Hello fellow gamers:
I'm curious as to whether any of you, over the course of time, have found that certain specific titles, genres or even gaming systems lose their appeal to you.
Speaking of my own experiences in gaming, I found that as I grow older, and also as the pull of work and home concerns takes up a greater percentage of my free time, the following holds true for me at this point in my gaming "career"...
-> the entire concept of "marathoning" has lost its appeal to me for the most part. Much as I can, at a moment's notice, play certain specific titles for hours on end in pursuit of a ranked record, I value my personal time more nowadays
-> this may explain why "quick" titles such as "Depth Charge" on MAME hold a continued appeal to me. About 2 minutes per game and that's it
-> I still enjoy a small handful of tried and true classics that I can always play whenever the bug to do so hits me, but experimenting with titles that I don't usually play often (i.e. "Phoenix", "Vanguard") no longer interest me
-> I seem to enjoy playing titles like "Doom 3" more than standard arcade titles now, where your sole competition is basically against yourself unless you choose PvP mode which typically I do not
-> same for "World of Warcraft" type titles...I've always enjoyed the exploration-aspect of RPG titles and now within MMORPG titles (however I have since discontinued playing WoW because of an annoying, recurring equipment glitch which their devs refuse to acknowledge, address or correct)
-> I find myself looking forward to "Doom 4" most of all now, as "DIablo III" and its change in format was a major letdown from the "DIablo II" that I came to enjoy so very much
-> at some point down the line I plan on revisiting my favourite Sega DC titles which I have not played at all since 2009...can't wait to play "Crazy Taxi", "Wacky Races" and "18 Wheeler" again
-> with a friend's help I'm revisiting the vintage Odyssey 2 platform via emulator and will shortly re-learn two favourites and hopefully can perform as well with a keyboard as I did years back with an O2 dedicated joystick
-> the drive to play every MAME title at least once, and submit at least one score on each to TG, that has also escaped me, mostly due to lack of free time
-> lastly, some titles that I was "okay" at but no longer wish to get better on, I've stopped bothering to play those as well. Like "Bagman" for MAME...I did 445K and always wanted to get better, but now it's just not on my radar anymore
In short, I think as gamers get older, the decision on what they play becomes more important as their free time becomes more precious, so squandering it to...for example...set a good score on "Wall Street" for MAME is no longer worth the time to do so as there are so many other more important potential pursuits. Try that one and see what I mean :)
So...has anyone else noticed over time that your tastes and preferences in terms of what you do in gaming have changed ?