Was your gaming life happier when you were younger?

Hey duders

Long time no see, all things considered.

I was thinking lately about how I interact with games nowadays, compared to when I was a nipper. If you told me back then how I'd be gaming in my late thirties, I'd have cursed your name, but nowadays...well, it's different

Back when I was in school, I was playing Final Fantasy games EVERY night. I would eek out every single nugget of content from those games, then when I see credits? I'd just...restart and play again

College and University were different, but all too similar. I failed my first year of Uni because I was too addicted to World of Warcraft. I literally got such bad anxiety that I couldn't leave the house, and I'd retreat into Azeroth to escape. I also remember getting that £9000 grant to spend on whatever I wanted, and on a whim going "You know what, the 360 sounds good" and I just...walked into GAME in Manchester City Centre, bought one with Mass Effect and took it back to my student digs, where I had this fucking MASSIVE old school telly that you had to have 4 people to move, and just....well, I went for it. I would play Gears of War after classes, Lost Odyssey till 4am, and just rinse and repeat

When I started teaching, I would go home every night and just play any PS4 games I could get my hands on. I rinsed almost the entire library. Then I met my partner (Now my fiance!) and everything changed. I wanted to spend so much time with her, that gaming just...it couldn't compete anymore.

I would go from playing literally 40-5 hours a week, to now maybe playing games for an hour a week, at a push. I've got some great mates at work who I play Paper MTG with, and that's scratching that itch. I play that "Last War" Game on my mobile phone, the AWFUL LOOKING one you see on Instagram ads where it has the soldiers shooting the +1 and -4 things to get reinforcements, and the ads always show them playing like donuts. If you play it normally, it's real fun.

But yeah...my gaming circle really shrunk. I don't watch Twitch anymore (And good Good why would you EVER subject yourself to that shite), I don't watch videogame essays, I don't watch speedruns, I don't watch Giant Bomb, I don't really do any gaming at all now

I think gaming wise ,when I was playing WoW I was at my happiest, but in terms of objective life joy, being with my partner and going on a bike ride, or going out in nature its probably my favourite

What about you lot?

Everyone gets busier and gaming loses its novelty. The first time I saw Doom it was like a miracle. No game can match that anymore.

But I don't know if it was "happier." It was just more intense. I appreciate the time I have with games now more. It feels like the luxury it is. I can be choosier about what I play.

You're never going to match the intensity of youth in almost anything. That's why so many people are nostalgic for it. But it's not so much about the games. It's about who you were.

Of course! I agree that the older we get, the busier life is. And gaming becomes not so exciting as in childhood.

nah- i might buck the trend, but i sincerely feel that the majority of my most impactful gaming experiences have been within the last 10yrs or so.

I would say happier in the sense of discovery and being amazed at how games can look and play. This is why I was big into arcades as a child, and for the most part still am, but more so for nostalgia. Today, since games are capable of looking photo realistic, it takes more than just graphics to wow me. Now it's more so the gameplay and how it is used. If it happens to look amazing as well, that is a bonus.

I dunno if happier was the word, but I was more emotionally involved when playing games in my youth. Like, I would get genuinely excited or scared playing a JRPG and seeing a twist I never saw coming. As an adult, I'm more aware of the beats of a story and now, while I do enjoy the good stories of a video game, I do see things coming pretty early and so I don't get surprised as much.

I kinda miss that feeling.

Same here. I may be less enthusiastic about the state of the industry in many regards, but when it comes to connecting with a game itself, I'm having much stronger experiences now than when I was just playing the handful of Sonic and Genesis sports games I had in the 90s.

As someone whose played hundreds of RPGs, even made a list that needs updating, I agree 100%.

Yes and no. Growing up in the late 80's early 90's we saw gaming evolve in front our eyes that sense of wonder can only be experienced once. No matter how good and a game or piece of hardware is, it'll never beat seeing Mario 64 for the first time etc.

However I can buy/play anything I want, we have choice and variety we could only dream of as a kid, that freedom is immensely gratifying.

I'd say I'm far more happier today just no longer surprised or amazed but sort of impressed when I see something really good. My favourite games are all relatively recent releases.

I think I was more oblivious to seeing the building blocks of games and it was easier to immerse myself in them, so... yeah, kind of. Also kinda miss the spectacle around games in magazines, websites, and E3. Part of that is getting older but a large part of it is the way the market is represented now, which just doesn't have that same impact.

@av_gamer: Got to thinking about this and moments like in Breath of Fire III, I was still about 13 and playing my first real JRPG and I remember feeling so terrified of Balio and Sundar and how they would just be these two gangsters after these little kids and later on, when you finally meet Garr and he helps you, I remember just being so relieved like "Finally! An adult!"

