Are Your Tastes in Games Changing as You Get Older?

When I was younger I was big on action, and I used to hate puzzle games when I was a little kid. I recently bought a DS and can't seem to get enough of the puzzle games like Professor Layton or Puzzle Quest. Does anyone else feel their tastes in game genres change as they get older, or are at least more open to try them?

As I'm getting older I want more pick up and play games. Multiplayer shooters or 11 hour games are all I have time for anymore.

Many things have changed regarding gaming for me as I've grown older. First I was forced to cherish games more when I was a kid, I didn't have instant access to reviews, quick looks, or ass loads of money. I bought games based on the fucking box like a true OG. I played the shit out of games that probably weren't even that good. Now if I'm not having a blast that thing goes to the trash and the next one is incoming.

Regarding taste, the biggest thing I've found noticable regarding my change in taste has been Tom Clancy titles, when I was a kid I didn't fancy the stealth action and more realistic game play at all. I wanted to "Rambo" everything all the time, now I only want to "Rambo" occasionally and find it quite satisfying to these days to get a well planned stealth kill.

I still couldn't give a shit about most story lines or secondary audio log type stuff in games though, so that hasn't changed at all.

I used to be all about military first person shooters, red dot sights, kill death ratios... all that stuff.

But to be honest as I get older, I find myself bored to tears of them. I can't imagine how many hours, days, months, or even years I've spent playing those games looking down the sights. I still find games like TF2 great because they are more about teamwork and have unique combat modes like payload. And another thing I like about TF2 is each class is unique and not just assault rifle carrying soldiers like so many games that are out right now. So TF2 is my FPS exception that I still like...

But yes, as I get older I find myself more interested in Strategy games, MOBAs, MMOs, and RPGs mostly. The depth and complexity of those games appeals more to me now than when I was a young lad, because I am smarter now.

So to keep it simple: I've replaced Call of Duty and Battlefield 3 with Starcraft 2, Age of Empires Online, League of Legends, Oblivion (soon Skyrim) and most recently Star Wars: The Old Republic.

With a few indie games/ lesser known games like Bastion, Metro 2033, Super Meat Boy, and Rock of Ages to spice it up :)

I don't think my interests have changed, I'm just more interested in games now than I was as a kid.
 
Growing up my favorite games were old PC RPGs, Strategy Games, and JRPGs. That's pretty much all I play now.

The only change is that I grew out of free MMOs and emulation as I started getting my own money. I was too timid as a kid to ask my parents for anything so the only console I owned until a few years ago was a PSOne which I got 1 year after the PS2 launched.

I think my taste has remained the same, but a lot of the games have changed.
 
There are no more space sims really, no more classic CRPGs like there used to be, even older RTS' like Total Annihilation and Command & Conquer have pretty much died.
 
I just want to play games like that again, but those times are over.

SRPG's from the cradle to the grave. Bitch.

Yes.

I've started to really like RTS's and RPG's (Only Action RPG's, though)

Into my third year of playing "modern" games on the 360 the initial wow factor of the first year started to wane and I thought maybe I just don't enjoy games as much.  Then I was given a ps2 and found I liked the games on that a lot more than the 360.  Even though they look like crap in comparison you stop seeing that after 5 minutes and they were new to me and feel more fun driven.  So I don't know if that means my tastes have changed or were the same as when I had the original xbox or Gamecube.   I finished Largo Winch on the ps2 tonight, a game that looks terrible but is quirky, has charm and is better than 90% of things I've played on the 360.  I played the Ratchet and Clank games for the first time and they're superb, again far better than anything on the 360.

I know I don't give a toss about competative multiplayer.  I find it so repetative and without narrative.  How the fuck all of my friends can play Black Ops night after night infinitum I just don't know.  It's not multiplayer I hate; Co-op I like a lot.
 
So I think my tastes have stayed fairly stable but games on multiplayer focussed systems are almost entirely charmless and moving away from my like of brightly coloured fun, but I'm still getting that with the occasional gems on the Wii.

Yeah, I used to only play shooters but now I cant stand playing most, all I play really are RTS, RPGs, and short indie games. I also don't play any competitive games anymore.

Nope ! Platformers, Action- adventure(story driven or combat heavy) , unique FPSs' ,Puzzle games, and RPG shooters. I will always love them...

Gameplay no.

I'm still young so my reflexes aren't going anywhere anytime soon. My sensitivity to story and how plot is handled though have gotten picky as hell.

I expect more from my games than a Michael Bay explosion extravaganza. I care a lot more about story, immersion, and atmosphere.

