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Post by kitten on Feb 26, 2011 19:41:45 GMT -5
You know, more and more lately, I find it increasingly difficult to just sit the fuck down and play a video game. Back when I was younger, when I had the opportunity to play a new game, I would play it and very typically enjoy it. It was such a casual experience, like going out to see a movie or watching a new cartoon. Today, however, things are entirely different, and I really, really can't say it's for the better. Now, when I sit down to play a game, it's a decision I have already spent quite some time dwelling upon. Does the game have collectibles? Does it have multiple difficulties? Are there are achievements? How long will it take me to complete the game? Am I confident I will consider my time well spent? How many days might I have to invest to finish it? Are there things I can skip the first time through, and if there are, will I be likely to replay it? Am I prepared to critique the game once I've played it and consider what I like and dislike about it enough to confidently explain to others? I have to consider all of these factors, and before I know it, most games are becoming this psychological burden to me that I'm intentionally avoiding play of even when I have time do it. They feel like an obligation rather than a relaxing way to spend some free time. For example, take a look at my list of games that I own and haven't finished, and see how many RPG's are on there that I haven't even started. Click here. It's a pretty big number! I think I've counted it up to exceed thirty, before. It's not like I don't want to play most of these RPG's I've bought, it's just the idea of being washed under a sea of tedious things to do overwhelms me. The same feeling often gets me with even simpler games, as that list should definitely illustrate. Anyone got any advice on how to just relax and play games again? How to kinda erase that compulsion for commitment from your mind and just be in and out? I'm sure I'm not the only one here with this "problem."
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 26, 2011 19:53:17 GMT -5
I was running into something like this a little while ago. For me, it came from just buying too much stuff all at once, and never getting the chance to properly enjoy what I had. The best advice I can give is to put aside things that you aren't sure about and just play stuff that you know you'll like.
Along with that, if you have to stop going for Achievements and 100% status, do that as well. A lot of the "pure" fun of playing games came back to me when I stopped worrying about getting 100% right away. The games will always be there for you to complete more fully at a later date.
Good luck.
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Post by kyouki on Feb 26, 2011 19:59:55 GMT -5
edit: Woah, we posted at the same time Jason X. Great minds think alike!
Whenever I have a hobby that is losing its appeal I do one of two things:
1) take a long break from it
2) simplify it
For example, I have played video games since I was a kid. After playing them for a good 20 years I was pretty bored. So I sold every single game I had, all my consoles, etc. I think I went 6 months or so without touching a game, other than simple stuff on emulation. Then some game came out that I was really interested in and so I went out and got a PS2 and a couple of games and suddenly games were really interesting again.
Sometimes I will also fall into the trap of collecting games. If you collect games it's hard to stay committed to playing just a couple and so you never get very deep into their mechanics and then games start to get boring and before you know if you are buying more and more games thinking that the right one will spark your interest.
I think this is a mistake and it's never worked for me. When I get to that point I sit down and play a little of each game I own, and make two piles: games that are worth playing through and games that I bought just to add to the collection. Next chance I get the second pile gets taken to a store and sold. Then I'm left with a few games (usually a half a dozen or so) and I find myself with more time per game.
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Post by Lee on Feb 26, 2011 20:43:20 GMT -5
This happened to me about six years ago. I got out of gaming, and started doing other hobbies alot more. After about a year of little to no gaming ( I made an exception for Disgaea) I really started to miss it. The fist game I really dug into after my break was Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne. As most of you know, that game takes a long time to beat. Over the course of a month, I played that game to total completion and it felt rewarding.
I guess my advice is to take a long break from gaming. It can get addictive to build collections, but in the end you won't enjoy the games for what they are...games. Collecting and playing stuff can be done, but it is hard to draw the line and just play one at a time.
These days I am doing both alot, but it is kind of the twilight of my hobby as I am sure when I finish college and marry my fiancee next year, my life will change completely. As priorities change so do old habits.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 26, 2011 20:47:06 GMT -5
edit: Woah, we posted at the same time Jason X. Great minds think alike! Heh. Kind of interesting to hear that you ever had this kind of problem, though. You never seem to take games TOO seriously.
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Post by Jave on Feb 26, 2011 21:07:04 GMT -5
My gaming habits are very different from yous, so I don't know how relevant this will be, but I've found in my own life (if not so much in games), the moments where my OCD is at it's worst are when I'm able to statistically track whatever I'm doing, especially if it's possible to compare my stats with those of other people. It just sucks the enjoyment out of anything.
My advice would be, frankly, to stop keeping score. Ditch Backloggery altogether if you have to, but just pay no attention to how many games you have or haven't completed. Play the games you want to play, and put the ones you don't back on the shelf. You're placing all this extra demand on yourself, and for what? Let it go.
