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Underground > Games & Gameplay >

Tired of computer gaming?

Our Lady Has Left the Building

06:01 / 23.06.05

Four or five years ago I did have quite a few games that I was playing, Quake I & II, Dungeon Keeper II, C&C Tiberian Sun, Age of Empire... I don't play them any more and with the rise of this new forum I'm starting to try and tease apart why that is, if there's something beyond the thing of times changing and my interests too.

So I just wanted to start by throwing this open and seeing whether anyone else feels similar.

rising and revolving

19:46 / 30.06.05

I'm much the same, and for me it's partially age and partially innoculation. Working on games all day makes it hard to view playing them when I get home as relaxation - and honestly, there's not much on offer that's *new*

I do feel though, that I've lost some of the shine by virtue of the analytical habits I've developed as a game designer. It's like being a stage magician - makes it much harder to appreciate other magicians with the same sense of wonder when you're trying to work out the specific sleight they used.

09:04 / 01.07.05

The games you mention were all ground breaking in their respective genres or at least following very close behind the cutting edge, much of what has come since has been retreading and refinement.

I tend to think that the games market is less interesting in terms of variety and innovation than it was even 10 years ago, let alone 20 years ago when I could actually buy a Spectrum game every other week with pocket money, and though I probably have some rose tinting in my glasses and the game play quality was undoubtedly lower, the imagination in setting an mechanics seemed far broader. Plus it didn't really matter as if i didn't like a game, I could get another one a few weeks later, it was like a kind of cambrian explosion of game design. I still spend as much time playing games as I ever have done but because of the price, the more critical eye I now view games with and probably most importantly the sheer length of time a lot of them take to play these days I tend to buy fewer and research more carefully before splashing out.

To be honest the increased development time/budget that the next generation of consoles promises, combined with the rumored £60 price point for software fills me with trepidation for the future of innovation in mainstream games. Why should publishers spend time and cash on the next ground breaking design when they have a guaranteed income from dross like FIFA street? Is this still on topic?

All Acting Regiment

11:59 / 01.07.05

I know this sounds like a cliche, but seriously, does anyone find that the ammount of time gaming is inversely proportionate to number of friends?

12:18 / 01.07.05

I don't think it's as simple as that, in my case it's more inversely proportional to time spent down pub. Which may or may not be connected to number of friends.
Seriously though as a young teenager I spent much more time gaming than I do now, and I'm not sure if that is because my priorities have changed or if games are less interesting. I miss the days of the smaller publisher, or even the auteur style of game designer like Jeff Minter, Geoff Crammond or Sid Meier. Though to be honest there was probably just as high a propertion of dreck out there then. It just seems like more as more and more games are released.

15:56 / 01.07.05

Depends on whether or not your friends also play videogames, doesn't it?

Anyway, I think that possibly the answer to Flowers' problem is either to try playing something in a different genre, or else to have a crack at console gaming instead. All the games mentioned are PC titles, and nearly all are RTS. And RTS, as discussed in this thread is a genre which most developers long since stopped even pretending to innovate in. Similarly, first-person shooters attempt to do something different from the crowd only rarely. So, given what we know about the types of games that you've played, it'd seem that you're just disillusioned with those specific genres. As they'd seem to make up the majority of releases on the PC, maybe it's time to try something new?

And there *are* new games and ideas out there, as well as smaller teams. Minter, Crammond and Meier are all still producing new games (although it's kind of funny that you should choose them, given that not one of them could ever really be accused of originality). Japanese developers and publishers in particular seem to be looking to the idea of smaller studios with auteur producers as a possible solution to their shrinking share of sales. Clover, for example - in fact, most of Capcom's recent releases have obviously been the result of one strong, individual vision.

You want games that offer enjoyable originality? Animal Crossing. Metroid Prime. Metal Arms. Viewtiful Joe.

You want games that offer great short burst gaming? Psyvariar. Metal Slug. Pikmin. Luigi's Mansion. Otogi. Gitaroo Man. Gregory Horror Show. Psi-Ops. Super Monkey Ball.

And many more. They're out there, and they're still coming - Killer 7, anybody? You just need to look for them.

20:57 / 01.07.05

Depends on whether or not your friends also play videogames, doesn't it?
Yup, life is different when every party you go to starts with LAN.

I don't game as much as usual right now, but that's due mostly to being overwhelmed with the number of games I should play. I go to pick a game and end up reading a book instead.

10:31 / 02.07.05

Dupre, I shall try and check out some of those titles. I've been looking for some "short burst" style games recently, though I only have a PS2 which rules out some of your suggestions.
I didn't say that there weren't any interesting interesting games out there, just that it can seem that way with the huge amount of crap that gets released - but as I said that's always been true
I guess what I meant when I cited those three designers was not originality but what you called in your post "a strong, individual vision", something that often seems to be missing.
Thinking about it maybe in fact my problem is that I don't have the time (or inclination?) any more to keep up with what's going on in games and therefore only hear about the big releases by the big publishers.

14:10 / 02.07.05

Yeah, the biggest problem is being able to notice these games at a glance. The amount of money that the large publishers can afford to spend on marketing their latest sequel means that this always happens.

I'd say that the PS2 offers some of the best short burst gaming around. That's the one good thing about a single format having market dominance - the huge installed userbase allows minor developers and publishers to release titles and have a decent chance of at least making their money back.

The good thing is that it's a situation that improves when we come to the end of a hardware generation, as we are now. Because the big guns move their focus over to the new machines, it leaves a hole in the market that needs to be filled. There's a company called 505 Gamestreet, for example, who've snapped up the European publishing rights for an eclectic selection of little-known Japanese games, a couple of which - Michigan and Graffiti Kingdom - are extremely interesting.

It's the same as any medium, really - if you want to find the gems, often you have to put in some extra effort.

14:43 / 02.07.05

Read the Penny-Arcade newsposts. Tycho tends to give a heads-up regarding those little gems that slip under the radar.

15:58 / 10.07.05

I just hate/love computer games. Either you love the game and it eats and destroys countless hours of your life and you walk blinking in to the sunshine wondering what happened to the weekend. Or it is crap and a waste of time.