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Video Games Are Boring

gamesindustry.biz

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Re: Video Games Are Boring

#211

Post by qwertyuiop924 »

golergka wrote: post #66
edem wrote: post #17

I've been playing games since Commodore 64. I've played through Amiga, early PC, Playstation, etc games. The problem is that gaming became an industry and the companies behind AAA games want you to spend as much time playing their game as possible. The 100% fun of Chaos Engine which took 4 hours became 150 hours of boring side-questing (I look at you Skyrim). The somach-wrenching action of Freespace 2 became endless…

Are you implying that gaming was not an industry in the times of Amiga? The whole point of insane difficulty of many 8bit coin-op games, which was mindlessly translated to home consoles, was precisely to get as many nickels out of the player as possible. Back then, pay to win was the main monetization scheme, and everybody's having nostalgia for those games now.

Gaming was an industry at the time, but the PC scene was much less industrialized, full of bedroom programmers and demoscene hackers who could compete with the big companies due to the limits of the platform.

Re: Video Games Are Boring

#212

Post by stcredzero »

As someone who has been a consultant for a software development environment, I've been inside a lot of companies, and I've been struck by how often they all seem to make the same mistakes. My former company had acquired 2 different implementations of the same language, and it was eerie how both former companies made the same mistakes -- down to even making the same corresponding in the same corresponding subsystems. I've also been observing video games since Pong was new, as well as other forms of media, such as music, books, and video/film. All forms of media seem to be following somewhat parallel paths. All media industry publishing seems to tend to make the same mistakes generally, and to tend to make the same mistakes in response to technological changes in distribution, like those brought about by internet downloads, streaming, and social media. (There are people who are thinking ahead and using forethought to navigate these changes as well.)

There also seem to be parallel missteps in the invention of new forms of media. It took generations for the industry to get a handle on all of new tools, techniques, and vocabulary of cinema. It took generational change for the field to give up old forms adapted from the theater. One generation's daring and pioneering work would also become the next generation's stultifying, overused tropes.

I find that many of the pretensions of art in games are well meaning but misapplied things learned in film school. Higher budgets seem to result in more production with less interactivity and less intelligence credited to the players. There are leanings away from intellectually engaging interactivity and towards sensation and addiction through variable schedule of reward. There are also some of the same unjustified pretensions to "art" or intellectualism, as well as a few justified ones.

As always, the way forward is partly through the self honesty and self awareness required of art.

Re: Video Games Are Boring

#213

Post by dvtv75 »

arkitaip wrote: post #8

This captures a lot of what I've been feeling lately. I can't stand most games, they just make me anxious and I will quit playing them after a few hours or even minutes. Too much stress and surface experiences has had me looking in the other direction. Take, for example, GTA 5. I've probably spent more hours riding cars and bikes in GTA5's beautiful countryside and outback than playing actual missions. Just hours and…

This is what I came here to say.

I only have Vice City, nowhere near as visually spectacular, but I get myself a car and just drive around with the radio on. It's the same for Assassin's Creed through to IV, I often just go for a walk and look at the scenery, immerse myself in a time and place that's long gone. Often enough, the missions get in the way.

Re: Video Games Are Boring

#214

Post by prefect42 »

apozem wrote: post #13
arkitaip wrote: post #8

This captures a lot of what I've been feeling lately. I can't stand most games, they just make me anxious and I will quit playing them after a few hours or even minutes. Too much stress and surface experiences has had me looking in the other direction. Take, for example, GTA 5. I've probably spent more hours riding cars and bikes in GTA5's beautiful countryside and outback than playing actual missions. Just hours and…

This is exactly how I felt about Red Dead Redemption. Years after beating the game, I couldn't tell you much about any individual mission. I do remember staring at the in-game sunset as it cast shadows across the open prairie and thinking, "Wow."

On a similar note, Zork I had a textual description of a sunset (being a text adventure) that, for whatever reason, I found massively peaceful.

Re: Video Games Are Boring

#215

Post by glaberficken »

arkitaip wrote: post #8

This captures a lot of what I've been feeling lately. I can't stand most games, they just make me anxious and I will quit playing them after a few hours or even minutes. Too much stress and surface experiences has had me looking in the other direction. Take, for example, GTA 5. I've probably spent more hours riding cars and bikes in GTA5's beautiful countryside and outback than playing actual missions. Just hours and…

Try "The Witness".

