Games I keep returning too.
The gaming industry supplies us with more and more games each year. It seems to me that there is less and less effort put in to the titles being released. I remember those days when there was a great game coming out once in a great while. Because lets face it, there were barely any games coming out at all in those days.
I do try out new titles, I download demos all the time on my ps3 to check out the latest hubbub. Nothing has really impressed me. There are few new games that grab me to the point that I want to complete them.
For example, I got the 80 gig ps3. I got it for the backwards compatibility to later find out that my version wasn’t the backwards compatible one.
I should be playing the great and beautiful games for the ps3 and yet I go out of the way to find old titles that exited me.
I mostly play PSone and Ps2 titles and THAT is very very sad.
Same goes with the xbox, I haven’t returned to one single game and I barely even touch that self exploding deathtrap.
Nintendo had a few titles that I for a month returned to, but then it sits there sadly collecting dust in a dark spider infested corner which is the living room.
I don’t know if it’s just me that is getting older and find flaws in everything, but I do try to keep an open mind.
I played the Ghostbuster demo for the PS3, sure it was somewhat entertaining but it didn’t grab me.
Maybe now that my generation is growing “older”, we simply don’t have the time to play halfway through a bad game just to be pleasantly surprised that it ended up being pretty good and captivating. I notice that if something doesn’t grab me right away, I just don’t bother with it again.
(And yes, I do know that sometimes a demo doesn’t represent the game very well, but that is what demo’s are for. Capture my attention, make me buy the game. Even when I bought full games, they didn’t catch my interest. I grew tired of buying full titles that I only played once and then never bothered with again)
Here are some reasons I can think of that developers have ignored my generation/audience.
1) Online game killed the single player:
More and more games are now focused on online play. How many times have you had this discussion?
“The story in this game sucked ($%^$#^#$%^%$^)!!!!!”
“Oh, but the online game justifies it!”
I don’t always WANT an online game. I don’t always want to depend on other people to have fun. I am a gamer, a loner! An antisocial prick that rather talk to my invisible collection of Sephiroths nut sack ornaments then depend on other people for my amusement!
While online community in gaming is tending to the new generation, my needs are being ignored! I feel like I am married to myself and ignoring myself emotionally and physically!
2) The new generation of so called “gamers”.
Lets face it, with games being so expensive, little Timmy’s allowance only covers 2 games a year. So they get games that they has longevity, online play do accommodate that need. They do have the need to furiously with their crackly voices yell at other people because their lives are SO bad. I am sorry that you have two alcoholic fathers.
What developers seem to have forgotten that the old generation (me) have a bit more money and are willing to pay for entertaining games that are worth the play. Thanks to the huge online market, offline games are being sorely neglected, hence developers are cutting the more important part (story) and replace it with capture the F^%&cking flag.
Online communities spread the wisdom and the promise of good online gaming , leaving the offline part in the shade.
3) Quantity is better then Quantum ,…Quack.
The volume of released games have increased over the years. Not because there are more creative good titles coming out, but only because some things in the games have jeopardized. They are happy to cut things out and make it available to download or to be purchased as an expansion pack. So lets face it, I pay good money for half a game and have to buy the other half at a later date.
4) The sad part is..
The only game released in the last 4 years that I keep returning to is Loco Roco. It constantly keeps me entertained enough to ignore my fiance and it looks like its been created by a bunch of smurfs on dopamine… THAT is sad.
Conclusion:
I don’t know. Maybe I am to narrow in what i want to play. Nothing has exited me since Soulblazer, a link to the past, Mario world, Secret of mana, final fantasy 3, 5,7,9, kingdom hearts 1, 2. Every time I got exited about something was because of online hearsay. It made me stop listening to people because I kept getting terribly disappointed to the extent where I was about to jam my foot into the icebox. Maybe I am just a picky player, or my generation is to old to cater to. However, I still feel saddened by the realization that the end of great offline games draws near.
Which means I’ll have to pick up gardening.
Anjo Banjo on Gaming Life Love and Art 