Or, and this is kind of embarrassing for me now, but in Xenogears, finding out that Id was Fei all along blew my freaking mind as a kid. After replaying it years later I can't believe I didn't see it sooner.

It's moments like these that got me to fall in love with JRPG's.

Its better now. I have access to more games.

When I was a child, playing games was all about pure joy. Now, when I play games, I instinctively check how many hours I have left to play and whether playing a bit longer will interfere with my upcoming plans.

It was more fun to play before because I wasn't too lazy to study the lore

I echo everything that was stated but I'll also add that the illusion that's crafted in games wears away quicker now. My first time playing FF7 or Skyrim or Assassins Creed seemed amazing. Now I find I notice the seams where they craft the illusion of a sprawling world much more and the ability to immerse myself in a game is lost.

Definitely. More time on my hands and fewer responsibilities. When I was in high school the site was in its prime (2009 to 2013) so I was feeding off that too. This year I've been going back and listening to a lot of those older pods and it does feel like there's a lot less "magic" in games now. Sooooo many remakes and sequels. Like it's actually crazy to think we're on Black Ops SIX at this point. Back then the downloadable stuff was coming into its own but the AAA titles were still on top. GTA 4, MGS 4, Fallout 3, Rock Band(s), Dragon Age, Uncharted 2, Mass Effect 2, Skyrim, all insanely high quality games that you can still play and enjoy now 10+ years later. To think EA actually tried to launch some new IP with Dead Space and Mirror's Edge. And the last great era of the "AA" or "B" game, shit like Red Faction Guerrilla.

Just seems like everything now: less authentic, less risk-taking, less innovative, less interesting. More corporate, more cookie-cutter, more predictable. The industry as a whole is changing, no more E3, no more review sites, everything has been shuttled onto Twitch or YouTube. These companies have realized it's so much easier to get these dopey streamers in their corner who will only praise the game as opposed to reviewers like Jeff who might, you know, actually be critical of their product in some way, and I think the games are worse off for it.

There was a lot more excitement to it but I also had less of a filter when it comes to deciding what games were good.

Yes and no.

When I was a kid, getting a new game was exciting. My family didn't have a lot of money so I would only get maybe two new games a year and all video game stuff we had was shared between my older brother and I. It was always an event for me and was super exciting when I got a new game to keep. Instead, we relied mostly on renting games or the bargain bin. The local rental place had a deal where you could get 2-for-1 game rentals on Tuesdays so we'd go a couple times a month and rent a couple old games for a toonie. These rentals were restricted to older titles, never new releases, so I ended up going through a lot of the back-catalog of the NES, Genesis, and N64. It was a lot of fun as I always had something new to play.

The difference now is that I have access to all of the games I missed but wanted to play back then. We didn't get any form of Playstation 1 until well after the PS2 had come out and I bought a PS2 in 2009 for Persona 3 and 4. The result of that was that I missed nearly all of the PS1 and PS2's library. I'm now catching up on those libraries.

If this question was restricted to how I feel playing modern games, then the answer would definitely be that games don't make me happier than they did when I was younger. Outside of Baldur's Gate 3, a game that feels like a PC game from 2005, nothing has clicked with me and got me truly excited in years. There's some intangible that's missing in a lot of new games. Persona 3 Reload got close, but that's because it's mostly just a faithful remake of a PS2 game.

Going back to mentioning catching up on old console games I missed, I've been using a Steam Deck to do that for a couple hours before bed each night. It's the most fun I've had with games in years. I missed out on all of Final Fantasy because I didn't have the consoles those games were on so I've been playing those games. While I've been going through them I started to feel that excitement I used to get as a kid. I've been playing a couple hours of Final Fantasy X each night for the last couple weeks and it's to the point now that I am actively looking forward to playing it again every night. I haven't felt that in more than a decade with games.

I was watching Austin Walker stream Final Fantasy XI on the Friends at the Table twitch channel a couple months back. He and the crew started talking about the whole concept of "they just don't make them like they used to" and how it applied to FFXI. They acknowledged that it's kind of a shitty and reductionist phrase but also that it's kind of true in many regards. They were talking about this in context to FFXI versus other MMOs (FFXI has a lot of weird quirks and features that you'd never find in modern MMOs) but I've been thinking about it more generally. For a long time, I just assumed that I wasn't enjoying games as much was a sign I was changing as a person but going back to older games that I'd literally never played before and having that level of enjoyment return has convinced me that it's not me, it's the games. Game developers used to take risks or experiment in ways that they likely aren't allowed to anymore, and the games suffer for it. I'm increasingly convinced that the weirdness and rough edges of those older games were a big part of why they were fun. The people making them had more freedom to do what they wanted but also were more restricted in terms of what the hardware could do so they had to be creative. That creativity made the games what they were.

