Just a little while ago, someone brought back a thread about if GT5 can sell more then Halo Reach. in 2010, when this thread was made, and I just joined VGC, I used an arguement of attach rates, and made a long post about how GT5 will never top Halo Reach. Well, it has.

Anyway, looking back, I had no knowledge of how games sell, and I also noticed that my taste in games was pretty different in 2010 then it is now in 2013.

I was ready to abandon Nintendo after they only released sequels on the Wii, most of which not being much of a change in the game. Now, not only am I a Nintendo fanboy again, I'm also the type of gamer who would own every console even if there are only a couple worthwhile exclusives. I've seen various users on this forum support specific games, which I, like most others, would normally have ignored, but after playing Lunar (which someone recommended highly), I now want to own every well made JRPG there is, I even want to buy a Sega Saturn for Panzer Dragoon Saga.

Plus, after being on VGC forums so long, I've realized that there are just a lot of different people out there. Obviously people will have different tastes in games depending on the type of person they are and where they grew up, but it's more then just games. I think because of VGC I'm more able to see that specific views and qualities which I've adopted growing up are not shared among everyone else. A perfect example would be New York's Large Soda ban. As a healthy Canadian I see it as a great law which not only protects people from being abused by large corporations, but helps reduce diabetes, yet many Americans and/or large people would see it as an infringment on their "right to freedom." In my head, I think such a law gives you the freedom of health, and the freedom from control by large corporations, but you always have the option to abuse yourself, and give your money away by buying 2 pops if you want....anyway.

----

I do write a lot, basically I've changed because

I used to know little about selling trends, where now I know a lot more,
I used to follow public opinions a lot, where now I have my own well defined taste in games,
I used to think that various people with what I would call extreme opinions, just grew up in a different place and think I'm extreme too.

So I'm more tolorant towards other people now, and since I know more about games now, I enjoy them more and usually feel satisfied with every game I buy.

---

How about You?

I would say I'm more inclined to give certain games a shot, whereas in the past I would have assumed that they would not appeal to me...

My Gamestop no longer messes with me. I have learned too much. Still go there, but they don't treat me some lost kid anymore. Great positive.

I have too many games I'm interested in, and have made it my goal to replay the classics. (Come on Virtual Console)

Really finding an interest in level design and starting to appreciate the effort and the ingenuity that goes into some games. Overall I think my appreciation and my passion for games has grown.

Starting to cultivate a deeper interest in the workings and the politics of the industry. And even after realizing the crap Nintendo did for a while, still finding that I can't help but love their legacy. Meanwhile fueling my disdain for certain company actions that I didn't quite like. Example being Blizzard and Starcraft 2.

Man, I really like you guys. Some of ya'll can be a bit...unwelcoming, but this community has really grown on me. And you all know which games are good. Screw Metacritic. I go to VGchartz and Neogaf for reviews now.

I have also stopped going to IGN for some reason. Huh.

But what's most important is that I can read and contribute to total breakdowns of games and feel comfortable about them. 

Man I wish we could buy games for each other. E-shop gifting plz?

this forum for one open'ed up a whole new world of gaming i did not pay attention to before, sales and marketing it is. Before i never cared how much a game sold or what it's weekly rankings on the charts were, not that it matters as a gamer but intresting to see how the mass amount of consumers takes on a game.

somthing like that.

That too, I never really disliked a company, mostly because I never really payed attention to who developed a game before, but now I have a group of devs which I buy games from no questions, regardless of review score, and others I avoid.

I really hate MS and EA now, MS for basically adandoning the core, yet still giving a lot of focus on $$ makers like XBLG and Kinect, EA for Online passes, Porsche licencing, and a few other things.

---

But you really trust VGC reviews over IGN and others? I find that the opinions given by reviewers at GameTrailers tends to reflect my opinion very accuratly. Not always, but usually they do.

Really? I find that I care less about how a game sells now. Especially when games like CoD sell over 20 million units annually, meanwhile other great games like XenoBlade, struggle to break 1 million.

@Micheal.

I find that there a lot of people more similar to me here than review sites.

And if they like a game I haven't tried yet then I might as well give it a go. So far they've been mostly hits. Really enjoying some of the recommendations like Vesperia and Super Metroid right now. Heck even some of the recommended indie games like Gunman Clive really it the mark.

I'm now really good at Typing of the Dead

They haven't.

Specifically being in this forum community: I've probably spent fewer hours gaming than I otherwise would have because I've spent far to much time in here.

In terms of what and how I play, I'm not sure much has changed at all. This generation has seen me harden my heart even more against FPS, because of its rise to pre-eminence as a genre, despite only Halo, CoD and latterly Battlefield being the only franchises to enjoy massive success, and Battlefield is debatable when put against CoD. Everyone wanted to be CoD but no one really succeeded.

But I'm too old to really change much.

I've been a gaming-forum-going gamer for fifteen+ years. I can't quantify the change that it may have made because that was basically half my life ago and I've changed as a person, let alone a gamer, drastically in that time. I grew from being a preteen N64 fanboy to now a professional, highly trained and educated adult, with a wife and a daughter, that owns almost every major console that's released in the past thirty years and a huge collection of games to go with.

I can't say that my widening of gaming tastes has evolved from being involved in gaming forums. In fact, I sometimes feel like the communities actually make me want to be part of them LESS. But I've definitely evolved tremendously as a gamer. Now, I'm going to go play some Poker Night 2 on my Xbox, and then smash some ping pong with PS Move, and I might wrap it up with a little bit of 3DS Pokemon action.