How have your interests/beliefs as a gamer changed over time?

[bikingjahuty]

if you looks back at what kind of gamer you were 10-years ago and even further back how have you changed as a gamer? Have your interests changes at all, the way you collect or the fact that you now collect and didn't before. Are there genres that you used to hate and now love, or the reverse? Please elaborate if you'd like.


I feel like I've warmed up to digital distribution...a little: I still obviously prefer my games physically and all my content on disk, but I've been slowly okay with buying a game digitally off Steam and in certain cases even purchasing DLC depending on how much value I'm getting for what I'm spending. My philosophy in regards to digital games/content is that it has to be pretty damn cheap since I am still under no illusion that I now "own" the game once I pay actual money for it. This is in contrast to about 3 or 4 years ago where I refused to spend even 1-cent on a digital game on principle that it was not something I actually owned despite paying money for it. I guess I'm fine with this reality as long as I'm paying the bare minimum for the content.

I don't care for most JRPGs: JRPGs used to be my favorite genre back in the early 2000s all the way up to probably around the start of this decade. For reasons unknown to me, I have a super hard time getting into 80% of JRPGs now. I've speculated that it may have to do with my decreased interest in anime (I still like anime, just not nearly as much as I used to), my decreased time for games, my increased enjoyment for shorter, arcade-style games, or I just don't find the whole limier structure of most JRPGs appealing anymore. Whatever the reason, it genuinely makes me sad and I hope some day that I'll be able to get as hyped for JRPGs as I used to as a young teen.

I play retro games more via emulator than on original hardware: This is despite owning most of the games and systems I emulate games on. I've found that emulation works amazingly well for most games released pre-gen 5 as well as many arcade titles released before the mid 90s. While it is cool to play games on original hardware, I find the convenience of firing up MAME pr OpemEMU on my laptop way more convenient. Also, the luxury of save states makes emulating it a lot easier for me to drop a game and come back to it later, especially when the game has no save feature built into the actual game. I still do play retro games on original hardware, but nine times out of ten over the past few years I typically use emulators instead.


I don't really collect retro games anymore: Over the past few years I've had a lot of unexpected, large expenses that outpaced my ability to just pay out of pocket for them which necessitated selling some of my belongings to afford. My game collecting, being the most valuable asset I own became a source of backup funds and as a result my retro game collection became the biggest casualty of me needing more cash in a hurry. I chose to sell off my retro games due to newer games since 1) I can emulate most of them easily, 2) their values were on the rise, rather than a decline like most newer games, and 3) I wasn't as attached to most of the games I ended up selling. As a result I sold probably 90% of my NES games, 60% of my SNES and Gamecube games, and games here and there from all my other console collections including the Dreamcast which is my favorite collection in my overall collection. It was hard, but it made me realize a lot of things such as it didn't make me feel any happier to own a lot of games in my collection and that once gone I didn't really miss the games I sold, save a few. At the moment I don't actively collect for any retro console except Sega Saturn. Sure, if I find a cool retro game I don't own for super cheap that I'm interested in, I may keep it but funny enough I've actually traded/sold some retro games I found post-purge that I didn't own, simply because selling or trading them had more value to me than actually owning them. I have entertained the idea of getting back into collecting retro games someday if retro games prices plummet quite a bit, but for now I am more than content with what retro games I still have and it'll probably stay that way for a while longer.

[kamikazekeeg]

I use to be more into RTS games in the first half of the 2000's, but anymore, while I still dabble here and there with them, I think the last one I actually played was Grey Goo back in 2015.  I was never very good with them, but I sorta feel like as Command & Conquer faded off after Generals, I was also fading off with them.

Octopath Traveler kind of confirmed it, but I'm not really into the old school, turn based, JRPG anymore.  The visuals and gameplay are better than usual, but I very much prefer more of a free-roam, actiony, sort of JRPG if I had to play it, like Xenoblade Chronicles 2.  There are some other exceptions, such as the more tactical jrpg, like the upcoming Valkyria Chronicles 4, as I liked the first one, but in general, the turn based setup doesn't do as much for me anymore.  I'll still probably replay a Super Mario RPG or Chrono Trigger someday when they come to Switch, but the interest isn't there for new ones or ones I don't have nostalgic interest in.

[oldgamerz]

For me yes, I used to play the same games over and over but I am slowly trying to get into more games. all the turn based RPG's I had played except for Pokemon games on the Gameboy are boring to me, and I really don't like strategy turned based RPG's because I lose all my characters on the first battle

[emporerdragon]

I think the biggest change for me has been an increased sense of legitimacy.

When I was younger, I couldn't go 5 seconds without entering cheat codes or using things like the Game Genie or Game Shark if I had the option. For young me, it was all about beating the game with 0 regards to how it was done. Nowadays, my accomplishments are all legitimate. Having achievements & trophies helps solidify that as they function as a great record of all that I've done.

