Modern gaming fatigue

[youxia]

Odyssey's main quest is apparently ~42hrs long: https://howlongtobeat.com/game?id=57503

 

I guess if you "did everything" in that game then perhaps it was fun after all. Otherwise, why bother?

[DJ Clae]

It walked a very thin line between "fun" and "I wish this didn't take so long/This is tedious." OCD saw me through this time I guess. The amount of friction for progression is fairly low. 

[zzip]

On 12/11/2020 at 9:15 PM, DJ Clae said:

I've often wondered what all goes into cranking out so many AC games. There must be a department that just does side quests, right? So it's somebody's job to just lay out side quests all day. How creative are they allowed to be? Ubisoft games have so many of them, it must get really tedious coming up with all of them. It must get really paint-by-numbers. Who is demanding this many side quests in a game? I'd be in favor of cutting that department's budget by 2/3 and just giving them the resources to do only the best side quests they can come up with. These games really start to drag if you try to do everything.

Modern gamers demand that games contain many hours of content.    When "Order 1886" came out with some of the most amazing graphics seen up to that point.  it was revealed that the main mission was only 6 hours long, and gamers lost their mind.   It was review-bombed into oblivion.    Gamers rationalize that for $60, the game should last much longer.   For No Man's Sky, one of the many controversies was that some player completed the "get to the center of the universe" quest in 'only' 30 hours.

 

This is not my opinion.  I prefer shorter games because I work and can spend maybe an hour a night in a game.  A 20 hour game will probably take me a month or longer.

 

But that's why AAA publishers stuff in so many side quests.   It boosts the number of hours a game takes, and adding side quests to an existing game world is relatively cheap way to pad it out.

[Mikebloke]

I would say speedrunning definitely destroys a lot of enjoyment of games, not just as the person doing speedrunning yourself, but to watch other people play - its kind of a way of saying to yourself you'll never play the game "normally" again.

 

To see people speedrun games that literally come out, it likely puts a downer on things as it reduces a lot of games to "how many hours and keypresses needed to finish the game".

[glazball]

@Mikebloke Without trying to sound snarky, I'm struggling to grasp your point.  On one hand, if seeing speedrunners doing their thing is a downer for you, then just don't watch speedruns.  On the other hand, what difference does it make what anyone else does or how they play their games?

[Mikebloke]

1 minute ago, glazball said:

@Mikebloke Without trying to sound snarky, I'm struggling to grasp your point.  On one hand, if seeing speedrunners doing their thing is a downer for you, then just don't watch speedruns.  On the other hand, what difference does it make what anyone else does or how they play their games?

I'm saying it as someone who used to speedrun. It was in reference to zzips comment:

 

Quote

 For No Man's Sky, one of the many controversies was that some player completed the "get to the center of the universe" quest in 'only' 30 hours.

But meh, just a comment at the continuing evolution of the games industry and how its consumed.

[+LS650]

On 12/12/2020 at 9:07 AM, DJ Clae said:

I'm still not ready to turn into one of those on this forum who hasn't bought a big game since PS3.

Heck, I haven't bought a game for anything newer than my Dreamcast... 

[Ninjabba]

On 12/12/2020 at 7:17 AM, Steven Pendleton said:

 

Be sure to read the whole thing!

Amazing thread feeling sorry for the guy to go through this..

Also taps directly into the one critique that was lingering around AC back then; everybody was hyped about this being the new next-gen, big crowds, open world etc... and then the sidequests... they were repetitive and boring, pretty much everybody agreed on that from the start. This clarifies a lot.

[spork]

Modern games feel very static to me. You are simply memorizing a pattern to beat a level or boss. These kinds of games all eventually get boring, for me anyway. If a game has some sort of leveling system I also lose interest. How many times can we find the best weapons, level up, and save the world before were bored? Modern board games have a lot of similarities to video games that I don't like. I also don't understand the obsession with wanting to recreate war in virtual reality. To me these aren't games.

 

I don't play video games much  as I'm completely bored with most of them. I've moved on to games that can be more of a hobby like go or chess and darts. If I had the room I would rather have a pool or air hockey table and a basement full of pinball machines than a modern  game system.

