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For me i like gaming this is part of my life since pong 1982 at the girl next door who had a big brother that had that very first "mobile" playing station.
I wasen't into mud, I played games on 64, and Amiga, my very first MMO was Meridian59 that game as a demo, yeah funny it wasen't called freetrial back then.
I played the demo didn't like much, so I continued playing C&C, Starcontrol 2, D&D games and alike and bla bla.
I loved Baldurs gate 1 and 2, I loved Icewind dale 1, I loved Ultima series from 1 to Online.
I tried SWG at launch it was a mess but got better at the end, I fell in love with EQ, but got pissed more times than I want to say
I really love gaming well I thought I did, let me explain, I'm a gamer like all of you, we all like games, I can read about a game dream about it how much fun it will be but the thing is is when I get the game It's not always like it used to the feeling is gone
Sure the game is good and fun and every bells and wissles are there just like the old days but I lost the feeling.
I can still feel the upcomming games with joy but not as much playing them, sure I'm having fun, but the fun I had when I was younger., that feeling is gone.
SO am I'm burned out or am I a relic of old gaming?
If it's not broken, you are not innovating.
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nethervoid - Est. '97
[UO|EQ|SB|SWG|PS|HZ|EVE|NWN|WoW|VG|DF|SWTOR|SotA|BDO]
24k subs YouTube Gaming channel
Could be a combination of being burned out and maturity hitting.
I also started playing games at a young age, and remember when my mother's boss brought me pong. I thought it was the greatest thing ever. I remember Pitfall for my 5th or 6th birthday - greatest thing ever.
I remember playing P&P D&D - again, greatest thing ever. Then came NES, SEGA Genesis, and all the others to follow. Then I grew up and was able to purchase a gaming computer - I've played the hell outta some games since.
I'm 37, have a 2 year old daughter and a spiffy wife. Maturity is taking its toll on gaming.
I've played a ton of games in the past year or so, and none of them really keep me going (save Darkfall, and that only in spurts). Games, for the most part, have lost their lustre for me.
Thus, I say it's a combo of the fact we're getting old and the games just aren't as awesome as Pitfall.
edit: Nether hits it on the head gaming-wise.
I'm not even thirty yet so some might laugh at me responding to this as though I was a vet but It's a little of both for me.
I also think it's a shorter attention span which I blame on video games and tv. I'm on a mission to reclaim my attention span at the moment, no digital entertainment and I'll see if I'm able to get some more enjoyment out of them should I revert back to my old habits once I've strengthened my concentration. Ofcourse if I do it'll probably be short lived as it will probably kill my gains. I might emerge with a better understanding though.
I am gamer since C64 times and while I did have long breaks in gaming I do remember those times and I can be called bitter vet. Heh sure I can. Anyway I still have fun from few selected new single player games. Maybe not as much as I had when I was child / young tennager without worries and work, but I still do. In mmorpg genre it is diffrent - I don't have as much fun and I think it is not due to age but due to my current to design philosophy which I simply don't like. There is no great mistery hidden out there.
Troof! I have grown the same...
Regards,
Mike Cackle
My YouTube Channel
The new Hitman on the 22nd, can't wait.
I am talking more on the lines of MMO's rather than console games. But yea loved that game on ps2.
Its not me. I have gown tired of the action combat games we have today with no depth. [mod edt]
To make a long story short no. Its the games today not us.
I have much the same history as you, played the Amiga, the last Ultimas (loved Underworld), played UO etc.
I also wondered some 5 years ago, if I grew up or something, when I lost the feeling. But no: Sometimes in a rare while a game comes by that has that captivating quality of the old days. I got it with Left for Dead (especially 2nd is phenomenal), Portal 1+2 and very recently with the new XCOM game.
I also tried to go back to some of the very old games. Like the first XCOM and Master of Orion, and even after 15+ years, they are as captivating as the first day I played them.
It is not us. It is the games. Too much soulless, copycat crap is shovelled at us.
The only MMOs I truly enjoyed was UO and Planetside. I think I would have enjoyed SWG as well, if I had tried it, but my guild was against moving there, so never did.
