No time to be a master

[lordcookie]

Does anyone else find that they are increasingly becoming good at games, but not mastering them anymore?

When I was younger I would get 3-5 games a year, which meant I could put a lot of time into each title. Each year I would pretty much master at least 2 titles, but now I find I am increasingly just being competent at the games I play. I buy 3-5 games a fortnight, so I think it is due to the number of games I have to play that makes me only adequate at them. Recently I have bought Psyvariar and VF4 Evo, and both games I enjoy loads, and I really do want to try and master both. But I know more games are on their way and these games will be forgotten about (not totally though). I find it a shame as I would really like to be able to know a game inside out like I used to, but I just dont have the willpower to buy less games.

Anyone else having the same problem, or do people prefer to be average at a larger number of games, rather than master of few?

[Garibaldi Biscuit]

There are very few games I've ever played which I've wanted to master, as mastery is generally accepted as being in genres which do not appeal to me; beat 'em ups, racing, sport, etc. Most of the titles I purchase I treat like a glass of whisky, I may not try to finish them quickly and I do appreciate them but once the end sequence has rolled there would have to be a very compelling element ( other than a high score ) to make me return to it, otherwise I'm onto the next game.

I'm not sure whether you count unlocking all the hidden extras as 'mastering' a game, as I've done that on a few fairly recent titles due to you having a reward which builds on the title as a result. I suppose mastery has never been that important to me, I just want as many different gaming experiences as I can - and I'm not going to be living forever.

[iloveannie]

In the last fortnight I have purchased the following: Eternal Darkness, Sonic Adventure 2, DOAXBV and Panzer Dragoon Orta. I work full time and am studying for an OU degree. In addition I am a husband and father. So to bring this to a wrap I've just this week started to properly play my Jap copy of Wind Waker. Metroid save got lost and I can't be arsed to start again. I just don't have the time. I am fairly good at certain genres of gaming but my time available is often limited or, more accurately, my time is better spent engaging in productive activities.

I hate being old enough to afford so much and having so little time to play. I'm a video game junkie, more concerned with new and exciting titles than with what got me hooked in the first place. Sad.

[lordcookie]

I hate being old enough to afford so much and having so little time to play. I'm a video game junkie, more concerned with new and exciting titles than with what got me hooked in the first place. Sad.

I think that is my problem. When money isnt so much of an issue, you tend to buy games for the sake of it, and worry about finding time to play them later. I used to love sitting down with a game and play it for weeks on end, either trying to beat my fastest time in a racing game, or learn a new combo for a beat em up. And although the desire to still do that is there, the level of attention needed to do this has now gone. The sad thing is, I am still only 21.

[Papercut]

I'm 100% with this. Five years ago I would have loved to be playing GGXX, VF4Evo, Psyvariar, Ikaruga etc. but right now I can't find the time to hone my skills at these games. I enjoy them, but I'm frustratingly average at them, and I know given time I could improve.

We all need to retire and build huge game rooms, just to go through the games we already have. Thats before you even begin to revisit the classics.

I hope I keep my game library round long enough for me to really enjoy them later on.

[neonewcomer]

i remember playing bombjack on the atari st at 9 years old! i burned hours of time in a day and played it for about 6 months solid! and was really fantastic at it!

i recently completed metroid prime and loved it, but while playing it i felt as though i had to push myself to keep coming back to it(because i loved super metroid and wanted to show prime the proper respect)

i have always loved fighters but now more than ever i'm playing street fighter 3,garou motw,and a few other fighting games more than any other game genre.

my point being that my attention span has definateley shortened, and i'm all for the shorter games these days! i recently purchased 3 games panzer dragoon orta, zelda tww, and silent hill 2.

even though i love zelda(oot was my all time fav) and silent hill is easily my fave "scary "game, i just keep playing panzer orta and telling myself "i'll put a couple of hours in on zelda or silent hill tomorrow" or "later on" but i just keep missing out on them.

i can't pinn it down really orta is a short game and could be described as a "quick fix" but the other two are long games. i know i love the other games because the play time i've had with them so far has been great but i just seem to prefer a quick go on some thing.
nintendo are of the opinion that shorter games are best recently and i think maybe they are spot on!

i really wish i had the attention span i had just 2 years ago.

its really sad.

