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[Shakerag]

This topic probably deserves its own thread (here or in general). But I can't resist posting just one link: http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-ways-to-tell-youre-getting-too-old-video-games/ (with special honor to item #4, which dictates most of my game-buying decisions these days)...

Interesting.  I think the article was fairly flawed, but interesting.  Maybe it's just because I don't plan on stopping playing video games until I die of cancer and/or liver failure.

[Gabeux]

Perhaps you need a hobby of some kind, something to do while you are having a break from playing video games?

Most definitely. It just feels awkward since I've been playing games for ever (there's a VHS tape of me "playing" on a Commodore Amiga as a 2 year old).
Maybe it's actually a good thing, given that I can now enjoy it as an entertainment thing and not as a 'main interest', because it can become rather compulsive.
I should stop derailing now, I guess. 

This topic probably deserves its own thread (here or in general). But I can't resist posting just one link: http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-ways-to-tell-youre-getting-too-old-video-games/ (with special honor to item #4, which dictates most of my game-buying decisions these days)...

"Wait a second. Is it possible that those old games didn't do anything magical with their programming to create "immersion," and that, like my kids with GTA, I "immersed" myself in those games because I was playing them at a time before I was dead inside?"

Hahaha, so good. Thanks for sharing that. Even though my problem does not seem to be with age or kids (as I'm single and don't have kids, and I'm on my early 20's), and even though I got all the points (and I think I agree with all of them), I think in my case, it's mostly a mindset issue.

Warning - Unnecessary personal derailment:
I always had a weird habit of getting games and consuming them down to their core. I DID enjoy games in the normal way as a kid, but as year passed, the more this happened: I'd strip their mechanics in my mind, trying to create an intuitive sense of the design, and trying to figure out all the "whys" and "hows". Then I'd drop it forever - and in recent years I've even started dropping games before finishing them once I feel I figured them out enough, since a lot of plots are just recycled or predictable, or the "grind" to finish it is not as rewarding as having the game figured out.
However, sandbox games like DF, Minecraft (modded), The Guild 2, Kerbal Space Program, the X series..those can make me go compulsive - exactly as I kind of was with LEGOs as a kid, but no one calls a kid playing with toy bricks "compulsive". Sometimes I do re-visit my all-time favorites (like StarTopia), and I can enjoy them without compulsion.

I'm dealing with that weirdness nicely nowadays, and once something is that big in your life, you can easily find lessons and self-knowledge in it.
The solution here would be to find a creative hobby I'm not too scared or worried about stepping in. Like Game Design, Game Development, or technical+creative stuff that doesn't involve videogames. Or even writing - but I'm kind of scared of writing, since I'd end up just writing recycled stuff without noticing or something.

In recent months I've been thinking that maybe I'm just trying to use games to fulfill a craving (or needs) that they aren't designed to fulfill. That's the thought I've been working with nowadays, and it's making me WAY less critical (in the destructive way) and mad at games and everything else, really. I only get mad when it's a scam/fraud/imoral/illegal stuff.

Anyways, I'm writing all this because I see many people in the same situation. RL friends who think or are told they are 'addicts' (during compulsion), or 'nerds' (when being too critical), and have no idea what to think about themselves and all that.

This got a little deeper, sadder and off-topic than I wanted. 

[Sergarr]

I always had a weird habit of getting games and consuming them down to their core. I DID enjoy games in the normal way as a kid, but as year passed, the more this happened: I'd strip their mechanics in my mind, trying to create an intuitive sense of the design, and trying to figure out all the "whys" and "hows". Then I'd drop it forever - and in recent years I've even started dropping games before finishing them once I feel I figured them out enough, since a lot of plots are just recycled or predictable, or the "grind" to finish it is not as rewarding as having the game figured out.
However, sandbox games like DF, Minecraft (modded), The Guild 2, Kerbal Space Program, the X series..those can make me go compulsive - exactly as I kind of was with LEGOs as a kid, but no one calls a kid playing with toy bricks "compulsive". Sometimes I do re-visit my all-time favorites (like StarTopia), and I can enjoy them without compulsion.

Funnily enough, that story almost exactly mirrors what I did with the games myself. Only difference is that my sandbox game list was and is pretty much just Warcraft 3 custom maps.

[evilnancyreagan]

it's taken a week's worth of daily verbal thrashings but, Creeperhost finally got my stupid server working as advertised. So, if you have an interest in checking out the fun/useless (pick one) new content with some other peeps, you can simply hop on over to:

104.200.132.155

I also got a page setup on the official forums, perhaps, if your registered over there, you could drop by and show ol' Nancy a lil' love? I know some of you are obviously cool but, I'm here so, that means we're not ALL too cool. Perhaps a fellow uncool person is primed to pounce on some of this noncoolnessless?

