I don't think there "must" be an age cutoff where people are supposed to stop playing - instead, there's an age cutoff for where people didn't grow up with or have access to computers or gaming.
I was born right on the cusp of video games moving from niche nerd shit and becoming relatively mainstream. I can see that there's a clear gap between friends who game and friends who don't that nearly directly ties to whether or not they played games as a kid. A lot of the time for my generation, that's a socioeconomic division more than anything else. Computers were expensive as a kid, so most of my friends who grew up poor found other interests in childhood and grew up to be adults who don't really play games. The kids I grew up around whose families were more well-off have continued gaming as adults. Maybe less, maybe different games; but in many ways it's like asking what age someone is supposed to outgrow "having hobbies".
The older someone is today the less likely it is they had access to games and gaming, and often the more intimidating they find learning about computers and gaming - and the more time they've had to find some other hobby that they find compelling.
There definitely is a thing in the dating market where some people can be particularly judgmental about gaming. Personally, I've found that is loudest and largest for some of the more ... "serial" daters I know, who have found themselves in relationships with lots of different people and have found that gaming, or identifying as a "gamer" tends to correlate with other bigger issues. There's also the side concern when something that's big in your life isn't something they can relate to - a little like the ultra-fan Sports Dudes where all of every game day will always be booked off for watching the games with the boys.
I think in regards to the dating market, it's less that anyone needs to "grow out of" gaming, and more that adults are more expected to have a mature relationship with their hobbies, gaming included. And given that there are negative connotations about degenerate adult gamers not really grown up, that may be something to keep in mind regarding how you present that hobby and how you talk about your relationship with it.
I think Valve learned a ton about game design between Half-Life and Half-Life 2. Half-Life 1 pulls a lot of "gotcha" moments that you just have to reload your save to get through, whereas Half-Life 2 actually make sure to have teachable moments so you know what to look out for, and here's my favorite example. Half-Life 2 introduces you to a sniper enemy right after Ravenholm by having a traceable laser pointer that's shooting escaped headcrab zombies. The sniper is concerned with them, not you, so you have time to be aware of the threat and know what it looks like. Half-Life 1 introduces the sniper enemy by having you round an ordinary looking corner and get shot in the back. After reloading your save, you can squint at the hole in the wall in that alley, knowing it's there this time, and say to yourself, "Yeah, I guess that kind of looks like a sniper's nest."
The gimmicks that you refer to in Half-Life 2 are, I think, phenomenal examples of how to properly pace a video game and make the game memorable. While Gordon Freeman is a nothing character and more of a focal point for everyone else in the game to talk about, those characters are good, well-written characters.
I’d even argue just generally don’t drop major spoilers unannounced for older stuff either.
For newer stuff tag ALL spoilers, for old stuff at least tag MAJOR spoilers?
Same thing I play every week. Coral Island and RCT3.
Coral Island is in Steam Early Access and is as yet unfinished, but is making steady progress and the devs are doing great at keeping everyone up to date on progress. Coral Island is frequently compared to Stardew Valley. Frankly, I don’t enjoy SDV. I’ve tried and tried and it just doesn’t do it for me. Coral Island is everything I was hoping SDV would be. It’s game play is similar, but I find the whole thing much more enjoyable.
I’ve been playing RCT3 off and on since I first bought it on CD a million years ago.
The Burnout, WipeOut and Ridge Racer series. All of those are perhaps the best arcade racers ever released on consoles, and they’re all dead now. I’ve been playing the PS1 and PS2 games, and they all still hold up tremendously today.
Keep in mind that there are different schools of thought on what makes a good open world game.
I love exploration and discovery without much guidance, so point-of-interest markers and repetitive copy/paste events (as found in Horizon and Witcher games) bore me. Responsive controls and good user interface are also important to me, so Red Dead Redemption 2 was a miserable experience that drove me away, despite the great environments and character building. Some people consider those games masterpieces, though, so I have to assume their priorities are different from mine.
Subnautica is an outstanding example of what appeals to me. Beautiful world, unconfined exploration, excellent soundtrack, a story told through discoveries rather than exposition, multiple ways to accomplish things, and a departure from the usual “kill everything” approach to success. Fair warning: it is a first-person game.
Skyrim shares some of these strengths and can work pretty well in third person with mods like True Directional Movement and TK Dodge RE. Be aware that modding Skyrim is a deep rabbit hole that can quickly become a full time job. One way to solve this is using the Wabbajack tool to semi-automatically install a well-tested mod collection.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits looks like it shares some of its design with Breath of the Wild / Tears of the Kingdom, which is encouraging. I haven’t played it yet.
bin.pol.social
Aktywne