I love my favorite games and have been playing them for years, but I disliked about 99% of the games I played.
I don’t think I have FoMO or anything; I just find it weird because my taste in music, film, or art/media in general is usually fairly broad. I guess I just wonder why my taste in games is aggressively limited.
It’s not for the lack of trying new games; I’ve tried more or less anything I could find, sometimes because it’s popular, other times because it looked interesting, but nothing really hits the mark like my favorite games.
I just don’t like what most developers create, I guess?
I’m hoping, by posting this, maybe I can find others who are having a similar experience, and we can share thoughts.
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I’ve found that as I got older, my taste in games has narrowed significantly. I used to be able to play pretty much anything, or especially any popular or critically acclaimed games. But these days I just don’t give a shit about most of what’s out there. I do have certain genres and developers that interest me though, so I know there are occasionally going to be some new games that I really like. And every now and then I might get surprised by something too.
Does it not feel weird sometimes to be disconnected from the gaming zeitgeist? Like, we can obviously still follow news and whatnot, but I’m particularly talking about having no significant emotional investment in contemporary releases—in other words: being disconnected from the hype of announcements and release cycles.
I know people consider this a blessing in this age of hyper-consumerism, but there’s a communal aspect to it that I like, and it often feels odd to not be part of it.
Not weird for me. I don’t play anymore at all. Don’t even have a system to do so. But, I watch YouTube videos about games and game facts or speed running every night before bed. I know more about games now than when I actually played them. I just don’t have time for them anymore but that doesn’t mean they don’t interest me. I lost my passion for playing games years ago but not the idea of it. I don’t know or care about the hype but I just find it terribly interesting via others hype or interest in these games. If that makes sense.
I suspect this is a natural result of having much more limited time as we become adults. I used to love all kinds of games too, but today if I feel like a game doesn’t respect my time it gets thrown right onto the “no thanks” pile.
I’m retired and have basically unlimited time. I still don’t like most games.
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It’s limited time, but also the selection these last few years has felt very uninspired. Everything is extremely derivative and been done to death.
There was a mass consolidation of developers/publishers recently, on top of further extended development cycles that has really limited any kind of variety we might have seen.
Yep I just go to indies now. The AAA studios feel just samey.
You can only play reskins of essentially the same game for so long. Not to mention recycling gameplay loops microtransaction hell toxic multiplayer experience (cheating griefing), makes for a minefield of unplesant game experiences. Sticking to what you like and know is how you get enjoyment out of playing.
The last few games I was looking forward to have all been pretty disappointing.
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I thought I was the only one!
Lots of people have replied with similar experiences.
But personally? I’m having the time of my life currently playing tons of new games. I love trying new ones and getting surprised, and maybe falling in love with a genre I hadn’t considered before.
I feel totally contrary to what others are saying: as I’ve gotten older, I find myself enjoying games way more. My time is more valuable to me now than ever before, so I want to fill it with things that are joyful and meaningful. Often those things are art. Games to me have always been very special in the way they can deliver a powerful artistic experience.
I think they also have a special power to be blatant disgusting soulless cash grabs, to be fair. As the years go by I feel like many aspects of the industry have become particularly unpalatable. But many studios are still releasing good games, and so far I’ve continued to find joy in seeking them out.
Not too many people on this post are actually listing games. So, in no particular order, here are some games I absolutely adored that I played recently. Games from the last ~year that have touched and moved me in some way. Experiences I don’t think I’ll forget.
