Why did you stop buying games?

[Greybriar]

I've been in a PC gaming funk for quite some time now. I didn't buy nearly as many games last year as I used to buy and nearly all of the games I bought turned out to be disappointments. It appears that I wasn't alone. I just watched this video on YouTube and I believe the guys who made it are on to something. Have a look:

An older YouTube video in a somewhat similar vein is this one:

I installed two new games today and I can't get into either one of them. And it's been like that for a long time. :'(

Is anyone else experiencing this?

[Bison]

Yup a few years ago and then I got back into board and role playing games.  Now I spend most of my computer time watching let's plays to learn games or systems, or reading pdf rulebooks and other game materials.  Not an answer, I guess but I'm much more satisfied with my gaming time and experiences. 

[Gusington]

Hasn't happened to me...yet. I hope it never does because I love PC games so very much.

[Toonces]

I'm going to watch the videos after I type this.

I have definitely stopped buying as many games.  I don't agree that games aren't fun anymore at all.  For me, it has become all about time.  I simply have too many games to ever possibly finish in my lifetime.  So, I've sort of reached saturation; at first I bought anything that was on sale because it was a good deal, but now I realize that if I buy 100 games at $5 that I never play, I haven't really saved any money.

The other, perhaps bigger part, is that my tolerance for learning new games has gone way down.  I'm in this very comfortable position where I have maybe 10 games that scratch almost any itch I have, and so I tend to just go back to those...it's like the McDonalds of gaming.  Maybe not the best food, but you always know what you're going to get, and you leave full and at least marginally satisfied.

You'll notice in my Friday posts I typically only have a handful of games that I keep going back to over and over.  They're good games.  So, I just don't need too much new stuff anymore. 

Finally, with the frequent sales, if I miss something one month it will almost certainly pop up again...July through January is almost one big sale at this point.

[Sir Slash]

I've gotten burnt-out on a few games and quit but for the most part I really love the ones I have and play. The trick for me is to not play any game too often to get tired of it and to move around on the games I play to keep them interesting. I also try to make myself finish games and not just grab the newest shiny thing.  :-X

[Grim.Reaper]

I really think digital diwnloads has become a big factor.  In the past, I would need to send away for or travel to a store to pick up games....often a deterrent for buying a lot of games.  Allowed me to stick with games longer.  But now, downloading all the time, too accessible and too easy to do.  Combine that with frequent sales, adds to the impulse nature.

I don't think the games are bad, I just have a short attention span because I always want to play the next thing.

[ghostryder]

I'm frickin' broke. otherwise i'd be buying. On the other hand my regretables are a lot higher than my glad I boughts. So maybe that's a good thing.

[FarAway Sooner]

I went into a gaming funk for a number of years.  I didn't buy many new titles, everything I bought had a "been there /done that" quality to it, and even titles that got rave reviews from folks I trusted (many of them from here) just left me feeling very "meh".

Those clouds have lifted a little bit, but I still only buy a fraction of the games that I used to.  I think it's a function of knowing what you want, and pessimism around games that don't look like what you want.

After 2 or 3 years away, I've discovered a number of great games that have pulled me back.  But there does seem to be a natural ebb and flow to these things.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Same.  Got into a gaming funk.  Then I got back into board games.  Those seem to take up more of my time these days.  (And way more money.... )

[Zulu1966]

Same.  Got into a gaming funk.  Then I got back into board games.  Those seem to take up more of my time these days.  (And way more money.... )

I have bought four board wargames in the last month. I dont know - just seems they bring back memories of what drew me into the hobby in the first place. They just seem a better product - and have that thing I always read about first - chrome. I love chrome. All those little rules that make a situation special. Not that I have gone off say tiller games - just there is only so much you can do with a generic engine. That and what everyone else says - it is time that is the big factor. Have more games than I can properly play and need to focus more to go through them and ditch the ones that just dont deliver

[MengJiao]

I'm going to watch the videos after I type this.

  I think the problem with the big name games like fallout and snacktime in Mordor and the singe-player stuff in typical FPS is that they aren't actually games at all.  They are more like
poorly-directed visits to very bad movies.  For games with editors I can make better scenarios in a few minutes than most games feature after large teams have turned them into
very painful versions of pop culture.  I don't see the point in recycling bad movies and pop culture into something even more daft and calling that a "game".