More interested in games that people say don't play the greatest, but try something new.

Yes and no, but not by choice. They don't really make the kind of games I enjoy anymore, and the few that do are always pretty bad to middling.

Not so much "changing" as "expanding".

I still like the same genres as I always have, but I've tried new ones and found quite a few that I like as well. There are still some genres that I don't care for though.

I can't bring myself to play Final Fantasy games anymore. And I don't play nearly as many sports games as I used to. On the other hand I find myself playing a lot more strategy games.

Very interesting responses in this thread. Tons of variation here...

I grew up playing nothing but JRPGs, and those are kinda garbage now for the most part. I really just enjoy any game with a leveling/progression system in it.

1- I liked MMO'd when I was in middle school, now I hate them?

thats really the only changed to be a bigger nintendo fut now im more of a sony guy although love first party nintendo.

My tastes have stayed pretty consistent. I am still way too into shooters and love RPG's. The one change I have noticed is that I can't enjoy platformers anymore. Bionic Commando: Rearmed was the last one is really enjoyed, but I haven't been able to play a Sonic or Mario games since Super Mario World.

i am starting to get tired of playing FPS games. you know call of duty games. i don't think it's really changed.

Very good question, it actually made me think about my gaming habits through the years. I actually don't think it changed that much, and I started gaming at 8 or 9 and I am 33 now. You would think my taste would get more sophisticated but shamefully that doesn't seem to be the case..

I used to like WRPG's like Baldur's Gate and The Elder Scrolls: Arena, and I still like those type of games, even the way they have evolved into stuff like Mass Effect. I played a lot of Civilization (the first)and stuff like Sim City and those games are still fun. I amless into shooters now than back in the day I guess, but I think even them it was mostly the amazement at those new 3d worlds and not the mechanics.

The only thing that's changed is that I have less patience and I commit less time to one game, playing way more different stuff. Probably because I actually have money to buy new stuff.

I think I play more shooters and action games in general than I used to when I was younger, but that doesn't really mean my tastes have changed. I still appreciate slower and more story-focused games just as much as I did when I was a kid.

I have less patience these days, and I consider checkpoints, lower difficulties and learning curves to be a godsend.

However, I subscribe to the 'I like what I like' school of thought, so I'll pretty much always be in love with brutally difficult beat'em ups/hack'n slashers, FPSs, goofy/crude/violent humor and anything science fiction and/or futuristic/cyberpunk-ish.

I think age really affects the types of games I play, or how I play them, but it hasn't really affected the actual games I play. Godhand is brutally difficult, and I'll end up restarting a section at least three or four times to push through with the most amount of coin possible, but in the end, I wouldn't want it any other way.

I used to play a lot of Platform games, stuff like Croc, Spyro, Gex, Crash Bandicoot etc.

Now it's mostly shooting and driving games.

I put it down to the fact that most modern platform games are shite compared to what they used to be, not that I've grown out of them

I find myself looking more and more into playing games that have a fun co-op aspect to it, either locally or through the internet. I used to enjoy the competitive team deathmatch sorta thing a lot more when I was younger, and to a certain extent I still do, since you have people co-operating to a certain extent to getting things done, but straight up co-op is fun for me nowadays.

@slacker4life said:

Many things have changed regarding gaming for me as I've grown older. First I was forced to cherish games more when I was a kid, I didn't have instant access to reviews, quick looks, or ass loads of money. I bought games based on the fucking box like a true OG. I played the shit out of games that probably weren't even that good.

I used to be really into JRPG's in my early teens, but grew out of those as I started going back and playing more WRPG's. Games like Planescape and Baldur's Gate helped me realize how poor the stories and character development is done in Japanese RPG's and I was just never able to go back.

These days, I almost flat out refuse to play any kind of First Person Shooter or third person cover based shooter, I'm just so completely sick of them. There's a handful I still care about.. and I'll occasionally play them on local co-op. Halo Anniversary and Uncharted 3 are the only two of those genre's I plan on going anywhere near this year.

I'm bored of killing stuff and playing things with no kind of emotional impact.

