How have your gaming tastes changed over time? What factors do you think have lead to your change in tastes over time? 

For me personally, i'm much more of a "casual" gamer now. When i was younger, i'd play games like Final Fantasy VII/VIII an insane amount of time, following walkthroughs and making sure i pretty much 100% the game as much as i could. Skip to these days, I mostly play games like Street Fighter and Call of Duty for the simple fact I know how long each match will be and can factor that in to the time i have left. I own both Final Fantasy XIII and XV and i'm probably an hour into each of them, if that. Even when I have time to play games that are more time intensive and tend to favour lighter games.

I'm also much more of a multiplayer games than i use to be, apart from playing offline multiplayer with my two brothers i used to very much prefer single player experiences. 
Recently i bought Kingdom Come: Deliverance and have barely made a scratch on the game, where as in the past I probably would have played through most of the story by now. 

I also ironically find myself being less immature and being impatient with games, i'll just load up Hitman or GTA and go on a rampage and then later feel like I was wasting time, even though whether i'm finishing an objective in a game or just being an idiot..i'm still sitting on my ass not doing anything productive. 

Lastly, i used to not be able to get into the Street Fighter franchise at all. I much preferred the MK series because of the perceived easier controls and the violence (OMG! Edgy!), but after MK9 was banned in Australia..and the copies smuggled in obviously didn't offer online play..i switched over to Super Street Fighter IV. Now any other control scheme for a fighting game feels odd to me (especially block not being back in MK) and i'm horrible at Mortal Kombat. 

Have your gaming tastes changed or time or largely remained the same?

Discuss. 

I've always enjoyed games that have allowed for an almost fully customable experience or feeling as if I have free will. I dislike following a narrative and the game play feeling like routine between cut scenes.

I rarely play the story modes in the WWE games, spend more time in the CAW. Games like GTA and RDR I played excessively back in the day, and actually achieved very little, outside of exploring and screwing around.

I don't play much anymore, but play Battlefield 1 online, normally the conquest mode, which usually lasts up to 30minutes per map. I play the game how I want to play it, sometimes I'm chill and sit with a sniper rifle for the entire round, other times I'm in the thick of it. I enjoy that choice over a storyline.

Nintendo Fanboy (1996-2000) - If you had a look at my old SNES & N64 collection, you would see every major promotional release from that time period. As much as I wish I was more savvy with games, the truth of the matter was I bought into every marketing campaign and Nintendo profited off my family every Christmas & Birthday.

'Rasslin & RPGs (2001-08) - The moment I received a PS1 for my 11th birthday is when I graduated from a Nintendo fanboy into a straight up Dorito-eating, Mountain-Dew guzzling gamer. While I branched out from time to time, these were the games I usually fell back on. Chances are if Square or Atlus were attatched, I was interested in and it didn't feel like the end of school until I got my mits on the latest SmackDown game. The biggest problem with my RPG craze is that I would usually get 66% through the game, get distracted by the hottest release and be completely baffled on what to do next. So many games in my collection either took years to finish or remain unbeaten to this day.

Team Fortress 2 (2008-12) - My 360 and PS3 all stopped working around 2009, so my interest in modern gaming waned. It didn't bother me as much as it should have since I was hooked on TF2 and would usually play at least an hours worth each day. If I needed time to kill, this was always the game I went back to and I used to love playing the payload servers over and over again. It's a game I still go back to, but during this time, this was the bulk of my gaming time.

Game of the Year 2013 - I bought a PS3 for the express purpose of playing The Last of Us, Ni No Kuni & Tales of Xillia. Along the way I got hooked, bought a 3DS as well as a lot of GotY contenders like Grand Theft Auto V, A Link Between Worlds & BioShock: Infinite. This was the first year where I really made it a goal of mine to beat each game one at a time which normally led to big marathon sessions. I remember there was one evening where I knew I was going to be extremely busy over the next few weeks so I dedicated an all-nighter to beating GTA while listening to David Choe & Asa Akira's podcast.

Nintendo Fanboy Redux (2014-15) - My Wii kicked the bucket in 2013, so I used it as the perfect excuse to upgrade to a Wii U. I eased up on buying games and would only buy a handful of titles each year. This changed the way I played games and instead of rushing through to get to the end, I'd take my time, learn the games inside and out and unlock everything. So I invested a lot of time in first party Nintendo games and made sure I wouldn't buy a new one until I was completely ready to move on. Somewhere between all that I found time to play through the Tales of games & the PS1 FF games.

Returning To The Classics (2016) - I started reading old DieHard GameFan magazines and it stirred my interest in checking out systems I had been neglecting. So I went through a lot of games like Halo, Half Life 2, Dragon Quest VIII, Sonic, Scott Pilgrim, Jet Force Gemini, NiGHTS, Mass Effect etc. just a diverse list spanning different generations to open up my perspective.