Re: Video Games Are Boring

#216

Post by ngokevin »

glaberficken wrote: post #215
arkitaip wrote: post #8

This captures a lot of what I've been feeling lately. I can't stand most games, they just make me anxious and I will quit playing them after a few hours or even minutes. Too much stress and surface experiences has had me looking in the other direction. Take, for example, GTA 5. I've probably spent more hours riding cars and bikes in GTA5's beautiful countryside and outback than playing actual missions. Just hours and…

Try "The Witness".

Or Firewatch.

Re: Video Games Are Boring

#217

Post by reddog »

grosbisou wrote: post #21

I stopped playing video games like 10 years ago for the same reason stated in this article: I couldn't finish any new game I started. But I recently started to play again after years of no touching one. I weirdly enough I love it again. I can play solo games, enjoy them and finish them. I can play online games and enjoy the competition. I think a lot has to do with how people cannot focus anymore on anything more tha…

You make a good point. I know I can't remember the last time I finished a recent big console game but my reason is that many of them take so damn long to finish. According to http://howlongtobeat.com/ many of these games take hundreds of hours to complete. For example in 2004 Half-Life 2 took 19 hours to complete while the recent Witcher 3 takes 165. Skyrim takes 215 hours. I don't think there is anything that can hold my attention for 215 hours.

Re: Video Games Are Boring

#218

Post by CaptSpify »

hood_syntax wrote: post #76
emp_zealoth wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Simple - don't buy AAA (apart from very few select titles) because 99% of those is rehashed garbage and cliches Buy gamess from small studios, made by a few people or even one guy, usually a lot of them are in Steam Early Access (yes, it is risky, some of them get abandoned or just never improve much) For me this is like a reneissance in gaming. Have a look at Factorio, Starbound, Rimworld, Banished, Pillars of Etern…

> don't buy AAA (apart from very few select titles) Yep, that's a good rule to live by. There are a lot of great games out there if you put in the effort to look into them (and know where to look)

And I think that's the biggest problem: The entry-games that we present are mostly boring shooters, and the like. Non-gamers aren't going to spend time figuring out what kind of game they want, aside from friends recommending something, they'll probably just try what is popular or advertised.

I think movies have this same problem. Your weekly superhero blockbuster's are fun, they definitely aren't everyone's cup of tea. But if you weren't ever really into movies, and started jumping in, you'd think that's all there was.

Re: Video Games Are Boring

#219

Post by tomdell »

One of the main problems with single-player video games is that a lot of people work alone and don't want to spend their free time doing something that feels kind of like work, but doesn't seem to offer much in return. They'd rather spend their time socializing or doing something that will improve them in an obvious way.

A personal anecdote - I loved single-player video games until I was 18, but I stopped cold at that age. 5 years later, I tried to get back into it. I played some games that I used to like. I don't feel the things I used to feel while playing. Leveling up in Diablo just feels like accomplishing a chore - it feels meaningless.

This author seems to think that video games, in general, are definitely for everyone. I don't agree. Just like there are people who don't like reading or listening to music who manage to live whole, well-rounded lives, there are people who don't like playing video games.

Re: Video Games Are Boring

#220

Post by taneq »

cyxxon wrote: post #86
arkitaip wrote: post #8

This captures a lot of what I've been feeling lately. I can't stand most games, they just make me anxious and I will quit playing them after a few hours or even minutes. Too much stress and surface experiences has had me looking in the other direction. Take, for example, GTA 5. I've probably spent more hours riding cars and bikes in GTA5's beautiful countryside and outback than playing actual missions. Just hours and…

Interestingly enough, this is one of the reasons I still play World of Warcraft: I used to be pretty hardcore (never Realm Firsts or anything, but hard mode raiding during BC/WotLK), and thus invested into my main characters... but recently I much more enjoy leveling, questing, pet battles, and all these little things. I basically play it like a single player game and enjoy the scenery. I just can't bring myself to e…

My wife and I have been playing Guild Wars 2 in roughly the same way. I used to raid in vanilla WoW, she ran an Everquest raid guild. These days we just mess around in GW2 doing dailies or personal storylines. It's ultra casual, usually pretty easy, but it's fun to drop into for an hour or two.
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