Why Do You Game?

Sabre0001

Having a bit of an identity crisis at the moment due to sheer frustration...I've always been a gamer - maybe I've missed the classics but I have always pumped time into games. Lately the frustration is getting a bit much (despite the mantra that's embedded in my head of "walk away" - it doesn't mean it stuck).

I'm not getting the same joy anymore. FIFA is bug riddled and some utterly ridiculous things are pushing me to the brink. Street Fighter has become a game of if I win online, it was a poor player; if I lose I get pissed because nothing goes right (and at the other end of the line, I'm sure that player is thinking the same as I did above). Even other games are showing their true colours recently.

I had had no problems with Red Dead Redemption (despite hearing of glitches) so stuck that on to relieve boredom + frustration. And then it struck. Had to hogtie a person and did so (eventually!), went to pick them up and they were in an awkward stance - the blue dot stayed where she was but John Marston had the pose of holding a person. Went back to mission point and was challenged to a duel - accepted but was told I couldn't while carrying a person...Went to the drop off point but the invisible person on my shoulder didn't register. So console went off...

So why do you game? Is there hope for me or am I destined to live out my days as a social gamer (because I can put up with FIFA or SF when there are other people about)...

[/rant]

chin_grin

Escapism being the main one! Well, ok. Escapism with boundaries. What I mean by that is, you enjoy it. But you can switch it off after x hours of gameplay.

I used to be enthralled with the quick beat em up or shooter (sort of quick fixes!). But then I started playing the likes of Resident Evil and FF VII. Both of which had the most immersive storylines and made you care about the protagonists.

(I did have a gameboy and played the cr*p out of Mario and Solar Striker. But those wear thin after a while.......They're great games, but it's almost the "why am I doing this?" factor.)

So it's just escalated from there. I play games because I was to be immersed in a world where my decisions effect gameplay. The likes of horror games or even FPS's.

Just completed Doom 3 for PC........And that was a very satisfying experience! Being able to survive the shocks and jolts that the game threw at you.......Yeah, I'm a wuss!

Fanny Cradock

Hope for what? If you are a casual gamer you are a casual gamer. If you are more dedicated to games then you are more dedicated. Just as long as you aren't obsessed I don't see a problem. The whole point is that you derive pleasure from whatever effort you put in. If games are causing you frustration then fill the hours you would have put into them by doing something else. It's a big world!

CORaven

I game for fun. The most fun I have is playing with or against my brother. We usually play co-op or be on the same teams now because we can predict the outcomes if it ends up being a one on one. 13 years of gaming has that effect.

I really have only played online the past 3 years and I do not think any online experience has topped any other experience I have had when I was in the same room as someone I was playing against. Left4dead 1 & 2 is fantastic for LANs.
I also have played Halo 3 since it came out, and the single best multiplayer game I had was playing in a split screen tournament in college.
Modern Warfare 2, I love S&D, but I will only play it with a team made of people I know (boardies and neighbours).

It seems strange when you think about it that the experience of gaming can be enhanced tenfold just by having some social interaction with someone else who isn't a d***. Fifa and SF4's matches I assume are all 1v1. While I have not played SF4, I imagine the best I could personally compare it to would be SC4 (with better match making). Didn't enjoy it.
• people didn't have mics pulled cheap shots that won the game
• people with mics roared abuse that I was cheap for wining, or that I was lagging, or their controller was... any excuse
• people would rather moan than rematch
• the only people who would talk and not shout would be Lv1.

I like to boot up the odd single player game now once in a while, but multiplayer is for me.

[Rasta]

I play for a bit of craic when not much else is happening.

If you play with some friends on the net its immediately 10x more fun.
Go on teamspeak/ventrilo while playing games is always good fun,
Maybe don't take winning/losing too seriously, just enjoy your time playing.

