Enough time to play?
Author
If you're over 20 and used to play a lot more games than you do now, why is that? Is it simply because you can't find enough time in your life, or more because your interest in games has declined?
Thankyou for your input
Quote:Original post by Muji_
If you're over 20 and used to play a lot more games than you do now
Yep I fit those criteria, but it isn't because my interest in games has declined, it has merely shifted to the making them side over the playing them [smile]
I still play a lot of games though in saying that, but not nearly as much as my pre-programming days.
Regards,
ViLiO
For me, it's mostly about not having enough time. After you take into account the hours of work or study, dealing with life's chores, and attempting to have a little bit of a life outside the glare of computer monitors, there's not that much time left for hobbies. Combine with that an additional hobby of wanting to make your own games, and that whittles down the time even more.
By the way, you probably aren't going to get a true depiction of the general game playing public by asking that question on a GameDev forum. I'd wager that the general interest in games here amongst over 20s is slight more fanatical that you'd find in general [smile].
By the way, you probably aren't going to get a true depiction of the general game playing public by asking that question on a GameDev forum. I'd wager that the general interest in games here amongst over 20s is slight more fanatical that you'd find in general [smile].
It's all about time for me now. Games take too long to load (I really don't need to know what companies made the game every time I turn the thing on), far too many of them don't let me skip cutscenes I've already seen, and even worse, they don't let me save any time I want.
When I have time to play, it's usually for pretty short periods. I tend to not even bother most of the time because a big chunk of my time is spent waiting through company logos and cutscenes I can't skip. Then I get 10-20 minutes to play, and all my progress is lost because I don't reach a save point in time.
It also drives me nuts when games try to make me do chores. I hate it when my ten minutes of gaming is spent finding a bear skin for a guy and bringing it back to him, only to have him ask me to bring whatever he made out of the bear skin to someone who's a 10 minute walk away (I'm looking at you Guild Wars).
So I guess to answer your question, no I don't play games as much anymore, and yes it is because of time.
When I have time to play, it's usually for pretty short periods. I tend to not even bother most of the time because a big chunk of my time is spent waiting through company logos and cutscenes I can't skip. Then I get 10-20 minutes to play, and all my progress is lost because I don't reach a save point in time.
It also drives me nuts when games try to make me do chores. I hate it when my ten minutes of gaming is spent finding a bear skin for a guy and bringing it back to him, only to have him ask me to bring whatever he made out of the bear skin to someone who's a 10 minute walk away (I'm looking at you Guild Wars).
So I guess to answer your question, no I don't play games as much anymore, and yes it is because of time.
I'm a bit of mix of TrapperZoid and aaroncox1234. I spend most of the day working on them, so the last thing I want after work is to sit down and deal with them again. Like aaroncox1234, I have difficulty finding enough consecutive time to play any games, so I play games that I can put in 20 mins and then leave. My current gaming time is about 30 minutes a month :(.
Thus, I mostly play games like Tony Hawk and Tiger Woods, where it doesn't matter if I finish much/any of it. This is primarily why I like old Amiga 500 games, you can finish the whole game in 20-30 minutes usually.
I really look forward to getting some time to play some of the games that I've bought and not yet played, like Zelda WindWaker, Eternal Darkness and Knights of the old republic.
Thus, I mostly play games like Tony Hawk and Tiger Woods, where it doesn't matter if I finish much/any of it. This is primarily why I like old Amiga 500 games, you can finish the whole game in 20-30 minutes usually.
I really look forward to getting some time to play some of the games that I've bought and not yet played, like Zelda WindWaker, Eternal Darkness and Knights of the old republic.
For me it's about boredom - I would spend a lot more of my free time playing games and reading books if I could find any that looked deep/complex/original/interesting. I mean, look at all the PS2 games currently sold - do you see one with a story aimed at anyone older than 14? Nope.
I'm 23, and I play video games much less often than I used to.
Overall, I'd say most video games just aren't worth the time to play them.
They waste my time with company logos and other things I don't care about when I turn them on. Yes, I know who you are... if I wanted to pay money to look at your logo I'd... well... I wouldn't...
They waste my time with unskippable cutscenes when I just want to play. Don't get me wrong, I love stories. I still play Final Fantasy games because I enjoy the stories. But sometimes I just want to "fast forward" or play the game side of things. Please, just let me play...
They waste my time with small margins for error. It's not fun to miss the same jump ten times in a row, especially if the game isn't about jumping. If the game isn't fun, why am I playing?
They waste my time with uninteresting puzzles. They're either too hard (I'm relatively burnout on difficult puzzles from class) or too easy, and almost always time consuming. Not that the puzzle itself takes a long time, but running all over the world collecting whatever I need to deliver, telling various characters various key words... if I figure out the puzzle in ten minutes, it shouldn't take me another half hour to carry out the solution.
If they're just going to waste what little time I can give them, I'll spend it with something else.
