How Have Your Gaming Habits Changed?

[Commodore]

Just as the thread title says, this is a thread where we shall discuss how our gaming habits have changed as we have aged.

For me, I definitely have a much shorter attention span when it comes to gaming. In my teens and early twenties I could game for hours upon hours, usually with one game holding my attention for weeks on end, even if I already beat it. Now though, after an hour or so, I start to feel extremely bored and move on to watching something on Netflix, reading, or some other activity. Also, games don't seem to hold my interest long enough for me to even finish them now. I can't tell you how many save files I have for just about every game I own that I just never go back to. Even if I get the urge to pick up a game again, I just start a new game rather than go back to my unfinished save.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Even if I get the urge to pick up a game again, I just start a new game rather than go back to my unfinished save.

I can relate to that. If it's too long between Civ II gaming sessions, I'll have lost the momentum of what I was planning to do and just start a new game. Keep in mind that I play either the Lalande or Midgard scenario of Test of Time, and these games are played on maps of 4 levels, not just one. They're more complicated, as you don't always know if the enemy may have constructed orbital cities or have set up their civilization so that finding and using the Gate of Hel will necessitate a lot of combat and bribery.

As mentioned in other threads, I belong to the Big Fish Games site. Last night I tried a new Eipix game in the Hidden Expeditions series, found it boring, and played a couple levels of Egyptian solitaire, and am contemplating a level or two of Fishdom 3 before getting back to binge-watching Outlander.

My attention span these days is crap.

 

[really]

I don't have much time for gaming these days - maybe one weekend every three months.

Even then I don't get much value as there are plenty of other things I could be doing.

I have got to play a few hours of factorio recently and have found myself looking up tips on how to automate and layout stuff.

 

[Ryika]

Really depends on the game for me. I can still waste hours upon hours playing something repetitive like Diablo, but sit me in front of something with large amounts of storytelling, and my sessions will not be much longer than an hour or so. Not that I'm not interested, it just feels like that's exactly the right amount.

Which is actually why a while ago I decided to cut away most of the "time-waster" games. My "hours per week" has gone down drastically (well, aside from when I'm working on a mod), but my "Fun per hour spent gaming." has gone up a lot. Gaming these days is a lot less about "the act of gaming" for me, it's more about "the experience of gaming". If... that even makes sense as an explanation.

 

[Honor]

As I change, my preferences seem to change. I used to play more action games as a kid, then I moved onto strategy/RPG as a teenager and then an adult, but now I find myself playing more action games again. Like 2D platformer shooters and things. I am trying to lower my gaming time because sitting down for long periods really does a number on me now that I am older.

 

[The_J]

My preferences also changed. I started with action-RPG and RTS mainly (but also civ), then moved more to normal RPGs and TBS...and at the end to nothing.
Got a social life, and somehow games began to bore me. Since I abolished gaming (more or less), I only played a few rounds of MoO2, and that mainly because I don't need to think there, I know everything. I'd not be able to get into a new game right now. Although not due to attention span. I can concentrate at work for quite some time, but for games...I'm not able to learn anything new (sort of), and I cannot be bothered with the old ones. So naahh...not anymore.

 

[Thorgalaeg]

This^

 

[Broken_Erika]

I have about a hundred unfinished Fallout 4 savegames. Then there was Empire at War Forces of Corruption where i spent more time tweaking mods than actually playing them.

 

[Lohrenswald]

For me, I definitely have a much shorter attention span when it comes to gaming. In my teens and early twenties I could game for hours upon hours, usually with one game holding my attention for weeks on end, even if I already beat it. Now though, after an hour or so, I start to feel extremely bored and move on to watching something on Netflix, reading, or some other activity.

I feel this more often than not, though some games still manage to sort of captivate me from time to time

Also I sort of get agitated when trying a new game and have to learn new systems

I'm also getting tired of most games, as they sort of end up just going through the motions, and the only breaks from that when something goes really bad and makes me not want to play anymore

 

[shadowplay]

I have a hard time getting into new games the last many years. I mostly enjoy playing older games like Civ4, or Age of Kings, that I've been familiar with for years.

I also rarely touch consoles anymore. The games on those that I enjoy are so far and few in between... it's basically just the GTA games for me at this point. It seems like 90% of the games are either shooters or EA sports games, which don't really appeal to me.

I still pick up my 3DS from time to time to get in my Nintendo fix.

