I think it's normal to become more jaded about games with age.

It's a bit like the movies.

When I was in my late teens, I'd get excited about this movie or that movie, but my parents would tell me that it had already been done in such or such a movie (which I hadn't seen).

Games are in a similar situation.

As the body of content a person played accumulates, it becomes harder and harder to create original new content for that person and pushing existing technological boundaries (ex: graphics) will only get you so far.

Not saying all games become boring (otherwise I wouldn't play them), but they often lack the "wow" factor that previous similar games had when I experienced the particular flavor they had to bring for the first time.

Anyways, I'm grateful for it in a way, because otherwise I'd spend far too much time gaming and nothing would get done.

Concerning digital distribution, I consider it the best thing that has happened since sliced bread both for environmental and space reasons.

Imagine everyone in emerging nations (which total to a lot more population than well developed nations) getting a big fat gaming box with 2-4 DVDs for every gaming purchase they make.

Picture the materials used, the energy used in transportation, the pollution and other overheads generated during the manufacturing process...

Let's face it: all strictly intellectual property (games, music, movies, books, etc) must go digital. Anything else is short sighted stupidity.

I've already held my own little mental funeral for all the shit that probably was worth caring about. Do whatever you want, there's so many pleasant things for people like us to be doing it doesn't make sense to spend any great amount of your free time engaged in something that makes you unhappy.

Gaming may or may not be screwed. Just remember, the games and the stories, the things they evoked in you became yours when you experienced them. Don't let anyone take that, that is yours and yours alone.

Have a better day tomorrow;)

well i like digital games. when moving back and forth between two opposite parts of the planet it is pain in the ass to carry retail games.
heck. i have retail Half Life 2 and yet i did not use it anymore and just download the game via steam (not sure whether i can still install from dvds)

1. For as long as software, in any way, exists, you've never owned what you bought. Just the license to use that software. The games ARE software, no matter if they are used for entertainment or business needs. Windows requires that you activate through an internet connection, do you cry about that too? Developers and publishers just want to protect their stuff, and you're supposed to use it in only the way it was specified in your license agreement.

2. Continuing from above, they are not YOUR games. You only own the LICENSES to USE the software (in this case, the games). You're not buying fruits, you're LICENSING stuff for your personal USE, complying with the terms and conditions set in the license agreement.

3. Green color vs. Red color fanboys. Same crap in every part of your life. Fanboysm is not a reason to give up on gaming.

4. Again, you never buy a game.

5. PC gamers never did what the industry will 'demand' of them, and they will never do. Everybody is SANE to think with their mind, and support what they want with their wallet. No stuff is being FORCED on PC gamers, not DRM, not DLC, nothing.

You do, however, buy a license for a game. You own that license. If, over time, the licenses themselves become worse and worse, that's a perfectly valid reason to stop buying licenses.

Also, the advent of increasingly draconian DRM has actually caused a lot of issues for preservation, as well. In the decades ahead, when servers are taken down or backwards compatibility is abandoned, some games may become truly unplayable, even on virtual installs of old software or on original working PCs. That's sort of worrying to me, because it means that I may never be able to share with my children the things that I've enjoyed in my own lifetime.

Well, if you don't like something about the general license, there's always the option of contacting the dev / pub through their sales representative and working things out. :p

Yes, it is a long shot, but still, it is possible.

Didn't read the thread, but facts please, re this:
"barely 2-3% of indie games ever even succeed in earning back their budget."

Some hobbies and habits come and go but gaming will stay with me forever. Modern games don't seem like throwaway commodities at all or at least not the ones I've been enjoying. Games like Bastion, Gears of War 3, Skyrim, Mario Galaxy (both of them), and PixelJunk Shooter are all fun games that I've enjoyed and are of high quality.

Also, the games on Xbox 360 and PS3 don't seem like cut down PC ports at all especially the ones that are only available on the consoles.

As for publishers' rights are concerned, I actually tend to take a very politically incorrect stance on the matter (at least in terms of these sites) and actually understand the concerns of the publishers. If I invested huge amounts of resources into the production of a good, I would be quite worried about not getting a great return on it especially if a great return would lead to more investments in the future. Besides, I have always felt that everyone who contributes to the production of a game; whether they be programmers, investors, or both; should get something in return for their achievements.

