatively new, although there are a few of them that are (Mega Man Zero Collection, Devil May Cry 3 & 4, Starcraft 2, Mega Man X8, F-Zero GX, Street Fighter 4, Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition)

While there are less games that I get excited for, and I spend less time playing them, I do get more enjoyment out of the time I spend playing games.

TL;DR - As I get older, gaming for me has gotten less about quantity (how many games I play, how much time I spend playing) and more about quality (how much I enjoy playing games). I'll take Devil May Cry over any of the classic old-school beat-em-ups any day.

 

[badgersprite]

A bit of both. Things that are old hash now at one point felt new and incredible to us. Believe it or not, at one point, we were kids who had never played a WWII shooter or played as a space marine! As kids, games like this were exciting to us, because we were too young to have played the ones that came before. Now, however, we're adults who have played (or at least seen) dozens of these iterations of games.

Although, by the same token, I'll say that it does definitely seem true that more games in this current console generation (maybe with the exception of the Wii, but I don't own one, so I can't comment) do appear to follow similar formulas. There seem to be fewer games where you're not playing as "generic action guy #289286" and even fantasy games seem very rigidly locked into that.

I'll freely admit that I would like games with more insane premises instead of churning out more of what was successful before (things that were often successful because they felt unique and different). I sincerely want to play a game where I'm playing as a ninja robot flying around on a rocket-powered skateboard doing stunts and tricks while at the same time shooting lasers and performing martial arts moves on dragons who are flying around breathing fire at me. I want more crazy colourful shit like that.

 

[Geekosaurus]

I think we all have massive expectations of new games. Hype is always the biggest killer.

 

[VanillaBean]

Very true statement but I think it also has to do with the fact that alot of game publishers are simply copying good ideas to make a profit (*cough*Most FPSs*cough*). So were not getting as much original material as we did back in the day.

 

[LogicNProportion]

It's easy to understand why people like me (and presumably, you) become jaded with gaming.

We defeated Dr. Robotnik. We saved the Princess (in fact, we saved several princesses, several times). We won World War Two more times than we care to count. We defeated the legions of Hell. We became the ruler of Hell and saved it from the heroes. We've run Theme Parks and Hospitals and Cities and Any Colonies. We've lost track of how many worlds we've saved with sword and sorcery. We defeated Ganon. We won the First Tiberian War (one way or the other). We've slain so many Orcs and Goblins Khorne could build his palace out of our trophies alone.

We've reached the point where we approach the task of saving the day with a matter-of-fact calmness and justified self-assured swagger; we beat the Bydo, why should the Locust or Chimera worry us?

In short, we feel that we've seen it all, and done it all... and thus we are jaded, and with that comes a lack of appreciation for the medium. We think old games were better not because they were, but because every game felt new and wondrous to us.

Oh, and anyone who can work out each reference in that list, Kudos indeed to you!

January 1st, 2011 - I have found true love.

This guy has said it better than anyone. I do indeed feel like a tired old veteran, just going from day to day, no matter how extraordinary my feats are just to earn the right to live.

Sir, I salute you! (And possibly a bit more than that.) xD

 

[jamesfrommelbourne]

bet movies arent as good anymore either, have you becomed disallusioned with the govenrment, courts, police? young people seem really immature?
in that case you are old, welcome to the club

 

[random_bars]

I think a factor in this is that as you get older, you can afford more games, so you don't value each game as much. When you were a kid, getting a new game was something that happened (at least for me) every few months or so, so I'd play the hell out of that game, finding everything, going everywhere, trying to squeeze as much life out of the game as I could. When you're older, if you get a game and it doesn't immediately click with you you'll just end up speeding through it and shelving it, or returning it. I think added to that is the fact that generally you get better at gaming as you age and get more experience, so as a kid games will take you longer than they would nowadays.