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d21lewis on 29 March 2012
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RolStoppable said:
d21lewis said:
Before the fifth gen, I wouldn't even buy another game until I had finished the game I already owned--even if that game was IMPOSSIBLE. The only exception was if it was a game that had no ending. During the N64 era, I'd always finish my N64 games but I'd have two or three PS1 games lined up. I'd eventually finish them, though. My problems started during the PS2/Gamecube era.

During that era, I was buying games left and right. I still finished probably 90% of them. Then this gen came around. I argue that games are better than they've ever been but looking at my unfinished titles, maybe I'm wrong about this one.

Nowadays games are better in superficial terms and that's mostly because there are so many other games to draw inspiration from, plus developers have learned how to properly program video games (for the most part at least). You play a game for an hour or two and think that it is well made. And on the surface it is. But if you dig deeper you begin to notice that it is just something you have played a hundred times before, but not anywhere close to as good as the top title in the genre. It's not always perceived consciously, so you just stop playing a game and can't even say why.

But an actually good game still hooks you. You think about the game even if you don't play it. You think about what you will do in the game the next time you play it. You really want to play the game. I would argue that the number of these games hasn't increased all that much over the past two decades, if at all. The fillers have gotten better though. But maybe that's just because nowadays there are more games released than ever before. The number of bad games has multiplied.


I never really gave it much thought but it.....it makes perfect sense.  I think back to the games I really loved this gen and, as you said, they hooked me.  I would skip out on sleep, slip in one quick game before work, and even debate whether I really needed to go to thhe bathroom or if I could hold it another 30 minutes.  Now, I look at a collection that's better than most game rental places and often don't feel like playing anything.  In a way, I think I'm just buying games just to say that I have them and not to play them.