Similarly, I don't really pirate anything anymore. When I was in middle and high school, I would download everything that I could because I could. Initially, my justification was that I could play what I couldn't obtain. But once I got a job and found how much easier it was to just simply buy and use what I wanted instead, the practice of hunting down torrents and download links for what I wanted to play or watch just stopped.

[kashell]

Interesting topic.

My taste in games hasn't changed much, if at all.

But, I do find that what I buy has gotten more and more selective. Unless it's an insanely good deal at a like a yard sale, I have to really stop and consider if I'm going to play something or not before buying it. Or, I need to think back about whether or not this game I used to play would be worth owning again.

[ignition365]

Oh so much... and in so many different aspects.

I used to be one of those terrible close minded elitist gamers.  I think on some sites my sig had a statement along the lines of "The true all around gamer, none of that I only play one game like CoD or Imagine babiez."  If you only like to play imagine babiez or Call of Duty, that's your prerogative, doesn't make you any less of a gamer if you want to call yourself one.  As it is, gaming is so mainstream nowadays that calling yourself a gamer really doesn't mean anything, everybody plays games.

I used to love essentially wasting time in games like GTA and Fallout and such.  Just big open world games that you can just blindly roam around and just continuously interact with the world separate of the story.  I'm all about the story nowadays, don't do much of the just playing to play.

I used to love getting a new game and just jumping in.  Nowadays I always dread jumping into a new franchise, having to learn new mechanics, new worlds, new characters... I'm too old to be learning people's names and shit.  I have to get through that first few hours before I can really enjoy the game, it's that initial learning curve that deters me.  But a lot of the time it's really worth it, like jumping into Uncharted AFTER 4 already came out and just recently jumping into the Yakuza franchise.

I don't think I've really changed in the aspect of liking FPS, 3rd person action adventure games, racing games, puzzle games, and open world games in general.  I still play the same basic genres I've always played.

[droaa]

1. Gaming tastes havent really changed as much. There are still genres that I havent really messed with like RTS games, simulation games, sports games to a certain degree. That said, I am open to them as oppose to completely dismissing them

2. I used to pirate alot of PC games and I want to say this was 10 years ago or so when I bought my first PC game from Steam which was Audiosurf and it was at the point that I was more for buying instead of pirating. The other problem that I found was that I download all of these game willy nilly but I didnt do much with them in that I may play them for like 10 minutes and thats it. I have only played through a total of 2 pirated PC games in my life.

3. I am more selective with what I buy now due a combination of frivolous spending on games that I wound up selling because I thought the price was right and I justified owning it because of the price. I used to impulse buy alot but not so much anymore and what winds up happening is I start to think more about especially now that the only source of income I use is my debit card. It was easier to buy stuff when you have credit cards on hand and the whole concept of paying back later was enticing however with that out of the way, what I have on me is what I have and need to ask myself do I need this game at the moment. This especially applies to retro games where nowadays I have a good collection for me but I am not tempted as much due to a. different ways of emulating it like retropie(wii, xbox, psp are all at my disposal but the pie is my main source atm) and 2. the everdrive carts for various consoles. Thats not to say I have stopped. There are still some retro games I would like in my collection but it is a select few that are not overly priced. I cant see myself spending anything above $60 for one single cart.

4. I guess another would be not being part of the gaming culture that is gaming boards. I have been on Gamefaqs since 2005 and it wasnt until a few years back when I decided I was done. I could not be part of culture so toxic that for a time, I started to resent gaming as a whole. Thankfully, I have been out of boards in the years since and as I said before, this board is the only one that I use on a regular basis.

[shfan]

Old games are crap the majority of the stuff from the era I started playing (mid 80s) and before is borderline unplayable now. No concept of difficulty curves, no end or target, no saves or restart points, games requiring a massive amount of repetitive replays just to get a little bit better. No, while I'm trying to get back my 'original' games as something to present, I've little interest in games earlier than about 88 or 89 with a few exceptions.

Old games are great because the game industry always, always chases the latest fad, perfectly good genres etc. get thrown on the scrapheap, often you can take a 5 year slice of time and some genres will be at their peak then. Even though many of these genres have been revitalised now in the indie scene, they're rarely as good as the games developed by established game studios back in the day and they all seem to have one of the three (crappy) graphical formats: 8-bit style pixel, ultra-low detail flash game or flash game style with minimal animation. The likes of Wonder Boy in Monsterworld, Soleil (Crusadre of Centy) and Mario World were unique to their time.

Open world means barren world GTA 3 was a real wow moment when it was released, but as time has gone on it's become apparent just how much effort (possibly too much!) it would take to really make open world games anything more than exercises in world-building with a handful of random events thrown in. This sort of game doesn't interest me at all any more.