[NullForceOmega]

I was talking with one of my roomates (he also plays Starbound, tho' not very often) this afternoon, and realized just how unimaginably disappointing Starbound really is.  I had been watching youtube and spotted a Starbound let's play featuring the XS Corporation mechs mod.  For just a moment, I visualized actually needing to switch to multiplayer, and have an actual party each using one of the XS mechs to crack the defenses of a fortified planet.  Then I remembered reality, and just started swearing because the Chuckleheads could have that, right now, in game and doable, but they suck at actually making anything fun.

Sorry for not bringing anything worthwhile to the thread, but I just felt the need to say something.

[umiman]

This is like an alcoholics anonymous support group hehe.

"Hi, I'm Umi and I've been burned by Starbound."

[Darkmere]

Can I be the furious, rambling burnout that sits in the corner trying to burn holes in people with my disappointed glare?

[Chiefwaffles]

They're actually working on actual vehicles (as in, not techs) right now. They're pretty cool.
They started a week or so ago, and the progress is pretty visible.

Apparently the devs are also definitely adding in multi-person vehicles.

[NullForceOmega]

Pre-emptive sorry, this isn't trying to stomp on anyone or mouth off, I'm just so damned depressed by this whole fiasco.

Yes, I read their updates.  That isn't the point, the point is that right now, all of the necessary framework is in place, and the assets can clearly be created, for such a vision as: four mech equipped players to land on a fortress world, tear it's defenses to pieces, loot the place while terrified civilians run from them and generally have a blast actually doing something other than grind ores or build houses.

And instead the devs just keep plodding along with these infuriating missions (I still can't take the damned Erchius horror, but all the others I can handle with even hugely out-of date gear), and some 'mysterious' story elements that have so far failed to actually make any impact on the game whatsoever.

They have an exceedingly powerful procedural generation engine at their fingertips, but they seem intent on using it to make 'grind this ore now' the game.

[Gabeux]

Hey NullForceOmega, don't worry. I feel you.
Starbound sucks. And it's okay.

But hey, maybe in two years it will be finished with all those nice features you want!
And I'll probably have finished Fallout 4, No Man's Sky and quit gaming except for DF by then.

Sometimes I wonder if "what hype hypeths hype hypeths away" and if we are all being too nice because we like games and their development too much.

[nenjin]

Sometimes I wonder if "what hype hypeths hype hypeths away" and if we are all being too nice because we like games and their development too much.

Maybe it's just the belief that the game was going to expand beyond Terraria, beyond the simple monster whack-a-mole and home furnishing simulator. And it hasn't. You can spend a lot of years hoping a developer is going to do something that surprises and delights you. Seems like so many games now are about adding +1 to something you already have in game. Another monster to bash. Another resource to farm. Another tier of something to get. Another boss just slightly more absurd than the last one. It's like D&D logic is now embedded so deep in the gaming zeitgeist we don't even see it anymore. Make a tepid sandbox, throw some stuff and tiers in there to create some pacing and voila: game.

It's kinda why I've stayed fascinated by DF development even though I only play it once every couple of years. Always something different, outside of the D&D schema, happening with it.

[Neonivek]

It has to do with more how Starbound's team presents itself.

Terraria there was an idea of a genuine attempt to make a great game... in the end they couldn't pull it off but their goals were never viable.

While with Starbound you get this idea that there was this great game under the hood they were planning to make. But then decided to create a watered down version and concentrate on all the wrong areas.

For example the current major Starbound project? Penguin Plushies

Starbound's team has this very "Fluff is feature" attitude that pushes my buttons in all the wrong ways.

[nenjin]

While with Starbound you get this idea that there was this great game under the hood they were planning to make. But then decided to create a watered down version and concentrate on all the wrong areas.

Or their talent simply wasn't the equal of their dreams.

Starbound's team has this very "Fluff is feature" attitude that pushes my buttons in all the wrong ways.

I pretty much came to this when I saw the races, and the starship.

[Flying Dice]

It honestly feels like a lot of their problems came from the fact that their entire team was composed of cats, and the people who were supposed to be herding them were also cats.

Hence the continual stream of "lol look at this little thing I made on Saturday afternoon" content and the reductive trend in the updates to main mechanics.

[Sappho]

It honestly feels like a lot of their problems came from the fact that their entire team was composed of cats, and the people who were supposed to be herding them were also cats.

Best description ever.