What drives you to revisit games?

[RageBurner]

I realize now I've been here for... almost a year now? and it's been a long, long time since I posted a thread, so why not?

I've been thinking about something lately, something I personally call revisitation drive. We tend to have a pretty good idea why we play games, why we like the genres we like and so on, but it seems, to me at least, that we think a lot less about why we replay games, at least I hadn't given it much thought until now.

The low hanging fruit would be nostalgia, I suppose; we miss what the game once meant, or the memories we had associated with them, good or bad. Another possibility would be genre burn out - playing too much of one kind of game can sometimes make us want to revisit something of a different flavor or speed. Yet another possibility is something random like using an online wheel or rolling a die and let fate decide.

For me, personally, I tend to leave a lot on the mental backburner and then suddenly I just feel like going back to some of those game ideas that were in stasis for months, maybe years, and then sink my teeth into that, and it feels rather refreshing, I have to say; I guess you could call it revisiting on impulse, or thawing out an idea.

So what is it like for you guys?

 

[Lod 10]

Agora percebo que estou aqui há... quase um ano? E faz muito, muito tempo que não publico nada, então por que não?

Estive pensando em algo mais tarde, algo que eu pessoalmente chamo de impulso de revisitação. Geralmente temos uma boa noção do porquê jogamos, por que gostamos dos gêneros que gostamos e assim por diante, mas parece, pelo menos para mim, que pensamos muito menos sobre por que rejogamos os mesmos jogos, ou pelo menos eu não tinha refletido muito sobre isso até agora.

A explicação mais óbvia seria a nostalgia, eu acho; sentimos falta do que o jogo representava antes, ou das memórias que tínhamos associadas a ele, boas ou ruins. Outra possibilidade seria a saturação do gênero — jogar demais um tipo de jogo às vezes pode nos fazer querer revisitar algo com um estilo ou ritmo diferente. Mais uma possibilidade é algo aleatório, como usar uma roleta online ou rolar um dado e deixar o destino decidir.

Pessoalmente, costumo deixar muitas ideias em segundo plano e, de repente, sinto vontade de retomar algumas delas que estavam paradas há meses, talvez anos, e então me dedico a elas. É uma sensação revigorante, devo dizer; acho que dá para chamar de revisitar por impulso ou descongelar uma ideia.

Então, como é para vocês?

BomWell, my dear moderator friend, sorry if I called you "friend," but I always love retro games, especially my favorite, Circus Charlie. I'm always looking for game recommendations to play.I like weird games.

 

[RageBurner]

BomWell, my dear moderator friend, sorry if I called you "friend," but I always love retro games, especially my favorite, Circus Charlie. I'm always looking for game recommendations to play.I like weird games.

Don't worry about it, we do try to maintain a friendly atmosphere here. If you are calling me a friend, well, I must be doing something right. Weird games tend to be rather memorable in their own way, so I can understand you being drawn to them.

 

[Lod 10]

Não se preocupe, nós tentamos manter um ambiente amigável por aqui. Se você me chama de amigo, é porque devo estar fazendo algo certo. Jogos estranhos costumam ser memoráveis à sua maneira, então entendo que você se sinta atraído por eles.

BWell, I'm enjoying RGT. I haven't broken any rules, no warnings have appeared. By "breaking a rule" I mean no warnings have appeared.Other things

 

[bjork]

I just like replaying stuff. Familiarity and not having to think as much as one might on an initial playthrough just adds to the escape for me. Maybe that's simple, but I'm not a complex person.

 

[ZEGA ZONIC]

Most of my games that I like are on PS3. But I do enjoy playing Garry's mod & messing around with the Touhou characters skins & weapon mods

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

Probably just pure, unfiltered nostalgia. Perhaps not for the game itself, but for the circumstances surrounding it -- the people I played it with, the stage my life was at at the time...

 

[RageBurner]

BWell, I'm enjoying RGT. I haven't broken any rules, no warnings have appeared. By "breaking a rule" I mean no warnings have appeared.Other things

You're fine. And, really, it's not like warnings are equivalent of Thor's hammer crashing on your head. Sometimes things slip.

 

[Zeo]

I go back to play games that i completed as a kid but didnt pay much attention to details that as an adult can easy get. Makes me realize how deep gameplay or the story can be

Also, when i play a new game that somehow makes me wonder how an old game back 10-20 years did it better and just replay that instead

 

[RageBurner]

I go back to play games that i completed as a kid but didnt pay much attention to details that as an adult can easy get. Makes me realize how deep gameplay or the story can be

Also, when i play a new game that somehow makes me wonder how an old game back 10-20 years did it better and just replay that instead

I know the feeling, this seems to be happening more, and more; some might clamor "rosy-tinted glasses!" and, while that may be true to an extent, it is a smaller portion of the big picture that most think

 

[ComicallyLargeSpider]

Sometimes I have to face my massive backlog and decide what game I want to play for 10 minutes before I go to work in the morning. Despite the many games I still need to play, my brain usually defaults to something familiar that I know will get me at least something I like guaranteed. Or my brain will go “Hey, remember when you got slapped by Heihachi in Tekken 3? Why don’t you play that for the 50th time, lose to Heihachi again, and go to work miserable?” And then I’ll be like “Ok fine, let’s get miserable”

 

[Luxfin]

I have multiple parts to this. Besides like nostalgia, I always wanted revisit a game simply because I have some kind of unfinished business with it.