Anyway, that's what my own experience has taught me, this will either make perfect sense or sound like the dumbest advice ever given.
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Post by Feynman on Feb 26, 2011 22:20:59 GMT -5
My advice would be, frankly, to stop keeping score. Ditch Backloggery altogether if you have to, but just pay no attention to how many games you have or haven't completed. Play the games you want to play, and put the ones you don't back on the shelf. You're placing all this extra demand on yourself, and for what? Let it go. This is pretty much the way I do things. I don't have a Backloggery and I don't track achievements. Achievements in particular are quite capable of sucking the fun out of gaming... why worry about HOW you're playing the game or what tasks you've performed in it if you can just play it the way you like instead? Achievements also lead directly into backlog hell, as if you spend too much time trying to collect achievements relative to how many games you're buying, all you're going to do is accumulate a wall of stuff you won't ever get around to playing. Also, I like to play two or three games concurrently instead of focusing on just one... for the last couple of days, I've been playing some Ys while I listen to the evening news or wait for my food to finish cooking, and winding down the last hour or two of the evening with Phantasy Star 2 (now replaced with Dragon Quest VI). I keep short, replayable action-y games handy to play when I don't feel like (or have the time for) sitting down to spend hours playing through whatever 40+ hour RPG I'm working on at the moment.
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Post by justjustin on Feb 26, 2011 23:33:45 GMT -5
Does the game have collectibles? Does it have multiple difficulties? Are there are achievements? How long will it take me to complete the game? Am I confident I will consider my time well spent? How many days might I have to invest to finish it? Are there things I can skip the first time through, and if there are, will I be likely to replay it? Am I prepared to critique the game once I've played it and consider what I like and dislike about it enough to confidently explain to others? What good reason do you have for believing you must consider these factors at all? Keep asking yourself "why?" until you don't have a good answer. Toss those ideas out if you can, and realize they're just totally fictitious. For some reason you made them up. If you've somehow reasoned yourself into being so committed to games-- and all the unnecessary justification, hesitation and deliberation that goes with it-- you can surely reason yourself out of it and once again enjoy games the right way; in your spare time, as a way to lift your spirits. Not a job, or an obligation or a commitment. Others have suggested it, but if you have the opportunity or the willpower to take a long break from videogames give it a shot. I didn't have regular access to games for about 8 months and I realized, most importantly, I wasn't a collector. This immediately changed my entire viewpoint on games. They weren't things I had to get a hold of, or keep tabs on, just an activity I loved to do. I had been thinking, and to a degree enjoying games, in a backwards way. So check your thinking. Are your ideas about games working against your ability to enjoy them and why? Why not think in ways that enhance your enjoyment of them, and try to identify what those ways are. I'm sure you'll get out of your rut one way or another.
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Post by ReyVGM on Feb 27, 2011 0:20:03 GMT -5
Along with that, if you have to stop going for Achievements and 100% status, do that as well. A lot of the "pure" fun of playing games came back to me when I stopped worrying about getting 100% right away. The games will always be there for you to complete more fully at a later date. Good luck. Yeah, games these days have way too many collectibles. Such a thing would have been so AWESOME when we were kids and played 10 hour sessions. As a kid? Jeez, I would have died to have New Game +'s, Bestiaries and unlockables on every game. God knows I tried to get all of Gau's Rages in Final Fantasy 6 back in the day. But these days games almost make it "mandatory" to collect everything, or at least that's how they make us feel about it. Sooo.... that's why I don't do that anymore. I just play the game without caring about collecting everything. After I beat the game, I check a FAQ to see what extra content the game has. If it's worthwhile, then I'll put in the extra hours to achieve that. If not, then I'll do it one day when I decide to replay the game before I die.
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Post by Revolver Ocelot on Feb 27, 2011 0:51:21 GMT -5
I tend to cycle through obsessive gameplay, movie watching and anime watching phases that last about a year each, and I usually get so obsessive in one or the other that I get extremely sick of it and barely expose myself to it at all when I'm not in that particular phase. This is why my anime reviews fell to the wayside but are probably going to come back in full force soon once I get sick of games.
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Post by X-pert74 on Feb 27, 2011 3:58:02 GMT -5
From about age 12-17, I lost interest in video games. At the time I think it was just because I couldn't find anything to get excited about, as I was mainly into Nintendo back then, but none of what Nintendo was doing with the Gamecube (aside from Melee and Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door) was catching my attention. Aside from Paper Mario: TTYD and the Tony Hawk series on PS2, I pretty much stopped playing games during that time, instead focusing my free time on building up a music collection. Since getting a Wii in 2007 though, I've gotten back into video games, and am interested in them again.
