20 years ago, games needed skill and a bit of dedication to beat, and for most games that difficulty was the most satisfying aspect about beating them. With time some of the genres have evolved from a focus on difficulty to just giving the player more of an overall experience (especially action/adventure), and the satisfying aspect isn't difficulty-driven anymore. You can see this change as a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your view of what a game should have or be. For me, as I get older and don't have as much time to spend on each game as I want to, I play games more and more while paying attention to level design, implementation of gameplay-elements, artstyle, story, etc... For example: I don't mind games like God of War having an easy difficulty - on normal mode -, because the overall experience is so great. I used to get a kick out of beating games on the higher difficulty settings, but that's a bit passed now. I have a backlog of 10 or so PS2 games I all want to play, so I can't get everything out of each game anymore. I don't even see it as a necessity, 'skill' totally isn't important to me. When a game grabs me, I still go for the extra stuff or other difficulties, but only with a select few (Elite Beat Agents was the last one I can remember). What I'm getting at: do you guys play differently than before? Are you someone who only cares for online play and improving his skills at a select number of games, or do you just want to play as many great games as possible, hereby not mastering the games themselves? What do you see as important nowadays: should a game have a challenging difficulty or do you rate it as a whole? It'd be interesting to see why you play this day and age, and how it changed or hasn't changed at all.

I have shifted somewhat. I used to get absorbed in the world and characters. Now because of my backlog as well, I have started to make the story my goal. I complete the story beat the game and maybe return at a leter date for all the nifty extra's.

BUMPY

uhm..yeah well I used to play game..as if my life depended on it..and I ended up having less and less time and really wanted games I could play in shorter bursts..thus I got the DS..wich is awesome: great games and RPGs wich I can play in short bursts...being a Nintendo fan all my life (means they are my favorite) I always had a slight Bias, but never stopped me from being interested in FF and KH and other games that weren't released on the Nintendo consoles..
I just hadn't had much time to play or finish any of them

is that wall of text enough?

Wow, Rol used to be so hardcore. :(

*sees Endless Ocean and Sonic Chronicles in his Games Collection*

My reason for gaming never really changed. I'm seeing them with a new perspective now though. I'm still deciding what I want to do in the future, and I might just go in computer science. I really love game music, so that could be another possibility. All I know is that I want to get in the industry, and with my gaming knowledge and some little programming I've done in the past, I'm sure I can create my own little franchise in the future! I'll obviously base them on games I've played before, kind of like a tribute I guess! =P

No. I loved N64 style games and I still do. I also played NES and SNES and love those styles. I don't like nitty gritty games much though. Boo Gears BOO! Banjo Kazooie nuts and bolts is really fun though. Running around showdown town reminds me of sonic jam, and Nutty Acres reminds me of Super Mario Sunshine. Banjo Land Reminds me I love Banjo Kazooie, and Logbox 720 reminds me that I dislike/used to hate Xbox... but the games are so good I guess it doesn't matter if the hardware is crappy... at least the controller is great.

aww..don't be a shmup..

>_>

he wasn't hardcore..just honest..and I agree..3d party support better grow..since nintendo is trying to upstream the gamers that are downstream..it'll take a while for a huge Nintendo game again..sadly..