Like one of the other hobbies I've picked up. Music and photography also take up what free time I have. When I have to decide whether to play a game or play my guitar, most games just don't measure up. And not just time, but money. I'm already on a limited budget (I'm trying to live off my stipend to avoid more student loans), which has to pay for rent and food and car repairs (just spent $500 to repair my 15 year old car). If I find $200 in the budget, it'll go toward a bass guitar before it goes to a game console. Why? Because in five years that console will be obsolete and most of its games forgotten, but I'll still be playing that bass.
Overall, I'd say most video games just aren't worth the time to play them.
They waste my time with company logos and other things I don't care about when I turn them on. Yes, I know who you are... if I wanted to pay money to look at your logo I'd... well... I wouldn't...
They waste my time with unskippable cutscenes when I just want to play. Don't get me wrong, I love stories. I still play Final Fantasy games because I enjoy the stories. But sometimes I just want to "fast forward" or play the game side of things. Please, just let me play...
They waste my time with small margins for error. It's not fun to miss the same jump ten times in a row, especially if the game isn't about jumping. If the game isn't fun, why am I playing?
They waste my time with uninteresting puzzles. They're either too hard (I'm relatively burnout on difficult puzzles from class) or too easy, and almost always time consuming. Not that the puzzle itself takes a long time, but running all over the world collecting whatever I need to deliver, telling various characters various key words... if I figure out the puzzle in ten minutes, it shouldn't take me another half hour to carry out the solution.
If they're just going to waste what little time I can give them, I'll spend it with something else.
Like one of the other hobbies I've picked up. Music and photography also take up what free time I have. When I have to decide whether to play a game or play my guitar, most games just don't measure up. And not just time, but money. I'm already on a limited budget (I'm trying to live off my stipend to avoid more student loans), which has to pay for rent and food and car repairs (just spent $500 to repair my 15 year old car). If I find $200 in the budget, it'll go toward a bass guitar before it goes to a game console. Why? Because in five years that console will be obsolete and most of its games forgotten, but I'll still be playing that bass.
Quote:Original post by Muji_
If you're over 20 and used to play a lot more games than you do now, why is that? Is it simply because you can't find enough time in your life, or more because your interest in games has declined?
Thankyou for your input
I have far more time to play games now than I ever did. There's actually quite a number of changes that have caused me to play less.
1. Immaturity - Even when I was young and immature, I still understood basic sportsmanship and how to type. Playing multiplayer games is far less fun when your playing partners lack simple communication skills and/or the concept of fair play. This is the biggest impact, since multiplayer games offer the most replay value, and thus the greatest gametime change.
2. The Rise of Consoles - Generally, I like PC games more than console games. I can only play so much with console controllers before my hands begin to ache. PC games tend to be more strategic and less action which I generally prefer. While it's understandable that the industry prefers consoles, it will unfortunately lead to me playing less.
3. Mad Skills - After 20 years of video game playing, I'm pretty damned good. A game that might've been challenging, requiring load after re-load to beat a good part or for a dumb mistake now is beaten easily. Less time for the same game.
Quote:Original post by Trapper Zoid
For me, it's mostly about not having enough time. After you take into account the hours of work or study, dealing with life's chores, and attempting to have a little bit of a life outside the glare of computer monitors, there's not that much time left for hobbies. Combine with that an additional hobby of wanting to make your own games, and that whittles down the time even more.
I am the same. I remember when I was still in high school I vowed to keep playing games as much as I had my entire life. Being a computer engineering major can quickly destroy goals like that (in other words, its ROUGH). I'm 23 now and by the time I turned 20 or so (junior year at undergrad university), I had pretty much ceased playing games. I had hardly played any at all, but I bought a GameCube and 4 games last summer (for only $120 I might add [grin]), played but only played them just a little bit. I've actually picked up gaming again and bought several games over the holidays (FFX-2, Xenosaga 2, Mario Kart: Double Dash) and had some fun playing them on my only vacation of the year. But I can't just find the same interest in them that I used to.
Nowadays, if I play a new game and I'm not having fun within the first 30 minutes or so, I usually put it away. (Happened with Xenosaga II, currently my most boring RPG ever...). I don't like to play games if they are boring or frusterating, because I get enough of those feelings from real life now. [wink] But one of the great things about being out of the gaming loop is that when I finally get around to buying the games I've wanted to get for months, they are in the $15 or $20 bin (new), instead of being $50 or $60. Sure saves a lot of cash to be behind on the gaming front. [lol]
As above, my time is much more limited. This has made me far more picky with games than before - if I can't figure out an obtuse puzzle or which villager to talk to next (etc. etc.) I'll either give up and find something less broken, or make a quick stop to gamefaqs and find what the hell I'm supposed to be doing. Sure if I walked round in circles for the next hour I could figure it out on my own, but thats just a waste of time.
I've also been playing more short burst games - things like mame, shareware/indie shooters (Space Tripper etc.) and GBA/DS/PSP games are all much more direct and 'quick fix' than other games.
I've also been playing more short burst games - things like mame, shareware/indie shooters (Space Tripper etc.) and GBA/DS/PSP games are all much more direct and 'quick fix' than other games.
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