Where did The Magic of Playing a New Game Go?

Hello everyone and welcome to our place!

Today I want to think a little bit and talk about something that has been bothering me for a while. This thing is, why I don’t feel the same joy and hyper when I’m starting a new game as I did before.

Although I still feel the excitement of being at work and wanting to get home and play games!

I don’t really understand because I continue to love games as much as I did before. This way, I want to see if I can find out why this is happening. Is it because I’m older? Are the games not as fun as before? Am I having the opportunity to buy and play so many games that now I feel it’s really easy to get a new one? I don’t know, but let’s find out!

– Age Difference –

I mean, we all know that you experience things differently depending on the age you have and I can’t really compare how excited I felt about something when I had 13 to now, with 25 years old. So, my question is, is it because I’m older and had way more experiences that make me feel less overwhelmed when starting a game?

I remember clearly the butterflies I had when starting a new game that I had just bought after months of saving. I also remember being in the car with my dad after the purchase just reading the game book super excited to start the game and experience everything I was reading.

Me when I was younger waiting for that Sony logo to appear

Nowadays, things are different. I don’t really have to save so much time to buy a new game. In fact, most of the times I don’t even have to leave the house to buy a game. I just go and buy it from the PS store. Months of savings are transformed into buying so many games that I have a backlog that I will never be able to complete. This, of course, would be a reason for my lack of excitement. New games stopped being rare in my life and, therefore, the excitement in each one will not as huge.

However, I think there is something more into it. I have more experience, especially in gaming. I can’t ever compare the excitement I got while playing FF7, my first RPG with starting an RPG nowadays. It’s not that the game may or may not be good, it’s just, well, I’ve experienced so much gaming that I know what to expect more or less. But, on the other side, when Persona 5 came out I looked like a kid super excited to experience the game. The same happened with FF15, so, although it will never be the same as the first one, I don’t think this is a factor for my lack of excitement.

Although I still feel like this when I’m not able to pass a boss

There is just one next thing I want to discuss, which is the time I have to invest in gaming nowadays. Let’s face it, I work 8 hours a day, I blog, I stream, I go to the gym. So, of course, I don’t have much time to lose myself in a game. I can’t compare a 3 months vacation where time seemed to never end with a strict schedule of gaming only 1 hour a day because the day is just 24 hours. I think this one is clearly one of the motives that make me less excited to start a game. I know from the bat that even if I love them I won’t have much time to play them.

– Gaming Industry –

The Mainstream Gaming industry nowadays in a nutshell

But, let’s not put all the blames on me! The gaming industry has also changed, the games themselves also changed and this means that I find myself less and less excited to play a game.

First, we have that companies seem to be more interested in the “owo” factor and money than the game itself. This means that we will get awesome graphics, great mechanics and then the story will just lack that magic that it had before. I was excited to play Final Fantasy XV for example, but I started with a little caution because of what happened with Final Fantasy XIII… 1-2 hours in the game and I knew the game would never have the story I wanted. In fact, the story ended up being even worse than what I was expecting… For you to understand, I got more hyper when I replayed FF12 with the Zodiac Age installment than FF15.

That good old Final Fantasy VI

But, I think there’s more. From a hard RPG fan, I can clearly see how the formula is changing. We are getting more and more action RPGs and less of strategic ones. Knowing the right combination of party and skills are going away and now, knowing the right time to click on the X button seems to be the way to go. This is a personal taste, of course, but that’s not my favorite type of RPG.

– Conclusion –

Me, trying to make a point so far

I wished that I had again those butterflies when starting a game. That excitement so big that I just can’t wait to begin a new game and play it for hours. From this post, I think I can understand what is happening.

On one side, we have that I am different than before. I’m older, have more experience and I can buy games more often. This means that, contrary to my younger self who had to save for months and was experiencing a genre from the first, or second time, games tend to be a constant part of my daily life and I just don’t feel the same excitement as I would before. This, adding to the part of now not being able to just lose myself in a game because I have adult things to do. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to downgrade my consumerism, because I know I’m not going to lose the bargain of buying a game which I’m mildly interested enough while 50% off. However, I will try to lose myself in gaming more often. Even if I only play for one hour, I’ll try not think about it and just let me lose inside the game.

I need to learn how to relax

On the other side, we have the gaming industry changing. I feel that mainstream developers are investing more time in putting a game that will make you buy it than really in the magic of the game. More and more I feel the stories are getting worse and more generic while the graphics are getting better and the controls more responsive (which is good ofc). However, even if I play Final Fantasy 6 to this day, I will still love it and lose myself in its world and characters. So, controls and graphics are important, but not everything.

Moreover, we have all the promotions. The steam summer sales, the ps discounts, the retailer “Crazy weekends”. This, of course, makes you let yourself lose to consumerism, making you buy many games that you are not really that excited about and just increase your backlog a lot.

What about you guys? Do you also feel that you got more excited when starting a game when you were younger? Or are is it just me? Tell me in the comments! 😀

See You Soon! 😀