hawkinson76

@tvippy: I don't. If I did "useful stuff" all the time I would be miserable, and I'd be a terrible husband and father. People have to play, unwind, and recharge. I like games for that. No guilt in spending 4 hours playing dark souls on a Saturday.

I have a job and my kids are doing well, so maybe I feel i earned it?

39 years young. Short answer: no, its not harder for me to get into a game. I get deep into Dark Souls sessions (4+ hours, only on weekends). And even the shorter game experiences, like an episode of Tell Tale game, will engross me for the duration. I spend two solid afternoons playing Her Story.

YMMV, here is where I am coming from: I play about 12 games a year, never new releases, always single player, and usually one game at a time. I like thinking deeply about the game that I am playing, even when they are kind of shit, like Final Fantasy - Lightning Returns.

That was cool, thank you.

Reading this, I realize that mandatory, single autosave systems a la rouge-likes and dark souls are not on the spectrum of checkpoint-vs-manual-saves, its a different beast altogether. I think it is a better tool for achieving tension than the no-mid-mission saves of AvP, but maybe that only works because death is not permanent in the dark souls fiction.

Its also interesting to think about how genre conventions and expectations are the result of technology with regards to saving. Genres with with PC roots save the gameplay state while the legacy of consoles (and arcades) is saving only mission progress and leaderboard relevant stats. No one expects in mission saves in Bayonetta, even through they are completely possible. Super Meat boy constantly records the game state, but only for the crazy playback in the end, not for gameplay purposes (I wonder if they tried that).

@edgework: My use case is working again, thank you!

@edgework: No, I don't know what an API key is.

I'm logged in as a premium member and using the "download" links, specifically mobile to keep the size down for my phone.

example of a link that worked up until last week: http://v.giantbomb.com/video/vf_persona4_21_aja_350.mp4

I've been downloading endurance run episodes for my commute and the download links haven't worked since yesterday. I can still stream the videos on both a desktop and iphone, its just the download links that don't work.

is it related to this?

I found the 3/28/2016 Oculus stream hard to watch. The problem is locking the camera to the head tracking. The person playing the game doesn't experience this, they are moving their eyes to compensate for their own head movement to stay locked on a visual object. I can only think of two possible solutions:

1. unlock the spectator camera from the head tracking. A fixed forward facing cockpit view for Eve Valkyrie would have been much easier to watch (but maybe boring)
2. Add a whole layer of eye motion compensation. It would need both hardware eye tracking and software to calculate the final spectator view, not a simple solution. And I don't know if this would really work, people scanning a scene with their eyes, or darting their eyes around, might be even harder to watch than the head motion.

In any case, I'm not looking forward to more head-tracking based VR streams.

The correct answer is Vinny

I'm a father of three (13, 9, and 4). Yes my gaming habits have changed over the last 14 years or so, but I think it has more to do with growing older than the growing family.

Change I attribute to to family: I am very frugal. My game budget has to be modest, it does't benefit the family the way a movie rental or Amazon Prime subscription does. Consoles are also out, but having a fast living room PC benifits everyone. That means PC games and Steam sales. The biggest victim is DLC, that stuff isn't never sufficiently discounted. Bioshock Infinite and Dragon Age Inquisition both have DLC epilogues that sound more like the real ending of the game, but I can't justify the purchase at the same price I paid for the base games.

Things that surprisingly didn't change: Playing long games. When the right game comes along, I will still sink 80+ hours into it. It takes a lot longer, but that helps with the frugality. This does surprise me, I have dry spells when highly recommended games don't keep my interest (Sleeping Dogs, Shadow of Mordoor) and I think I maybe done with big games. Then something like Dark Souls or Dragon Age Inquisition comes along and I'm playing that for a 1-2 months straight.

I play all my games in the family room, so I'm still (sort of) present. The biggest consequence this has in gaming is that I can't play any scary or overly vulgar games. Its more about tone than a specific list of banned content: Last of Us is fine, Dead Space is a no go (even though I've owned 1 and 2 for years); Saints Row is fine, but I'm hesitant to purchase GTA5 (I may never be able to play it).

Order of release.