My interest in gaming faded a lot in 2006 when I finally gave up on Star Wars Galaxies and MMORPG's entirely. I spent more time with Galaxies then any other game I played before, so I kinda felt like I'd had hit a brick wall with it. Then I got a Wii and DS and I kinda of got more into them again, as both of them provided some original things or simply new twists that freshen up old tricks. Somehow wound up getting the HD consoles as part of my newfound interest. Both of those haven't done a whole lot for me personally, so now I'm kind of back to where I was but looking forward to dicking around with whatever weird curves Nintendo or anyone else throws at the industry.
Guess I'm uninterested a lot of the modern industry's offerings as so much of it feels the same. Lot of games where you're a one-man army/rag tag group of do-gooders up against en evil empire/murderous megalomaniac where you're mindless slaughter is justified through a flimsy storyline/muted because you're fighting in-human monsters. (Zombies, Ogres, Robots, Aliens) Don't really mind that kind of set-up, but there seems to be bizarre fixation on emphasizing the set-up at the expense of what the actual player winds up doing these days. More about what shows up on the screen instead of what you actually did.
Because of that I tend be more interested in either games that do one simple thing right, or go apeshit over the top. Probably why Loco Roco and Conker's Bad Fur Day tend to be a couple of my personal favorite games. Most of the stuff in-between tends to blur together. Generally over-complicating otherwise simple tasks and mechanics to create "depth", and including poorly done to mediocre mini-games or out of place driving or rail shooting segments to create "variety", all to supplement a generally sub-par narrative where your actions make no difference other than what ending you wind up with.
That and I'm 23 and getting older and simply have less time for a lot of things in general. But I still play games, just can't get into this "cinematic" game trend that's popular on the single player front, and I've never been too big on the overly-completive online frag fest and/or annoyingly specific strategic killing that's so popular in them multiplayer front that's spilled over from PC gaming. Can’t really get into the “Games as an art” thing either since the things in video games that tend to be praised as “art” are the same things in movies or tv shows that are praised as art, and they tend to do it better. Even when those elements are good, it tends to just be a good movie/television series interjected into a video game. Rarely it seems like developers try to make the interaction “artistic”.
Guess that’s where I’m at in a nutshell.
