Opinion - All these Games

[demyansk]

Hi

Just thinking, I go to the page everyday and look at all the games. Then, I take stock of all the games I have from Matrix and Steam. Plus Origin. How do we play them all????? Non-Mastery

Question:

Do you all feel the same way about all the new titles and how do you find the time to play old and new?

I feel that I bounce from one title to another!!

This doesn't even include my new game from last week - Battlefield 5

Let me know what you think, no wrong answers just a discussion point.

[Orm]

I don't play them all. With more game I feel I have the freedom to play what I feel like playing. And some games just keep waiting for the day I feel like playing 'em.

Currently I am happy with MWIF. And fill that out with some easier, faster, games.

And one day I might turn to the games that I wanted to dig into for a long time now. Like War in the Pacific AE, War in the East, and War in the West.

Edit: Currently I am not playing any new games. That might be the reason I find time for my old games. [:D]

[jday305]

I'm looking at retiring in 10 years so I guess I'm stocking up for when I have more time on my hands. LOL
I don't play all that I'm buying now but hopefully will someday.

[MrsWargamer]

I too ponder these things.

For some time now, a couple of years, I wake and play 30 minutes or so of Hearthstone, a gradually evolving game due to evolving card mix and resulting dynamics. It's the ONLY game I play basically. Because of the VERY rare lately moment when I play a wargame usually only comes from the randomly matched moment when I have time and I'm suitably bored with anything else to do.

It's not because I lack a wargame. I have all the greats from the tactical operational and strategic levels of WW2.

I have the massively complex like World in Flames, to the completely basic action of Battle Academy.

I sometimes wonder, have we gotten to the point where our designers have simply already done it all to a point where it's too much of "been there done that"?
I am pondering the just-released Strategic Command Global design. Giving it a couple of months of the normal tweaking.
But do I really 'need' it? is the real question.

I have sure looked at Tigers on the Hunt. But I had a full collection of ASL, and I eventually sold it to a buddy (he got a steal of a price from me). I'm guessing it doesn't get played much though by him either. Not sure why. Maybe we outgrew it. Maybe the games are not the problem. Maybe it's us wargamers are no longer 20 somethings in college.
I've wondered if when Steel Tigers arrives, will I give a hoot really?

I have become an old broad mainly sitting reading romance novels and enjoying painting landscapes. But I'm also several decades removed from the young person who played Squad Leader and Third Reich all the time. And the two guys I played against all the time, ain't the same either. One dude looks like he's ready to check out every time I see him, and the other is in a different country now and is a busy contractor.

The 'cleverness' of games on a PC isn't really enough to engage all of us my age. I'm waiting to become a doting grandma. I'd rather be baking cookies than killing cardboard half the time

I don't even visit the specific game forums anymore. If the specific game forums disappeared today, it would likely be weeks or months before I realized they were gone. All I look at our the announcements at the top and then I peak in on General Discussions for a few minutes to see if you old coggers have anything useful to say

[MrRoadrunner]

Interesting post.
I had the Mrs. Wargamer experience. Teens into the late twenties playing a game on the weekend was sometimes all day Saturday into the night and return to finish the game on Sunday, first thing in the morning to dark. Four or five hours of sleep and then get up and go to work. Then we all grew apart. Or, the girl friend could not understand why she only got Friday nights. [8|]
In my late forties I hooked up with a group of codgers that played every Friday night. The whole gambit of cardboard from historical to hysterical. When I changed jobs I found that I had no Friday nights to play consistently. And, cardboard gaming became a thing of the past. My wife liked that I was home for the weekends. And, Friday night. [;)]
I still had PBEM gaming and settled on one game that fulfills my gaming needs. Been playing it since the late nineties/early 2000's. John Tillers Campaign Series. I tried Squad Battles. Looked at some strategic games but could not bring myself to play them.

I, too, come to the site and look at the general discussions. I browse through the Campaign Series forums. And, also hope that some new game may catch my eye.
Waiting for grand children yes. But, my son would need to find "that" girl first to have any of that.

It's just good to see that gaming is not "dead" for young and old.

BTW, Merry Christmas to all.