 

Medieval Mayhem is getting more play at my house than games that take millions to develop. Its sorta like 4 player air hockey on my tv. I'm also playing pinball on my pc (pfx3) since its not practical to own a real machine.

Edited January 4, 2021 by spork

[+LS650]

1 hour ago, spork said:

Modern games feel very static to me. You are simply memorizing a pattern to beat a level or boss. ...

Medieval Mayhem is getting more play at my house than games that take millions to develop. Its sorta like 4 player air hockey on my tv. I'm also playing pinball on my pc (pfx3) since its not practical to own a real machine.

I think many of the regulars here feel the same way.  I have a friend with a PS4, and she plays a lot of modern games.  I can watch and appreciate the graphics, but the gameplay just isn't that exciting.  

[HoshiChiri]

I'm currently in a bout of modern gaming fatigue. I'm not so off-put by the fetch quests & such as long as it's not overly grindy & the gameplay is generally fun. What usually brings it on for me is play session length. Modern games are typically big sprawling things with lots of cutscenes & sidequests & pretty visuals, that TAKE TIME to absorb. You don't play a modern game for 20 minutes. It's gonna be a notable part of your day if you're gonna be properly immersed. And sometimes, I don't want to dedicate that time to a game. 

 

The usual response is to just go back to an older title- right now I'm playing the copy of Talmit's Adventure I got for AA's Secret Santa. No constant cutscene or drawn-out tutorials or weird side events. The Mole King kidnapped the Princess, go save her! Then you're playing- no tutorials, figure it out! You can beat a stage in just a few minutes, & the password/continue setup is very forgiving so super-short play sessions are still satisfying. It's great!

 

But I know me, eventually I will crave a meatier experience, then it's back to the Yakuza series ?

[Tanooki]

Hah you sound like my choices I've made for myself last year Hoshi.

 

I've decided going forward I'm going to just bother primarily with Nintendo handhelds GB family and DS family stuff going forward, but mostly just GB to GBA.  You can pick em up, absorb some fun, and flip it off and it works, or with the DS/3DS family sleep the thing.  No hours of bs, no 20 min wind up into getting going, it just works.

 

The modern I've decided to limit myself to just Switch, that and the occasional PC game either older (ebay or GoG) or modern (GoG/Steam) here and there, and even then in some cases, they're still older stylized enough.  I got game bombed thanks to LRG trying to keep their 2020 promises.  Panzer Dragoon, Blaster Master Zero 1 and2 in another box, yet another had Grandia HD Collection as well, and I got a really solid deal on a new FF9 game from the english-asia market.  All those clearly old or new, aren't new by any measure, given the style and content.  Then I've got Fenyx Rising and Civ6 too, they are new, but even  yet Civ6 is still more like the past...so just 1 in all that is 'modern' and I'm good with it.  Any more would be a burn out, and Fenyx is a rarity like breath of the wild is(was) because I tend to find that hour sucking garbage draining but they're not.

[Ninjabba]

I'm a big fan of the PSP/3DS/Switch exactly for the reason of picking up a game and putting it down whenever you feel like. Currently also going through all the DS Castlevania games and having a blast with them.

 

Some of these modern games feel like they want to take over your life indeed. I'm currently enjoying Cyberpunk2077 quite a lot, but my playtime is about ~2 hours a week and it doesn't feel like I'm getting anywhere.

 

 

[Tanooki]

I feel that way about Immortals Fenyx Rising some, thankfully it has so many shades of Breath of the Wild I'm tolerant of it, just not a daily driver, more of a couple plus hours every other day or two which is more than my usual anyway.  I use those eyes in the game to try and spot points now and again, but realistically, I'm kind of tempted to mostly just run the primary quest but it's so solid the distractions are real.

[Rhomaios]

I've been in a modern gaming fatigue for about 15 years with a handful of exceptions (a couple indie gems or series that kept to the same basic gameplay, like Civilization). The PS2 is the latest console where I've actually played games in recent memory (I have a Wii but it's boxed up and put away for who knows how long now).

[DJ Clae]

On 1/6/2021 at 8:58 AM, Ninjabba said:

Some of these modern games feel like they want to take over your life indeed. I'm currently enjoying Cyberpunk2077 quite a lot, but my playtime is about ~2 hours a week and it doesn't feel like I'm getting anywhere.