I enjoy playing Heroes of Newerth at the moment with a few friends that I
know from a COD2 tournament(which I still play in too) and I know for a fact
that without them both of those games would be way too boring to play on
my own. Its just so much more fun playing with other people that you know.

chin_grin

I played some CS back in college, but that's as far as my "online gaming" experience went! The only next generation console I have is the Wii and that's not great for online playing. Well, I've played CoD once or twice, but just end up getting annoyed after the millionth time dying. :pac:

I could see myself enjoying it more if people enjoyed it more.......if that makes sense.

Zeouterlimits

Fun, escapism, pure enjoyment.
I game because I enjoy it, whether it be back & forth battling an Elite in Halo, working as a team in TF2 or hitting the enter button at the end of a turn in Civ.

People get in gaming ruts though, it happens naturally.

NeoKubrick

Well, for competitive games, frustration is part of the process: whether you're learning that you are not as good as someone else or that your set of ideas of how to play the game are not as optimal as another's.

Rather than quit at the first sign of frustration, recognize it as an indicator to you to keep playing and as fuel to you to get better.

cherryghost

I game because:

- It's my form of entertainment
- I like communicating to other people with similar interests
- I'm good at what I play the most, and it gives me a sense of pride within myself

weiland79

I got into gaming for the simple reason that i lived in Germany for about 10 years. When i first got there i didn't have a bog what anyone was saying to me or on the tellie. So i bought myself a PS2 along with Max Payne and i was hooked. Btw i was big into arcades but the PS2 was the first home console i bought.

As to why i continue to play now all these years later,after being sniggered at and ridiculed by friends for countless years is simple.

I freakin love it! As a form of entertainment (for me) it cannot be beaten.
Be it saving the Universe, flying jet fighters /spaceships/racecars. Setting up my defences in an RTS, deciding which country to attack next in a strategy game or my all time favorite that little ' Dink ' sound my bullet makes when i shoot a Nazis helmet off. These are the things that will have me glued to my T.V for 6 plus hours any time i get the chance. So much more so than all the CSI's and Big brothers ever will.

Sabre0001

Fanny Cradock wrote: »

Hope for what? If you are a casual gamer you are a casual gamer. If you are more dedicated to games then you are more dedicated. Just as long as you aren't obsessed I don't see a problem. The whole point is that you derive pleasure from whatever effort you put in. If games are causing you frustration then fill the hours you would have put into them by doing something else. It's a big world!

It's alright. Was just pissy earlier

If I had learned from my experiences in SF and not gotten annoyed before putting on RDR, I would have found it to be an entertaining prospect - The invisible hostage (unfortunately I would still have to restart the game but meh!).

Retr0gamer

Becasue no one else will have me

ShiverinEskimo

Escapism and Relaxation. My idea of 'me time' is a few hours in front of the xbox being absorbed into whatever world the developers built for me.

I don't play multiplayer much aside from local co-op where we still follow the story. For these reasons I naturally stray toward time-consuming RPGs. Read Dead Redemption, Mass Effect 2, Fallout 3 being recent games where I've been engrossed because they give you a chance to invest yourself in them and forget about the day job for a few hours at a time.

Monotype

Go away from it for a couple of months. I've been completely immersed in games a few times and -suddenly- I'm sick of them. Then I come back a few months later and I'm back in it.

I like it because... the storyline. It's a more personal form of entertainment than tv in that you have more input and you feel more connected to the people.

Secondly, the action. Just like when people play sports. It get you excited, you feel good when you succeed.

Escapism, as mentioned above, too.

folan

cause its better than real life, and lets me do things i wouldnt do in real life! Stealing stuff in games is great! Leaving the guy on the train tracks in RDR is just crazyness!

Also, cause Ill never manage AC Milan in real life

Black Swan

Entertainment. Not really a gamer, like many here, as I cannot take too much time away from university. I do enjoy RPG, especially Dragon Age Origins and Awakening.

Magaa

To relax really

Agricola

Escapism and enjoyment. I find a good engrossing gaming session like a trip to the cinema to see a great film. For 2 hours (or more in the case of gaming) all the bs of the real world can be forgotten about. And of course games are inherently enjoyable. Well most of the time!

silvine

I was feeling a bit burnt out with gaming recently. I was sick of being told to go here, get this, kill him, do that etc then I played Starcraft 2 and I remembered why games are so compelling.

