Several years ago I had a blast playing any video game I got my hands on. It didn't matter if it had horrible reviews or did indeed suck, I enjoyed the hell out of it. I owned a HUGE library of games on every console. I loved the concept of gaming in general.

     Now though, it's becoming the exact opposite.  Even if gaming is what I put most of my time into, I only buy about a total of 5 major games a year. I'm interested in very few games now. Most of the time when I see a trailer for a game or a preview, I think in my mind, "Wow, that game is going to be aweful", even if I'm usually right.

     So since I have interest in few games, I've been trying for several years to get into a mmo, but so far I can't find one mmo that I like. I've tried a very wide variety of free to play and pay to play mmos. I absolutely can't stand WoW, I tried it for 6 months, never liked a single minute of it. Right now I'm looking forward to GW2. SWTOR looks alright, but to me it's kind of a reskin of WoW. I really want to try it because I love Star Wars, but I guess I'll have to wait a few months until they release a free trial.

     Because of my recent realization of my disgust of today's mmos, I've been trying to enjoy some rpg's. A few I think are alright, but I can't get my hands on one that makes me melt in my seat. Skyrim is alright, too repeptitive and little content (armor, weapons, creatures, spells) even if the map was HUGE. I loved Fallout 3 though, best rpg Bethesda made in my opinion. Witcher 2 was really good but my laptop can barely run it on the lowest settings. Red Dead Redemption was my favorite game for a while, and I will always remember it's story. I'm not going to sit here and tell you all the rpg's that I've played, but I think you catch my drift.

     Is it just me or is the gaming industry going to crap? I mean look at games like MW3, BF3, Crysis 2, etc., how did they get good ratings!? Did reviewers realize that most games suck now and that these games should be rated high by comparison? Or am I just setting my standards too high? I'm longing for an epic game that will blast me away, whether it's online or not. Do you guys have any suggestions? Am I getting tired of video games?

For me the quaility of the MMORPG market started to descent with the release of WoW, I think right now were at the worst RPG are gonna be, with the release of guildwars 2 round the corner i feel the the MMO quaility will increase again with the release of GW2, another game im looking forward to atm is EQ next but that still a good year or two off but they claim there going back to the roots of the MMORPG and make it similar to Everquest 1 which was the game i enjoyed the most in my gaming history but only time will tell on if they keep to that standard or take short cuts like modern RPG are doing atm.

@OP

It's just you, when you played so many games. You be at a point you'll just generalized everything. For example, you said TOR is a re-skin WoW (which btw is a re-skin EQ). You felt you've experienced everything the industry have to offer, and indeed you are.

That being said, it's not entirely you though. Through the lack of innovative thinking, the industry is getting "stale". Much like the movie or the music industry.

edit: Suggestion? Leave gaming, do other stuff.

Your likely just feeling the lack of innovation that has been going around lately. For the last several years most games have been clones, or simplified versions of earlier games.

Since this trend has been going on I've just moved more towards indie gaming companies. They tend to be more innovative (because they aren't run by suits) and the games are cheaper on top of it.

Personally I think in a couple of years it will swing back and you will start to see more complex games becoming common again. I would say its ether time for you to try some of the admittedly strange sounding indie games, or take some time off gaming until something really interesting comes along.

What is it that you really want out of a game? Is it challenge? Discovery and adventure? Character building and class diversity? Storyline? Character customization? Jiggley breasts and squeaky anime voices?

Personally, I am completely bent towards character customization.  It's the most important characteristic in a game for me, even more important then gameplay. So I'm playing APB Reloaded. It's a reasonably fun game to play, but the character customization is excellent. Lots of things you can change and unlock. It works great for me, the next person may very well hate it though.

Before giving up on games entirely, I would recommend you check out gog.com. They sell good old games from the past for cheap. I just bought like 13 old games for 40 bucks for myself for Christmas, since there is a 50% off sale on most of the games.

Sounds like its time for some D&D.

It's not just you.

The majority of games being pumped out by the big name developers are rehashes of the same old crap with shiny new graphics. There's so much emphasis on making games "accessible" and "eye catching" to grab the attention of a wider audience. The result is that actual gameplay, enjoyability, and replayability take a complete backseat in development priority. The result is bland games that all start becoming copies of each other because they don't even try to do anything noteworthy.

Ironically, it seems to me that it's the indie developed games that have comparatively sub-par graphics, tend to actually be a lot more fun to play lately.

Not sure if you've tried them yet or not, but the Final Fantasy games are something I think everyone who considers themselves to be a gamer should have played.

Final Fantasy VII onwards (not the MMOs).. gamers heaven. Doesn't matter that they are old.

But you've probably already tried them or dislike jrpgs...