Game of the Year 2017 - After expanding my horizons in 2016, I wanted to get more hands on with the latest games. I budgeted roughly $1000 for my gaming hobby and bought one new release every month. It went something like
January: Resident Evil 7 (with bonus Resident Evil 4)
February: Nioh
March: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
April: Persona 5
May: Yakuza 0, Horizon Zero Dawn & Nier Automata
August: Yakuza Kiwami
September: Nintendo Switch (w/Splatoon 2)
October: Super Mario Odyssey
December: Xenoblade Chronicles 2

I had a bunch of gift vouchers burning a hole in my wallet that threw me off, but it came to around what I set aside. That was the easy part, finding time to play through them all was what proved difficult. I thought I was off to a good start with RE7 which only took a few sessions to beat but then came Nioh. There were a lot of long games there that meant a lot of long marathon sessions. Perhaps the biggest lowlight was Persona 5 which I managed to invest 165 hours in around a month. As far as video games go, that was the most unhealthiest experience I had and I can barely remember anything that happened around that time period. The runner up would be Odyssey which I beat in an entire day and really had to push myself through the last few levels. While I doubt games jouranlists put themselves through the same ordeal, I can only imagine what effect time constraints have on them and the impact it would have psychologically. As fun as video games can be, they're just not satisfying enough to take up that amount of time. So last year was by far the nerdiest year of my life and one I don't think I'll ever come close to touching again.

2018 - Nowadays, my video game time runs concurrently with my podcast time. I like to knock out two birds with one stone so I'll load up an E+C podcast and play through a few levels of Onimusha or something of that ilk. So far it's mostly been a backlog year with games like Odin Sphere, Onimusha 1-3, Forbidden Memories & Resident Evil 4 (PS4) being ticked off the list. Later in the year I plan on picking up Bloodbourne, Witcher 3, Dark Souls 3 etc. and catching up on some of the better PS4 games I've missed out on. Then around September/October I'll indulge and pick up a couple of games from my favourite series like Dragon Quest XI and Yakuza Kiwami 2. So gaming is still a part of my life, but isn't the huge distraction like it was in 2017.

Another thing that's changed...

So back in the day, I had a pretty decent video game collection for a kid. My parents really spoiled me rotten and even though I had a decent choice, no matter what, I always wanted what I couldn't have. So even if I had the latest AAA game, I always had to hit the video shop and get whatever caught my eye. In total, I spent more time on these rental than on my own collection and have so many games from my childhood that I spent a few hours with but never came close to beating. That all changed around the mid-00s when video shops started to go out of style and video games became more affordable. Instead of putting my own games on the backburner, they would be my focus to the point where these days I try a more one at a time approach. Sometimes that burns me because I treat the game like work and just want to get on top of it and have that satisfaction of beating it. Other times I'll feel guilty if I play something else because I got the urge to play a SNES game. It all comes back to another bad habit back in the day where I would buy games whenever and would usually leave games half-finished. This became a big issue around my JRPG phase where I would pick something like Star Ocean on special, play it for a few weeks, but move onto the Nintendo DS which came out and was my big obsession in 2005-06. Yeah that was a phase I forgot to mention, but there was a time where I had four NDS and every first-party/highly rated game from NTSC regions. Fellow Australians may remember GameTraders which helped made buying imports easier for somebody without the means to hit up ebay every now and then. That also kick-started a small retro resurgence where I picked up a few SNES games and learned about games like Terranigma.

I also try and play through at least one Zelda game every Christmas. It usually works best on boxing day with the Test playing in the background - that really makes it feel like Xmas.

Great thread idea. Unfortunately the couple of times I've checked it I've been too strapped for time to respond, and after that it leaves my mind. Fortunately Big Pete bumped it a couple of times which jogged my memory. I'll copy his approach.

Formative Years (1995-1999)
1989. I came into existence the same year as the Game Boy. That primitive grey rectangular brick would be my introduction to video games. Super Mario Land, Wave Race, Alleyway, Pokemon Red. Those four games created my love for gaming and all hold a special place in my heart. Pokemon Red in particular initiated my fondness for JRPGs that persists to this day. I also played some Windows 95/98 games. Mostly arcade classics (Centipede, Asteroids...). They were fun, but had nowhere near as much influence as the first Nintendo handheld.