RR

[zakblood]

well now i'm retired and less time on my hands, i play little but test a lot, but what i do play i enjoy, it still gives me the buzz it did when i was much younger and while not all games grab and hold me, some still do,

games don't have to be the best looking,

have the most levels,

have a manual like a lounge table,

they just need to be fun,

and as each of us arrive at the same fun part differently,

it's one reason why some love a given game and only like another, while someone else has a different view, none are wrong, it's all to do with past gaming history and likes and dislikes etc.

some like a challenge, some like impossible difficulty, i again just like to enjoy myself, so at the times i do find a gem, i polish it and play it alot.

classic games don't go old, like wine they age gracefully

[Greybriar]

I won't live long enough to play to completion all the PC games I have accumulated over the years. Most of the new games I purchase don't hold my attention for long and I wind up playing an old favorite.

[Curtis Lemay]

ORIGINAL: MrsWargamer

I too ponder these things.

For some time now, a couple of years, I wake and play 30 minutes or so of Hearthstone, a gradually evolving game due to evolving card mix and resulting dynamics. It's the ONLY game I play basically. Because of the VERY rare lately moment when I play a wargame usually only comes from the randomly matched moment when I have time and I'm suitably bored with anything else to do.

It's not because I lack a wargame. I have all the greats from the tactical operational and strategic levels of WW2.

I have the massively complex like World in Flames, to the completely basic action of Battle Academy.

I sometimes wonder, have we gotten to the point where our designers have simply already done it all to a point where it's too much of "been there done that"?
I am pondering the just-released Strategic Command Global design. Giving it a couple of months of the normal tweaking.
But do I really 'need' it? is the real question.

I have sure looked at Tigers on the Hunt. But I had a full collection of ASL, and I eventually sold it to a buddy (he got a steal of a price from me). I'm guessing it doesn't get played much though by him either. Not sure why. Maybe we outgrew it. Maybe the games are not the problem. Maybe it's us wargamers are no longer 20 somethings in college.
I've wondered if when Steel Tigers arrives, will I give a hoot really?

I have become an old broad mainly sitting reading romance novels and enjoying painting landscapes. But I'm also several decades removed from the young person who played Squad Leader and Third Reich all the time. And the two guys I played against all the time, ain't the same either. One dude looks like he's ready to check out every time I see him, and the other is in a different country now and is a busy contractor.

The 'cleverness' of games on a PC isn't really enough to engage all of us my age. I'm waiting to become a doting grandma. I'd rather be baking cookies than killing cardboard half the time

I don't even visit the specific game forums anymore. If the specific game forums disappeared today, it would likely be weeks or months before I realized they were gone. All I look at our the announcements at the top and then I peak in on General Discussions for a few minutes to see if you old coggers have anything useful to say

If you're tired of playing, give designing a try. It's kinda like arts & crafts. Instead of reading romance novels, research OOBs & TO&Es. Instead of painting landscapes, make a game map. With all of your experience, you might be really good at it.

[JWW]

Interesting discussion. I'm 65, a teacher. I still enjoy gaming, but I've been looking for different challenges and finding that retro seems to work better than the latest games. There are some brilliant real time games out there. But I prefer turn based. And there are brilliant graphics out there. But I'm not that big on graphics. I'm glad those new games are there. But I wanted something old instead of something new. That is one reason I recently bought Matrix World in Flames even though it has no AI and I play entirely solo. I just wanted a different experience, kind of like the old days of getting a new game in the mail and reading the rules and punching the pieces out and figuring out how to play, which was as much fun to me as playing the game itself, even though I didn't quite realize it at the time. And no AI to try to beat. Just me against me with no fog of war, either playing straight up and letting the dice decide, or role playing within the game. And MWIF is doing that job so far. Not that I recommend it for everyone. It just works for me right now. And I may become bored with it in a few weeks. Who knows? But I'm enjoying it now.

[durangokid]

ORIGINAL: jday305

I'm looking at retiring in 10 years so I guess I'm stocking up for when I have more time on my hands. LOL
I don't play all that I'm buying now but hopefully will someday.

Got bad news for you jday - I've been retired for 24 years and contrary to popular opinion you don't have more time. The moment you retire the hours in your day shrink and time goes faster. Sorry about that but felt you should know now.[&:]

[JReb]

I still enjoy wargaming but don't find the newer titles that interesting. Same old stuff over and over again. Nothing too innovative happening in the hex, turn based game world lately.