 

 

Yeah, I can relate. 2 hours is a lot to devote to something frivolous like an open world game. Then you have the people online talking about finishing it weeks ago, which just makes it worse.

[Tanooki]

I'm feeling a bit like that with Immortals Fenyx Rising.  I've currently done the main first area, then into the aphrodite space and got the sea foam, now I'm after tears and got one left to get.  The hours involved, not sure, but it has to be pushing 15-20 so far into the game and I'm not fed up, just spacing the days out I plug away at it is all.  I see these really aggravating boxes with dots pop up on the map, the dumb game is feeding me pics other players make of their feats etc and they're all over, even places I won't see for a long time if ever.  It's annoying, I tend to erase them.  I like my pace, but it's frustrating too because I've got 3 other RPGs on 2 games, the 2 Blaster Master Zero games, Panzer Dragoon, and doom 64 w/shantae gbc are to come yet.

 

Love to start another, but I know I would stop cold on the current game.

[PeterG]

I can relate to the fatigue feeling but then I am someone who is not complaining if a campaign is "only" 6 or 8 hours long, if the game is fun I really don't mind. Then again I never buy games for the retail price but wait to buy them used or in a deal online so I probably can't relate to those people who expect a long game for their 60 bucks.

 

Also I can spend hundreds of hours in a Dark Souls game and even if sometimes I get mad that I tried something way to often, it never feels like time wasted because I am engaged, developing new strategies and curious to go further. At the same time I never understood the appeal of "real" open world games. I really do not enjoy traveling for hours by foot, car or horse to get to a certain point where something happens. If it is a fetch quest even worse. I discovered that I am not made for those. I tried several AC games, GTA back in the day, Red Dead Redemption and MSG5 and each and every single time I got bored by having to travel around, then at some point you start trying out what kind of different things might work and then I never touch those games again.

 

And latley I see myself drawn to 2D titles like Dead Cells, Valfaris which trigger something from my childhood in me while being new games which is a really neat and enjoyable combination.

[Tanooki]

9 hours ago, PeterG said:

I can relate to the fatigue feeling but then I am someone who is not complaining if a campaign is "only" 6 or 8 hours long, if the game is fun I really don't mind. Then again I never buy games for the retail price but wait to buy them used or in a deal online so I probably can't relate to those people who expect a long game for their 60 bucks.

 

Also I can spend hundreds of hours in a Dark Souls game and even if sometimes I get mad that I tried something way to often, it never feels like time wasted because I am engaged, developing new strategies and curious to go further. At the same time I never understood the appeal of "real" open world games. I really do not enjoy traveling for hours by foot, car or horse to get to a certain point where something happens. If it is a fetch quest even worse. I discovered that I am not made for those. I tried several AC games, GTA back in the day, Red Dead Redemption and MSG5 and each and every single time I got bored by having to travel around, then at some point you start trying out what kind of different things might work and then I never touch those games again.

 

And latley I see myself drawn to 2D titles like Dead Cells, Valfaris which trigger something from my childhood in me while being new games which is a really neat and enjoyable combination.

I can agree with that.  Despite the fact I've had a good bit of luck the last year getting rid of some of my old toys, games, and other stuff so I have a little stored up in PP, I still am a cheapskate because I know as hard as it was to put there, it's easy to lose, and less easy to re-fill.  I won't pay full price either.  I rarely get a new game anymore when it's new, the last one would be Immortals Fenyx Rising, and that's only because for some weird reason Ubisoft recently ran a 50% off sale on the Switch version so I snatched it up.  Usually I watch for $10-30 deals on games or more (depending on original value) or if it's PC based, I watch GoG, then Steam, and only on their sales, typically the 50-90% off quarterly+holiday moments.  By then not only are those originally $30-60 games probably already reduced, but then they get that hard slice further.  Why pay $60 when I can pay $20?  It's not like it's going to dry up and go away right?