Originally posted by Jimmac

Before giving up on games entirely, I would recommend you check out gog.com. They sell good old games from the past for cheap. I just bought like 13 old games for 40 bucks for myself for Christmas, since there is a 50% off sale on most of the games.

This,

for games like Planescape torment for $4.99 working perfectly on Win7, bargin:

http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/planescape_torment

with a link to a really good mods guide in the description.

When you have played every game out there, its hard for you to find something new that excites you. You're constantly playing games, but never satisfied. You could always take a break from gaming of it has consumed your life for so long. Maybe a month or so. Then by that time maybe you will have missed gaming enough to come back and enjoy the simpler things in life. To be honest I play alot of games, although they are not as fun, because I am a fan of it. It takes time to find a really enjoyable game but I'm sure there is something out there whether you are a fan or just because the gameplay is fun. Try playing wtih friends it helps alot more. 

something tells me you haven't tried out all the different genre of games out there. even the one's you don't expect that you would like. I tend to juggle around different genre's of games when i get bored and occasionally i find a diamond in the rough.

for example, generally speaking, i HATE F2P games with a passion, however after trying quite a few to broaden my gaming education, some of them are actually not that bad. even some of the Korean grinders had some innovative ideas that the modern AAA mmo's should incorporate.

another example, my friend just recently got hooked onto wizard 101!!!! i was like WHAT? isn't that something his little 5 year old niece plays? but apparently, it's not as bad of a game as I thought.(considering how hardcore of a gamer my friend is) if he said it's not that bad, I'll have to defer to his judgement since we've been gamers since back in the "new world computing" might and magic 1 through 9 days(not some of this new garbage they re-badged as might and magic.)

I've also reinstalled diablo2 at least 3 times over the years and played the entire thing over because there wasn't anything out.

it's a matter of broadening your gaming experience and try out different games/genres even if you don't think you'll like them. 

if you want a game to try, give ARMA2 a shot,  you'll absolutly HATE it in the begining because the interface is crap and difficult to learn,  but once you get used to the game, you'll never look at FPS games the same again.  everything else (in the FPS genre) would seem boring.   basiclly think of battlefield3, but you actually NEED to learn how to shoot.  not the rambo style spray bullets till something falls over, but actually stop, go prone, aim, hold your breath, aim better, compensate for target movement and bullet drop, THEN you squeeze off a round and 1.3 seconds later, the bullet arrives at your target THEN he falls over but not dead because you missed the headshot by about 8 inchs too low and got his shoulder instead:) (yes there is such thing as bullet travel time)   it's one thing to spray bullet FPS style and see blood blinding your viser for 1.6 seconds.  it's a completely different thing when you squeeze off the perfect headshot round from 1500 meters away while the target is moving and it took about 2 seconds for your bullet to even arrive at your target:)

the community of ARMA are adults and heavily influenced by military professionals.   they use actual military jargon when communicating over voice.  and they WILL kick you off their server if you dont behave like an adult. 

  Seven years ago we had Pc exclusive developers for single player gaming going for pushing the envelope with the Pc tech of the time, since then the cross platform age came upon with more able consoles which resulted in developers going for the middle ground compromises that has left Pc gamers  feeling something is lacking from their gaming of old.

 With gaming as mainstream as it is now, we're left waiting for the next gen of consoles for the gaming envelope to be pushed once again, whilst in the meantime we get tossed a few bones every now and then from developers like those behind The Witcher, and of course we all know how the MMO side of things have gotten for a lot of Pc gamers. There is hope though, 2012 is the year of Planetside 2, a name to install excitement into any Pc gamer, a true MMO using our Pc tech of today incoming!

I feel your pain. Well somewhat.

I love empire building games and have done since the days of Bullfrog and their games like populus 2. Railroad Tycoon, sim city and recently Europa Universalis are my all time favourite games. However I'm less patient than I used to be, if a game doesn't grab me within 30 minutes I just won't bother playing it. An example would be the latest Civilization game, I was pretty excited by it and it had rave reviews. I loathed it from the start it felt more like a boardgame than an empire building game. I haven't even looked at it since.

I like my games to havr large maps, long timelines and complexity. I don't really see things like that comming from mainstream publishers like EA or Sony. They tend to focus more on pure entertainment rather than taxing the brain. To be fair their games are polished, very accessible and less time consuming. It's a sign that gaming has become more mainstream and less of a hobbyist  passtime when it was just you and a friend playing a game in your bedroom after school. Although gamming is still a mostly male passtime it's audience is a lot larger than it once was. Anyone from the age of 4 to middle aged men are playing them. So it's the demands of that large  audience rather than gammers like me that come first. 

The best example of how gamming has evolved is the developer and game designer (and legend is his own mind) Peter Molyneux.  He worked in some great games, particularly early on. Populous, megalomania, Dugeon Keeper and Syndicate.. All great games in their own right. Simple, well designed and well presented.  Now he works on that god awful game, fable 2 and 3 and hypes them for all they are worth.