[Tokuda]

I had this same problem about 2 years ago, where I just bought too much as I had a good income, and had little inclination to play.

Before that time my gaming life had been predominantly about competition and skill (thats how I believe gaming should be), and I was lucky to have several mates at uni who were very keen and dedicated gamers who would come round mine every night. Virtually every game we ever bought was rinsed and we were very very competitive on a number of games (these include Soul Calibur, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, ISS (PSX), Virtua Tennis, Virtua Striker 2 and Chu Chu Rocket).

How ironic it was then, when I came to Japan, and my love affair with gaming faced a little bit of a crisis. Not having my gaming friends around me meant that multiplayer games (in the home at least) were no longer viable, and I was left with having to play games by myself (which I found to be a souless experience by and large). Couple that with working long hours, and for about a year, I hardly bothered with gaming. For some reason, I didn`t really identify my gaming problems until I started making an effort to get down to the arcades more. I also realised that it was important to buy a few great games rather than ****loads (which is simply a waste- whats the point of a massive gaming collection, half of which you haven`t even touched?). I think this is a trap that many get into, including many on this message board.

I haven`t looked back since, and while I do game a fair bit at home, I mostly avoid the raft of `experience games` and play more arcade skill based games. I am down the arcade almost everyday for challenges against some of the best Japanese players in the country, and it is something of an adrenaline rush for me (not to mention a great learning experience) each time I have close and intense matches.

I also sell anything I know I`m definetely not going to play anymore and I`m very very careful about what I buy. (I have 4 games for my GC, 4 for my XBOX, and 14 for my PS2).

So my advice? Buy less and more wisely and play more. Your gaming experiences will be enriched by the depth you can wring out from a title rather than you constantly playing different games.

[Smeghead]

So my advice? Buy less and more wisely and play more. Your gaming experiences will be enriched by the depth you can wring out from a title rather than you constantly playing different games.

You've hit the nail bang on the head for me,

lately I've gone mental buying new games constantly and kinda not really played any of them properly. I blame this board, getting me so "I must have this!" "I must have that" about titles. With a recent cash flow constraint due to going on holiday, the games buying has gone right out of the window, and I've stopped and taken a look at what I've got and am now acctually working thru titles I've had for months and never touched and am starting to complete them, very satisfying! I do think the "shorter" games are easier to play through though and by that I jus mean ones that aren't long and dragged out.

When u've got a game making you think "not another level" I guess it's time to trade it or something. Anyway, I'm gonna try focus on finishing more of the games I own, but damn it's gonna be awful picking my next game when I do move onto new ones

[Adam]

I'm usually one to master my games, I've even wrote a few FAQ's for my favourites but lately I can't master anything. Today saw me skipping alot of side quests and stuff on Zelda because I wanna hurry up and complete it so I can finish off Shenmue 2x and start playing Metroid Prime, Xenosaga and Raven Shield.........But yeah TOMB RAIDER NEXT MONTH wOOt!!1!!

[dgnr7982]

*will soon have 25 games played for less than 20 minutes*

[C']

I had this same problem about 2 years ago, where I just bought too much as I had a good income, and had little inclination to play.

Before that time my gaming life had been predominantly about competition and skill (thats how I believe gaming should be), and I was lucky to have several mates at uni who were very keen and dedicated gamers who would come round mine every night. Virtually every game we ever bought was rinsed and we were very very competitive on a number of games (these include Soul Calibur, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, ISS (PSX), Virtua Tennis, Virtua Striker 2 and Chu Chu Rocket).

