Do you play games because it's cool or because you enjoy them?

[goregoregoregoregoregore]

Might be a weird question but i noticed how many people in the gaming community try to stay focused on only playing the "well regarded classics" as in a way to collect a medal of "i enjoy THESE superior games". The more "low quality" games are seen as waste of time, cringe or stupid so they just never try them or abandon it quickly. I think it's very unlikely that someone will only have a taste for these "well regarded classics" and not enjoy playing any notoriously bad games, but at the same time a very large portion of the gaming community seems to do exactly this, going so far as only displaying those classics on their gaming accounts and nothing more. So this makes me question, if you are one of those that spend the majority of your time playing the top quality well regarded games and none of the games that are viewed as bad for most people, do you think you actually enjoy gaming or rather than having fun, your objective turned into having a list on display of all the "certified quality" games you beaten and claim to enjoy? Can you explain your point of view in this too? Do i even make sense or i'm just dumb af?

(gif unrelated)

 

[Iguana-0]

I play games cause i need an activity that involves using both my hands. Cause i already have an activity that only requires one hand hint hint.

 

[ATenderLad]

I've never played a game without carefully considering the potential social capital gains, usually while sipping brandy and savaging my pud.

 

[regretro]

I suspect it is more a question of there being an ever increasing pile of epic classics, and an ever shrinking amount of playtime in your life.

But some are pretentious too, I guess. ;)

 

[goregoregoregoregoregore]

I've never played a game without carefully considering the potential social capital gains, usually while sipping brandy and savaging my pud.

I play games cause i need an activity that involves using both my hands. Cause i already have an activity that only requires one hand hint hint.

The duality of gamer

 

[RanmyakuIchi's icon RanmyakuIchi RanmyakuIchi]

Nah, I only play what interests me and my personal tastes. That being said, I do try to play games that are considered classics or influential in genre's I care about and enjoy.

I also don't care if the games I play are considered trash or are unpopular, I love me some janky ass B-games.

 

[Viviana Santos]

I like video games with gameplay that is objectively dogshit like the Persona 2 duology and I like incredibly esoteric and obscure games like Planet Laika and LSD Dream Emulator, so I play video games because I enjoy the medium in general.

 

[χKai]

Mainly because I'm too unhealthy for more adventurous activity. But it's also to experience fun little adventures, situations, or mini-games. I enjoy the art form.

 

[regretro]

I've never played a game without carefully considering the potential social capital gains, usually while sipping brandy and savaging my pud.

Absinthe Verte and PC Engine in the conservatory in the east wing, you uncultured heathen!

 

[Faust03]

I play games because I need some kind of mental stimulation, otherwise I start to lose it.

 

[Stingy Perry Stingy Perry]

I play games purely for enjoyment. It doesn’t matter if it’s a great or crappy one. And let no one tell you what to play or not.

 

[Tonberry]

I play games because it's my favorite form of expression and entertainment. Sometimes I kind of feel like I take it for granted and just drone along, but then I get reminded by the interactivity and the sheer myriad of ways you can present a videogame and I fall in love all over again.
Fun, boring, fast, slow, cinematic, arcadey, sad, happy, text-heavy, pure gameplay, skinnerbox, scary, toy-like, there's just so much to choose from. As long as I enjoy my time with it (regardless if it's a good or bad game) it will have been time well spent.

It's kind of weird to put into words though, so sorry if this looks like crazy rambling, lol.
There are more video games than I'll ever have time to play, so there will always be something new and cool to find, regardless if it's new or old, classic or cash-grab.

 

[ATenderLad]

Absinthe Verte and PC Engine in the conservatory in the east wing, you uncultured heathen!

Exposed as a malodorous varlet, I throw myself from the nearest parapet and fucking obliterate my aunt's Kia Sorrento.

To be slightly less flippant, I grew up playing games and it's just a hobby I enjoy. I imagine that's how it is for a lot of folks? Or rather, this feels like a more pertinent question depending on your age; it's more common now, with so much information at your fingertips, to consider how to get "the best" experience from a hobby or activity.

Not reviews to be clear, but I'm talking about people getting reading lists for comics, asking where to start with a particular series of books, or television shows. There's nothing wrong with it, that just didn't used to be much of an option beyond "maybe a friend has an opinion", so folks jumped into things blind more.

