Losing Control - Why Modern Gaming is Losing Appeal

[Arnox]

Some of my friends have asked me why I'm starting to turn into such a grandma when it comes to playing recent games. Or should I say why exactly am I usually sticking my nose up at them. At first I didn't know why either, but not long after, it came to me. As time goes by, I dislike the feeling of being railroaded more and more. Like I have to play it exactly the way the publishers/developers intended or it's the highway.

I don't like the feeling that the game is fighting with me to stop me getting what I want out of it. Actually, maybe I am mad at you, Assassin's Creed: Origins. I'm so sick of all this! I'm sick of playing triple-A games that feel like they exist not because a creator had a vision and an idea that excited them, but because quarterly income projections needed to be met.

As I look back, I find that some my absolute all-time favorite games usually have one thing in common. Variety and control.

Halo 3 - Didn't wanna play standard CTF? Play Infection with all snipers instead. And here's a mode where you can view a past battle from any angle at any time.

Timesplitters: Future Perfect - Don't wanna use that weapon? Here's 20 others, equally unique and fun to use. Oh and here's some actually fun cat-racing mini-games. We put them in just for the hell of it if you wanna play them.

Elder Scrolls - Don't wanna do this quest? Here's a big-ass fucking map with more stuff to do than you could possibly believe.

Project M - Don't wanna do a melee-based fighter? Here's a character with almost completely projectile-based play. And oh look, here's 50 unique and fun stages too.

Unreal Tournament - Don't want to play with humans ever again? Here's some completely configurable bots with extremely well-designed AI with revolutionary mutator supp- Oh, you don't wanna play a shooter? Here's a fucking racing total conversion.

Now, these games took time to make. Blood, sweat, and tears went into them. And a lotta money. But they were all worth it. Each one of these games to this day command sizable playerbases. And yeah, I understand it's not just about giving the players control. You need to make quality content too. You need to give them a reason to care in the first place. You can't just toss a level editor at people and then expect to make a killing. But each of these games prove that it can be done. That you can give players both quality content AND control.

Now what do we have? Forced XP grinding. Paywalled content. Shoehorned RPG mechanics. No dedicated server clients. I've just gotten sick of it all. Why should I have to keep compromising? Why am I the unreasonable one when I ask for these kinds of games again? But hey, whatever. I guess they don't want my money, so I'll just go elsewhere. And that's why I play mostly old games now. That's why I scoff when I look at the next title from "the big three" (EA, Activision, and Ubisoft). Maybe someday their hubris is gonna catch up to them, but until then...

Give me liberty or give me UT99.

 

[Signa]

Challenge and the reward of perseverance is gone too. It's why comparatively mediocre games like Cuphead blew my mind when I played it when games like it were the norm 25 years ago.

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

Couldn't agree more. Rarely do I find myself worked up or even interested in a new game.
Those rare few occasions when I do, it's usually an indie game or a niche one.

It also doesn't help that I simply refuse to have anything to do with the DRM that is called Steam.
Or any "phone home" or 'Online Only (single-player)' game.

Then we have all the shady and greedy practices you mentioned, what with micro-transactions, pre-purchase, DLC, etc.

Oh, I also dislike how every game have to be configured for consoles (and its drawbacks, compared to PC).
With controller support, low framerate, engine tied to framerate, etc.

Being an old PC gamer is hard today.

I wonder what my favorite games say about me..?
Maybe I should promise to do a thread about it, then simply disappear for a while until the promise is forgotten..
Heh! Self-deprecating humor at its finest! Wow, meta as well.
You can tell I've been up all night right?

 

[Signa]

It also doesn't help that I simply refuse to have anything to do with the DRM that is called Steam.
Or any "phone home" or 'Online Only (single-player)' game.

Then we have all the shady and greedy practices you mentioned, what with micro-transactions, pre-purchase, DLC, etc.

...

Being an old PC gamer is hard today.

Tell me about it. I've had to constantly compromise on things like Steam DRM just to be allowed to continue playing games. Back in 2007, I had to seriously deliberate on whether I was going to get the Orange Box or not because of the Steam requirement.

Now, 10 years and 800 games later...

I am at least struggling to think of games I bought digitally at full price. I don't think I've done it for a $50+ game yet. If I'm going to pay $50 (or $60 for that matter) for a game, then I'm damn well going to get the box with it. I don't care if it just sits on my shelf for eternity because I consumed its CD-key, I just want something to hold after spending that cash.