How ironic it was then, when I came to Japan, and my love affair with gaming faced a little bit of a crisis. Not having my gaming friends around me meant that multiplayer games (in the home at least) were no longer viable, and I was left with having to play games by myself (which I found to be a souless experience by and large). Couple that with working long hours, and for about a year, I hardly bothered with gaming. For some reason, I didn`t really identify my gaming problems until I started making an effort to get down to the arcades more. I also realised that it was important to buy a few great games rather than ****loads (which is simply a waste- whats the point of a massive gaming collection, half of which you haven`t even touched?). I think this is a trap that many get into, including many on this message board.

I haven`t looked back since, and while I do game a fair bit at home, I mostly avoid the raft of `experience games` and play more arcade skill based games. I am down the arcade almost everyday for challenges against some of the best Japanese players in the country, and it is something of an adrenaline rush for me (not to mention a great learning experience) each time I have close and intense matches.

I also sell anything I know I`m definetely not going to play anymore and I`m very very careful about what I buy. (I have 4 games for my GC, 4 for my XBOX, and 14 for my PS2).

So my advice? Buy less and more wisely and play more. Your gaming experiences will be enriched by the depth you can wring out from a title rather than you constantly playing different games.

I agree wit h this 100%, however I guess I'm one of those that has fallen into the trap of amassing a collection. However, this hasn't led to me becoming unfocussed. I only concentrate on 2 or 3 titles at a time (currently SC2 home and arcade, Pump It Up arcade and Do Don Pachi Daioujou at home). The rest I simply buy in case I want to play them in future. there have been too many instances in the past where I held off buying a game in the past then decided I wanted it later, only for it to be deleted and not readily available.

[geldra]

I'm in the same situation as most of you here. Buying more, playing less. I also think that age and your circle of friends has a large effect on the amount of play-time. I moved away from home a few years back now and consequently lost my circle of gaming friends, its only through forums that i have hooked up with other gamers and realised that buying rucks of games is just plain bad for the soul when they just sit there unplayed.

[Treble]

I totally agree with Tokuda, and have similar experiences to Lord Cookie. Like Tok, I now limit myself to arcade-style games. My life is too full to enjoy the sorts of games I used to play since the 32-bit era really kicked-off, like Tomb Raider, FF7, OoT etc. and I stick to games I'll love that can be completed in a reasonable amount of time.

The current list of what I have bought recently (and am getting next) is Metal Slug (SS), R-Types (PSX), KoF2002 (Neo Geo), P.N.03 (GC), Ridge Racer V (PS2) and Sin & Punishment (N64). All of them can be played in 30 minute bursts of total fun. I can't bear the thought of playing something that has long, meandering sections anymore - it feels like a waste of valuable playing time. There's the odd exception (most notably Metroid Prime), but that only proves the rule.

I love two-player games, and there is where the mastery comes in. It happens almost by osmosis: I can put hour after hour on a two- or four-player game, because I am socialising as well as gaming. Fighting games and footy games are the ones I would still consider myself to be good at because of this.

I won't sit and play a 40-60 hour 'adventure' anymore though. I'd rather be out with friends, reading, chilling in front of the TV, watching a film, going to a restaurant.....my free time is too full to dedicate it to something that requires me to be alone in front of a screen for weeks at a time - I get enough of that in work.

[charlesr]

This was why the meetup was so special for me. For starters I witnessed people that have real mastery of a game (Kamaran - Halo, Sidez - StreetFighters, Saurian - Psyvariar/Soul Calibur, ZeroRisk - F355). And also I got to sit around and play intense Chu Chu rocket, Bomberman, Mario Kart with other people. None of my friends live within walking distance, so we have to make a real effort to play multiplayer.

[JibberX]

This is a classic, I am halfway to Tokuda's stage, I just need to get rid of the chaff from my game stack. No time to commit to games that are arse, thats why I only bother with Nintendo right now. I am doing exactly what Nintendo want me to do, buy the console for their games, everything else is just carp food.