No modern big budget big publisher game would dare have the Sphere Grid in it. That's for sure.

I think my answer is also a yes and no.

Like many others, I squeezed so much more content out of games back then simply because I couldn’t get an expensive new AAA game immediately after finishing another. Even cheaper games you couldn’t just buy a bucketful of, like you can now from Steam. So I just went on hours of rampage in games like GTA 3 and Vice City and had fun doing so, which is something I never really did in V or even IV.

Then there’s obviously also playing most genres for the first time as a kid/teen. If you put out a new RTS now, it’d have to do a lot to capture my attention as well as something like Red Alert 2 or Warcraft 3 did back then.

I had an amazing time with WoW and I doubt no game will ever deliver a similar experience, which is probably for the best, what with the addictive nature and all.

All that said, even though I play a lot less now in general than I did over a decade ago, I can still have an amazing time with games fairly often and certain games can really get a hold of me, plus the indie space is something wildly different these days.

Agreed.

^found the alphaville stan.

another thought i had- i think my appreciation and depth of experience with games is so much more now that i'm a bit more 'seasoned.' i'm sure it goes the other way for some folks, but now i think in terms of writing, visual design, mechanics, audio design etc.

that doesn't diminish anything first experienced in my youth- but it does mean i'm appreciating the art from waaay more vantage points.

Yes, it was magical back in the 2000s. But that’s because I was younger and healthier (sadly I’m sick now). I still enjoy games, but there are fewer and fewer releases I care about with each year. Even WoW, which I played for 16+ years, I quit last year because it’s not doing it for me anymore.

Nowadays I prefer playing older games, partly for nostalgia and beacuse they resonate more with me. There are some recent(ish) exceptions though, like BotW and Elden Ring, which absolutely blew me away.

lol... you're lucky you were able to fully immerse yourself in gaming for so long. I had a 7 days a week job starting at 10 years old...

I think yes. I had more time to play, games were cool.

Now we have games with better sound and graphics, but you know, the vibe is different.

I loved playing GTA San Andreas, and I was waiting the whole day just to play for an hour.

And now I don't have such excitement anymore.

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It's a big YES for me. I could play my games for hours and hours without any distractions unlike now when I have to take care of so many things apart from just enjoying myself with my gaming console.

Of course. If you were lucky enough to have a stable home, non-bullying siblings, and games - then gaming was great as child. In my mid-20 to my mid-40s gaming was great because I had my own income, my own systems , and my own TIME. Also, my bain was just more agile until my 40s; I stall had fast twitch neurons that worked...faster.

I still enjoy gaming but the searing white hot passion for "the next game" is not there. Games are still fun, but arguing in online forums about them or waking up at 2AM to plat with my west coast friends to play online is just not important anymore. Could I get back online and play with other every night...sure...but that woudl take effort that I simply do not want to administer to games anymore.

Those "Whoa! This is awesome moments!" feel few and far between now in my late 30s.

I think back to playing NBA Jam, NHL 94, and RBI Baseball on my Genesis and being blown away. The jump to PS1 was incredible...Resident Evil 1, Metal Gear Solid, FF7, and Colony Wars are seriously some of my favorite games of all time. I also had a decent PC as a kid so seeing Doom 1 + 2 for the first time blew my mind. Even on the PS2, having access to online gaming with Socom 1 and 2 was incredible. However, now, I find myself playing through games, thinking, "that was neat" and then moving on to the next one. A game doesn't take hold of me nearly as much as it did when I was a kid.

However, I also have way less free time between raising a family and a full time job. It is what it is I guess?

yes and no? ...

as a kid all i wanted was more games to play cause we were broke so i didn't have a ton of games and would often replay thing ... till 2nd year of HS when my mother's then BF taught me how to torrent ... after that well the flood gates opened ad since then my backlog has become a beast that cannot be tamed. its only gotten worse over the years with getting older and having other responsibilities, it wasn't so bad when i was a housewife fresh out of hs married to an army man since i had plenty of time specially while he was deployed but fast forward a few yrs when i got divorced and joined the workforce well needless to say the lack of time and even moreso following that getting a new partner has caused my taste to shift over the years.

these days open world games i would've loved in my younger yrs just tire me out , rpg games i would've loved take too long and i rarely have the energy to even start them cause i know how long they take to beat , and more dense sorta games on pc ( think total war or ck3) just take too much energry for me to wanna wrap my head around their systems even tho its the stuff i would've ate up as a kid.

now instead i've pivoted more towards run based games and other stuff you can easily put down due to time constraints on work nights , and even tho i haven't been employed in a few years i still have a hard time getting out of that mode, the over abundance of podcasts also just frankly doesn't help either since i got into listening to more over the years , now its sorta well i could play X but i can't play X while listening to i'll play Y instead :/