Gamers...why do you play games?

[Hulk'O'Saurus]

That simple question in the title.

 

Ok, I will start with myself, so that there are no doubts to the nerdity(should be the way to spell) of my claim.

 

In the past six months I've gone through Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines(again), Original Sin 2, Wasteland 2, Pillars of Eternity (twice), DOOM 2016, Witcher 2(unfinished/bored), Witcher 3(unfinished/bored), Dark Souls PTDE(unfinished/bored), Tides of Numenera(finished but disappointed), Original Sin Enhanced Edition, Darkwood(unfinished, died at day 30) and the cute Hollow Knight. Not to mention those Magic the Gathering events(figures where Hulk'O'Saurus comes from)...

 

Pillars of Eternity has come out on top to be my favourite along with Bloodlines when it comes to video games. And I do not want to say that to make any of the developers overly proud and/or start some sort of in-club preferential back-patting. The last thing I'd want to see is a poor Deadfire because of something of the sorts.

 

I can clearly see what my personal preferences in gaming have shaped to be with time and what makes me the happiest when playing. Resource manipulation freedom, player involvement and challenge, player influence on story and character interaction and coherent/consistent world building with lore are, without a doubt, the qualities I seek the most in a game. The reasons why my eyes glaze over the Witcher/DS but can still highly appreciate and enjoy Original Sin/DOOM without them being my favourites(in all honesty, Dark Souls occupies a rather strange place on my list, but by no means a favourite). But I also couldn't help but to ask myself what of all that gaming time?...

 

And herein lies my personal catch...I can't do anything else but shrug. What of all that gaming time?...

 

I dunno. I really don't have an answer to that. Probably earlier in my life I would have come with something but not these days. Not that I feel terrible because of it. I just haven't an answer at all. 

 

You wouldn't happen to know somebody who is looking for the odd game review here and there, would you?

[Malcador]

I play to distract myself from the ruin that is my life.

[Hurlshort]

Because they are fun.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I don't, I just come to videogame forums to argue with the weirdos who do. This may be an alternative-fact.

[injurai]

An experience, a challenge, to explore a world, for a story. Often times to relax, unwind, enjoy downtime. It's a different type of excitement than a book or movie. So it spices up life a bit.

[Gromnir]

speaking of alternatives, am thinking the big question for us would be what does Gromnir do with time he would otherwise use for gaming and gaming related pursuits.  am not much o' a tv guy, but perhaps we could start watching those foreign language shows on netflix.  need something equal vacuous as gaming 'cause otherwise the alternative would likely involve some kinda self improvement, the very idea o' which is making us a bit nauseated. more exercise or education? those is nothing more than self indulgent vanity trips.  could do more charity, but as wacky as it sounds, there is a social acceptable limit o' charity.  do too much charity and folks wonder what is your angle/scam... or they assume you must have terrible guilt issues and charity is some kinda penance for dark sins. 

 

...

 

other than fight club, am unsure what we could do with all our gaming time. isn't an alternative.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[IndiraLightfoot]

To make life more livable.

[Gfted1]

I game for fun and relaxation but every once in a while I start to feel a little burned out. I play several mobile games at once, all of which offer "dailies" in the form of "complete x, y and z" and get rewarded with in game currency or whatever. Of course I don't have to do them but them I apply pressure to myself like "jeez you bum, all you have to do is tap your finger to get this stuff, stop being so lazy!" and then I log into the game and do it even though I don't necessarily feel like doing it. I guess I'm saying, sometimes it feel like a job.

[LadyCrimson]

In the 70's and 80's, I did nothing but read tons of books. I loved books. I'd check out 20 at a time from the library. I read while eating, walking, in classes, in bed, all day long, etc. Then I became kind of tired of reading. Photography was cool but not quite the same. The internet came along. I spent tons of time on usenet, message boards, making webpages, learning html. Then hubby brought home Doom one day, because everyone at his office was playing it.

 

Never looked back.

 

In essence, I don't like 98% of hobby activities that require live/physical interaction so computers/games/internet were awesome inventions. I like solitary, loner activities that cater to my well known ability to be mindlessly obsessive and task oriented. Such shuts my brain off and lets me "stop thinking" way more than anything else (TV/movies are fun but usually doesn't shut my brain off very well) and those are the things I focus on. Sometimes that could just be grout-cleaning the bathroom tile (but usually not that...). I don't play/game as much as I used to (the industry as a whole is becoming a bit dull for me) but I can still get lost in one for weeks/years if I find one I do like.

 

I see it as no different than those who watch 1000's of movies, do nothing but read, knit, climb mountains, go clubbing all the time, cook extensively etc. We all have our "things."