Sable
Chicory: A colorful tale
Manifold Garden
Signalis
OneShot
The Talos Principle
Night in the Woods
Citizen Sleeper
Webbed
Rusted Moss
Armored Core VI
Iron Lung
Slay the Princess
Ghostrunner
Mundaun
Crosscode
Eastward
Animal Well
Pseudoregalia
Dave the Diver
Nine Sols
Patrick’s Parabox
Cocoon
Smushi Come HomeNot to imply that I expect you or anyone else to take a deep look here or to try any of these games. Just wanted to throw my perspective out there, and to show the games in concrete terms that have left an impression and continue to motivate me to keep looking and keep trying more
obligatory but entirely sincere addition for those looking for palate cleansing games: Outer Wilds
and for those after a variety of others, in particularly no order, that may or may not come up as much:
- The Powder Toy
- Heaven’s Vault
- Vilmonic
- Intraquartz
- Interior Worlds
- Mixolumia
- Thousand Threads
- Mu Cartographer
- Hypnagogia: Boundless Dreams
- Jazzpunk
- Crossniq+
- BrogueCE
- Heart&Slash
- Umurangi Generation w/ Macro
- NeonXSZ
- Paradise Killer
But this is all from a flipside of a flipside, so each is as likely to appeal as repel, quick slide to catch clicks and clunks
God, Outer Wilds is one of the most incredible gaming experiences I have ever had.
Now this is a list! Thank you, based on the few I have played here I can’t wait to check out the rest
I have been firing up The Powder Toy for well over a decade to kill time during meetings
Have you tried Outer Wilds by any chance? Seems like the kind of game you would enjoy.
Yea! An all time favorite, but I played it a long time ago. I wanted to keep my little list just to recent games. Irl I am very annoying about recommending OW to everyone, as well as its dlc which continued to blow me away
I also recently played through In Stars and Time so I recommend that as well considering you were into Slay the Princess.
I love that you’re having a different experience! This is exactly why I posted about this: I have found that my taste in almost everything else has become broader as I aged, so I was wondering what’s the deal with my uncharacteristically narrow taste in video games.
Sadly, I tried most of the games on your list, and found out they’re not for me. I’ll try the rest though! Thank you for taking the time to list them.
I don’t think you’re alone in this. I’m kind of becoming the same way, and I figure it’s because as you become older you become wiser, specifically wiser to the way that so many modern games are bullshit now.
Nowadays it seems like almost everything is just a cynical cash grab. And with a lifetime of experience, you know how to spot that bullshit. Oh look, it has always online components. And an in game store. And season content. And gatcha mechanics. And grind. Not only just regular old grind, you know, where you need to level up and be at least be this tall to beat the beef gate (which always has the tantalizing possibility of being able circumvent it by cheesing it or being very clever). No, it’s just grind with no mechanical justification. You must fill the bar before you’re allowed to access this content. Would you like to make a microtransaction to fill the bar faster?
Fuck that, and count me out.
The current fascination is on delivering games as a “service,” and that just rubs me the wrong way. Everything is transient, nothing is permanent, and everyone is making a desperate grab for recurring revenue over creating a compelling experience or indeed anything anyone would ever want to go back to and play again. It’s all just crap designed to feed into people’s sunk cost brains, and it feels like damn near every major title wants to be your full time job.
I have even started eschewing Nintendo titles and some modern indie stuff specifically because they display a complete and utter disrespect for not only the player’s intelligence, but also their time.
Eh, I get it. There’s an overwhelming abundance of choice that’s growing faster than the average time it takes to form a connection with any one game. Why deal with the FOMO and misbuys if you know what works for you.
That doesn’t stop me from purchasing way too many (non-refundable) indie titles on the Switch, though. And I’m glad to say some of those feel like they’ll keep me hooked for a good while.
Still, nothing can ever top my love for one classic game in particular: AOE 1 (definitive edition). Why? (It’s unfair to the rest.) Years ago I used to play against my dad over LAN. It’s some of the most fun we had together. Standing outside while he took a smoke break mid-game, I’d explain how I was about to wipe his whole civilization off the map in ways he couldn’t possibly imagine. Sometimes when I miss him, firing up AOE lets me feel closer to him again.
All this to say, nostalgia is a tough bar for any new game to beat.
That’s so sweet bonding with your dad over that game. May you retain that memory forever ❤️
I’m with you. The concept of gaming as a disposable medium never really worked for me either. The idea of going through my wishlist like it’s a watchlist—beating a game only to move on to the next was just never really for me.
If I don’t think a game is built to be organically replayable, I’ll probably just lose interest in buying it.
