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Gaming was like breathing. It was the biggest part of my life as a teenager, one of my priorities as a college student, and eventually one of my most expensive “hobbies” as a young professional.
Then all of a sudden, after thousands of hours spent playing across genres and platforms, boredom hit me hard for the very first time in my early thirties. Some of my favorite games soon gave me the impression of being terribly long. I couldn’t help but notice all the repeating tropes and similarities in game design between franchises.
I figured it was just a matter of time before I found the right game to stimulate my interest again, but time continued to go by and nothing changed.
Is it that games have failed to innovate, or that real life is ultimately more engaging?
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Tuesday January 08 2019, @02:25AM
Perhaps a good place to start is to ask yourself, what basic drives did/does a game fulfill for you? And how have the changes in your real life satisfied those drives with something more substantial? And, if you want ideas for genres that might appeal - what drives are currently not as fulfilled as you'd like?
A few possibilities:
For a lot of people the sense of accomplishment or advancement is a major appeal. We're wired to get a rush out of accomplishing something, and especially as kids and young adults the scope and obvious impacts of our real-life accomplishments tend to be small. Most games though offer a steady drip of accomplishment and reward to get your fix.
For some, the joy of mastery is the reward (I think a lot of racing/flight/music sims fall here)
For some, pure escapism into a more entertaining world.
Or the mental challenge.
Lots of reasons, and lots of genres to cater to different aspects and combinations of them.