Gryzemuis on 27/10/2019 at 23:24
No game will ever be as obsessive/addictive/time-consuming as World Of Warcraft was in 2005-2010. Not just for me, but for a *lot* of people. I wasted 10K+ hours playing that game. And I would estimate that I have spent a few thousands of hours reading about the game as well. That is roughly 7 full man-years worth of time. No regrets. Except for the fact that Blizzard demolished the game. They ruined their goose with the golden eggs. Just for a few extra bucks in the short-term. That plan killed the potential of the game in the long run. I don't feel sorry for them, greedy bastards.
I'm 4 Years, 10 months and 2 weeks clean. And counting.
Pyrian on 28/10/2019 at 03:55
Did you know there's a WoW Classic server now??? :sly:
Starker on 28/10/2019 at 04:27
Besides those that have already been mentioned...
I've spent a lot of all-nighters on Magic: The Gathering (MicroProse 1997). There's just something so satisfying about it (besides MTG being as addictive as ever) -- not sure if it's the deck building or the opponent deck variety or something else entirely.
Then there are all those one more turn strategy games... hard to choose here, but Alpha Centauri is probably on top of the list.
From roguelikes, it's Nethack I keep returning to time and time again. There may be other roguelikes that have more to offer, but it's just like an old glove that fits incredibly well at this point.
As for roguelites, The Binding of Isaac is ever as fantastic a game as it is dark and disturbing.
Silent Hill 2 I keep replaying from time to time just to re-experience the story and the atmosphere. It's like a favourite movie.
Dark Souls I still play from time to time, but I've mostly moved on by now. Still not yet tired of soulslikes as a genre, though.
Gryzemuis on 28/10/2019 at 12:37
Quote Posted by Pyrian
Did you know there's a WoW Classic server now??? :sly:
Of course. And there are many more than just one Classic server. 37 Classic servers in Europe. Classic is a huge success. Some people estimate that Classic is being played more than Retail (the current game) at the moment.
I resisted !
I must admit, I did follow the news closely during the weeks before and after launch. A week after launch I even installed the client on my PC. But I did not buy a subscription. I did not log in. I did not contact my old guild-mates. I did not play. (And of course I removed the client again).
I don't believe the hype that games are addictive and make our youth suck. I think the world sucks, and gaming is a great tool to escape from the world (for a while). I've played a lot of games between November 1998 (release of HL1) and summer of 2015 (when my gaming hours dropped to zero/week some times). But I always felt I was in control. I played when I wanted, and when I didn't want to play, I didn't. When a game was done, I'd move on to the next game. If it is considered normal to spend 25 hours/week watching TV, then playing games 25 hours/week should be fine as well. Or even better. But WoW was different. There have been (many) weeks where I played 70 hours/week. There have been stretches of months where the only thing that was on my mind was WoW. Maybe it was not healthy. It was fun, it was not like I was lying in my own filth with a needle in my arm. But for the first time in my life I thought I could recognize how people get addicted to something. (I like to think I don't do addictive stuff: I hardly drink (less than a dozen glasses per year), I never did drugs, I never smoked a cigarette, I detest gambling). But WoW was something different.
I don't want to play WoW again, because the (current) game is not fun anymore. And I hate Blizzard and never want to pay another cent to them. But if another game comes along that is very good, and consumes thousands of hours of play time, I might be running to join. Unfortunately I don't think we'll see many such games again, tbh. Maybe RDR2 ? GTAV was fun, but I didn't play that game for 40 hours/week during multiple years. As I wrote in another thread yesterday, I struggled to finish the game. So I don't think RDR2 will take that much time either. Maybe The Elder Scrolls VI ? Skyrim took a few hundred hours, but nothing comparable to WoW.
WingedKagouti on 28/10/2019 at 13:57
Quote Posted by Gryzemuis
I don't believe the hype that games are addictive and make our youth suck.
Games in general are not addictive, but some games are designed specifically to push every single button that is known to the developers in an attempt at making their players psychologically dependent on the game. Some people have a higher resistance to those tactics than others.
Gryzemuis on 28/10/2019 at 14:28
True. But I'm under the impression that that aspect is something that started roughly 10 years ago. Before 2010, games were mostly about "you pay us money once, we'll deliver a fun game once". After ~2010 all that changed. And many publishers have been trying to rack in as much money as possible via all kinds of tricks (unnecessary subscriptions, in-game purchases, pay2win, lootboxes, etc). Maybe that's why I'm less into games nowadays, there's just fewer (AAA) games without all that bullshit.
heywood on 28/10/2019 at 19:49
Besides the usual TTLG favorites, I would say:
Quake
Flight Simulator
Tetris
SSX 3
Project: Space Station on the C64
Chasing Minesweeper records
I used to waste a lot of time playing sims, but no single game really stands out besides the aforementioned FS. I dodged a bullet by skipping Civilization and watched my roommate nearly miss graduation because of it. I went through a golf phase for several years too, but the games kept changing.
SubJeff on 29/10/2019 at 00:07
Quote Posted by Brethren
Hyperlight Drifter.Such a great game. I was in an indie playing space and played Fez and The Witness around the same time. Never finished those, HLD was great though.
For me the games I can play again and again are FTL for single player, an Company of Heroes 2 for MP. They never get old.
zajazd on 29/10/2019 at 07:41
Quote Posted by heywood
SSX 3
mmm magic game, my favorite on PS2. It was one of the few games that I tried to play
less to make it last longer.