 

[valosagutas]

I don't care about subjective terms people come up with due to their philosophical take. "Classic", "popular", "review score", "quality" and even "how much it sold", "AAA budget", "that well-known video game company", et cetera means nothing to me because not everyone is me despite everyone can be a John Malkovich lolol. I'm not special "too different person" but naturally only one who can decide if I would like to play the game is me lol. That's why the human world aspect that's not "me" has no concern to me. My brain doesn't work in the way their brain works.

I play games because it's fun, as in gameplay is meaningful to waste your time on it in exchange for fun. Why it's fun for me is mostly because of what I cannot do in real life. What game allows me to do is meaningful to me because I can reflect my soul to it.

Now the video game industry is based on having too many dialogues, character dramas, watching cutscenes and chore to-do list to complete. This is not fun for me. The games gotta have something different about it, man.

I don't care about showing certain games in my profile stuff (because who cares) but if I had it would be because somewhat these games managed to touch my soul (so you can see who I'm). If I had display them because I unlocked every achievement they had to offer it would be just a way to reflect my soul in a way "this is what I had fun to do". You may enter my home and see certain games on my display only for me to see as a reminder, because I cared about them enough to have them physically, it would be just because they mean something to me like I enjoyed being in that reality. I enjoyed having "that life". Then it means the game was fun for me. The time was wasted but well spent. It also means "I would enjoy that life forever" because I know myself that much. These games will never be the ones I would get bored.

 

[Princess_Auggie]

i play games because they are fun and its cool to play video games. : 3

 

[Viviana Santos]

I like incredibly esoteric and obscure games like Planet Laika and LSD Dream Emulator, so I play video games because I enjoy the medium in general.

These three incredibly obscure games are the ones I really want to play in the future (unfortunately, only Garage: Bad Dream Adventure is in English, the other two don't have English fan translations yet).

 

[RustySK]

Enjoyment is such a vague term. I mean, I play games because I want to play them, I suppose.

Most of the time that means I'm enjoying them, yes, but sometimes that also means I find some aspect of the experience interesting or I want to understand what they're about/trying to convey or some of the ideas behind them were fascinating to me or I like the emotions they evoke (including decidedly negative emotions) or I find them so damn obnoxious that I want to spite-finish them so I can banish them from my mind forever afterwards.

I can definitely say with all honesty that I have never in my life thought about the social credit I might earn by consuming any form of media. I dunno, I don't think I get the question.

 

[goregoregoregoregoregore]

Enjoyment is such a vague term. I mean, I play games because I want to play them, I suppose.

Most of the time that means I'm having fun, yes, but sometimes that also means I find some aspect of the experience interesting or some of the ideas behind it were fascinating to me or I like the emotions it evokes or I find it so damn obnoxious that I want to spite-play it so I can banish it out of my mind forever afterwards.

I can definitely say with all honesty that I have never in my life thought about the social credit I might earn by consuming any form of media. I dunno, I don't think I get the question.

I guess this question doesn't make much sense for people here since it's a more oldschool community with different values and most people are older, but as someone that used to walk around a bunch of other big gaming communities out there or just going around the internet i noticed how there was like you said, a certain social credit people would go after by playing certain games or certain genres, similar to how some book readers select the "smart people books vs non-smart people books" and if you read only the smart books you have a smart status among them. It's more like a form of elitism from the part of some gamers out there online that i noticed.

 

[ThatOneLum]

I think most people who play games for any extended period of time are probably in it for the love of the game, literally.

People who go into stuff for shallow social reasons are liable to drop the hobby, or end up actually getting into games, I guess.

 

[deh]

I would say both.

 

[TruxtonTatsujin]

I love playing esoteric garbage.
I rarely talk to people about what I'm playing so nothing a choose has any kind of impact on my "coolness". Even when they ask the answer is usually something they've never heard of.
I don't really mess with other forms of media very often so I'm pretty much all in an GAME.
(Next game I plan on playing for some perspective)

 

[Jeff]

Both, but also to relive stress, use as a cure for boredom, and finding new adventures.

 

[The Prince of Misery]

I just play games that I enjoy, I'm no longer an artificial person who cares what the critics think about an entertainment medium.

---

 

[TotzOnGaming]

Both, and cuz I ain't exactly a heathy dude.

 

[Lokgamer]

I play games because I like them or I find them interesting. I've never play a game just because it's the popular game of the moment or because it is the topic of conversation. Honestly, that last case seems really stupid to me.