Biggest Examples for me are (Ironically) Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2. I grew up with Coded but I played through KH 1 & 2 but never beaten them. Now after 7 to 8 years, I finally beaten them for myself.

Other than that I always revisit a certain game simply because there was nothing quite like it before or after it.

For now, I am just revisiting games simply because I missed them from the first time and now taking time to really get to know it.

 

[RageBurner]

Most of my games that I like are on PS3. But I do enjoy playing Garry's mod & messing around with the Touhou characters skins & weapon mods

What would some of those games be? I had a 360 that generation so I never got to play any of the exclusive stuff.

 

[jankusanagi jankusanagi]

Oh, a variety of reasons... sometimes the story was amazing, and you want to "live it" again, but you need to wait a few years to forget it enough so that it feels slightly new again.

Sometimes it's just that the gameplay itself was simple and pure fun.

There's also the case where you've been able to acquire "CoolGame 2", and want to replay "CoolGame" first.

 

[RageBurner]

Oh, a variety of reasons... sometimes the story was amazing, and you want to "live it" again, but you need to wait a few years to forget it enough so that it feels slightly new again.

Sometimes it's just that the gameplay itself was simple and pure fun.

There's also the case where you've been able to acquire "CoolGame 2", and want to replay "CoolGame" first.

I went through this a few times, having to forget a game's story sufficiently to be able to relive it. Specifically with Hotel Dusk and Last Window. How I wish we got more games in that series...

 

[ZEGA ZONIC]

What would some of those games be? I had a 360 that generation so I never got to play any of the exclusive stuff.

Gran Turismo 5 XL, Need for Speed Hot Pursuit and Infamous 1 & 2.

 

[RageBurner]

Gran Turismo 5 XL, Need for Speed Hot Pursuit and Infamous 1 & 2.

Ah, the fabled Gran Turismo! playing GT4 Spec II made me appreciate more simulation driven (maybe pun intended) racing games.

 

[JellyjamLu]

Nostalgia, Randomizers and modding the living fook out of it.

 

[RanmyakuIchi's icon RanmyakuIchi RanmyakuIchi]

For me it usually starts as an itch to revisit either the gameplay or the world of a game I really loved. Sometimes I'll really want to dive back into a favorite Action game to enjoy the fun game feel, or an Adventure or RPG game to get lost in the setting again, that kind of thing.

Sometimes it's just comfort too. Playing an old favorite that you've revisited on and off for years can feel like coming home.

 

[JustLooking123]

I feel playing some of old games is like some sort of mental rest for me... it's different than playing new games. (by "new", i mean games that i haven't played yet)
Sometimes i revisit my childhood games from MegaDrive and NES era... playing them is strangely soothing for me...

That being said, i rarely revisit old games... since usually i can just replay them in my mind...
But there are times when i'm very tired and playing old games at such times works great!

 

[TruxtonTatsujin TruxtonTatsujin]

Wanting to replay a game is kind of like craving a certain food. Sometimes I just remember how the game felt to play and want to experience it again. Game feel is something hard to define, but it's stuff like how the cars handle, how satisfying the weapons are to use, how the characters weight shifts as you control them etc. Even games of the same genre can have completely different feels.
For example I always enjoy revisiting many NES games because of how sharp and precise the platforming feels in those games. If it's a game I've beaten before the muscle memory just kinda kicks in and I'm able to get through it with relative ease. You're not really thinking about the game, just reliving the feeling of playing it.

 

[RageBurner]

Wanting to replay a game is kind of like craving a certain food. Sometimes I just remember how the game felt to play and want to experience it again. Game feel is something hard to define, but it's stuff like how the cars handle, how satisfying the weapons are to use, how the characters weight shifts as you control them etc. Even games of the same genre can have completely different feels.
For example I always enjoy revisiting many NES games because of how sharp and precise the platforming feels in those games. If it's a game I've beaten before the muscle memory just kinda kicks in and I'm able to get through it with relative ease. You're not really thinking about the game, just reliving the feeling of playing it.

Well said!

 

[Cu-Neo]

In my case is Age, as a child didn't understand a lot of things, now as a 22 years old citizen I can understand things from differents points and perspectives. Also every art has something special (even the bad ones) so wanting to find or see that special thing is another reason for me to replay games.

 

[Eclipse14]

The core reason for me is to try to keep my reflexes and knowledge of those games sharp. The former in particular is necessary for the stuff that requires it (the first Super Mario Bros in particular is one game I use as a warm-up), while the latter is involved in the stuff I do. I always felt like I could do something alongside playing the games I know, and now I have a fair excuse.

 

[PhrawzT]

Typically I think og fun I had with a game, or realizing that there's probably things I missed or parts I don't really remember, or I want to show the game to someone else and then get caught up playing it again.

Sometimes I gave up on a game and want to give it another chance.