Fanny Cradock

Sabre0001 wrote: »

It's alright. Was just pissy earlier

Happens to the best of us!

TheFairy

Coz I'm met and made friends with a load of like minded guys who I have some serious fun playing games with and meeting up with on a regular basis. I've had around 7 lans at my house now with my clan mates, the biggest attendance was 18 people for a full weekend.

I tried a few months away from it a while back for various reasons and it just sucked the big one. My kids are now heading into their teens and all play games, as does my Mrs, currently playing Pikmin 2 on the Wii behind me as I type. Its a way of life tbh!

ShadowHearth

Well i play sine i was 6-7 years old. so thats 18 years experience lol.

honestly i am lossing that satisfaction now, that used to have ages ago. I didnt needed any achievments or something like that to complete games and play then again and again...

remember playing dune 2 on sega mega drive 2 last mission maps, and just making cool bases, with structure, yards, entrances, black doors etc. i was having fun, from just doing something intersting in game. i finished some of the games like 1000 times and newer got bored of them....

now i ussually strugle to finish any game a get, i just get bored... i have to admit i did finished SC2 on hard setting ressently, so it was really satisfying, and now i am replaying it on hard, but this time i do achievments... so i kind of got intrest back...

I would actually kill, to get that feeling that i had 18 years ago... when you played a game for 6 hours, and it looked like it was just 15mins...

DARK-KNIGHT

i game because thats my identity. i love the rivalry the friendships formed and the heated debates and discussions re the newest titles etc.

accept yourself as a gamer, i find gaming has accepted me I ****ING LOVE IT:)

Sofiztikated

To get away from life.

I can race cars I will never own, go places I will never see, shoot guns I will never have a chance of holding.

I can sit down and play the Xbox. Even if someone else is playing, I can be absorbed into the atmosphere.

Go through phases of cronic playing, every minute I get, through to not even switching it on.

Like ShadowHearth, I tend to get bored with games long before I finish them, I always have. But I'm finding I'm finishing more games now than ever before, whether thats down to me getting better, or the games getting shorter/easier. Red Dead Redemption, Batman:AA, Fallout, they all really sucked me in, and I couldn't wait to get playing them every day. I got Dragon Age:Origins, I loved it, but got bored with it, seemed very samey after a while.

I've gamed since I got a Mega Drive when I was a we'an, Aladdin was the first game I played, and man, I played it til it warped the colours on my TV.

I can sit and chat with some of my mates about games we used to play, and its probably rose tinted glasses, but games back in the day just seemed...better. Better structured, better story, of course the GFX weren't a patch on todays, but they did the best they could. I'll never forget that first zombie in RE1, the pings in Alien Resurrection, outrunning the cops in GTA and GTA:London, the hours spent on Streets of Rage, and wondering if I would have a chance with Blaze.

SeantheMan

I play for many reasons
-The Social aspect, been in the same clan for 6 years, and gamed through Mohaa/COD/COD2/COD4/MW2/BF2/BF:BC2 and next COD and MOH hopefully, I know them all well and am very good friends with them, it keeps the games a lot more interesting, and makes them more enjoyable

-Competitive -need some clan matches here and there, make things a bit fun, I don't mind losing in Starcraft2 or any game really, its good to compete...clan matches are the way though

-Making people rage / pwning - ....it's hillarious...and can't beat coming in at 5am after a night in town..turning on Fifa or Team Fortress 2 and just whalloping some American :P




Fifa is best played with 3 mates and a case of beer !! having mini tournaments ..you can only play online matches so much before it gets annoying...ppl quitting halfway through etc.

Have you triend Team Fortress 2, Left4Dead2 ??...these games have great staying power, and good communities which make the game a lot more fun,,,,obviously there will be @ssclowns as with every game ,,,,but you will find a lot of good like-minded ppl on there.

Also, suggest joining a clan ? It's always better playing matches with people you know or likeminded individuals.

