Support NeoGAF

[gaming_again]

Just stop playing. It’s not a duty. I barely played games from 2012-2015 because they weren’t doing it for me. I naturally drifted back

 

[gaming_again]

These days a lot of games are designed in a very clinical manner. They are designed to exploit weaknesses of the human psyche, which is why they are so tiresome. These games are a war of attrition on your mind to get you to give in to the idea of paying real money to unlock cosmetics or perks.
Single player, big budget video games made in the West are designed more and more to be streamlined puddles of blandness that try to imitate movies out of an inferiority complex born from "game journalist" loudmouths whose heads are so far up their asses that they don't know what the meaning of "fun" is, thinking they have "matured" and thus showed continued disdain for the content of the 7th generation and earlier. You can feel how devoid of personality game creation has become from the products born out of it, at least in the West. Game development has become so corporatized, and I think the culture wars of the 2010s really allowed the corporate world to come in and thoroughly suck the soul out of game creation on a large scale.
The game journos were so desperate to eradicate what they saw as "gamer bros" culture in the industry, yet they never even once contemplated the sterile environment that would be left in its place.... Although many of them don't seem to care about how soulless this world has become.

The people in charge of all big companies dominating the hobbies I enjoy hate said hobbies and the people who made those companies a success. Mass cultural vandalism is taking place in the West.

 

[Doom85]

 

[JimmyRustler]

Yeah, huge one here. Too many OpenWorld games and too many grind mechanics in games these days. It was fun at first to have those games every now and then but not everyone is making this shit.

I didn‘t have the time for this when I was a kid and certainly don‘t have it now when I‘m 30+. I miss weekend games that are not depressing indi games.

 

[Lucifers Beard]

Nope, probably whatever the opposite of that is. I've got a lot to play and barely any time to get to it all. At the moment, I'm looking at my list of games thinking 'what do I play now?!'. I'm currently half way through Cyberpunk, knee deep in Diablo 2 Resurrected, just reinstalled Pathfinder WoTR and am looking forward to Overwatch 2 on Tuesday. Oh and I want to play GoW next month.

I'm hungry for time is all!

 

[Filben]

Mate, you're playing the wrong games. Naming Destiny, or any other grind fest, calls for burnout.

Play Return to Monkey Island, play a good cRPG, play a cinematic adventure, play something challenging.

a few games to try:
- Desperados 3
- Hellblade
- Control
- Mundaun
- Hades
- Disco Elysium
- Ori and the Whil o' Wisps

 

[TintoConCasera]

Nope. Try something new, I did so with CRPGs and ended up having a ton of fun playing Bldur's Gate II.

I'd recommend those or maybe retro FPS, those games are fun as fuck too.

 

[AlteredForms]

I don't get why someone poops a thousand additional hours into a game they no longer enjoy.

Well it wasn't exactly a thousand hours, but the point was that DBD got me through some stuff. It's a game that revolves around teamwork and friends, naturally it becomes addictive. I played in the hopes the developers would work back to how things were, but they didn't and I fell out of it.

"I spent 1,000 hours playing a game that wasn't fun."

Wasn't so much it was unfun, but not as fun as it used to be. It's like something you pour a lot of time into, but you carry on because you've enjoyed it and the fact you put that time into it. I hoped DBD would return to it's roots when it came to game balance but it unfortunately didn't and many people became tired of it. It seems better now, but I'm doubtful if I'll play it again.

 

[wolywood]

Anyone else experiencing burn out from threads about experiencing video game burn out?

 

[nightmare-slain]

i am right now. hardly played any games for a while because i can't be assed with it right now. taking a break to do other things and eventually i'll come back to it.

 

[KXVXII9X]

I'm not burned out with gaming, but with the current practices of the industry lately. Ever since it was decided that games need to be continuous and have 40+ hours of content to be worth it, I started to really feel the fatigue. RPG mechanics started making their way into more and more games and genres with FOMO, more grinding, and loot. Instead of games having a satisfying conclusion, more and more games added more padding. A lot of games now feel like chores to play.

If I start to ask myself if I am having fun and the answer is no, I will try to play or do something else. Often, I found myself grinding for the one dopamine hit. If I got enough materials to get this one armor or weapon or if I do these dozens of fetch quests, I will be rewarded with this .5% stat increase. After I get the reward, In feel so empty and dumb afterwards. Not once during those quests did I have fun, and I don't think this new gear will increase that fun. I still massively prefer how Zelda OoT and Windwaker handled their gear. Each item was significant. Almost every part was carefully crafted and purposeful.

I enjoy more shorter, carefully crafted experiences. Something linear like Stray, Guardians of the Galaxy, and The Last Guardian are really nice for me. I would rather have the industry make more unique experiences than making huge roadmaps for their games. I get bored with more of the same. I wouldn't mind if those games were around 6-12 hours or however long they need to be as long as they have satisfying gameplay throughout.

 

[Holammer]

Stop playing hamster wheel games that demand your full attention. If there's a daily quest or season pass system, pass on them and explore new genres. Try some indies!
I got really into Roguelikes past few years and I couldn't be happier.

 

[SlimySnake]

You have been playing the same games designed around 2005 era hardware. No wonder you have burned out.

The problem is that devs have either gotten lazy or complacent. They want to push storytelling instead of game design. They are content with making fancy graphics instead of pushing physics and interaction. They focus on walking simulators instead of improving core combat. They focus on fetch quests and making gaas instead of shorter and more rewarding quest design.

 

[Drizzlehell]

Idk, sometimes. It definitely feels like I'm not as excited about every single game like I used to be, but there are still some occasional releases that I'm hyped for and generally have a good time with.

I think it's just a matter of playing everything too much, to the point where familiar tropes start to become very obvious, making most games less and less exciting. The games that I'm most excited about these days are the ones that offer something fresh, unique, or even oddball. But there's not a lot of that in this industry outside of the indie scene, sadly. Most of it is just the same recycled tosh, only presented in a different setting. And I do appreciate indie games for being this breeding ground for wild, unique games, but I'm also kind of a sucker for spectacle, and it's hard for me sometimes to get past the low production values and lack of fancy visuals.

 

[TheDreadLord]

Every year we get at least twice topics like this. If you no longer enjoy playing games, go find something that makes you happy. Don’t keep punishing you by playing something that is more like a chore. We already have a lot of unpleasant things that we need to go through daily.

 

[TheGecko]

Problem is we are losing all the old school devs and programmers.

We are left with tick box employees who just don't have a clue.

It's happening in all parts of entertainment, and life for that matter.

The place I work took on a bunch of these blue haired feminist types 2 years ago, and the company has never been in worse shape, people leaving in droves.

 

[Golgo 13]

I think monetization of games has really hurt creativity. It used to be about blowing peoples minds with new and unique experiences and gameplay, now it’s about optimization for addictive nickel and diming. I also believe that the culture wars have really hurt gaming - less crunch and more politics in games has made for less spectacular products overall. Everyone’s a victim now and companies are required to cow-tow to and tip toe around employees - not good for productivity and results.

 

[Captain Toad]

Do what Kingfey did, request a self ban here, saying you're sick of games and a couple weeks later create a new alternate account and continue your trend of saying things like "freezes my cold heart", "being the bear of bad news", etc.