Japanese turn-based RPGs aren't the be all and end all like many here, in my yoof the likes of Final Fantasy 7 made me feel squishy inside, but the tired anime tropes of this kind of game really makes it hard to get into them these days. Nice art, shame about the characters. and game.

More awareness of what makes me tick it's weird, but there's been a number of games I rejected back in the day that I've gone back to and thought "oh, hey", they're great! Likewise I'm a lot more self-aware of when something's just plain boring or has otherwise crossed a red line. Nights of Azure, for instance, is something I initially had an internal argument about getting rid of, since it's 'that' sort of game I like, but I don't like it, it bores the living crap out of me, so off it went, no regrets.

From collecting to playing Over the past several years I've rebuilt my collection (again), including buying anything remotely playable when it's cheap. It's not a 'problem' as such, but it's time to get rid of the mediocre and really enjoy being able to play 'my' kind of game from the past 5 generations. Building up and storing the games has taken a lot of time, sorting them into order and storing them properly so they can be got at is no easy task. But, I'm now finally at a point where storage is no longer going to be an issue, once they're sorted this time there will be places for new purchases to just slot in. There's also a lot less emphasis on acquiring - more than happy to buy trade-in bait for a treat every few weeks, but the 'must have must get quick quick the price is rising' fire is now much diminished, which suits me.

The joys of ownership The closer I'm getting to be able to just play the games rather than having to spend time sorting them out, the more chillaxed things are. Even if there's not time today, there will be another day and they're there to be used.

[wartoy]

I used to like rpgs and sports games but now i can't seem to get into them any more.Mabey someday I'll get back into them.

[Cartagia]

I feel like I've warmed up to digital distribution...a little: I still obviously prefer my games physically and all my content on disk, but I've been slowly okay with buying a game digitally off Steam and in certain cases even purchasing DLC depending on how much value I'm getting for what I'm spending. My philosophy in regards to digital games/content is that it has to be pretty damn cheap since I am still under no illusion that I now "own" the game once I pay actual money for it. This is in contrast to about 3 or 4 years ago where I refused to spend even 1-cent on a digital game on principle that it was not something I actually owned despite paying money for it. I guess I'm fine with this reality as long as I'm paying the bare minimum for the content.

I am pretty much in the same boat.  I was fine with Steam for years, but loathed to go digital on my consoles, but in the last month alone I have purchasedBloodstained, Stardew Valley, and Hollow Knight for my Switch.  I'm still going to go physical whenever I can (that Sonic Mania Plus can't get here fast enough), but I'm not going to shun digital the way I have in the past.

I don't care for most JRPGs: JRPGs used to be my favorite genre back in the early 2000s all the way up to probably around the start of this decade. For reasons unknown to me, I have a super hard time getting into 80% of JRPGs now. I've speculated that it may have to do with my decreased interest in anime (I still like anime, just not nearly as much as I used to), my decreased time for games, my increased enjoyment for shorter, arcade-style games, or I just don't find the whole limier structure of most JRPGs appealing anymore. Whatever the reason, it genuinely makes me sad and I hope some day that I'll be able to get as hyped for JRPGs as I used to as a young teen.

I've never been much of a JRPG fan, but my enjoyment of them has generally taken a down turn, mostly due to the required time investment.

I don't really collect retro games anymore: Over the past few years I've had a lot of unexpected, large expenses that outpaced my ability to just pay out of pocket for them which necessitated selling some of my belongings to afford. My game collecting, being the most valuable asset I own became a source of backup funds and as a result my retro game collection became the biggest casualty of me needing more cash in a hurry. I chose to sell off my retro games due to newer games since 1) I can emulate most of them easily, 2) their values were on the rise, rather than a decline like most newer games, and 3) I wasn't as attached to most of the games I ended up selling. As a result I sold probably 90% of my NES games, 60% of my SNES and Gamecube games, and games here and there from all my other console collections including the Dreamcast which is my favorite collection in my overall collection. It was hard, but it made me realize a lot of things such as it didn't make me feel any happier to own a lot of games in my collection and that once gone I didn't really miss the games I sold, save a few. At the moment I don't actively collect for any retro console except Sega Saturn. Sure, if I find a cool retro game I don't own for super cheap that I'm interested in, I may keep it but funny enough I've actually traded/sold some retro games I found post-purge that I didn't own, simply because selling or trading them had more value to me than actually owning them. I have entertained the idea of getting back into collecting retro games someday if retro games prices plummet quite a bit, but for now I am more than content with what retro games I still have and it'll probably stay that way for a while longer.

I've not backed off to quite the same level, but I've found myself looking less and less often, and more willing to part with Retro items in my collection.  I recently sold every Atari 2600 piece I had in my collection, and my boxed Atari Jaguar is probably going soon as well.

[seether]

I realised that my collection of 5 PS2 titles is the pinnacle in retro game collections.