The WoW model has been copied to death. Who can again and again play more or less the same game? This is what is primarily plaguing MMOs.
BestSigEver :P
im a grizzled old vet also, started on a hanimex gaming system that had the choices of pong, and pong, then moved onto atari in the early 80's and so on till i started on mmo's when ultima online was released, ive played nearly every mmo from 1997 to 2012, i think the main problem you and i have is our virginity has been taken, and you can never get it back, sure screwing around is fun, but back then youd play a game for 3 or 4 years, today, if you get 3 or 4 weeks from a game, youre lucky... at the moment im playing a survival mmo "War Z" trying to get that adrenaline rush i had in UO and to an extent its supplying that, im also backing a kickstarter game called "Greedmonger" which is looking promising, but times have changed, developers are in it for the quick cash turnover these days, so any hopes of getting that original feeling back when you found your first game or mmo you loved, i think are long gone sadly.
It's the games...
A lot of what we played back then was brand new and had never been done before... the Ultima games, Dungeon Master in 1987, Baldur's Gate, UO, EQ, AC, DAoC... the technology was getting pushed and there were large improvements in graphics, sounds, 3D worlds that were part of the attraction.
Also new MMO systems were being developed and a lot of the things that are just routine background stuff now, were new features. I still remember playing Asheron's Call when there was no bank (we had character mules and the only way to do the transfer by yourself was to drop the items on the ground, log in the mule and pick-up the stuff) and where player trading happened on the honor system since we didn't even have a trade window...someone had to go first. I remember the first organized PvP with objectives in DAoC, the first auction houses, first player-owned mounts, quick travel systems, achievement tracking, scenario PvP...
Now we get incremental advancements that just add or modify what we've already seen countless times. The genre is sort of stagnant and controlled by "suits" who market the same old stuff in a new shiny wrappers.
We need new stuff.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
Can't say I've grown tired of anything but I'm a lot harder to impress. I notice pattern a lot faster. Those "wow-moments" are years apart now. Last time it was with... Mass Effect 1, I think. Or maybe the first Modern Warfare. Its a shame. I'd really like to have those moments more.
Take Skyrim for example, it was sort of a let down since it was too much alike to Oblivion. Apart from the graphics nothing impressed me in it. Combat was the same which was already getting old playing the previous game. Shouts were a gimmick, oblivion gates were replaced with dragons, main story was not that interesting... Meh... Played it for couple of days - never finished the main story.
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
The problem is game companies keep spitting out the same type of game. They've taken giant leaps backward. Look at the original EQ UO DAOC AC1 all mmos that were different and tried to push the bounderies. Today people put up with mediocrity so devs don't really have to work to get customers. We the players that know what a great ammo use to be, having played them years ago, are not willing to play the clone of mediocrity.
What happens when you log off your characters????.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFQhfhnjYMk
Dark Age of Camelot
"Old vets" is a specious group to present, since (quite obviously) many of us rarely agree.
Want to talk about individuals? Okay, but I'd need the mod's permission to express opinions on the topic. I consider that extraordinarily unlikely. As a result, this thread can't go anywhere good.
There are perhaps a dozen individuals that I would consider hopeless cases; they clearly are not going to find a new game that pleases them, ever. They just have impossible expectations, and they don't play well with others.
Another, oh, fifty or so habitual drama queens; they're not really miserable, they just like to fight amongst themselves. Speak in absolutes, cry doom, complain incessantly, etc.
And a couple of hundred flat-out trolls. Just want to get you (or me, or you over there) and push your buttons. Most of them probably do not consider themselves trolls...or not often. But read the carnage every weekend morning...
There, I've been candid. The generally results in a few days off. I'll just enjoy playing, instead.
Candid examination of our mmorpg.com local denizens, of course, can/will be bifurcated into "blame the customers".
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
Im the same. Started gaming back in 78 with the Telestar Ranger system. Rolled through all the console generations starting with Atari 2600. Did some Vic20 and C64 but never really got (heavy) into PC gaming until recently.
