A change in palate

[Ephemera1_]

Whether its food, how we view and interact with the world around us, even things we once enjoyed but no longer have the same passion for, its undeniable that, with age comes a change in palate. A change in what entertains us, a change in what matters to us. I want to know, how has your gaming taste changed over the years? Are there certain genres you initially were turned off to that you now enjoy? Maybe its the way in which you interact with games that's changed compared to how you used to. Certain mechanics you hated that you cant live without now, etc.

For me, when i was younger I was very much into fighting games and FPS, AND I STILL AM! However, i'm much more casual in my approach from where I once was. Yes i still want to be at least an above average player in those games, but I no longer have the passion to be an advanced/ ELITE level player. There's been a steadily growing enthusiasm in strategy games for me. I wasn't disinterested in playing them before, but now after briefly playing through Warhammer 40k: Mechanicus, I've got a strong urge to delve deeper into the genre. Card games interest me much more now than they did when i was younger and, Ive also gained a newfound fondness in city builder games as well as simulators. Spacebase startopia, Train sim world, Lawn Mower Sim, those kinds of games. Speaking of sims, Ive also completely phased out sports games from my rotation.

I'm a avid watcher of Football(NFL and regular Football) and i do enjoy some basketball/baseball, but i don't buy and play these games because of their predatory practices and just how janky some of the gameplay is now. The last GREAT madden game was probably the ORIGINAL madden 25, back in 2014, and even then, it didn't hold a candle to previous games like Madden 11. I grew up in the NBA live vs 2k era but once 2K won that battle and there was no other alternative, i found the games to be really boring and samey. Basketball sims aren't as fun as football sims IMO. Even modern day wrestling games have been phased out for me as well, I dont want to play a simulation of a fake sport and trying to understand why anyone would doesnt really baffles me. They had the formula down with Smackdown: "Here Comes the Pain", "Shut Your Mouth" and the pre SVR2009 games. Hell, even SVR2009 was more of a mixture of realism and arcadey fighting, and had they stuck with that, i would've been content with it, but alas they didn't. They decieded to go mostly simulation and now we have clunky, slow, boring wrestling games now.

Sorry for that little tangent on sports/wrestling games for anyone who never particularly cared for that genre in the first place. Well Thats how my taste has changed personally, what about yours?

 

[Stingy Perry Stingy Perry]

I used to love action platformers like the classic MegaMan, Ninja Gaiden for NES and others but as I get older my reflexes aren’t as it used to be. Rather than enjoyment there’s the frustration of missing a jump or evading. But my love for RPG and its sub genres are still there.

 

[_Lorenzo_]

When I was younger, I used to prefer RPGs (including strategy ones), and I didn’t really like platformers or action games in general because they stressed me out. Now it’s the exact opposite... I only play those kinds of games, while fighting games have always been something I’ve enjoyed. If I were to start a JRPG at my current age, I’d feel like I’m wasting my time because of the way those games are designed.

 

[qw90700]

Well not that my taste changed, it's just my telorance to "slow games" became zero because I ain't got time to wait for cutscenes to end and have zero telorance to listen to characters talk and talk. And don't mention about chore gameplay lol. So in my case it's more about, for example, when I was a kid I could tolerate a game like Death Stranding but since I don't have time and game is basically about what I do in my daily life whether physically and metaphorically I just wouldn't wanna play a BS game like that anymore. Instead I prefer games I can skip cutscenes and dialogues and directly get into action (not that I necessarily prefer mindless action lol).

Otherwise I still continue play games I always enjoyed to play back them, it's just I added new games to my list and that's it.

However what should be differentiated is excluding games that was interesting for their time as a temprary interest. For example I played StarCraft 1 a lot despite it's not a genre I would play, so after I played it so much I sucked all the fun I could have from it so dry I just can't drink anything more about it so naturally I wouldn't wanna play the game again. I don't see it as "my taste changed", it was just "I'm not interested in it anymore". So after decades of experiencing something like this a lot it makes you understand who you think you were was actually a delusion due to a temporary interest you had for various reasons. So it means whatever intest that's permanant for you is the element of your true personality. So for example if I still like to play Zero Tolerance, Contra Force and Mortal Kombat 3 then it means these 3 games have the elements of my own real personality so playing them satisfy the core of my personality that can never change. It leads us to the topic of how some part of personality effected by your genes that has little to change to cause drastic change in your self, some part of personality depends on your memory that will only be more of yourself or be away from being yourself, and some part of your personality is actually effected by current chemical reaction pattern of your body so from what you eat to what you usually feel as an emotion in that period of yourself just gives you a delusion of a false personality because these chemicals effects the way you percieve the reality. So don't mixup which is your real self from your emotional delusion and social mask yo lol.

This is also a good topic to mention what I see in post-internet era of society: Back then people's subjectivity was harder to change because there were few people in their life they talk, so subjective reality of people tied to their family, TV, radio and newspaper but it was still relatively less of an effect comparing to post-internet era. Now due to internet most people have no idea who they are but they become a someone that they believe they should be that depends on what social mask is the most popular around. In video games context this reflects upon which video game people feel like they should like. For example DOOM, GTA, Final Fantasy and Call of Duty became a subjective concept that society programmed themselves to necessarily believe "we should like these games because they are big deal", so their subjectively destroyed with popular opinion they believe they should support just because it's what majority believes in. As a result most people doesn't have a personality, they just wear a social mask that has delusion of a personality. They believe they like X and dislike Y regardless of it's not even their subjectivity. So that's why some games were popular therefore people liked in that era, but once the collective insanity of hype is gone only then people can realize "hey dude I actually didn't like DOOM, it's a sucks game". But this is not actually a case of "my taste changed", but it's about "the affect that block your subjectivity has no effect on you anymore" topic.

 

[PrismRed]

Almost none at all, I didn't and still don't play RTS and online-only games barring few exceptions, other than that I'm down, from the bottom of the barrel shovelware H-games to whatever the most popular genre is.

 

[PhrawzT]

My taste in games has always been all over the place and it's just about what seems interesting at the time. I have noticed that as I have gotten older I no longer have the dexterity to play FPS games as well as I used to, and fighting games no longer hold my interest.

I've never really been one to jump on game bandwagons and don't hesitate to admit that plenty of AAA games are not interesting to me and I have no desire to play them.

 

[dropsmegamega]

I think I am just generally more critical about game design overall. But I noticed I play more slow games like point and click and strategy these last years. I was never a fan of action, but there are a few genres l used to play more and can't really care about that much nowadays like 2D platformers.

 

[PhrawzT]

I think I am just generally more critical about game design overall. But I noticed I play more slow games like point and click and strategy these last years. I was never a fan of action, but there are a few genres l used to play more and can't really care about that much nowadays like 2D platformers.

I came to that realization a few years ago that most platformers are just frustrating and not worth my time.

 

[Iracunda]

I was a big baby growing up, so survival horror was a big no go for me. Now I consider it one of my favorite genres.

Another was anything turn based. Growing up playing Devil May Cry, Ratchet and Clank, Bayonetta made me really hate the idea of just watching my characters stand in place while I fought through a menu. Now I'm starting to slowly open up to that type of game. I finished FF7 Classic and Baulders Gate 3, and I'm currently in the middle of a Koudelka playthrough. I guess turn based wasn't my least favorite game of all time after all, and instead I've discovered a new hatred.... RTS. lol

 

[stealthRUSH stealthRUSH]

not much has changed. I still enjoy playing arcade-style games Fighting (2D) being my favorite since I was a kid. I guess my love of Beat'em Ups has been replaced with Shoot'em Ups over the past decade, that's new.