I think I lost it...

I've been playing videogames now since I was 8. My first game at that time was Doom. Still I get great flashbacks when I hear the soundtracks of various games that I have on my MP3 player. As my life moved on, games were always a big part of that life. The tension I had during the times I had to face Wesker and his Tyrant on Playstation, the tears that rolled down my cheek when I had to kill THE BOSS on my PS2, the excitement I felt when I walked through Rapture with my XBox360 and the Badassness I endured during the fight with Hades on my PS3. These and many other moments are memories I fondly remember, but for the last 2 months I'm kinda "burned out" on games. When I started my new Job, the first thing ( well actually the first thing I did was getting shitfaced drunk) I did when I received my first paycheck was to buy a big pile of games. Warhammer, Bulletstorm, Alice, Crysis 2, Rage, Conviction and Reckoning were some of those games.

It is the same scenario since then: Start one game, play it for an hour the first time I put it in, play 20 minutes the next day, get bored, let it rest for a week and install a new game, play it for and hour and so on. Now I have 6 unfinished Games on my Harddrive (not to mention the Arcade ones) and no urge to finish them. If you would have told me a year ago that I have an unfiished game in my console I would have played the shit out of that game until it dropped its pants and gave me all it's gamerscore, but these days: no such thing.

Maybe my inner child and its love for games died, maybe it's the stagnation in the industry that killed it. Or maybe I just need a break. Like a break in a longlasting relationship (not that I have any clue about such a thing, I'm a nerd after all ;) where you simply have to take a few steps back to realize what you were having then come back with fresh energy. Maybe it's the weather or the moon. Maybe the games I bought were just aweful.

Maybe I should finish this blog for now. Yeah, sounds like the right thing to do.

I've been playing videogames now since I was 8. My first game at that time was Doom. Still I get great flashbacks when I hear the soundtracks of various games that I have on my MP3 player. As my life moved on, games were always a big part of that life. The tension I had during the times I had to face Wesker and his Tyrant on Playstation, the tears that rolled down my cheek when I had to kill THE BOSS on my PS2, the excitement I felt when I walked through Rapture with my XBox360 and the Badassness I endured during the fight with Hades on my PS3. These and many other moments are memories I fondly remember, but for the last 2 months I'm kinda "burned out" on games. When I started my new Job, the first thing ( well actually the first thing I did was getting shitfaced drunk) I did when I received my first paycheck was to buy a big pile of games. Warhammer, Bulletstorm, Alice, Crysis 2, Rage, Conviction and Reckoning were some of those games.

It is the same scenario since then: Start one game, play it for an hour the first time I put it in, play 20 minutes the next day, get bored, let it rest for a week and install a new game, play it for and hour and so on. Now I have 6 unfinished Games on my Harddrive (not to mention the Arcade ones) and no urge to finish them. If you would have told me a year ago that I have an unfiished game in my console I would have played the shit out of that game until it dropped its pants and gave me all it's gamerscore, but these days: no such thing.

Maybe my inner child and its love for games died, maybe it's the stagnation in the industry that killed it. Or maybe I just need a break. Like a break in a longlasting relationship (not that I have any clue about such a thing, I'm a nerd after all ;) where you simply have to take a few steps back to realize what you were having then come back with fresh energy. Maybe it's the weather or the moon. Maybe the games I bought were just aweful.

Maybe I should finish this blog for now. Yeah, sounds like the right thing to do.

I just wrote a blog touching on some of the same things. My suggestion would be to go back to the games you really like instead of "chasing the dragon" of the games popping out. You might find that much more enjoyable.

I'd recommend taking a break, people need some variety, but I guarantee you will be back in a month or so if you have a go at something new/different to occupy your time.

@megatronicles said:

I'd recommend taking a break, people need some variety, but I guarantee you will be back in a month or so if you have a go at something new/different to occupy your time.

Yep, that's it. Try something new for a change. Read something, take a trip somewhere local you never would have thought of, practice a skill you want to get good at. And, as they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder.

You and I became attracted to games at a time when they were trying to set themselves apart from passive media. It turned out that what a big chunk of the market really wanted was passive media with the illusion of interactivity (see: Wii, most modern games that get any significant amount of media coverage etc.), so since then, the industry has shifted towards mimicking TV and movies, rather than providing an alternative to them ("Look how cinematic everything is! It's so cinematic! Almost like a real movie!") It's shifted slowly enough that many of the people who actually did want engaging and interactive media which gaming used to offer, have been seduced into going along with it without really noticing. Eventually you get to a point where you do realise that whatever this hobby is now, it isn't the one you fell in love with.

Think about how demanding the games you were playing at 8yo were compared to the games you went out and bought with your first paycheck. They're so different that it's barely even the same thing. The whole time we were getting smarter, gaming (the popular bit of it) was getting dumber. Once those points are far enough apart, something has to give. You have to stick to older games (which is depressing) or actively search out something smarter to play.

The natural modern home of that old gaming ethos is in multiplayer I suppose, but unfortunately far too many of the communities surrounding multiplayer are unbearable.

Feel the same way. I've so little time for games that sitting down to play them feels like *gasp* a waste of time! When I have down time it's spent with my girlfriend...or reading! I still love games, but could care less about all the hubbub.