Is it only console gaming or PC aswell ?...they are a different breed.

I'll only use the console for Singe Player mostly...(Bioshock, Fallout, Assasins creed) and then for Fifa ...PC is where its at for me in terms of social gaming and just chilling out on vent and asking is anyone up for a game of COD4/Starcraft2/L4D2 etc

Never give up on gaming !!! ever !!

K.O.Kiki

90% of my games are more enjoyable than 90% of my movie library.

Also because getting good at fighting games demands years of dedication, and I want to be a champion before I'm 30

petes

I find theses days it's good stress relief for me. I rented God of War 3 not so long ago. Put it on after a fairly crap day at work and blasted througha few hours of that. Great fun.

Bought Dead Space (little late I know) at the weekend and I'm enjoying that immensely. Have a load of games I have half played which I really must finish.

I'm 30 now and I don't get the same satisfaction as I did years ago when I finish a game. When I got all the cheats in Goldeneye I thought great I got them. Probably wouldn't be up for that these days.

At the end of the day I just enjoy them and I can still find hours flying by when in the middle of a session.

I really must get online again as I used to really enjoy that.

Roll on Gran Turismo 5. That will keep me busy for a while.

That_Guy

I game for recreational purposes mostly plus I find that gaming offers more bang for my buck than films or TV ever could to be honest.

Fnz

Robert Ashley produced a podcast episode asking the same question. It can be found here:

http://alifewellwasted.com/2009/04/29/episode-3-why-game/

Sarky

Fun.

Should there be another reason?

CiDeRmAn

So many reasons to game tbh
As the above poster says, it's fun, and so it is.
I love the single player campaigns of an FPS or GTA title.
I love the thrill of taking an open wheel racing car around Brands Hatch for the first time without hitting a tyre wall!
I love piloting an F22 into a swarm of enemy aircraft and blasting them to kingdom come!

Also, the desire to be at the cutting edge, to be a step ahead of the rest, and videogames often encompass this, where the sharp end of graphics and development is enshrined in a copy of Crysis, or in GT5.

Also there are the "other" reasons why people game....
It's not as demanding as true social play, for those who have issues engaging with others, hence why the stereotypical gaming geek was often seen as a social reject, this was really the case, a mild form of ASD, or Aspergers perhaps.
The rhythms and pulses of especially early arcade games lending themselves quite readily to "stimming" a practice used by people with ASD to provide regularity, a solid sensory foundation in an otherwise chaotic, noisy world.

Another reason is the escapism, as mentioned before, but if one has difficulty in finding real world fulfilment, if work and personal relationships are either difficult or hard to make work, then a prepackaged world, with built in activities and adventures, some 50/60 hours worth in modern RPGs like Fallout 3, means that those accomplisments needed for self esteem are to be experienced in the virtual rather than the real world.

Azza

Psycho Power and the joys of 3xc.lk xx scissor kick.

gogo.ie

Coriolanus

Depends on the game.

Shooters, RTS etc, really, they're just a bit of fun. I play them for a half hour or hour at max to unwind. I don't watch/have a television so in my mind at least they replace that as a relaxation tool.
The only games I try to play competitively would be MMOs and MUDs, when the fancy takes me, which is usually in cycles of about a year. When I'm playing them they tend to be all-encompassing though, so I restrict myself.

Retr0gamer

I think I was always meant to be a gamer. I was always fascinated by the arcade machines I saw but was never allowed to play them and my friends atari 2600. I just wanted to get my hands on them. Then when I was 7 I got my C64 and played games constantly and it hasn't stopped since. I just prefer it to any other solo activity. Spending time with my mates would come first but if it's between watching a movie or TV, well that's something I do when I've been playing games too much. I definitely have an OCD disorder when it comes to games but also when it comes to videogames history and trivia. I just absorb everything I read and hear about them and can talk about them non-stop.

Jazzy

to remind Funky and Dabounca that they are inferior human beings to me

ThunderApple

Because it's fun!
And sometimes I game just to switch my head off and relax after a stressful week or day or whatever. And it helps a lot!