[IndiraLightfoot]

@LadyCrimson: You nailed it! If I was to give a serious reply, I'd loved to have composed yours.

[ShadySands]

I started playing games as something to do when the weather became an obstacle to playing sports outside. It just grew from there.

 

I've also never been able to "veg out" in front of the TV. I can watch a few shows that I really like but then I need something more active/interactive. Even my favorite books as a child where the choose your own adventure types.

Edited January 24, 2018 by ShadySands

[Fiach]

VTM:B and Planescape Torment would be my two favourite games.

 

I am an avid reader, back when I started gaming, I tended towards shooters, like Duke Nukem etc. One day I went 8nto GAME looking for something different, Baldurs Gate had just been released and the guy in the shop recommended it highly.

I found it incredibly difficult to get into, but after many false starts and a Brady (?) Guide, I eventually "got" it.

 

After that I started to devour RPGs, the depth of story was so brilliant as opposed to FPS storylines, it was like I had just seen the future of "reading", because you are so immersed in the character and the story, so, to me its a natural progression for an avid reader.

 

Having so many fond memories of latter Day RPGs like BG, Fallout, Arcanum, Divine Divinity etc. It's such a treat to be able to delve into new iterations like Original Sin and Pillars.

 

And cos it's fun n' stuff

[Lexx]

Nowadays I spend more time making games than actually playing games.

[Ben No.3]

Well it seemed slightly more healthy than getting drunk with the same frequency

[Guard Dog]

Baldur's Gate got me through my divorce. I wasn't much of a gamer before that. I still don't play a whole lot. Usually I buy one game every two or three years and play the hell out of it. The BG I & II, Icewind Dale, FO 1-3 & NV, Morrowind, Oblivion, & Skyrim,  the TW series, PoE, MOO 2-4, Stellaris, and OOTP are my entire game library. I've enjoyed all of them but none of them recaptured the magic of BG that first time. Although PoE came close. 

 

Stellaris and OOTP (Out of the Park, a baseball sim) are the two I spend the most time on by far these days. I've bought every OOTP version since I discovered it at OOTP 8. They are announcing OOTP 19 tomorrow. 

 

For me gaming started as a cathartic, even therapeutic pastime. Now it's just light entertainment. Like Lady Crimson and Shady and others I'm not much of a TV watcher other than sports. But I am a voracious reader. So games that let you live a good story are ones I look for. But I want them to be big. 100+ hours with multiple replays. OOTP is more like chess. A mental exercise.

[Pidesco]

Because god forbid I spend my free time doing something productive.

[Blarghagh]

Because I'm crazy.

[FlintlockJazz]

I play them to avoid answering questions like this one.

[HoonDing]

dunno

[Amentep]

To tell the truth I've never not played games. 

 

When I was little my mom taught me how to play Rummy; my dad taught me chess and checkers.  My brothers and I also played a brutal form of SlapJack that left our hands stinging for the remainder of the day.  War was another card game we like.  We played some other board games (I liked Sorry! a lot, Monopoly less so; later we played things like Awful Green Things from Outer Space and WIzard's Quest).   One of my older brothers got into Dungeons and Dragons and we started doing pen and paper RPGs first between us and then with friends adding role playing games to board games and video games. 

 

I don't think I was 10 yet when I played Space Invaders and a home version of Pong.  Through the years I played Arcade games, PC games and console games.  I think I've been around for almost all of the console generations (I did miss a period of PC gaming in the 90s; only getting back on board with Baldur's Gate and then having to backtrack to play the Fallouts)

 

I still play board games when I can get together enough people willing to give a game a try (Betrayal at the House on the Hill always being a good go to game if nothing else appeals).  I enjoy reading pen and paper RPG manuals for fun (don't really know anyone who wants to commit to campaigning).  And I enjoy playing video games.  Its one of several things I enjoy for recreation.

[Katphood]

We bought a Commodor 64 back in 1989 and the rest is history as the say. 

 

One reason I'll never forget that Commodor 64 -and gaming in general- is because the years before that(particularly 1987) were the last years of the War_of_the_Cities and I lost count on how many times I crapped myself when the sirens went off. 

 

Good times...

Edited January 25, 2018 by Katphood

[Hulk'O'Saurus]

​Amazing how many people connected with Baldur's Gate there are here.

 

I've never played BG or BG2 because I wasn't a gamer back then. My family had a really bad view on it, plus we were quite poorish. I only began gaming as a personal pursuit about...10 or so years ago. Come to think of it, I haven't even played Planescape: Torment. But I do have it in my library--a personal Xmass gift to myself for 2017. In time...in time.