I wonder what separates games from movies as disposable media, especially with games that are meant to be cinematic/telling a story. Like Spec Ops is loosely based on Heart of Darkness and has a strong narrative, but without that is just a sort of middling shooter. So once you know the story it doesn’t have a ton of replayability, but it’s still impactful in the way a good movie is.
Hmm… I think it’s definitely a spectrum. Even arcade games have stories. It’s not what drives them, but they still do.
When you start considering something like Bandersnatch, the spectrum gets even wider.
Does anyone need anything besides rimworld and factorio??
Strong recommend for Satisfactory. It’s first person factorio but in a beautiful world that isn’t all brown.
Personally I think it’s better.
Counterpoint: Building something big in first person is a lot more bothersome than in 2D/topdown
I have Satisfactory and like it btw, I‘m just saying it‘s something to keep in mind. It‘s also a lot heavier on the hardware, obviously.
Fair, Satisfactory is a lot heavier on the hardware for sure. But it’s a first person 3D game with a much bigger emphasis on beauty.
I find top down to be less interesting. I like to build factories in 3D with many vertical manufacturing layers in addition to spreading out horizontally. I think 3D factories is a more fun challenge. To each their own though. They’re both interesting games.
Dyson Sphere Program is 3rd person 3-D and it has combat these days. I’m actually wondering what they haven’t implemented yet, since it’s still early access AFAIA.
Yeah. If Satisfactory every gets SteamDeck verified, I may never play anything else again.
Dwarf Fortress? Go hard or go home.
Dyson Sphere Program. 64 stars and hundreds of planets per game! 640 Dyson Shells to construct and defend.
Saw where you mentioned being into fighting games, action games, & shmups, so I wonder which games you find yourself bouncing off of more.
Along with reasons other have mentioned that are similar to my own (many games demanding a lot of time, better finding what games really click with me, etc.), I’ve also been put off by other details (hyper-monetization, big budget photorealistic & cinematic styles, etc.). Personally it’s less being into very few games, and more being into more specific kinds of game design and creative style, which are sometimes harder to find.
Like not being into drawn out progression systems immediately narrows one’s options pretty significantly, especially among many recent games.
Oh, absolutely. It probably has a lot to do with falling out of favor with current design and monetization trends, I agree.
Some of the games I’ve been playing for years: Guilty Gear, Under Night In-Birth, Bayonetta, The Wonderful 101, Crimzon Clover, Smash TV, and Catherine.
Which games do you keep going back to?
Mainly games built for replaying, so arcade puzzlers like Super Hexagon/Tetris Effect/Mixolumia/Equaline/etc, roguelikes such as FTL/BrogueCE/etc, or strangesims like Powder Toy or Vilmonic. Although even with those it’s more occasional, like when I’m uncertain of what I’m wanting to do.
It’s ok dude. What do you look for in games, is there a common theme?
I’m the same, I actually look for cinematic games with clever, interesting stories. Idgaf about multiplayer or any of that shit, I want to be a director in my own movie.
Bioshock, half life 2, LA Noire, and so on.
You like horizon? I played the first one and thought the story was pretty good. Maybe not like Bioshock level, but better than most games of the type.
Never played actually. I’ll check it out. I don’t have much free time generally as I work on a lot of projects, so I usually look for really good stories if I’m going to invest my time.
I’ll take a look though, thanks for the suggestion.
Sure, no problem. Hope you like it.
I think you just described me exactly. I constantly replay a few specific games but very little grabs my attention like the few I love.
I still enjoy playing rollercoaster tycoon and have been playing it since I was… 10 years old.
I’ve played other games over the years but put 1000 hours of game time into them. I think it’s abnormal to constantly chasing and trying new games.
Yep. I still do challenges to see how many customers I can get to puke on one ride.
“I want to get off Mr Bones wild ride”
You have a narrow taste in games and that’s perfectly OK, nothing to be ashamed of at all. Enjoy what you like. You have no obligation whatsoever to play the newest, most popular thing just to keep up with the gaming Joneses. The list of popular games I haven’t tried myself is MUCH longer than the list of them I have played, either because they don’t appeal to me or I just don’t have the spare time or money, and I am 100% fine with that. I buy the games I know I’ll put time into and enjoy and don’t worry about the rest.
