Among boxes and boxes of childhood memories, there is a sketchpad full of crappy knock-off Mega Man villains. Pages and pages of these things. I'm not really sure how I came up with all of them, because I haven't had that strong of a creative impetus for years.
There was a time when I wanted to make video games. Not to design, write, code or create art for video games, just to 'make' them. Clearly I had no idea what went into making a video game, the kind of focus needed, and I came up with all sorts of game jigsaw pieces that didn't quite fit together. There were tiny level designs, multitudes of characters, an attempted novel, even a brief attempt at teaching myself C++. I was all over the place.

Now that I've settled on writing as my gaming 'major', I've looked back at what I've made, what my imagination has spit out in the last several years. Not a whole lot. I still play games just as often, if not more. I still thrown myself into myriad innovative worlds. But none of it has really reignited my creative spark.

Granted, I don't become as wholly absorbed by a game these days as I used to. As a child, I couldn't imagine the idea of playing even two games at once: why would anyone pick up another game before the previous one was done (complete or otherwise)? Now I'm juggling two books and probably six games, and it all makes sense. But perhaps this has spread my imagination too thin, like butter scraped across too much bread. Perhaps it's my own fault for not dedicating myself to one wom- um... game.

Maybe some of the creativity of youth has simply left me. Maybe it's something more personal, pointing at a deeper problem in my life. Or maybe... maybe games have truly lost some of their magic? It has been a generation of consoles since I truly fell in love with a game, and that was a rare thing even then- it used to be a common thing.

My final speculation is this- I am now more tapped in to gaming news and culture than I ever was, and multi-game ADD is getting worse than ever. So many games are coming out, and I hear about almost all of them. From every console, from every genre, there are new announcements every week, new recommendations from my favorite journalists. And it's all so beautiful.

Quite the dilemma.    

Agreed. Gaming itself isn't as innovative, creative, or well, interesting as it used to be. I play a lot of games, most of which fall between mediocre and competent, but usually one game a year, or one every couple years really holds my attention and says, "this is why I fuckin' game."

I used to have game ADD, but have taught myself how to reel it in where I stick with one game, maybe two (one console and one PC at the same time). I find myself getting a better sense of accomplishment when I systematically complete one game and tackle another. However, I don't mind playing a bunch of mindless small time-wasters at the same time. I have a shitload of fun doing so, even if "gaming isn't as innovative or interesting" which could be argued well from both sides of the coin.

Games haven't lost their magic... I played through Motorstorm: Apocalypse last week and had so many "OH MY GOD" moments. Moments that made me stop and just process what the fuck was happening: racing in the fucking apocalypse. I think people take games like this for granted. 

" Games haven't lost their magic... I played through Motorstorm: Apocalypse last week and had so many "OH MY GOD" moments. Moments that made me stop and just process what the fuck was happening: racing in the fucking apocalypse. I think people take games like this for granted. 

"

" @EVO said:

" Games haven't lost their magic... I played through Motorstorm: Apocalypse last week and had so many "OH MY GOD" moments. Moments that made me stop and just process what the fuck was happening: racing in the fucking apocalypse. I think people take games like this for granted. 

"

I feel the same way about Vanquish. Vanquish is fuckin' incredible, and it gives me a similar feeling. We need more crazy games like this. "

I'd say some of it has to do with growing up. Things that seemed special when we were kids generally don't remain that way as we grow older. 

The rate of consumption and the ease of finding information have gone up.

Past: You either hear about a game in the school yard or see it on the shelf in a store. A few times a year, at your birthday and / or Christmas, if you were lucky, you might get a game and that one game would be THE game for a year.
Present: By E3 of the previous year you would already have made a shortlist of games that you were going to buy, put aside some of your wages, or, again if you were lucky, go all impulse buying.

That's one thing that has changed. What hasn't changed though is the "lack of originality" in games. I think that I could probably name a fair amount of games that were a cheap knockoff of Mario / Space Invaders / Pac-Man / Double Dragon / etc.

" @Napalm said:

" @EVO said:

" Games haven't lost their magic... I played through Motorstorm: Apocalypse last week and had so many "OH MY GOD" moments. Moments that made me stop and just process what the fuck was happening: racing in the fucking apocalypse. I think people take games like this for granted. 

"

I feel the same way about Vanquish. Vanquish is fuckin' incredible, and it gives me a similar feeling. We need more crazy games like this. "

Dude, I was gonna mention Vanquish. That game is from the future. Ahead of it's time.  "

" These days, games are too caught up in telling immersive and emotional stories, or well, trying and failing awfully, that most companies forget that videogames are fuckin' videogames and first and foremost, they have to be interesting and fun to play. Everybody is so worried about graphics, stories and a mass market appeal beyond anything we've seen, that they have all stopped playing to a specific crowd to make their games as creative and interesting as possible.

" @Napalm said:

" These days, games are too caught up in telling immersive and emotional stories, or well, trying and failing awfully, that most companies forget that videogames are fuckin' videogames and first and foremost, they have to be interesting and fun to play. Everybody is so worried about graphics, stories and a mass market appeal beyond anything we've seen, that they have all stopped playing to a specific crowd to make their games as creative and interesting as possible.

Exactly. You can't force innovation, it just happens. "

I think you should stop playing so many games at once. I still get so much out of games, if not more then I used too. You just have to focus that laser called your mind on something instead of scattering it all over the place. 

As you get older you slowly get more and more cynical. It has been ages since a game truly amazed me.