 

I'm not trying to make anybody have doubts about the time they spend gaming. I find it rather interesting, though. It is a defining-(something) moment in our modern culture. Personally, I think too much out of the box for a...hmm...normal lifestyle, I suppose. Education, steady job, mortgage, family, kids, cars, holidays, corporate pursuit, ect. I am terrible at all of that. Still, I find a way and even make time to play. But in the same time I do not play because I want to escape reality...quite the opposite. I am most entrenched in a game when it is serious about it's world and lore and the situations have stakes to them. Indeed, it is a great failing of the modern gaming industry to make so much of that which does not exist so mundane, which seems to be the case as of late. 

 

Perhaps in a wiser society games will have a more clearly defined structure and status. I can't quite get my finger on it, but I daresay it is not all escapism.  

[LadyCrimson]

For me it's less escapism per se as it is just ... like I said, I can't shut my brain up a lot of the time. I'm one of those people who can't "relax." Chronic depression since a child - I'm not bipolar but there are still ups and downs that have me either sleeping all day or mind-jittering like I've had 20 pots of coffee (the latter is why sometimes I'm here babbling inanely on the forum). Without something to really focus my attention I go mad, one way or another.

 

Reading was helpful because it makes my brain focus on imagining/painting the picture the words represent so I form movies in my head, but it only works if I read non-stop (reading a novel a chapter a night does not work at all). Photography helped a little because I have to focus on technical things like light, angle, and with digital cameras, editing if I feel like it. Games help because I focus on the obsessive tasks of leveling, hunting, combat techniques, building characters towards being uber, designing cities, fast paced decisions, analyzing data, etc. Games in terms of just stories or lore don't usually work very well because unlike books I don't have to imagine the world/faces/places inside my head, it's all drawn out so to speak so my attention wanders a lot. Same with movies/TV.

 

I loved Baldur's Gate, it was probably the first "serious" CRPG I played that was less action oriented than some others. But even there my focus was stats, tasks, builds, self-found humor/amusement re: chrs and battle situations, erasing every dot of the map black space. I don't even remember the plot at this point, tbh. Heh.

Edited January 27, 2018 by LadyCrimson

[Hulk'O'Saurus]

For me it's less escapism per se as it is just ... like I said, I can't shut my brain up a lot of the time. I'm one of those people who can't "relax." Chronic depression since a child - I'm not bipolar but there are still ups and downs that have me either sleeping all day or mind-jittering like I've had 20 pots of coffee (the latter is why sometimes I'm here babbling inanely on the forum). Without something to really focus my attention I go mad, one way or another.

 

Reading was helpful because it makes my brain focus on imagining/painting the picture the words represent so I form movies in my head, but it only works if I read non-stop (reading a novel a chapter a night does not work at all). Photography helped a little because I have to focus on technical things like light, angle, and with digital cameras, editing if I feel like it. Games help because I focus on the obsessive tasks of leveling, hunting, combat techniques, building characters towards being uber, designing cities, fast paced decisions, analyzing data, etc. Games in terms of just stories or lore don't usually work very well because unlike books I don't have to imagine the world/faces/places inside my head, it's all drawn out so to speak so my attention wanders a lot. Same with movies/TV.

 

I loved Baldur's Gate, it was probably the first "serious" CRPG I played that was less action oriented than some others. But even there my focus was stats, tasks, builds, self-found humor/amusement re: chrs and battle situations, erasing every dot of the map black space. I don't even remember the plot at this point, tbh. Heh.

 

It's a good self realization to have.

 

Out if sheer curiosity, if I may. Was there ever a medical person involved with the words 'chronic depression?' Or is it something you came by yourself? 

[Hulk'O'Saurus]

Baldur's Gate got me through my divorce. I wasn't much of a gamer before that. I still don't play a whole lot. Usually I buy one game every two or three years and play the hell out of it. The BG I & II, Icewind Dale, FO 1-3 & NV, Morrowind, Oblivion, & Skyrim,  the TW series, PoE, MOO 2-4, Stellaris, and OOTP are my entire game library. I've enjoyed all of them but none of them recaptured the magic of BG that first time. Although PoE came close. 

 

Stellaris and OOTP (Out of the Park, a baseball sim) are the two I spend the most time on by far these days. I've bought every OOTP version since I discovered it at OOTP 8. They are announcing OOTP 19 tomorrow. 

 

For me gaming started as a cathartic, even therapeutic pastime. Now it's just light entertainment. Like Lady Crimson and Shady and others I'm not much of a TV watcher other than sports. But I am a voracious reader. So games that let you live a good story are ones I look for. But I want them to be big. 100+ hours with multiple replays. OOTP is more like chess. A mental exercise.

 

Hey, that's a lot healthier than sitting and doing a big 24 hour marathon. 

 

I don't do it that often, but if it hits me, I will play for that long, breaks for meals/showers/ect. included.