Tried them all

[hallsofvallhalla]

I think I have had a epiphany. I just do not enjoy 3d based RPGs anymore. Maybe its my deeps roots of pen and paper games and my love of board games. Not sure but recently I have tried a ton of Video RPGs and I can't play for more than an hour without getting bored.
Oblivion
Morrowind
Vampire
Arcanum
Wizardry 8
Ice Wind Dale
Planescape
D&D online
Lord of the Rings Online
Final Fantasy 11 + 12
just to name a few and I just can't get any enjoyment out of them. I have however been playing a ton of 2d web strategy games and I get quickly addicted to those. I think this is a real reason why I have had such a hard time finishing a game of my own lately. It is hard to build what you do not want to play.

[Jackolantern]

I am starting to realize that I am falling out of traditional games a bit. I just get bored so fast and begin to feel like I am wasting my time. But like you, I still have interest in making my own games, particularly web-based. But I know for sure now I am no longer a hard core gamer and likely haven't been one for a couple of years now at least.

[hallsofvallhalla]

exactly. The norm has come just that. As much as I always thought I wanted to build a RPG I have learned that the standard RPG is so stale compared to true gaming(pen and paper).

[Jackolantern]

I still have a desire to bring novel gameplay to a web audience. For example, my latest project I will be working on is a near 100% text-based wartime strategy game based on Sun Tzu's The Art of War taking place in 400 B.C. China. I plan to have early-Koei depth of society and military micro-management. It will obviously only appeal to a limited audience, but if it works out like I can see in my head, it will be unlike anything I have ever seen, for better or for worse lol.

[dreamer]

Wow! I am glad that I am not the only that has this.
Every time I play my 3D games I usually put it down thinking to myself "This is a waste of time. You be spending this time to finish developing your own game."

[Callan S.]

It is hard to build what you do not want to play.

Word!

On pen and paper, I've found it to be stale at times. Mostly because it would drag on and on - I think the GM's got into a simulationist mindset where you couldn't just get on with anything unless you 'respected the game world' first. You couldn't just do anything - it was like they would make it that the game world didn't wait on you to act upon it, you waited on the game world (for as long as the game world saw fit before having your action occur, if at all).

In terms of that sort of table top, the fun of it seems to be to make people wait around for something and even then maybe not grant the thing anyway.

With those table top games, I'm not sure the GM actually enjoys playing underneath that structure either/isn't a game he wants to play.

So it depends on whether you'd want to play the pen and paper games instead of DM/GM it, too.

Every time I play my 3D games I usually put it down thinking to myself "This is a waste of time. You be spending this time to finish developing your own game."

I don't think so? That's like an author who kicks himself for reading anyone elses works?

Sure, if your reading other peoples books/playing other peoples games all the time then your not authoring at all, I grant that. But being at either extreme end, like never authoring, or only ever authoring, seems...well, extreme!

[Xaleph]

Nice comparison. But i`m afraid i have the same problem. However, i`m not a game dev so in a different perspective, because I too played games for a long time.

Anyway, it`s like Halls said, the games just don`t have that _special_ thing that makes me want to play anymore. I used to love playing the Final Fantasy games, however FF13 just didn`t feel right, I never finished it because i couldn`t be bothered. Same with FF12... the last FF game i enjoyed was FF10, which i played a lot. Really. A LOT. However, that`s over 7 years ago now.

Also, modern RPG`s don`t have this cool story line where you really __REALLY__ wanted to know what happened next. Like in FF7, you just kept playing because you really wanted to know what happens next. You start out with nothing, no history about yourself, but discovering a long the way, and all fits perfectly together. The story line was perfect, the ending was perfect, the gameplay was perfect, i mean.. everything was perfect. it all fitted perfect.

Same goes for other installments in the FF series. 6 was very good, 4 was good, 9 and 10 were good.

Anyway, i`m tired, so forgive me for the long FF stuff, it comes down to this: new RPG`s don`t work. They don`t have the secret ingredient other games had.

Also, on a side note, how do you guys feel about the "simplicity" of games? Skill levels required to just play the game? I remember a time when easy and normal mode were basicly the same and still required some effort to play it. These days there is barely any challenge in playing certain games.
To be fair, some extreme-hard modes are still _quite_ the challenge ( lol ) but overall, it doesn`t feel like a challenge any more..

[Jackolantern]

Every time I play my 3D games I usually put it down thinking to myself "This is a waste of time. You be spending this time to finish developing your own game."

I don't think so? That's like an author who kicks himself for reading anyone elses works?

Sure, if your reading other peoples books/playing other peoples games all the time then your not authoring at all, I grant that. But being at either extreme end, like never authoring, or only ever authoring, seems...well, extreme!

I hear what you are saying, and I can't speak for Dreamer, but at least for me it is just a loss of interest in "hardcore" games. I just can't make myself sit and play a game for more than about 45 minutes anymore. I can sit and program and learn about new technologies for days on end, though haha. I guess it is odd that I still have an interest in making games, some of which may even be considered hardcore, even when I have a hard time playing them. Sometimes I like to just read about the mechanics of a game rather than playing it.

[hallsofvallhalla]

agreed, If I pick up a book it needs to get me within the first chapter or I am done. It is not that I don't want to read or play someone elses work it is just that there is little out there that keeps me interested. I find myself looking at new languages and technologies instead.

[Callan S.]

I'm not sure what harcore refers to. I call Hydorah hardcore, because it's hard...err...right to the core. Other people call sitting and grinding for four hours a day hardcore. To me that's more bumcore!

I think you should both make a game that can be completed in thirty minutes, if you get bored at 45. It doesn't matter if you only play it once - sometimes you only read a book once! Sometimes just once is more powerful than over and over!

Maybe making a thirty minute game will make you excited to make something longer (BUT hold off doing so until the thirty minute game is done!!!). Or maybe it wont inspire you - in which case continuing to learn how to make multi hour games is perhaps missplaced learning?

Heck, I have a thirty second game on my desktop I made awhile ago to atleast make something. Little dude jumping over randomly timed shots. I still play it every so often (particularly because it can be hard to do all 14 jumps in a row in it).