JadedGamer

March 15, 2011

In the last two months or so, I have played over twenty games, easy. Sadly, none of them have really held my interest, and I've been left feeling fairly blase about gaming in general despite or perhaps because of my recent (over?)exposure to so many games. Here's the list, so far as I can recall:

Bulletstorm, Vanquish, Killzone 3, Modern Combat, Ninja Chop, Super Meat Boy, Altered Beast, Mass Effect, Perfect Dark Zero, Tomb Raider Legend, Modern Warfare 2, Alan Wake, Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill, Portal, Half-Life 2, Kinect Adventures, Hard Corps Uprising, Deadly Premonition, Raiden Fighters, Tetris, Tetris Splash, COD: Black Ops, Call of Duty 3, Halo Reach, Super Contra, Tenchu Z, and Frogger.

Modern Warfare 2 is the only one I came back to with any regularity. Reach multiplayer seems somewhat promising.

So, I'm either bored of the hobby in general, or I'm playing the wrong games.

In either case: profound sadness.

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Feedback

honestgamer - March 15, 2011 (01:59 PM)
I don't think you're playing the wrong games. A lot of those seem like games I would expect you to like. I think we all go through a jaded phase and whether or not we recover depends on how ready we are to allow games to continue meaning something to us. I sometimes wonder if I'd still play games nearly as much as I do if I weren't writing about them all the time. I don't know that I would.

Masters - March 15, 2011 (02:03 PM)
Well, seeing as how I'm not making the BIG BUCKS that you are writing about them, I've never had that type of motivation to continue writing, and gaming.

Hopefully Homefront isn't a complete bust.

honestgamer - March 15, 2011 (02:29 PM)
I love the ironic capital letters.

JoeTheDestroyer - March 15, 2011 (03:25 PM)
I had a jaded phase for a short while. Even my guaranteed favs weren't holding my interest. As Jason said, it all depends on whether or not they'll mean anything to you in the future. Had I not discovered this place, I probably wouldn't have gotten over that jaded phase.

Suskie - March 15, 2011 (03:37 PM)
If those games couldn't hold your attention, I'm wondering how you have any hope that Homefront will.

Halon - March 15, 2011 (04:21 PM)
Unless you're playing them for two hours or less I'd be pretty burnt out as well if I've played over twenty different games in two months. And I agree with Suskie. I loved HL2, Portal and Super Meat Boy and even though I didn't like Mass Effect, MW2/Black Ops, and others on that list they're also highly acclaimed games. I wouldn't count on Homefront being what brings you back.

You're probably best off taking a small break from games. Quite a few titles that I'm interested in are coming out soon or just came out (Shogun 2, Portal 2, Torchlight 2 and Brink) and I haven't been playing much aside from the odd multiplayer game so I'm not burnt out when they arrive.

jerec - March 15, 2011 (04:43 PM)
I thought this was about a review site that started up a while back with RoyalRanger as one of the staff writers. Turns out they closed their site down.

CoarseDragon - March 15, 2011 (05:01 PM)
Wish I had time to play that many games. I think I finished one and started two others.

wolfqueen001 - March 15, 2011 (05:16 PM)
=/ I thought you loved HL2.

JoeTheDestroyer - March 15, 2011 (08:13 PM)
On a side note, this topic title reminds me of my old screen name.

overdrive - March 15, 2011 (09:08 PM)
I tend to go through brief periods of "blah" on a yearly basis. A lot of times, it has to do at least partly with my work/social schedule. Like now, for example: I went through a rough (ie: really busy) week at work and now, with the postseason of NCAA basketball going on, I'm socially engaged on a near-daily basis. Things aren't helped by how in Tales of Vesperia, I'm at a boss fight where I'll have to improve my party in order to win. Fucking Barbos...

Masters - March 15, 2011 (09:15 PM)
I don't play them for very long, mind you. I ran through Portal from beginning to end, and put in some serious Team Deathmatch time on MW2, but aside from that, it's been all dabbling. None of them have held my interest, is what I'm saying. But yup, time away might help.

darketernal - March 16, 2011 (04:07 AM)
If you played over twenty games in the last two months, I would certainly say that the interest is still here. Especially if you finished every one of them(even if you didn't feel fulfilled afterwards). The interest is certainly there, but I think you overloaded yourself. That's why I play one or two games at a time. I know I miss out on a lot of good stuff, but at least I'll give my full attention to the games, one at a time.

radicaldreamer - March 16, 2011 (11:40 PM)
There are a lot of things that could be going on here.

