Why play? And on what level?

[The549]

Why do we play games? For me, it was always a love of adventure and an escape to a new world that I could travel through and effect. I guess this could be a "games vs real life" type thread as well.
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I've been thinking about this a lot lately. These past few years have been terribly dramatic and painful relationship-wise for me, to the point where a year ago I couldn't even go back to my uni to study and ended up living in Ireland in a stone house for 3 months to clear my mind. Then Thailand for a month with family. Since then, my interest in games has been funky, singular, and manic-apathetic. I think I finally realized what had happened...I think I lost my imagination. Yes that sounds...dumb.

Playing video games lately has been tough...I just can't get into them. Sometimes recently I've had flashbacks as to why I used to get into a game big time, the immersion etc - I'm not sure if actually going on 'real' adventures eclipsed that? Anyways, now that I'm back in school, trying to better myself with a computer engineering degree, I'm trying to respark that imaginative magical quality of going to a mystical land (laugh all you want, but what are you doing here? ). I miss that, and now I feel numb as a Disney-created antagonist character. I remember the feeling was similar for gaming and for traveling.

--> Has anyone compared the drive to play a video game with the drive for adventure that is related to real-life...adventures? Why do you guys play video games? On what level do you play your favorite ones? If you could do/have/create anything in your life to perfection, would you still spend time behind the screen?

It's an open ended question...for starters I'll say that the technical side is holding me in a good bit, but the emotional side is the one that creates the best experiences.

 

[KimB]

Everybody engages in recreation. The only question is what kind. Computer games are one kind of many. I'm into computer games probably because that's the form of recreation I had most fun with as a child.

 

[_xxx_]

I'm a fan of shooters, jump-n-runs and action games, all the other stuff never interested me. I almost completely stopped playing games about two years ago, except for rare occasional sessions like once-twice a month.

The problem is not my imagination, rather that it's all just more of the same with a bit more eye-candy. I simply find most games boring now. Mostly I start playing and get bored before the third level. It's not fun anymore, most newer games require you to work. Just too many functions, too many buttons and too hard to be fun. All that just to hide the lack of real creativity - we're still playing clones off Dooms and Quakes and HL's.

My best gaming experience in the last several years was Wii Sports, 'nuff said.

 

[Arwin]

I play games because they are entertaining, interactive, challenging, creative and full of instant feedback.

 

[The549]

I'm a fan of shooters, jump-n-runs and action games, all the other stuff never interested me. I almost completely stopped playing games about two years ago, except for rare occasional sessions like once-twice a month.

The problem is not my imagination, rather that it's all just more of the same with a bit more eye-candy. I simply find most games boring now. Mostly I start playing and get bored before the third level. It's not fun anymore, most newer games require you to work. Just too many functions, too many buttons and too hard to be fun. All that just to hide the lack of real creativity - we're still playing clones off Dooms and Quakes and HL's.

My best gaming experience in the last several years was Wii Sports, 'nuff said.

So are you like me, and are largely interested in the technical side of things? I love to see new engines and effects, but have a hard time spending more than 20 minutes playing any one game.

 

[_xxx_]

Kinda, yeah. My favorite games are still Doom2, Unreal and MDK after all these years and buttloads of new games played.

 

[Sonic]

I used to play games constantly as a young kid and as a teen growing up, and this was mixed between console games and arcade games. Sadly as games get more complex it does tend to take away the piece of it where you can jut sit down and play and be rewarded by a challenging gameplay but not feel like it is a chore at times. I tend to love RPG's for their story lines and artwork but not so much for their battle system.

Gone are the days (in my eyes) of a game I can just sit down and play and get immediately immersed in. Fighting games have all these features these days which to me only add artificial depth because the fighting engine just isn't deep enough, except for Virtua Fighter series. Racing games I still love but I can only take so much of a simulation. There is a point where I just want to drive fast and go balls to the walls crazy without the harsh penalty for doing so.

A lot of it comes down to imagination, which I have plenty of I'd like to think. But it also comes down to if a game ends up being a chore to play then I will automatically skip it.