Sometimes I find it hard to find a game to stick with and finish, but I just try not to care too much about it. I won't stress out about finishing every game I own. I do like to keep track of them, but if I'm not liking a game, I'll mark it as null, rather than keeping it as "unfinished". Because who wants to feel compelled to beat a game they aren't enjoying? I'll still keep them because I enjoy collecting games, but I won't worry about beating them, just for the sake of doing so. Sometimes I won't feel like beating any unfinished game of mine. Instead I'll just feel like revisiting a game I've already beaten; possibly numerous times in the past. Even if I'm not "accomplishing" anything by beating a game I've already beaten, I just won't worry about it, and will simply enjoy playing it for what it is.
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Sayl
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Post by Sayl on Feb 27, 2011 9:15:38 GMT -5
I'm not exactly sure this is really the same thing and none of this is anything but observation but, I have observed at least a dozen gamers "grow out" of games and I had been at first personally frustrated by the process that a great hobby would be something those particular people no longer shared with me. However, at the end of the day it is a good thing for all parties as rarely will games be cut completely out of a persons life, especially when they are steeped in it as richly as many of the people are at this forum.
The first step is an over expectation of what is a playable game, as they become more and more critical of games and only are happy with the best, or nearly the best games of the year. The joy of gaming is fading for these people and they often take it out on the games, or current state of games being developed.
The second is an over emphasis on the social aspect , mmos, discussion on forums throwing gamer parties wherein no games are played, engaging in "geek or gamer" culture like conventions or whatever. Being a gamer is about playing games, often times by yourself, sometimes with others but the primary focus is engaging in the hobby, not turning it into something its not nearly as good at as the real thing, social interaction.
The third is the actual quitting of playing games, sometimes without even realizing it. But this is actually the best part, as instead of having a friend who is now overly social and at the same time disgruntled about a hobby he or she is supposed to enjoy . A complete break from the medium seems to leave an impression on the person. Games are a hobby that take a certain energy level, one i would theorize as higher than say TV or movies as those take no interaction, and probably less energy than going out and experiencing "nightlife" or traveling. So whatever the issue is with why games are no longer enjoyed due to not being stimulating enough, or being too stimulating the fact remains that it isn't unhealthy to be interested in a long list of things, and will lead to being a more well rounded person. If the stars re-align and one finds it in themselves to pick up a game and get back to their beloved hobby, they will find it quite easy as games are no fad and the industry gets larger every year, in other words, the games will be here when you get back and they dont mind a short break up.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 27, 2011 9:54:46 GMT -5
I was running into something like this a little while ago. For me, it came from just buying too much stuff all at once, and never getting the chance to properly enjoy what I had. The best advice I can give is to put aside things that you aren't sure about and just play stuff that you know you'll like. Along with that, if you have to stop going for Achievements and 100% status, do that as well. A lot of the "pure" fun of playing games came back to me when I stopped worrying about getting 100% right away. The games will always be there for you to complete more fully at a later date. Good luck. Just from past posts I think that I've got a similar mindset to Jason on playing games/buying them. I find that I'll buy shit either just to have it, because of sales, or because I think it's going to be scarce. I even got into buying the special editions of games, which I'm really trying to wean myself off of. There's something comforting in owning a game but not necessarily playing it, and I need to escape that. The other problem is that after getting more into 360 games I started playing games with Achievements in mind. Problem is that if you get into that mindset you play less stuff like "Old" games or handhelds where you have no achievements. This is also a pain in the ass though, since I've got a stack of unplayed games or partially played games on account of trying to get through the achievements for something else. Anyway, I've been focusing on PSP games a lot (the Ys games, Phantasy Star Portable 2, ZHP) and beating older console games or MAME games and it's been helping me get away from it a bit. It's still slow going and I've been anal retentive on some of the collection games, but it's been helping me to get over myself. Another thing is to find another hobby on the side. I've been trying to draw more on account of Pixiv, and it feels like completing little short term goals and also focusing on something else helps you to focus more on completing video games as a side-effect. When it comes down to it, it's a matter of willpower and just realizing that enjoying yourself is the point of playing games; if you really truly enjoy the completionist aspect then that's fine, but if you're just putting in time to stuff your "E-nis" then you need to put your foot down and re-evaluate things. Sorry, this probably didn't make much sense and rambled on.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 27, 2011 10:23:45 GMT -5
It's taking everything in my being to not purchase the limited edition of Muchi Muchi Pork / Pink Sweets right now.
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Post by Lee on Feb 27, 2011 11:27:01 GMT -5
It's taking everything in my being to not purchase the limited edition of Muchi Muchi Pork / Pink Sweets right now. If it helps, I heard that the ports are both really shoddy.
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