The Final Fantasy and Playstation Era(2000-2007)
Once I went to my childhood best friend's house. He showed me a game called Final Fantasy 7 on PSX. It blew my mind. That was the first time I had seen graphics of greater quality than Game Boy or early Windows. Essentially I skipped the entire 4th generation, so naturally the visuals blew my mind. It wasn't long before I got the PC version as a Christmas present. Having that game all to myself was an amazing experience, one I constantly revisited, and I still hold it as the best video game ever made. Shortly after that followed Final Fantasy 8. It didn't hold up nearly as well, but at the time I loved it as much as its predecessor.

I got a Sony Playstation not long before its successor was to be released. The only PSX game I remember playing was Final Fantasy 9, which briefly overtook FF7 as my favourite game. Then my parents bought me a Playstation 2, mainly for my most anticipated game ever, Final Fantasy X. But it was around this time I started branching out a bit. My brother was into video games at this point, so I'd spent a decent amount of time playing the sports games he bought. Gran Turismo 3 and one of the Tiger Woods golf games chief among them. I was also playing many of the big titles. God of War, Shadow of Rome, Grand Theft Auto, Devil May Cry 3, Metal Gear Solid. JRPGs were still my first love, although my experience of the genre was very narrow, limited to two series: Final Fantasy and Golden Sun.

Multiplayer Games, Different Consoles (2008-2013)
Late 2007 I moved out to start university. I didn't take my Playstation 2, which didn't bother me. I hardly missed it, nor expected to miss it. Although I enjoyed video games, I didn't really consider myself a serious gamer. I had a laptop barely powerful enough to run PC games. I had whichever Nintendo handheld was the latest at the time. I also had many non-gaming related activities to distract me.

Nevertheless, after about six months I found myself at my first LAN gaming event. My university had a pretty big and well-organised gaming society. A lot of computer scientists in the group, some of who programmed their own extremely fast file sharing system. I brought my primitive laptop and set it up alongside the behemoth gaming rigs. I had zero games installed, and had never installed a game from anything but the official disc. Fortunately the kind folks there got me up to speed, and in no time I had the Orange Box and Unreal Tournament installed. Although there were many games being played, I didn't care for most of them, and stuck to TF2/UT. I had experience in the fast-paced FPS mainly from playing Quake 3: Arena years before. This quickly became an addiction beyond the LAN gaming setting. Fast forward a year and I'm ingratiating myself with another form of multiplayer gaming. Guitar Hero and Rock Band became a staple of the shared house I lived in for the majority of my university life. I also found other online multiplayer games to help me burn the hours away: Monday Night Combat, Chivalry: Medieval Warfare, Awesomenauts. They all had decent communities, but none of them replaced TF2 as the gold standard like Overwatch did a couple of years ago.

I hadn't given up single player gaming entirely. The most up-to-date console (excluding handhelds) I ever owned was a PS2, but when living with others you have the luxury of borrowing their resources. So I had some experience with the cutting-edge, both on my new desktop PC and on my housemate's Xbox 360. Arkham Asylum, Oblivion, Crackdown 2, Amnesia, Lost Odyssey, Dead Space, and many others. At this point in time I didn't call JRPGs my first love. I enjoyed pretty much any kind of video game.

(Re)Discovering the Classics (2014-present)
The last year or two of my studies cut down my gaming time significantly. Upon my return, my tastes had changed. Wasting a couple of hundred hours on Oblivion completely burnt me out on open world games, and thus a large chunk of modern gaming. My addiction to multiplayer games got out of hand, so I uninstalled the lot, limiting myself to playing games with a clear endpoint. I also moved back home, and didn't want to invest in a brand new console. After all, I had a PS2, and a PC. What more do I need? So I've spend the last few years playing almost exclusively games from the PS2 era and older.

Perhaps I'll go into more detail on that in a future post, but to conclude I'll summarise my current taste in gaming: single-player games only. JRPGs, platformers and FPS games stand equal as my favourite genres. I also really like action/hack 'n' slash games and survival horror. I haven't had the patience for skill-heavy/obscenely difficult games in a long time. To me it's not worth the hours of frustration to learn how to play a game well enough to make progress. Give me something easy, or something that's mentally challenging rather than physical. Also, no open world/sandbox games. I'm the opposite of NATH45, in that respect. Too much customisation/choice is going to make me overwhelmed and apathetic. Some choice isn't bad, but I'd rather walk in a straight line than have to think about which of 10 directions to turn every hour.

My tastes are mostly simulator games now (lawn moving, power simulator) and a few sports games. I couldn’t put my finger on why until now

99% of the game is you actually doing what’s advertised. Tried to get into other games and it’s just constant bullshit, organising inventories..listening to characters dribble on with garbage as I rapidly press X or cutscenes. I know there is a lot of focus on story now for single player games as that’s what most enjoy but it just takes me out completely, I watch enough movies so I can go without.

Tried to get into Forbidden West and it seems like the enemies were an afterthought.