Long story short we grew up. Half of us are starting to hit our 40s. Some of us have families, involved work schedules or just plain interesting lives. The thing I loved about games in the past was they left alot to the imagination. They were built to be semi dramatic and fun.
What I personally noticed is that gaming started to become hyper realistic. No longer was it just OK to save the world, or the princess or just to explore. Now you had to have serious seedy backstory, anti-hero mechanics and a level of maturity that prevents me to enjoy some AAA games with my kids. Its own popularity is to blame as well, for when we were playing games it was an undergroud niche pass time. It was seen as quirky and geeky. Now even my mom plays games. Expanding the market to the masses just oversaturated the market. All part of its evolution.
The future of gaming is now moving far enough away from what I enjoy that I dont follow it with the same enthusiasm. I'll always be interested and probably try the latest and greatest but I'm smart enough to know I wont stick with it. The silver lining for me is now I get to go back and enjoy some of the great titles of the past that I didnt get to play. With all this twitch / action combat MMO themes going on recently, it feels really good to sit back and thoroughly enjoy EverQuest (as I didnt get to play it at launch). It really is a unique game that caters to what I look for in an RPG. Looking back I find it odd (and saddened) that no one really took it further.
Even with the this talk (buzz word) of emergent gameplay and sandbox, I dont believe it will deliver the level of interaction I interpret to be fun. Am I mad at the developers or the market? What for? They are just catering to their audience. I just chalk up the memories of growing up during the golden age of gaming reiving the past with emulators (now I can play Super Nintenodo on my phone) and such.
Who knows, maybe one day a small niche developer might actually create a throw back RPG of my heyday of which I would thoroughly enjoy.
We probably have "grown up", but I don't think that means we grew out of gaming. What I find is that the games marketed at your average MMO gamer (almost all of them) don't appeal to me because I want a deeper, more complex experience. It's likely that a lot of gamers who have been into MMO's for a long time really expect more now.
Honestly we should have more in these games. When you look at how much they have evolved, I mean really look at the programming and technology, there's doesn't seem to be much to point to. Your average MMO appears to have no better AI, for example, than the aliens in the original Unreal FPS game. In fact, I don't think they have much AI at all. They just seem to have some mechanical reactions to getting attacked, which includes a list of attacks and a roll of the dice to see which one will get thrown. That's just weak.
While game worlds obviously look better, most of them don't really have much for dynamic content that make the world feel alive. What is available feels very mechnical and contrived after a short time playing. The atmospheric / weather systems in these games feels weak, if they bother to put it in at all these days. Look at SWTOR abandoning even the day and night cycle, let alone dynamic weather.
Actually, I think we can all basically agree that these games have been "dumbed down" or simplified with each release. What ever happened to things like players needing to eat food, or hindrances from environment and weather? Even though those systems were rudimentary, it all added to the overall virtual world feeling.
What about an adult-focused MMO? A few games have gone in the direction of Rated M, but when you look at what got them the rating you have to wonder why they bothered. Most of these games are stil very tame compared to your average Rated R movie in 2012.
Gaming, in general, is still growing and will continue to do so. Enough of these companies are blowing their games that they will either need to change their approach, or abandon the genre. Either way I see that as a win-win because it will leave more gamers for developers who want to take some chances and push the genre forward.
I think the future of this genre is bright, but we need more developers to really start pushing things forward. Computer hardware is very powerful now, and there are much fewer people running machines that can't handle things like advanced AI. Most decent computers aren't even using much CPU now, so there's room for more dynamic programming there.
A sure sign that you are in an old, dying paradigm/mindset, is when you are scared of new ideas and new technology. Don't feel bad. The world is moving on without you, and you are welcome to yell "Get Off My Lawn!" all you want while it happens. You cannot, however, stop an idea whose time has come.
what about the CoD series? or Battlefield, Madden Football, etc. if people find something fun they will play it. if not they won't.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Alot of us UO vets are currently watching (What we hope) will be the next niche thing.
http://www.greedmonger.com/forum/
Looks like it has some promise honestly.