You might, as you imagined, have oversaturated yourself with games. I'm assuming that you, like probably most of us, started gaming when you were a child, when the idea of playing 20 games over the course of two months was a pipedream. If anything, you got to try a new game every few months -- at least that's how it was with me. If this is true, you would have spent a lot of time solely experiencing one game, and by the time you got another, it was something long anticipated and genuinely new. It's so easy as an adult to just keep buying games, especially when Steam has those crazy 70-90% off deals.

You might also be getting densensitized just as a consequence of being a game for a long time. You have great memories of amazing games, so you might expect, or even want, games to be amazing just because you want that experience of being so captivated. I kind of did this with Mass Effect, and it disappointed me immensely in that respect. I bought a 360 last fall, very excited to experience the new generation of games, but so far it hasn't been as good as I was hoping. Most of the games I've played from this generation, even if they're good (but not really great), haven't really left a lasting impression on me.

Related to that, you're also getting older and smarter. My feelings on gaming have changed as graduated high school and then as I graduated college, two transitions that are accompanied by a new grip on reality. Part of the appeal of gaming is in being immersed in the game world and living the experience inside it. It gets harder to suspend disbelief as you get older, and you also become more perceptive, and less forgiving of, any flaws or imperfections in this regard. I've been playing The Witcher lately, and the NPC models are repeated so frequently that they severely undermine the believability of the game world. We're better at realizing that it's all fake.

It kind of all ties into higher expectations, as well as having a firmer grip on reality and less time for a time consuming hobby that often leads itself to escapism.

Or I could just be overthinking this and you might just be getting bored of gaming.

My suggestions:

1) Try a new genre. There are common themes in your list of games: FPS, side-scrolling, survival horror. Maybe give a real-time strategy game a try? They're actually pretty easy to enjoy at a casual level and many of them have a lot of personality. Starcraft is actually one of the best games around in regards to story and characters.

2) Instead of buying up all the hot new releases, just find something you think you might actually enjoy regardless of other factors. I often find that HG is great for that purpose. I bought Lost Odyssey based on some comments Suskie made about it here, and so far it's been the best purchase I've made from this console gen. I had heard about the game before, but it wasn't even on my radar until I had heard more about it here.

Masters - March 17, 2011 (05:46 AM)
Hey Andrew, thanks for the response.

I found this passage to be particularly salient:

You have great memories of amazing games, so you might expect, or even want, games to be amazing just because you want that experience of being so captivated. I kind of did this with Mass Effect, and it disappointed me immensely in that respect. I bought a 360 last fall, very excited to experience the new generation of games, but so far it hasn't been as good as I was hoping. Most of the games I've played from this generation, even if they're good (but not really great), haven't really left a lasting impression on me.

And I'm not sure what you mean by 'competitive' but you're right in that playing MW2 online and competing with friends is what's kept that game in the 360 all this time.

The new genre thing may also warrant exploring.

Anyway, thanks again for the thoughtful response.