Although there are games out there that cater for my taste they are done on smaller budgets and therefore I sometimes feel these games are not as polished and as great as they could be given the resources and constraints these indie companies  have. And so I sometimes feel I'm being given second best. Sign of the times I guess.

Originally posted by psyclum

if you want a game to try, give ARMA2 a shot,  you'll absolutly HATE it in the begining because the interface is crap and difficult to learn,  but once you get used to the game, you'll never look at FPS games the same again.  everything else (in the FPS genre) would seem boring.   basiclly think of battlefield3, but you actually NEED to learn how to shoot.  not the rambo style spray bullets till something falls over, but actually stop, go prone, aim, hold your breath, aim better, compensate for target movement and bullet drop, THEN you squeeze off a round and 1.3 seconds later, the bullet arrives at your target THEN he falls over but not dead because you missed the headshot by about 8 inchs too low and got his shoulder instead:) (yes there is such thing as bullet travel time)   it's one thing to spray bullet FPS style and see blood blinding your viser for 1.6 seconds.  it's a completely different thing when you squeeze off the perfect headshot round from 1500 meters away while the target is moving and it took about 2 seconds for your bullet to even arrive at your target:)

I've tried to give this game a shot a few times, but the last time I tried to install it from Steam, it crashed to desktop when I started fiddling with the graphics settings. Second try and my computer bluescreens (and it doesn't do that otherwise).

Brilliant game, I'm sure, but the devs could put in a few hours of work into making it work on most PCs first and then think about pushing the next buggy sequel out of the tube.

I feel the same way. I can't stand new MMOs. That's why I spend the majority of my online gaming time playing English Priston Tale. It's nostaligic for me as it was my first MMO. Compared to MMOs now it's awful. But it's really challenging as most of the conveniences in new MMOs don't exist in it. I do have high hopes for GW2 though, I just hope they aren't dashed...

why do you wanna to do that, I do not think it is just for you 

Originally posted by Jimmac

Before giving up on games entirely, I would recommend you check out gog.com. They sell good old games from the past for cheap. I just bought like 13 old games for 40 bucks for myself for Christmas, since there is a 50% off sale on most of the games.

Thanks for the site!  Going to buy Descent 1 and 2.  My all time favorite games.  Just wondering where I can connect to other people online for the multiplayer part of the game.

I sometimes feel the same way, i used to get into these games so much... Final Fantasy 7-10, Dark Cloud, Actraiser, Super Mario World, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, Shadow Hearts1, Shadow Madness, Legend of Dragoon, Jade Cacoon, almost every rpg game out there since SNES to Playstation 2... it starts to died down on me when i play the xbox 360 games out there, and noticed that most games are becoming more shorter, more fusterating, lack of quality and content, it's like developers lost there brains and just shit out games for money (if you understand what i'm saying).

I remember the time that games like Breath of Fire IV took me about... 2 weeks to beaten the game for me. Diablo 1, 2-3 weeks. Now with new games like modern warfare 2, 1 day. Saints Row? 1 week. Skyrim? 1 week. Oblivion? 3 days...

you see where i am going? Dispite how popular and attractive most of the big indestries out there, they really don't add much logevity into the game from progress to be beaten. I want a game that take me at least a month to be beaten (like WoW when I got up to level 85 and already did most of the 85 dungeons and raids out there). If only I got the skills to make a certain game, I will make my games more fun, with each and every other patch. a storyline as strong as Final Fantasy X and Star Wars: knights of the old republic, from great cinamatics that blizzard entertainment made on Starcraft 2. I want someone long, kickass, addicting, and fun... like the good old days.

---

Originally posted by yaminsux
@OP
It's just you, when you played so many games. You be at a point you'll just generalized everything. For example, you said TOR is a re-skin WoW (which btw is a re-skin EQ). You felt you've experienced everything the industry have to offer, and indeed you are.
That being said, it's not entirely you though. Through the lack of innovative thinking, the industry is getting "stale". Much like the movie or the music industry.
 
edit: Suggestion? Leave gaming, do other stuff.

---

I think still some gems out there Bioshock 2006, Stalker 2008, Darkfall mmo 2009, The Witcher 2011(bit short tho)(all tho it was ignored by all gaming sites when GotY pop up) Skyrim 2011(not worth 10/10 or 100% but around 9/10 overall gameworld design and dungeon worth 10/10). Zelda OoT 3DS 2011 still worth mentioning and worth playing.

RPGs last few years worth mention are Divinity 2 Ego Draconis+expansion, Risen.

But its a matter of taste ofcorse and what your gaming history is.

I only played PC games and avarage 4 to 5 games a year so prolly less burned out then OP hehe.