I think they all taste terrible, much better to just play them.

May 31, 2023 6:07:09 GMT System said:

My tastes are mostly simulator games now (lawn moving, power simulator) and a few sports games. I couldn’t put my finger on why until now

99% of the game is you actually doing what’s advertised. Tried to get into other games and it’s just constant bullshit, organising inventories..listening to characters dribble on with garbage as I rapidly press X or cutscenes. I know there is a lot of focus on story now for single player games as that’s what most enjoy but it just takes me out completely, I watch enough movies so I can go without.

Tried to get into Forbidden West and it seems like the enemies were an afterthought.

System be like I'm here to play not watch a movie.

May 31, 2023 6:07:09 GMT System said:

99% of the game is you actually doing what’s advertised. Tried to get into other games and it’s just constant bullshit, organising inventories..listening to characters dribble on with garbage as I rapidly press X or cutscenes. I know there is a lot of focus on story now for single player games as that’s what most enjoy but it just takes me out completely, I watch enough movies so I can go without.

Sounds like you need to take a trip to the past. Retro games don't have any bullshit mostly because there wasn't enough memory available on the old consoles to code lots of bullshit. Also the modern retro games. Something like Shovel Knight might be right up your alley if you like 2D platformers. That's as no nonsense as it gets.

Full time job single handedly destroyed or better yet made me pick & choose my JRPG playthroughs, just don't have the time to do it. I could play while commuting but it isn't safe to bring my Switch out to the trains/buses. Still appreciate & love the genre but the time is tough to matchup to really feel like I am putting in the work and not falling behind. 

What has taken over it is visual novels. In particular, this has been the perfect gaming genre to compensate for JRPGs. They aren't as long or demanding and there's little gameplay if at all, so it's mostly reading. There's even some that come out on mobile so this I can play a couple while on my commute while listening to music or something.

Platformers will always have a spot with me since I grew with them as a kid. Oh and of course I will find time for the great JRPGs(Persona for example). But my time is really limited since my workday is me getting up at 6AM and getting home 6:30PM and after staring long at a CPU for much of the day, I can only stare at a gaming screen for so long for leisure.

May 31, 2023 6:07:09 GMT System said:

My tastes are mostly simulator games now (lawn moving, power simulator) and a few sports games. I couldn’t put my finger on why until now

99% of the game is you actually doing what’s advertised. Tried to get into other games and it’s just constant bullshit, organising inventories..listening to characters dribble on with garbage as I rapidly press X or cutscenes. I know there is a lot of focus on story now for single player games as that’s what most enjoy but it just takes me out completely, I watch enough movies so I can go without.

Tried to get into Forbidden West and it seems like the enemies were an afterthought.

I would focus on Indie titles honestly, that's another genre I have quote on quote "Woken up to". I can't be bothered to do only AAA titles, especially with how much of an emphasis Sony has put on these open world fatigue bloatfest games riddled with tons & tons of CGI/cutscenes. I am down to play Spider Man 2, don't get me wrong but man I dropped God of War: Ragnarok & Horizon: Forbidden West hard due to the fatigue. Have yet to play Ghost of Tsushima too despite me always liking Sucker Punch. 

There's always a good couple of Indie titles that make my favorites games list by year's end. 

I don't think my tastes have changed all that much, at least not in regard to the genre of video games I play anyways. Granted, I don't have as much time to play them, as I used to (which isn't a bad thing mind you), but I still make time to do so, even if it's spending forty-five, an hour etc, playing Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, or Super Smash Bros.: Ultimate with the kids.

For me, when it comes to gaming, a lot of games that I play, I don't have to dedicate a lot of time to them, at least not in one sitting. Take, for instance, a 2D platformer, I can play a handful of stages, put it down, and not have to worry about where I am. Same with Pokemon games, if I only have an hour or so, I can do a gym or two, put it down, and it's all good.

I think the biggest thing, is I don't play my PS4 nearly as much as I used to, in fact, I definitely prefer my Nintendo Switch these days, and a big part of that is due to portability. Hell, I would go as far as to say, I was pretty much done with video gaming and the Switch got me back into it big time.

I have other things bidding for my limited attention span these days, so if you have unskippable long cut scenes or grinding pointlessly in an open world... You lost me.

I did a good job of summarising my video gaming history.

Not much has changed since 2018. I game even less than I did five years ago. I'll have a burst of energy where I'll whiz through a game for a week or two, then forget about video games for months. I have come to terms with the fact that I won't realistically get through my backlog. The most time I have spent gaming in recent years is playing co-op games with my girlfriend and other friends. Overcooked, It Takes Two, Brothers and a short point-and-click adventure game called The Past Within.