 

[Groff]

I rarely play or even give a chance to any newer games anymore, finding it hard to find anything worth playing. Soma, Firewatch and Resident Evil 7 were the ones I enjoyed that were released relatively recently. It seems that more and more games are mashups of every single genre there is. AAA developers release endless sequels of the same games, good indie games are far and few in between. There's not much that gets me interested these days. MGS Phantom Pain was the last game I got really excited for, the whole series is one of my favorites. The game was a massive let down, nothing I'd hoped it would be. It's usually a couple of matches of Dota a week and WoW, maybe some Civ 5 here and there.

EDIT: As you can judge by my avatar Stalker games also get played from time to time. Best open world games ever to be created in my not so humble opinion.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

I find that I don't have a lot of time to play games anymore, the demands of real life are too great. I prefer strategy games and there aren't too many out there that don't require the use of a spreadsheet and a slide rule/calculator/supercomputer to keep track of things, so I don't bother with those. The rest are variations of first person shooters which I find require too much hand eye coordination. These days I spend most of my time either playing Civ4 or Stellaris... and this hellish time sink called Second Life.

 

[Zelig]

Not much.

I'm currently playing through Castlevania II for the NES. I only really pick up consoles when they can't be emulated, can't be covered by backwards compatibility, and when they're EoL to minimize cost, so my current consoles comprise of Wii U/3DS/PS3. Am behind the PC gaming curve by whatever AMD APUs will play, also to minimize cost.

 

[Synobun]

My ability to play games has gone downhill over the past few years. To keep myself distracted, I usually do 3-4 different things at once which makes playing games a little restricting. For most games I can only play for half an hour before I have to stop and do something else. After a certain point, continuing to play just feels revolting.

I can play longer when I'm particularly engrossed but that happens rarely. I can play longer when it's a grand strategy game with friends, like Europa Universalis 4 or Crusader Kings 2, but even then I often have an ebook open on my phone so I can read (thus keeping to my 'doing 3 things at once' routine: gaming, conversation, reading).

I derive the most enjoyment from idle/clicker games now. I can leave them open and just check in for a few minutes every now and then. Guild Quest is the one I'm working on right now and it's free! Free's good.

 

[FriendlyFire]

Find it hard to finnish games, now play everything on easy if possible to avoid getting frustrated if possible even then still havent finnished many games
Casual games are pretty good though play for like 30 mins and put it down

 

[Zelig]

Guild Quest is the one I'm working on right now and it's free! Free's good.

Gross. I cut down significantly on my potential media backlog, monetary costs, and limit myself to high-quality games by blacklisting anything with either advertisements or microtransactions.

Breaking the lock: Why all game content should be unlocked from the outset

"Personally, if the only reason you're playing a game is to unlock other parts of the game, then it's probably not a very good game. Players should want to play your game because the gameplay or the story is inherently fun or interesting, not because they'll earn some random virtual trinket or watch a completion counter tick up toward 100 percent. If that's really all you want out of a game, Clicker Heroes is available for free on your browser."

 

[Kozmos]

Not that much anymore honestly, they've grown too predictable and boring and of course there is far less time now. What happens when something becomes an industry I guess. Only thing that I'm looking out for is the Cyberpunk game from CD RED. That'll be a few years though.

 

[Synobun]

Gross. I cut down significantly on my potential media backlog, monetary costs, and limit myself to high-quality games by blacklisting anything with either advertisements or microtransactions.

Breaking the lock: Why all game content should be unlocked from the outset

"Personally, if the only reason you're playing a game is to unlock other parts of the game, then it's probably not a very good game. Players should want to play your game because the gameplay or the story is inherently fun or interesting, not because they'll earn some random virtual trinket or watch a completion counter tick up toward 100 percent. If that's really all you want out of a game, Clicker Heroes is available for free on your browser."

Clicker Heroes has micro-transactions. They're not necessary to win or progress.

I've never spent money on a clicker/idle game unless the game itself costs money like Idle Civilization or HunieCam Studio.

 

[Bamspeedy]

Getting married and having kids cut down game time drastically. About ready to get rid of the PS3, as it's been in the closet for two months after my wife put it there since it had accumulated a thick layer of dust. Only had a couple games for it, and my fingers can't play that thing for very long at all anymore. If I want to play oblivion it will be on my computer, not the PS3. Oblivion on PS3 might have been fun if I leveled up naturally, but if I want max stats, I either repeat the same actions 100,000 times on PS3, or on the computer I press a few key strokes and just like that all my stats are at 100 instead of 15-25.

I doze off sometimes. Don't have to play very long, either, sometimes I'm just playing a half hour and then ZZZZZzzzzz.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

J
For me, I definitely have a much shorter attention span when it comes to gaming.

It's funny that I've gone pretty much the opposite direction. I check out new games, and sometimes even play them for a fairly significant amount of time, but it's been clear for a long time that I could just as easily ride two particular games out for the rest of my life and not feel like I was missing anything.