 

I can relate to that too many hours bit, Immortals is like that since it's far more close in smart design to Breath of the Wild than the bland tedium of Bethesda's stuff like Skyrim.  Yet those big games come with a big issues, commitment.  Thanks to LRG guilt tripping over their 2020 launch list I ended up with a fat stock of Switch stuff I've yet to touch, also a solid 1/3 off price I got on FF9 switch english-asia physical too, so I've got my year pretty sorted out probably as it stands as nothing is under 10hours other than maybe Panzer Dragoon and Doom64 when it arrives, pretty sure Shantae GBC, Blaster Master Zero 1 and 2 are a bit longer, Grandia 1+2 HD and FF9 definitely are. ?

[BydoEmpire]

Since I got a new PC back in November, I've been getting reacquainted with modern gaming for the first time in a while. I'm definitely running into the fatigue with Doom Eternal.  I thought I was pretty close to the end, but I looked at a walkthrough and there's a lot more left than I thought.  I thought I was 80% done, but I'm probably closer to 50%.  That's disheartening and demotivating to keep going... boy is it feeling like a slog now.  There were and are cool bits and I like the game but after 15 hours... okay, ANOTHER set of wall jumps, ANOTHER Hell Priest to kill, a new, this-time-even-BIGGER demon to kill.  I want to finish it but it would have been better if the 3rd or 4th "really big evil demon" was the final one.

Edited March 3, 2021 by BydoEmpire

[+jgkspsx]

For the last ten years or so, I have focused almost exclusively on short but sweet games, particularly ones that have interesting mechanics OR good stories OR amazing art style, or if I’m lucky multiple of those. I can’t see spending 40 hours with a game, especially a game that was produced by committee with an endless sequence of side quests. The sweet spot for me is 6-8 hours. Long enough to be immersed, short enough to be done with it and move on with my life.

[Gamemoose]

I dipped my toe back into a couple titles: Duke Nukem Forever and Star Wars Battlefront 2 Anniversary (or something like that). While both are fun in their own ways (Duke is just over the top presentation with pretty average play while SW:B2 is dang gorgeous to look and play through single player), I noticed I have that feeling of knowing what's going to happen next.  For example:

 

"Hmm...big room open with places monsters can jump from...gonna be a fight sequence"

 

"Hmm..the game is giving me a rocket launcher...there's probably something big I need to take down"

 

The funny thing I find with these modern games is a very noticable formula of puzzle/action/combat that still shows up in new titles (not sure if I mentioned that viewpoint before). And for whatever reason, it bothers me. I lose interest. Take a classic game, like say a platformer where the formula really hasn't changed in over 30ish years, I have no problems. Is it because those above elements are all woven together and happening constantly rather than broken into segments?  Maybe.

 

I just played the FDS version of Metroid and had more of a blast than the above two games mentioned. 

 

[BydoEmpire]

I played SW Battlefront 2 last December, and I really enjoyed that.  Entertaining story, challenging bits without being frustrating, and I got ot FINISH it in a couple of weeks.  There's plenty more to do if I want to go back to it, but I felt satisfied with what was there.

[zzip]

39 minutes ago, BydoEmpire said:

I played SW Battlefront 2 last December, and I really enjoyed that.  Entertaining story, challenging bits without being frustrating, and I got ot FINISH it in a couple of weeks.  There's plenty more to do if I want to go back to it, but I felt satisfied with what was there.

I never actually played the story portion of Battlefront 2.    I mostly jump into multiplayer matches, and still play it regularly after several years.

[AtariSphinx]

I have also been debating this topic myself for some time and here is what I figured out that works for me.

 

It is all about expectation and this will vary for each person and over time.

 

If your expectation is to play an 80 hour campaign over 2 months and do not playing anything else (because of time constraints) and you accomplish this you will enjoy it especially if the game is good.

 

If your expectation is to play that 80 hour campaign quickly and play other games at the same time but have limited play time you will be disappointed. 

 

What works for me is to play the shorter games frequently (such as 2600) and for longer more modern games play on a hand held / be OK playing a level / online match on big screen.  I pick and choose a more limited set of modern games.

 

Have to find the right balance so you come away from a game session satisfied that you did want you set out to do.  If you try to do everything then you come out disappointed especially with modern games that are much longer and there are so many coming out all the time. 

 

Also if you pay a lot more a modern game then one tends to want to get your money's worth and spend more hours with it.  That's why used / highly discounted games help in this regard but with many games now being codes it makes this harder.