  Still, of course, I still buy lots of PC games.  Air sims are always fun as are most ship and tank and sub sims (if they have editors or lots of online multi options) and there are some
instances of pop recycling that I like such as Invisible or XCOM.  I'm ever hopeful that marvelous accidents like those keep happening.

  I guess I will never burn out because I've never particularly believed that PC games were a good model of fun to begin with -- so I'm always looking for where the game model goes off the rails and accidently becomes interesting or at least has an editor or good mods or something.

[smittyohio]

Same.  Got into a gaming funk.  Then I got back into board games.  Those seem to take up more of my time these days.  (And way more money.... )

We need the boardgame equivalent of a Steam sale every few months... my wallet hates me at the moment, but man is my collection looking good!    8)

[ArizonaTank]

I don't think this problem is anything "new". 

I think there were several other periods in gaming history when the marketing departments turned off consumers, and damaged the gaming landscape: Atari "E.T." anyone? 

I view this problem as almost exclusively with the "big budget" releases.  As the video points out, "indie" developers are keeping the flame alive.

Still as Mark Twain said, 'history doesn't repeat, but it does rhyme.'  So the market is a helluva lot bigger than it used to be...and the scale is much different.  Distribution is also so different, as are the plethora of platforms.  So what we are seeing now is different, and maybe more pernicious.

The excellent news however is that it has never been easier to develop and distribute "indie" games (at least on PC).  I love seeing some really good things developed using tools like Unity personal edition, and sold on platforms like Steam.

IMHO will survive just fine, and actually come out of this slump for the better.

[CJReich46]

I have been trying to play what I have. That's really it.

Part of it is thankfully, my potato PC is hitting its limits. So again, a slight restriction, which means I get to play what I have OR GOG.com (even better)

I can wait for the ones I wanted in 2014-2015 new to go on sale.

I haven't had the dedication to it as much either, part of it is they are just so damn big, or in the case of Paradox's never ending DLC...never finished!

Luckily Stellaris isn't bad in that area.

and...as ghost said, I'm frickin' broke. I might get something with my Anniversary coupon from Matrix/Slytherine. Or even the Endless Legend collection/Endless Space (it's on my list) But really? I have been realizing I have too much.  I keep wondering (Why do I need Game Title VI, when I haven't even played V or IV as much?)  Bigger question is it going to run? (my potato is a bit weak in the RAM area I could use 8GB to beef it up, but the CPU, GPU, etc...you get the idea)

But the no-press release policy from Bethesda? Seriously? This is just as bad as the endless "No demo" excuses we've heard in the past.

I give credit to some  developers allowing a free version such as; Order of Battle: World War II, Thea: The Awakening, Legends of Callasia, which allows you some gameplay to understand how it works and in the case of Order of Battle, trying out the 1st scenario of each expansion. 

But I think it is we're getting either too much, or its just mediocre and in bigger cases the price tag.

[MengJiao]

I don't think this problem is anything "new". 

I think there were several other periods in gaming history when the marketing departments turned off consumers, and damaged the gaming landscape: Atari "E.T." anyone? 

I view this problem as almost exclusively with the "big budget" releases.  As the video points out, "indie" developers are keeping the flame alive.

  The 2nd video was pretty touching in its plea to people to try to have fun not playing AAA "games" about (well what are they about?...not WWII any more, but I think I missed the AAA WWII period).  I've always played a lot of WWII games and I think the attractions of such a topic are becoming
less and less like the blank slate of utter mayhem that AAA games seem to require.  For example, there's an evolving narrative of understanding what the real dynamics of the actual event were (not something any AAA game would ever even offer up as a whiff in an optional addendum to a DLC) AND (perhaps more crucially) the stuff involved (guns, planes whathaveyou) have real and somewhat limited performance parameters.
Of course most games are happy to violate any of the above in lots of ways -- but there is some kind of actual outside-the-game world to which the game models have to interact -- and that interaction is one way that fun can enter the games more or less by accident.  Which is to say -- its not that some kind of modeling on reality should limit a game, its that the trade-offs in such modeling can cause interesting things to happen that are unlikely in massive AAA games about (whatever those games are about -- see Far Cry 3 and 4 for some questions about what the game is about)...