This is me with current books and music. For books, common styles of prose or an abundance of certain tropes used now simply don’t hit with me, and I’ve even gone back to mid-to-late 20th century books recently to try to avoid all that.
I’d say the best way to try to broaden your taste is to make sure you’re touching on the hits in different genres, and–if you can handle dated gameplay and visuals–to go back and try games from previous generations as well.
I find the same thing, but I’m really questioning the taste of others.
Never really did PC gaming, bought a SteamDeck to get into that ecosystem after seeing all the posts about “ZOMG! STEAM SALE!!!”
Are people just… not discerning? Do you just buy ANYTHING because it’s on sale?
The signal to noise ratio on Steam is just nuts to me… Yeah, some game might be $1.99, 90% off, but if it’s not worth the bandwidth to download, why are you bothering? Do you lack the ability to tell good games from bad games?
The thing is, there’s just so much stuff on Steam that even if you only care about the crème de la crème (hell, even if you only care about a specific genre), you’ll still find yourself with a wishlist longer than you’ll possibly have the time to play. I often go “ZOMG! STEAM SALE!!!” so in my case it’s slowly becoming a backlog but I do intend to play everything I buy.
We don’t really teach appreciation of art enough. People unabashedly “hate watch” shows or go out to see blatant cash grabs in theatre, and buy games they don’t enjoy…
I’ve had arguments with friends who defend shows they admit have no redeeming value, and are only watching it because there’s a lot of it. Like there’s a hole in them that can only be filled with sufficient volumes of content. I can’t even talk to them anymore.
Art is in a way the study of choice. To simply make things without meaning anything by them, without doing anything on purpose except to make money, to me is little more than cheap nihilism - without adding to the conversation in the way that considered nihilism can.
A few game makers actually do contribute to the conversation of games as art, following on what came before and enriching us with new ideas. Those few should be followed closely and supported, when you find them.
And then there’s…
82% Positive? Are you shitting me?
82% positive just means that out of everyone who decided to buy it in the first place, 82% feel like they got what they expected. If you don’t expect greatness, then perhaps this game is exactly what you thought it’d be.
… Maybe it’s in the tradition of Magritte? “This is not a game.”
Wrong comment
I think my tastes have remained mostly the same, it’s the industry that is losing me as a customer for two reasons:
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more and more games now are based on shit that I hate - multiplayer, GaaS, micro transactions, copy and paste gameplay mechanics with new coats of paint, etc.
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studios that used to make my favorite games have really gone downhill over the last decade, like Bethesda, Bioware, and maybe CDPR (hopefully the cp2077 release was just a fluke but we’ll see).
maybe CDPR (hopefully the cp2077 release was just a fluke but we’ll see).
Cyberpunk 2077 was Witcher 1 repeat tbh, people forgot Witcher 1 was a mess at launch since they patched it up a bunch and some other stuff to try to make amends
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I myself get bored of the games quickly, imo. I guess when I feel like devs are ‘cheating’ I lose interest.
Some examples:
Batman Arkham Asylum: Gave up I got to Killer Croc level. Didn’t like how the stealth/action game turned into precision platformer.
Batman Arkham City: Stopped at Mr. Freeze level. I looked up how to beat him and turns out I had to follow specific moves to defeat him. Ain’t got time for that tbh.
Spider-man: Stopped at Rhino + Scorpion level. Again with getting Rhino to headbutt a wall, under heavy load to drop it on him to stun him and beat him up? Bye.
Life Goes On: Gave up on a level where timing was crucial. Until that point I focused on steps to solve the puzzle but at this stage, even though I knew what to do, timing was too important and I haven’t got those reflexes or patience to replay the level again and again.
I realized that I need a certain amount of time with a game to warm up to it or else I‘m always drawn back to known quantities. Seems like playing things I know is just more comfortable. I also realized that I really like racing games for a similar reason: I don‘t have to learn anything new about the mechanics/game, I just have to drive.
