This is exactly my problem. I have been wanting to get into X3TC for the longest time and I keep getting myself game distracted. Maybe as i got older my attention span lessened over time. Because I too used to play just one game until I won it or played it to death.

I think my problem is that I install to many games and I just need to be more disciplined in completing the games I set out to play. But I could say it comes down to just time... most of us have jobs, families and websites 🙂 And when your done with dedicating time for those you have maybe an hour or two to play your favorite game before bed. Not like when I was a kid and could dedicate 4-6hrs easily whenever I sat down to play.

Could just be our lifestyles...

And while I am thinking about my gaming habits, I think the games themselves are a big reason we jump from game to game. Because as you play you remember the enjoyment you had playing a game with a certain feature or gameplay style and your game your playing doesn't have it. So you jump to the game that has that functionality.

I think we just need the perfect game Geraldine. The true balance between feature, story and gameplay and then you will see us sticking with a game for a while. But maybe I am rambling because I tend to be a forum junkie 🙂

😆 You and me both Darkone! 😆 I dont think any game would be perfect enough though, I would still do this annoying habit, but you are right about the attention thing, there are just not enough hours in the day or maybe I am just slowing down with age! 😳

Correct Farcodev, if your also developing it must be even worse! Extra respect to those who toil away creating new games or content for existing ones! 🙂

I have always wanted to try planescape torment, I wish GOG would hurry up with a port that will run on any modern PC. Oh, no! I am at it again! 😕 And don't worry about being a little late to BG2 Farcodev, a great game like that never ages!

My problem with games like Darkstar 1 Spaceforce and the X games is I start playing them,then after about two or three weeks I'am board as I'am not seeing anything new in them.

I guess the question is 'How is that solved?'

Because even when you procedurally generated universes the game will more than likely bore you eventually because in those games it is the details that are missed. That's why the high hopes for Infinity and the worlds they can create with that engine. Can they actually create planets that will be different and spacial anomalies that will keep you exploring and wanting more. Do I think games have to be sandbox to keep you playing no, not at all.

But it seems like that is the only way to keep people playing longer because most games lack the story, to keep you playing. And in my gaming years in the 80's the games had stories and substance because they had to because they were not always the best looking. Now games are reversed they look damn impressive but lack the substance. Like Modern Warfare 2, looks and plays great but the campaign missions are only like 6-10hrs worth of gameplay. And for people that may not even bother with online play 6-10 hours of fun.... screw that and they get $60 for that.

I think it might come down to generation gaps. Because the games I like the kids say are boring and suck. I guess they don't like challenges. It's amazing to watch the kids today play games. When I was a youngster if I was stuck on a game I played the hell out of it until I won the game, kids today will just stop playing it entirely usually.

I do think its about time they stopped using the Elite model every time the come to make a space trading game.

They should use frontier as a base after all its only 17 years old as opposed to Elites 26. 😆

As you say the devil in the detail,each of the games I mentioned have features you wont find in the other games but the deves seem to have just throw them into a basic Elite clone with out thinking about doing anything with the other parts of the game ie in each of the game you can be a pirate,trader,miner ect,now apart from the x games no one has tried to expand these jobs and in the case of the x games they let trading take over the whole game untill they turned the game into an RTS business simulation.

Then again i'am proberly just rambling incoherently again 😆

I can identify with the "so many games, so little time" idea, Geraldine.

But the truth is that I find most computer games do not remain fun for long... it takes something really special to capture my interest and keep it.

To put it another way, every time I try a different game, I find myself going back to Freelancer. Nobody does it better.

At least, not for me.

I recently joined a modding team, and am working with the authors of Big Daddy Storyline and Trent, the Monkey King (which adds a couple of new missions). We hope to bring some fresh ideas to a Freelancer mod near you in the not-too-distant future. The main focus is on adding missions for the single-player storyline.

I have to say, making a mod like this is a gigantic pain in the butt. 🙂

But it has certainly been a lot of fun. I spend more hours modding than I do playing, these days, and I enjoy it just as much.

😆 😆 Yes!, Pinback strikes again! 😆 😆

And good luck with your mod Bullwinkle. In a way I suppose, creating a mod is (or even more so) as rewarding as actually just playing a good game. You could sit back and say "I did that", yes very rewarding indeed. 🙂

so little time....

i guess for the youngsters it's different computer games became to them like to us tv series, something very common.

and like me (we) lost after a certain age the interest in tv, they do with the games, it's reapeating, stories are mostly the same, only places and actors changes, then it became (for most of them) something boring in general, they still play from time to time, but not like we did, just like our parents when they was sitting each and every evening in front of the tv set, because it was new in their generation, but it's common to you & me if you had the choice to watch tv each and every day.

i have a friend (jürgen, again) it was forbidden to him as a child (youngster) to watch tv alone (yes, that exists), and the only thing that was allowed to him and his sister & brother was the daily news (fundamentalists you guess? right you are!). you can imagine when he became my friend what was up when he came to visit me and i had my own tv (& also my first console 🙂 ), nothing else then to watch each tv series that out their exists (even with only a few channels to choose from), just to make it plain. while i was allready overdosed with television and wanted often just to listen music, no tv no games, just relax and listen.

in general i didn't think i'ts something bad, they have to find their own thrill and neither computers nor tv can nail them.

to reflect the time there is to spend and the choice of games. some like construction games, like me and it's offens that you will start to work on your favorit games to give them a personal character. some others like more the adventure type, i guess usually they will look for a good entertainment in any choice they have, and they had allready when they was "babies", like my stepson never was interested in constructing, therefore he allways wanted to be entertained and funny the skateboard was his most loved toy. others "rock" from the first step in life and will love music and acting more then anything else (my daughter).

and it's only good that they should have from the very beginning on the full freedom in what they like to do, tv, computers, even when you are addicted to it will lose it's magic and that's only of advantage for them, imo.

personally, yes sometimes i play less, might be because i'm involved in some modding, but like i said it only reflects me and my preferences, to construct is the main plot you can say. and then there was times when i simply haven't the time for neither one or the other, a family didn't left you much choices, especially kids, you will have to be there for them, hopefully i guess.

and some other times this rotten machine cost me all the time just to maintain it 😈

"after all it's only 17..." 😆 & blonde hair?

a little odd, hm?

but safer yes

I know this feeling all too well. Its too the point where I look at games with a really fine-tooth comb before leaving them on my comp.

For instance, despite the six or seven space sims I had installed, I decided to keep only 2, and work on 1. In the end, I find that If Im not jumping around, I can have alot more fun with one title. Also, the very nature of space-sims requires learning. Which takes time. I first became addicted to the genre with Oolite/Elite's docking. I couldn't figure it out, so I spent hours and hours trying to get my little ship to get in that frakking dock. After I succeeded, I was hooked. Now however, Im expected to master setting up a joystick? Learning how to properly fight in EM, or Frontier? Learn the economic trading that is X3?

No thanks. Ive uninstalled most of the games Ive been putting off. Sure, I liked X3TC, but was it getting even 1/10th the playtime that Oolite is? Not even close.

I rate my games by FUN factor.

Which is why Ive become obsessive over titles before purchasing. Ive literally read the manual for Civilization V like 6 times, making sure I know whats happening, and doing all the learning BEFORE I purchase. I just don't have the time to be learning all new games and stuff. Im getting picky with age... and the economy.

😛