Games are better today than they were when I was a kid, so in that sense, what I primarily play has changed. In the 80's I played mostly 2D shooters since any other genre was really limited by the technology. In the 90's, I found myself spending long hours playing sports titles and later, strategy games. I've always been an RPG fanatic, but until the early portion of 2000's, very few were satisfying to me. I was raised on paper-and-pencil RPGs, so JRPGs and other games that forced you to be someone else were aggravating to me. I wanted to be someone I created and send them off to where I wanted them to go. Eventually, I embraced computer RPGs but not without hesitation. These days, I quite enjoy taking on the role of a spikey-haired kid with a sword. I think game makers have made some changes to appease people like me, too. Even if the games are a linear as ever, the developers are better at creating the illusion of freedom for the player. I still might be walking from point "A" to point "B", but if I feel like it's my decision, then I am satisfied. Fifteen years ago, I'd rather play NBA Live than Dragon Quest, but the opposite is true today.

i still like the games from when i was younger. i've just opened myself to more tastes. i would not have been playing SRPGs 5 years ago.

for the most part no. ive always had a fairly broad taste in games ranging from shooters, to RPGs, to RTS, to adventure games.

though i will say now that im older i can't stand JRPGs, i look back at final fantasy games with shame. the stories are ridiculous, the characters are bad and unlikable, theres no choice in how the story turns out. same with other JRPGs, it all seems so dumb.

but aside from growing out of JRPG's i'll play just about anything. its like me with music, i'll listen to anything really as long as its good. i have alot of niche tastes but i'll try anything.

Jrpgs used to be MY genre. In my early teens they were my favorite genre hands down but now I'm pretty cold on them.

Besides switching from jrpgs to wrpgs, my tastes have stayed relatively the same.

This is such a great question. You got me really thinking about just what my taste in games is and the answer is that I have no fucking idea what my tastes are.

For the last 20 or so years I've been playing anything I could get my hands on - any genre but sports games for the most part. In the last few years, though, I've definitely craved story, depth and innovation over shooting up the joint. I'm just so bored with corridor shooters and endless rounds of competitive online games.

The games I enjoy most now are RPGs, strategy games and stuff that feels fresh, like Bastion. I've also starting perusing Paradox Interactive titles on Steam a bit which is a bit alarming.

I branched out.
I still loathe RTS and rarely play FPS (outside Halo, Timesplitters) but I'm giving more games a go.
Glad I found the MMO Genre tho, I think Lord of the Rings Online and World of Warcraft make up half of my gaming done ever, and I don't regret a minute.

I find it takes a bit more for a game to hold my interest. Story has become a bigger thing with me, unless the gameplay is super awesome ala Super Meat Boy or the like, I need a good narrative to keep me pushing through.

@Capum15 said:

Not so much "changing" as "expanding".I still like the same genres as I always have, but I've tried new ones and found quite a few that I like as well. There are still some genres that I don't care for though.

Pretty much this. When I started gaming there was really no such thing as "indie games", and I play tons of those now. And I play a lot more RPGs and Puzzle games than I used to do.

I've grown quite tired of RTS as I've been getting older. I just can't see the same appeal with them and quite often get bored. Just too little interaction I guess. StarCraft II is of course the game that is nowhere at all like that, but that game just frustrates me more then anything in multiplayer.

Otherwise I could tolerate consoles when I was younger, as I've gotten older I just feel I waste my time. So PC all the way since about two years now.

My taste have branched out somewhat. I was never really into the PC gaming scene other than Age of Empire and the Diablo series. Now I would consider myself primarily a PC gamer. I've come to love RTS and MOBA type games as well. I really enjoy games with a great story as well compared to when I was much younger. I do tend to enjoy games more that include co-op than just traditional single player games. Games like Borderlands, Portal 2, and Magicka are some of the more recent games I've loved because I could play them with my friends.

I used to play more fighting games (Tekken, Soul Calibur), but the last few years I've started loving games like Mass Effect 2 (I might even take the leap and buy Skyrim when time comes). But the type of game I'll always love are the singeplayer games that focus mostly on story and storytelling. Uncharted1&2, Red Dead Redemption and Mass Effect 2 are some of my favorites there.

I cant play MMO's anymore

Well when I was a kid it was all about c64 and nintendo so games back then were in many ways vastly different to what is on offer now.

I mean when I was gaming back then I was caining Mario and street fighter. I haven't played a Mario game in years so yes my gaming habits have changed :p

Not really. I'm more or less the same.

@Zacagawea said:

As I'm getting older I want more pick up and play games. Multiplayer shooters or 11 hour games are all I have time for anymore.

I am with you totally. I have such a hard time playing RPGs anymore...I've been playing Dragon Age for close on two years now! lol Between work, dating, hockey and going out with buddies, gaming takes a back seat...and now NFL Sundays and NHL have started again...I guess 3 years it is :P

I'd say I'm more open minded and am more willing to try things I had zero interest in before.

Yeah I'm more into mature and shooting games now.