Good small scale, WW2, squad to company based tactical titles and naval games are sorely lacking overall. We still wait for the replacement games for Steel Panther, Age of Rifles and others but they never come.

I also never buy new release games anymore. Too many are sold incomplete and filled with bugs so I wait until there is some feedback before I make a decision.

So I stick with my faves and try a new game every once in awhile. I still get a thrill when I find something new and really enjoy playing. This year I have tried Endless Space 2 and Battle Brothers. ES2 is a nice alternative to Distant Worlds with great artwork. Battle Brothers was by far the biggest surprise for me. Lots of fun.

The biggest problem I see is that there are not enough dedicated developers to take the genre into the next generation. The Grigsby / Hunter / Tiller era is gone and there are no worthy replacements on the horizon.

Still some great games out there to try though, just few and far between.

Merry Christmas all!

[operating]

Like many here I buy games that never get played, some I buy just to support the dev in the hope that they someday produce the game I'm really after. Yes to fall back on old favorites with an eye on what's new that may give me a new lease on the excitement of gaming, every once in awhile those expectations come true, either here at General Discussions or elsewhere. I wish you all a "Merry Christmas" and to those who do not celebrate Christmas I wish you well too.[;)]

[demyansk]

Glad to hear that I am not the only one. I even bought a load of solitaire wargames, but still need to sit down and play them. Someday

[Red2112]

As I see it, the "collecting" of wargames, be them physical, and now software, has always been a thing with some. I personally have reduced my purchases and there cost too. Although I still buy PC games, I tend to buy on the cheap end, and yes as some, I don´t know when I´ll play them. I buy them when there on sale and some get played right away, some don´t. Same happens with the boxed versions I buy, on the shelf and will be played sometime, some day.

There is one thing I do find with PC wargames which causes me to lose interest, and that is that most are to "fast" to play, in other words, they become a click fest were I just start moving and clicking counters like if I was playing a checkers game. So in a way it becomes boring, and if you add to that a bad AI, then it has all the numbers to be set aside/deleted from my HDD.

Lucky it´s not always like that, once in awhile you stumble on a good game, or as some of you stated, you simply play older games. I don´t find this happening with boxed wargames, not that all are great but for the most part, I still enjoy the whole ritual of doing research, reading rules and looking up tables. It simply makes me think more, thus I put more attention to my game and gameplay and in return I enjoy myself more.

There´s still good games out there, and some older games are still alot of fun if you get past the graphical eyecandy. I recently bought "Combat Command The Matrix Edition" on sale, and I have been very pleased and surprised with it so far. Nothing fancy but a very well made wargame that dosen´t get much attention around here. It proves that retro looking games can be very good as older games are.

Overall, I think it also has to do with what your up for at a giving time in your life. If we add the lack of inovation in games now days, then it becomes easier to go back to our roots.

I whish you all a joyful holiday season! Good care and be good! [:)]

[demyansk]

I looked at the combat command again, it does look good.

[Rosseau]

My defining moment was playing SSI's Battle of Antietam while reading Landscape Turned Red. I don't think it's ever gotten more real for me than that.

I don't think there is a war or historical strategy game that I haven't learned something from. Not to say I don't have plenty of junk from Steam sales.

I'd say reading a good book trumps wargaming and hard to find the time to do both. What helps is we haven't had a TV in our house in seven years. And when we stay at a hotel, we see that we are missing nothing. War and strategy gaming at least is interactive and forces you to think.

The challenge is as you get older, the thinking part gets harder! Especially having to constantly learn new interfaces that may not be very intuitive.

[Alan Sharif]

I play every game I purchase. Some, however, I play for an hour or two, once in a blue moon. Others I play for weeks on end, then they join the 'once in a blue moon' list, others I will play for the rest of my life. Oddly, I never know in advance where a game will end up. Some titles I have only brought on sale, or on a whim, I end up returning to again and again. Some I have been really looking forward to, once in a blue moon.

[somdude]

You don't have to play all of them

[Kuokkanen]

Few games, never installed.
Some others, played little or little more.
Good number of games, I have played about halfway or so.
Few games I have played through once.
Very few games (Civ4:BtS, EDCE) I have played through repeatedly and keep going back to them.
And I'm buying even MORE!

That's it for me

[IslandInland]

I buy and play the ones I'm interested in. Quite simple really.