I will admit that a lot of DRM is meaningless and actually causes more harm than good in both the form of legitimate consumers getting screwed over and unnecessary costs for businesses.

Those whose title starts with a C and ends with an O might.

Others... no so much.

Their income looks reasonable until you realize that in many of those boxes, poorly managed tight deadlines leads to a lot of overtime which very often isn't paid for.

And to put a cherry on top of the sundae, a lot of those guys have to sign very invasive non-disclosure agreements which, amongst other things, states that they voluntarily relinquish ownership to any intellectual property they generate, at work or at home, related to the product they are working on or not.

So yes, there is a seedier side to the gaming industry internally.

I think it's perfectly legit to lose interest in something that's started doing things you don't like, and I don't see why this has to turn into such a huge flamewar. But on the other hand, I simply cannot imagine how the things you list could be severe enough annoyances to put anyone off of something they love. I think that the core problem is simply that you've moved away from videogames, and things like DRM, fanboy wars, etc have just accentuated that fact. But this is your own entertainment we're talking about... so no matter what your reasons are, if you aren't enjoying games anymore then there's no reason that you should keep playing them. I wish you the best of luck in your new less-game-filled life!

So do I.

Also, I agree with you sir, enjoy life. :D

I fail to see how this could be true.

On a client-side only game where only collaborators (no employees) are involved, the cost of production is so low that you've have to practically make no sales not to get a return on monetary investment.

Getting a decent return on time investment is another matter entirely though.

jamyskis- I absolutely agree with you, been playing games myself since I was old enough to stand on a plastic milk carton and play Super Mario Brothers and Altered Beasts at my local gas stations.

The combo of more and more intrusive DRM schemes, along with less and less interesting, innovative, and (most importantly IMO) challenging games has almost totally killed it for me.

I bought my most recent gaming pc solely to run the Medieval II: Total War "Europa Barbarorum II" mod at near full detail, couldn't care less about "modern" games anymore. EB 1 (for the awful Rome: TW) is my current favorite game, since IMO it gives you a "272 BCE toy box despite the awful and now standard lack of AI" to play with, and other than some Indie/older (thanks GOG) games I just couldn't care less anymore.

I definitely can see that gaming in general is a lower and lower priority for me, but I'd say that a LOT of this feeling comes from my just not caring about new stuff anymore- the days when I just HAD to upgrade my PC for this or that game (IL-2, Deus Ex, Rainbow Six 1, Jane's Longbow 2, etc" are just GONE now- they aren't getting "better and better", they're getting prettier, and the "punish the paying customer ONLY" DRM schemes along with the simplifying of gaming have killed it for me.

I have a lifetime's worth of games backlogged as it is, so I'm not claiming that I'm abandoning the hobby, but would definitely say that I'm almost ready to call it quits from here on out, other than the occasional indie game really.

Ugh. When people say shit like this it what makes me not even want to participate anymore. Consider me a lost customer. Hey, it might not be bad for me though. I know a few old farts that don't listen to any kind of music at all and only turn the tv on for half an hour a day to catch the local evening news. Their houses aren't much to look at and you might think they're some poor schmuck until you look around and see that this guy owns 15 working tractors (yeah, they usually cost more than the overpriced cars here) that are scattered around with the livestock on the 800 acres of land he owns without owing any debt. I think of all the money I've spent on media and it seems like a pretty bad investment compared to that.

Yelling in caps doesn't prove anything either. It just sounds...desperate. I don't get how people can use the word "property" to try to justify IP when it suits them (you know, because the word "property" is in the title of intellectual property) and then put it in reverse when it doesn't suit them. You know, like if someone said that taking someone else's shirt and then wearing it is the same as downloading a file. Okay, so now we apply property principles to a transaction like buying apples but, oh no, suddenly that's not the way it works. If I didn't sign a contract before payment, I don't give a shit what's in that eula.

Fuck this shit. That's what my argument has boiled down to. But I can use the same argument that other people use on the other side of the discussion. If you don't like people using the shit they pay for however they want to, don't publish it. Simple. It's your choice if you want to try to make your work popular or not. The general public's (get the link between public and publish?) purpose isn't for some people to be able to squeeze every dime they can out of them.