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Lately I seem to be completely disinterested in video games, I want to be playing and enjoying them but I just can't, I install one of the many games my brother has in his collection, play it for a few minutes and uninstall, regardless of what genre it is. And that actually goes for console and hand-held as well.
I started at a very young age, 6-7 and my first gaming console was an Atari, oh man did I love that thing, there was this flying game with a plane that keeps going up, you couldn't shoot, there were just obstacles to avoid, I think I once did a 2.3 hour run of that, non stop, and I don't even think it had a pause function.
I was living in Iran at that time, I went through a draught for 3 years as we moved across a few countries and finally landed in Australia. At that point it went to Sega Megadrive/Nintendo/First handheld system, 300 games mostly puzzle based -> Sega Megadrive 2 -> Super Nintendo -> Nintendo 64/Gameboy , there was a keyboard computer console in there somewhere, you'd type in codes and make games and programs.
At that point we moved again, I was forced to get rid of everything except for my SuperNES, so many awesome old school games thrown out. =/. At that point it was a quick change once again. Got my first Playstation second hand from the newspaper with something like 50+ games. I was in heaven for a year, it was around that point that I got heavily involved into computer games, platform and shooting games but adventure games mostly, Lucas games ftw!
That lead to the Doom/Duke Nukem era, and of course my education to RTS, C&C -> Red Alert, my memory is a bit hazy, but I believe I got a computer upgrade and started trying game demo's from magazines, it was around 1998 when I first set my eyes on Starcraft, I fell immediately in love. But it wasn't until late 1999 until I managed to get my hands on a copy of Starcraft.
Due to that, in the last 7-8 years I have switched between Starcraft to Diablo 1->2 to short sprints of Final Fantasy and more recently WoW and finally back to Starcraft, but in the last 12 months I haven't felt like playing either and because I had spent such a long time playing Stracraft it seems that it has degenerated my natural video gaming ability for other games, my FPS skills now suck compared to 5-6 years ago and I have very little interest for other games. I believe this is somewhat my fault for not diversifying my video game experience, but I think it is mostly SC at fault for being such an absorbing game. Right now I am just forcing my self to play 5-6 games of BW a week, just to maintain what hand eye coordination skills I have left for when SC2 comes out, which I no doubt will be playing for the next 10 years.
Playing multiplayer games for such a long time has made playing single player games really boring and I can't enjoy any multiplayer games unless I am doing it competitively, in which case I don't have the patience to get good at them. I just wish I could turn back time 5-10 years where I was enjoying everything, but I still wouldn't take back the 7-8 years of SC.
Have you guys ever experienced this? How do you reacquire your love and interest for video games, or should I just tap out and start poker...?
 
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thedeadhaji
39489 Posts
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thedeadhaji
39489 Posts
especially when they sleep in confined objects.
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Maybe you're kinda "addicted" to the competition and can't really enjoy a game just for enjoyment's sake anymore.
Anyway. I can recommend you a game which shares many of SC's qualities despite being totally different. 
I has bad graphics, it's totally nerdy, hardcore, has a "hard" UI, insanely complex gameplay (in fact it's the most complex computer game I've ever played, SC's complexity is a joke in comparison) and most of all it's totally ridiculously hard to master. Many play this game for years without winning once.
I'm talking about Nethack.
It's single player, but it's extremely challenging and can also be competitive. You can go to IRC network chat.freenode.org channel #nethack, play on a public server like nethack.alt.org where people can watch each other playing and msg you/give you tips, and participate in the annual devnull tournament.
I'd recommend sticking to the ASCII version of the game. There are a few graphical frontends but most use the more efficient and visually clear ASCII version. There's also a tool allowing "replays".
Part of what makes the game so hard is that you can only save and exit to resume playing later on. The save game is deleted once you load it. There are no second chances. "Ironman" or "Diablo Hardcore" mode built-in.
If you want to know more what makes this game so good and fun I'll just quote one part from http://archive.gamespy.com/legacy/halloffame/nethack_a.shtm :
"They Think of Everything!"
Progress from version to version is fairly slow (sometimes a couple of years will elapse in silence between releases), but every change in the game is debugged extensively and thought out to its fullest extent. The result? A fascinating exploration of possibilities.
Some examples: Eat a floating eye corpse and you'll get ESP, which will allow you to see enemies anywhere on the map, but only while blinded. To take advantage of it, you may want to drink a potion of blindness, or preferably, find and wear a blindfold. Of course, while blindfolded, even with ESP you won't be able to see inanimate objects on the floor -- when you find piles of items, your character will have to "feel" for them. Oh, and you won't be able to read scrolls. Whoops! In that pile of items you just felt is a cockatrice corpse -- fortunately you were wearing gloves, otherwise you would've been turned to stone just by touching it. But now, blind and protected, you can pick up the cockatrice corpse and use it to attack monsters -- now your enemies will turn to stone when you strike them! Unfortunately, their inventory turns to stone as well. Hey, no problem -- you've got a pick-axe, so you can chisel open their statues to yield a pile of rocks and any of their old possessions. Sadly, thanks to the blindfold, you can't see a nearby pit and tumble inside. Too bad you were holding the cockatrice corpse -- it landed on top of you and turned you to stone. Yet Another Stupid Death, and another reason to cry out in anguish because they think of everything!
No commercial game will ever offer you that much depth.
There's also a variant of Nethack which adds a lot more stuff to the game, also making it harder, called Slash'Em, but I haven't played it yet and it's far less popular.
There's this funny quote I really like: "Commercial games want you to win. Nethack doesn't care either way. Slash'Em wants you dead."
If you decide to try it, this is one of the first guides you should read:
http://www.melankolia.net/nethack/nethack.guide.html
And don't forget the official guidebook
If you want more links or tips msg me.
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Spenguin
Australia3316 Posts
The Ceiling Cat is watching you!
/4chan "shit"
I envy your addiction.
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YES
fuck kittens
fuck you SC
X_X
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Aotearoa39261 Posts
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On June 08 2008 17:29 thedeadhaji wrote:
i still like kittens.
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Germany1304 Posts
On June 08 2008 17:21 Energies wrote:
Playing multiplayer games for such a long time has made playing single player games really boring and I can't enjoy any multiplayer games unless I am doing it competitively, in which case I don't have the patience to get good at them. I just wish I could turn back time 5-10 years where I was enjoying everything, but I still wouldn't take back the 7-8 years of SC.
I feel exactly the same. I downloaded tons of new games, installed, tried, deleted. I started playing old games like quakeworld or total annihilation and did not get the expected joy out of it. It was the same with WoW where i joined a hardcore guild (7 raid-days a week) until we were top3 in europe .. when i started working and tbc (and the *reset* that would come with it) was annouced I quitted it aswell. I though about starting wow again sometimes but it hit me like you said: either play to be the best or dont play at all. And for beeing the best I dont have the time or patience... sad.
The only Situation that breakes this circle are our private LANparties, 3 days of hardcore multiplayerbattles with the good ol' games, all with about the same skilllevel. It's really sad..
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EPT
