Admittedly, I am not a games enthusiast, whether video or board, but I have played both at times. In particular, I played a lot of – OK, this is totally gonna reveal that I’m an old ;P – THPS, and I’m 100℅ sure I played both RPG-type computer games as well as like Mario Bros stuff. However, I just have never really grasped what makes video games so enticing.
I suspect this is an annoying and well-trodden path, but I would sincerely appreciate it if you could find it in your heart to help me understand.
For me personally, I tend to look at things in terms of costs and benefits. Through that lens, most games seem like a bad deal. In principle, I like some of the more quirky or esoteric ones, but it quickly seems like a lot to learn relative the payout.
When I was in HS, I had a band. Has that type of interaction simply been replaced by video games?
I swear I’m not trying to troll – I really want to understand the interplay between video games and psychology. Cuz it seems like FPSes are dominant whereas not too long ago they were a single niche among many niches.
I appreciate your taking the time to read/reply.
If you’re playing a game and enjoying it and it’s long, you get to enjoy it for longer than if it was short.
I swear I’m not trying to troll
But you’re doing it anyway. If you really are old enough to be posting “back in my days” shit on the Internet, then you must also be old enough to be able to reflect on what you’re actually trying to say and start a discussion about.
Games, like any hobbies are done with whatever expendable income and time we have after everything else “important” is done. They are hobbies. Taste in this fleeting field of entertainment is just as personal and subjective as anyones taste in music. I’m pretty sure you know since you used to have a band in high-school after all.
So what exactly are you trying to say with your post? Why play long games? Because I want to. Just like you seem to want to troll people in this group.
For me my favorite thing in games is exploring and being immersed in a world I could never experience in real life. Because of that I enjoy a lot of big open world games that do tend to be long. For me I really enjoy poking around and finding all the nooks and crannies, so having a big world with lots of that means more fun to be had!
Have you ever played Myst? From what I’ve read, that was the advent of the open world concept.
Similarly, have you ever used Oculus or any of those headset games? It seems like that would work well with unbounded exploration.
I hadn’t really thought of this previously, but maybe my pet peeve is that you’re often just being directed through someone else’s fantasy.
I love Cyan games. Not just Myst, I still play whatever they put out to this day.
I first experienced those games watching my dad play them, so they were very formational for me. I went on to play lots of other point and click adventure games, too.
I haven’t done much with VR. I don’t own any of the tech and I’ve only tried it once. To be honest it was a bit nauseating for me so I haven’t had much desire to try it again.
So would you rather be able to experience your own ideas, since you don’t like experiencing other people’s? For me getting to see an imagined setting is very fun (when it’s a good one). Same goes for movies and books. I’ve always been a fantasy and SciFi fan (though I hate generic fantasy and scifi, it needs to be an interesting setting I haven’t seen before for me to really get into it)
Interesting. So where I think I don’t like video games writ large, I may only resonate with particular genres or particular mechanics, etc(?).
That makes sense.
I further believe I see more sameness exist than actually exists because I simply am not as familiar with the subject matter.
(I think you were trying to reply to me)
Yeah there’s probably something out there for everyone, the world of vidoegames is incredibly vast.
While some people vibe with many things others gravitate only to a niche. I lucked out on finding something I love, even though I played my first videogame already as an adult, but I was always curious about them so there’s that. I had the curiosity, and through friends the chance to try things out without really commiting at first.
Somehow games mantained my interest enough during almost a decade of very sparce gaming until I found my stuff.
Thanks – and dear god, I am doing luddite stuff online now: not replying in the thread etc.
That’s interesting you only came to play games as an adult. I wonder how much the starting point influences the trajectory.
because I like to
It depends on the game, but i like long RPG’s. Sometimes, it can start to wear out its welcome. But for the games where it works well it’s cool. You get to experience this big world, usually going from a weakling to a strong character by the end. The stories can be really interesting (or bland too).
I recently decided that I am going to take on a game that could potentially take me hundreds of hours to finish and it’s daunting, but if at some point if I start to hate it, I’ll put it down and Google the results of the story and feel content.
Thank you for responding. That–RPGs-- makes sense to me. I can conceptualize a game where you’re basically able to cram more into your actual life. I feel – nay, I’ve witnessed – a lot of businesses engage in practices that explicitly disempower their customers, and I see that practice a lot in videogames nowadays. That irks me. It’s ultimately treating customers like ATMs, and I am not on board!
For video games I was a casual until I found a genre that clicked for me, and kept me wanting to go back to that world and gameplay formula. what keeps someone coming back will vary person to person, but for me in short it was a combination of the story, art direction and gameplay mechanics.
Before that I could get really invested in a game, but jumping to a similar one would easily burn me out. Finding your thing can take a lot of trial and error, and like you said for some people is just not worth the time / money investment.
For me, the cost benefit is about entertainment. I recognize there have been studies that supposedly show that games can help develop or maintain certain skills, but for me it’s more about learning the skill to experience the in-game reward. That’s just for some games. For others, that element exists but the game is telling a story too. One that is punctuated by struggle, maybe battles, and the overcoming which leads to power ups and more story.
So the cost-benefit is that it costs time, but it pulls you out of end-stage capitalism and puts you in flow state, engaging in another world.
I would suspect, though, that if you’re seeing video games through the lens of cost-benefit analysis, you might have trouble relaxing. People need rest.
Interesting. Thank you for responding
I don’t have trouble relaxing, per se, but I absolutely am a “I’ll relax when I’m dead” type.
That’s interesting you mentioned video games as a sort of solace amid late-stage capitalism. I can fully believe (so-called) capitalism as it has been known in the US is effectively over, but I tend to think it never really existed. Like, free market? OK, where do they sell heroin then? (Inb4 synthetic opiates at the hospital)
If (so-called) capitalism is ending, why is there no appetite to replace it?
Did the prior generations lose the skills necessary to operate civilization? Therefore, by the time we got to now, people only know how to play and consume?
Discuss (plz).
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So the cost-benefit is that it costs time, but it pulls you out of end-stage capitalism and puts you in flow state, engaging in another world.
You literally did, though?
Guess I need to re-read my shit. Lol.
I’d argue that there is appetite and that those skills have not been lost forever and while there are those that would have use only play and consume, to assume that this is the only thing happening is a bit of a reductio ad absurdum.
