I definitely feel like my tastes have narrowed with age. Or maybe it’s just that I’ve found a few games to really really fall in love with, and not much else pulls my attention away from grinding those top favorites.

When I was a kid, I could only get a new game every few months or so, so I kind of had to make the most of each one. Now I’ve got several hundred games in my Steam library, and more than half of are unplayed, because they don’t grab me enough to boot them up over playing another ranked online set of riichi mahjong today.

I find it’s not that I don’t like them, it’s just a decent commitment to get into it.

I think you just described me exactly. I constantly replay a few specific games but very little grabs my attention like the few I love.

I realized that I need a certain amount of time with a game to warm up to it or else I‘m always drawn back to known quantities. Seems like playing things I know is just more comfortable. I also realized that I really like racing games for a similar reason: I don‘t have to learn anything new about the mechanics/game, I just have to drive.

I still enjoy playing rollercoaster tycoon and have been playing it since I was… 10 years old.

I’ve played other games over the years but put 1000 hours of game time into them. I think it’s abnormal to constantly chasing and trying new games.

It’s ok dude. What do you look for in games, is there a common theme?

I’m the same, I actually look for cinematic games with clever, interesting stories. Idgaf about multiplayer or any of that shit, I want to be a director in my own movie.

Bioshock, half life 2, LA Noire, and so on.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. The genres I like keep getting new games, but if most games now were precision platformers or MMORPGs, I’d read more lol.

Just try to hold back the good ol days mentality, try new stuff if it catches your interest, and let yourself enjoy your 10000th replay of your favorites? You aren’t against new things entirely, after all. You just don’t make yourself play games you don’t like. Somewhere out there is an indie developer with similar taste, also frustrated they can’t find a game they want to play, and I hope you find them and add a new game to your list.

I don’t think you’re alone in this. I’m kind of becoming the same way, and I figure it’s because as you become older you become wiser, specifically wiser to the way that so many modern games are bullshit now.

Nowadays it seems like almost everything is just a cynical cash grab. And with a lifetime of experience, you know how to spot that bullshit. Oh look, it has always online components. And an in game store. And season content. And gatcha mechanics. And grind. Not only just regular old grind, you know, where you need to level up and be at least be this tall to beat the beef gate (which always has the tantalizing possibility of being able circumvent it by cheesing it or being very clever). No, it’s just grind with no mechanical justification. You must fill the bar before you’re allowed to access this content. Would you like to make a microtransaction to fill the bar faster?

Fuck that, and count me out.

The current fascination is on delivering games as a “service,” and that just rubs me the wrong way. Everything is transient, nothing is permanent, and everyone is making a desperate grab for recurring revenue over creating a compelling experience or indeed anything anyone would ever want to go back to and play again. It’s all just crap designed to feed into people’s sunk cost brains, and it feels like damn near every major title wants to be your full time job.

I have even started eschewing Nintendo titles and some modern indie stuff specifically because they display a complete and utter disrespect for not only the player’s intelligence, but also their time.

Saw where you mentioned being into fighting games, action games, & shmups, so I wonder which games you find yourself bouncing off of more.

Along with reasons other have mentioned that are similar to my own (many games demanding a lot of time, better finding what games really click with me, etc.), I’ve also been put off by other details (hyper-monetization, big budget photorealistic & cinematic styles, etc.). Personally it’s less being into very few games, and more being into more specific kinds of game design and creative style, which are sometimes harder to find.

Like not being into drawn out progression systems immediately narrows one’s options pretty significantly, especially among many recent games.

I myself get bored of the games quickly, imo. I guess when I feel like devs are ‘cheating’ I lose interest.

Some examples:

Batman Arkham Asylum: Gave up I got to Killer Croc level. Didn’t like how the stealth/action game turned into precision platformer.

Batman Arkham City: Stopped at Mr. Freeze level. I looked up how to beat him and turns out I had to follow specific moves to defeat him. Ain’t got time for that tbh.

Spider-man: Stopped at Rhino + Scorpion level. Again with getting Rhino to headbutt a wall, under heavy load to drop it on him to stun him and beat him up? Bye.

Life Goes On: Gave up on a level where timing was crucial. Until that point I focused on steps to solve the puzzle but at this stage, even though I knew what to do, timing was too important and I haven’t got those reflexes or patience to replay the level again and again.

I find the same thing, but I’m really questioning the taste of others.

Never really did PC gaming, bought a SteamDeck to get into that ecosystem after seeing all the posts about “ZOMG! STEAM SALE!!!”

Are people just… not discerning? Do you just buy ANYTHING because it’s on sale?

The signal to noise ratio on Steam is just nuts to me… Yeah, some game might be $1.99, 90% off, but if it’s not worth the bandwidth to download, why are you bothering? Do you lack the ability to tell good games from bad games?

You see a new game as an investment. Nothing wrong with that. There’s different genres to games and once you’ve explored them it can be hard to put up with something you feel you’ve already played and that one of your favorites did better. You’re probably at the point where you’d have more fun playing with friends / exploring an mmo. Stay curious and be bold.

There’s no wrong or right way to enjoy games, and so many ways to find enjoyment in those games. Some people love the novelty, or the stories, graphics, music…

Based on the favorites you’ve mentioned, I feel like you really enjoy specific mechanics or the physical experience/practice of the game. Back in the day, I could spend hours running through Diablo 2, and that was entirely based on button mashing and running. Something about its pacing, interface, and the match of its challenge with my coordination just hit exactly right - difficult enough to be rewarding, easy enough that repeatedly dying didn’t frustrate me, and always another fight just seconds away. I played that for years.

Now that game launchers track my time, it’s really obvious that I like certain games for their mechanics - mostly Skyrim & Fallout - other games for sandbox/crafting - Valheim, Rimworld, X4 - hundreds of hours in each, even though I’ll try other games, at least long enough to finish their stories, once. Sometimes just because I paid for it & feel obligated to get to the end. It’s OK to have favorites.

I’m the same way. I just want to live in those stories until I’ve played them and replayed them so much that the feeling goes away. Currently: cyberpunk.

I’ve found that as I got older, my taste in games has narrowed significantly. I used to be able to play pretty much anything, or especially any popular or critically acclaimed games. But these days I just don’t give a shit about most of what’s out there. I do have certain genres and developers that interest me though, so I know there are occasionally going to be some new games that I really like. And every now and then I might get surprised by something too.