Microtransactions are easy. Just "no!" in any paid game. For a F2P, if it's a good game that I keep returning to, I'll set a yearly limit that doesn't exceed the cost of a game. For me, that's only been one game on the phone, Puzzles and Dragons, and I set a $20 per year limit. I only paid for one of the 5 years I've been playing.

Oh, I did pay for some transactions in Path of Exile, and my limit is per league. Still only paid for one league period at this point. The game doens't monetize or feel like a F2P game, so I'm more easily separated from my cash due to loyalty than the game's design encouraging me to gamble on some random loot. And you know with a game like PoE, having a paid random loot generator would have been an easy choice.

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

It also doesn't help that I simply refuse to have anything to do with the DRM that is called Steam.
Or any "phone home" or 'Online Only (single-player)' game.

Then we have all the shady and greedy practices you mentioned, what with micro-transactions, pre-purchase, DLC, etc.

...

Being an old PC gamer is hard today.

Tell me about it. I've had to constantly compromise on things like Steam DRM just to be allowed to continue playing games. Back in 2007, I had to seriously deliberate on whether I was going to get the Orange Box or not because of the Steam requirement.

Now, 10 years and 800 games later...

I am at least struggling to think of games I bought digitally at full price. I don't think I've done it for a $50+ game yet. If I'm going to pay $50 (or $60 for that matter) for a game, then I'm damn well going to get the box with it. I don't care if it just sits on my shelf for eternity because I consumed its CD-key, I just want something to hold after spending that cash.

I remember the first time I heard about steam. I was participating in (what was to become one the last ones) a LAN gathering with some friends from school. We had made it a sort of tradition where we hauled our Towers and CRT screens ( Fun fact! I still use one!) to a rented locale out in the country and had a blast for a week. Ah, the nostalgia. Fun times.
I think it was 2002 or 2003. Could be '04. They do say that memory is the first thing that goes. Nah, just joking. I've always had a terrible memory in that way.

Anyway. I did the same debate and swore off it completely. I still hold true to that, since I haven't seen anything that would make me change my mind. I didn't want to give up control over my bought games, nor how and when and to what version they were patched. Adding another program to start just to play a game wasn't attractive either. Mods were another thing that couldn't be done unless "authorized"...I think.
I also like to hold, smell and stash the box in one of my bookshelfs turned gameshelf.

Microtransactions are easy. Just "no!" in any paid game. For a F2P, if it's a good game that I keep returning to, I'll set a yearly limit that doesn't exceed the cost of a game. For me, that's only been one game on the phone, Puzzles and Dragons, and I set a $20 per year limit. I only paid for one of the 5 years I've been playing.

Oh, I did pay for some transactions in Path of Exile, and my limit is per league. Still only paid for one league period at this point. The game doens't monetize or feel like a F2P game, so I'm more easily separated from my cash due to loyalty than the game's design encouraging me to gamble on some random loot. And you know with a game like PoE, having a paid random loot generator would have been an easy choice.

Microtransactions can indeed be done right. It's just so rare.
If it's cosmetics I could see it fitting in a 60$ game or a F2P game. A F2P game could also offer other essentially frivolous things without hindrance.
I just remembered another reason I didn't try PoE! Isn't ..or wasn't.. the game download huuuge? 20-40gb or something?

 

[Signa]

I'll need to check, but that sounds grossly wrong. I want to say half that size. It's probably 15gb now that I've said that...

With your internet, 1gb is a bit much.

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

I'll need to check, but that sounds grossly wrong. I want to say half that size. It's probably 15gb now that I've said that...

With your internet, 1gb is a bit much.

Did a quick search myself, and couldn't find the current figure. Just that it was 8.16gb ten months ago and 9.18 nine months ago.
Patches were 4gb and 5gb respectively.

Sizes around 1gb are doable. I did get Halo Online to play with Arnox and this group, but the problem is that it might not work..which it didn't (Sorry Arnox, I will continue to fiddle with it but it doesn't look good). Then I'd have to download some patches..and some programs..and the game again..it adds up.

I usually run out of "unlimited" data around day 18-20 something. The good news is that my contract is so old that is still has a soft cap. (at 24kb/s). ALL other similar versions today has a Hard Cap (0kb/mb/gb//s). Which means you can't even pay your internet bill online.

 

[Signa]

Back in my dialup days, I was downloading 700mb MST3K episodes. You can do it!!!*


*assuming you are OK going without Internet access for a few days while it gets priority over everything else on the Internet