Feedback
	honestgamer - March 15, 2011 (01:59 PM) I don't think you're playing the wrong games. A lot of those seem like games I would expect you to like. I think we all go through a jaded phase and whether or not we recover depends on how ready we are to allow games to continue meaning something to us. I sometimes wonder if I'd still play games nearly as much as I do if I weren't writing about them all the time. I don't know that I would.
	Masters - March 15, 2011 (02:03 PM) Well, seeing as how I'm not making the BIG BUCKS that you are writing about them, I've never had that type of motivation to continue writing, and gaming. Hopefully Homefront isn't a complete bust.
	honestgamer - March 15, 2011 (02:29 PM) I love the ironic capital letters.
	JoeTheDestroyer - March 15, 2011 (03:25 PM) I had a jaded phase for a short while. Even my guaranteed favs weren't holding my interest. As Jason said, it all depends on whether or not they'll mean anything to you in the future. Had I not discovered this place, I probably wouldn't have gotten over that jaded phase.
	Suskie - March 15, 2011 (03:37 PM) If those games couldn't hold your attention, I'm wondering how you have any hope that Homefront will.
	Halon - March 15, 2011 (04:21 PM) Unless you're playing them for two hours or less I'd be pretty burnt out as well if I've played over twenty different games in two months. And I agree with Suskie. I loved HL2, Portal and Super Meat Boy and even though I didn't like Mass Effect, MW2/Black Ops, and others on that list they're also highly acclaimed games. I wouldn't count on Homefront being what brings you back. You're probably best off taking a small break from games. Quite a few titles that I'm interested in are coming out soon or just came out (Shogun 2, Portal 2, Torchlight 2 and Brink) and I haven't been playing much aside from the odd multiplayer game so I'm not burnt out when they arrive.
	jerec - March 15, 2011 (04:43 PM) I thought this was about a review site that started up a while back with RoyalRanger as one of the staff writers. Turns out they closed their site down.
	CoarseDragon - March 15, 2011 (05:01 PM) Wish I had time to play that many games. I think I finished one and started two others.
	wolfqueen001 - March 15, 2011 (05:16 PM) =/ I thought you loved HL2.
	JoeTheDestroyer - March 15, 2011 (08:13 PM) On a side note, this topic title reminds me of my old screen name.
	overdrive - March 15, 2011 (09:08 PM) I tend to go through brief periods of "blah" on a yearly basis. A lot of times, it has to do at least partly with my work/social schedule. Like now, for example: I went through a rough (ie: really busy) week at work and now, with the postseason of NCAA basketball going on, I'm socially engaged on a near-daily basis. Things aren't helped by how in Tales of Vesperia, I'm at a boss fight where I'll have to improve my party in order to win. Fucking Barbos...
	Masters - March 15, 2011 (09:15 PM) I don't play them for very long, mind you. I ran through Portal from beginning to end, and put in some serious Team Deathmatch time on MW2, but aside from that, it's been all dabbling. None of them have held my interest, is what I'm saying. But yup, time away might help.
	darketernal - March 16, 2011 (04:07 AM) If you played over twenty games in the last two months, I would certainly say that the interest is still here. Especially if you finished every one of them(even if you didn't feel fulfilled afterwards). The interest is certainly there, but I think you overloaded yourself. That's why I play one or two games at a time. I know I miss out on a lot of good stuff, but at least I'll give my full attention to the games, one at a time.
	radicaldreamer - March 16, 2011 (11:40 PM) There are a lot of things that could be going on here. You might, as you imagined, have oversaturated yourself with games. I'm assuming that you, like probably most of us, started gaming when you were a child, when the idea of playing 20 games over the course of two months was a pipedream. If anything, you got to try a new game every few months -- at least that's how it was with me. If this is true, you would have spent a lot of time solely experiencing one game, and by the time you got another, it was something long anticipated and genuinely new. It's so easy as an adult to just keep buying games, especially when Steam has those crazy 70-90% off deals. You might also be getting densensitized just as a consequence of being a game for a long time. You have great memories of amazing games, so you might expect, or even want, games to be amazing just because you want that experience of being so captivated. I kind of did this with Mass Effect, and it disappointed me immensely in that respect. I bought a 360 last fall, very excited to experience the new generation of games, but so far it hasn't been as good as I was hoping. Most of the games I've played from this generation, even if they're good (but not really great), haven't really left a lasting impression on me. Related to that, you're also getting older and smarter. My feelings on gaming have changed as graduated high school and then as I graduated college, two transitions that are accompanied by a new grip on reality. Part of the appeal of gaming is in being immersed in the game world and living the experience inside it. It gets harder to suspend disbelief as you get older, and you also become more perceptive, and less forgiving of, any flaws or imperfections in this regard. I've been playing The Witcher lately, and the NPC models are repeated so frequently that they severely undermine the believability of the game world. We're better at realizing that it's all fake. It kind of all ties into higher expectations, as well as having a firmer grip on reality and less time for a time consuming hobby that often leads itself to escapism. Or I could just be overthinking this and you might just be getting bored of gaming. My suggestions: 1) Try a new genre. There are common themes in your list of games: FPS, side-scrolling, survival horror. Maybe give a real-time strategy game a try? They're actually pretty easy to enjoy at a casual level and many of them have a lot of personality. Starcraft is actually one of the best games around in regards to story and characters. 2) Instead of buying up all the hot new releases, just find something you think you might actually enjoy regardless of other factors. I often find that HG is great for that purpose. I bought Lost Odyssey based on some comments Suskie made about it here, and so far it's been the best purchase I've made from this console gen. I had heard about the game before, but it wasn't even on my radar until I had heard more about it here.
	Masters - March 17, 2011 (05:46 AM) Hey Andrew, thanks for the response. I found this passage to be particularly salient: You have great memories of amazing games, so you might expect, or even want, games to be amazing just because you want that experience of being so captivated. I kind of did this with Mass Effect, and it disappointed me immensely in that respect. I bought a 360 last fall, very excited to experience the new generation of games, but so far it hasn't been as good as I was hoping. Most of the games I've played from this generation, even if they're good (but not really great), haven't really left a lasting impression on me. And I'm not sure what you mean by 'competitive' but you're right in that playing MW2 online and competing with friends is what's kept that game in the 360 all this time. The new genre thing may also warrant exploring. Anyway, thanks again for the thoughtful response.

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