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Has anyone overcome their initial boredom of an RPG?

Curious_Tongue

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I'm a huge fan of Fallout 1 & 2, Planescape, Morrowind... Yet when I sit down to play another "classic" rpg like Baldur's Gate, Pillars of Eternity, ToEE, Arcanum... I'm bored out of my brain. I can't even stand watching playthroughs on youtube.

Has anyone overcome a similar aversion to an RPG and ended up enjoying it?
 

DraQ

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I'm a huge fan of Fallout 1 & 2, Planescape, Morrowind... Yet when I sit down to play another "classic" rpg like Baldur's Gate, Pillars of Eternity, ToEE, Arcanum... I'm bored out of my brain. I can't even stand watching playthroughs on youtube.

Has anyone overcome a similar aversion to an RPG and ended up enjoying it?
Divinity 2: Ego Draconis. Gets way better than initial impression around the first meeting with Zandalor and is a blast overall.

But you might be suffering from genre ennui. Try playing something else, not an RPG.
 

Morpheus Kitami

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I think if you're at the point where you can't even watch a playthrough of it, you should should probably try playing something else for a time. It sounds more like burnout than an actual issue with the game. Unless you're playing an entirely different RPG and feeling fine...in which case, I don't know what to tell you. Most RPGs suffer from having a poor start in my experience, getting used to the controls, the game explaining its concepts in a linear fashion, or the game starting off difficult.
 

Butter

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Being bored by PoE or ToEE early game is not necessarily a player problem. Arcanum should be an easy sell if you like Fallout; the character creation + opening cutscene should be enough to keep you intrigued until you hit Tarant and the story picks up.
 

Curious_Tongue

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People just talk about some games as though they're on the same level as Planescape, Fallout and Morrowind. I want to see what I'm missing out on.
 

King Crispy

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I haven't played an RPG for years.

This means you "grew up". You're done. You'll never like computer games, likely ever again. Whether by some event that occurred in your life, or some change in your personality, the childlike play aspect of your brain is no longer able to be stimulated. Your endorphins are no longer tickled by the thought of finding that perfect longsword for your fighter. It's over.

Good luck being a normie.
 

Jackpot

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I don't know.
I remember I restarted KotOR genuinely like 20 times without making it past the first or second planet.
Then one time I made an attempt, made it all the way to the end, bought kotor2 and beat that game immediately.
I think you just need to be in the right frame of mind.
 

Curious_Tongue

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I haven't played an RPG for years.

This means you "grew up". You're done. You'll never like computer games, likely ever again. Whether by some event that occurred in your life, or some change in your personality, the childlike play aspect of your brain is no longer able to be stimulated. Your endorphins are no longer tickled by the thought of finding that perfect longsword for your fighter. It's over.

Good luck being a normie.
Last year I played Warcraft 1 and 2 because I've always wanted to finish them. I've been playing Railroad tycoon 3 for hundreds of hours.

I also sat down and watched a let's play of Leisure Suit Larry 2 because I wanted to.
 

Serious_Business

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I enjoy these Codex versions of the classical therapeutic problem, the one psychological issue that plagues western civilization : "why does my wife doesn't make me hard anymore" - "why am I so bored with rpgs these days"... the shrink answers : "you may be suffering from general ennui ; I recommend playing with other games to stimulate your desire"

Indeed, how can love last forever, you ask. Simple. First, violence. Then, terror. Finally - a release
 

Bester

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Yet when I sit down to play another "classic" rpg like Baldur's Gate, Pillars of Eternity
Nice try rewriting history. POE was never a codex classic. It received mediocre ratings from most codexers and when there was a poll about best RPGs a year later, it came in 80th or something like that. Nobody thinks it's a classic. It's the classic of mediocrity.
 

Curious_Tongue

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Yet when I sit down to play another "classic" rpg like Baldur's Gate, Pillars of Eternity
Nice try rewriting history. POE was never a codex classic. It received mediocre ratings from most codexers and when there was a poll about best RPGs a year later, it came in 80th or something like that. Nobody thinks it's a classic. It's the classic of mediocrity.

I have similar levels of boredom trying to watch a PoE let's play as I do other "classic" RPGs.
 

laclongquan

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Icewind Dale 2.

No, really.

My initial run I used walkthrough and try best builds recommended by that shit. Man, that was a bored festival~ Very, very bored.

After some years I return, but this time I played my way. Custom artwork, and builds to my liking. They are not even minmax or most efficient, but it's fun to play. So I get to the end of IWD2.

Immediately I rerun in HoF mode, also my way. This time builds are minmax and efficiently configured to my liking. Again, from powergaming point of view they are not the top, but it's fun to play.

IWD2 probabbly is the best example of overcome initial boredom, but mostly because it's a great game that worth your while to do that. Other games, I dont think so.
 

Gregz

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When I was a kid games were very expensive (for me), and procuring them was difficult and time consuming.

You had to beg your mom to drive you to the mall, and if you were successful, you then might spend an hour browsing titles at the store. You had to carefully scrutinize the screenshots and description on the back of the box to know what you were getting, because the cover was often misleading. You did your best guesswork based on what you heard at school and what your friends were playing, but ultimately it was a gamble. More than once, you might do all of this to end up buying a stinker. So the stakes were very high as a kid.

On the trip back home from the mall, you would pour over the manual and LARP in your imagination. Getting home was like Christmas morning, a mad rush to the PC to turn it on and wait for it to boot up. The installation process was some kind of black magic; putting the disk in the drive and typing out a strange combination of letters, characters, and spaces. More often than not screwing it up. If you didn't screw it up, the disk drive would make angry noises, and you would sit there with a worried expression on your face, hoping the computer wouldn't explode. Then, it would prompt you to add another disk, and another, and another. The process was tedious and tense and it took forever. You never knew if you might have a faulty disk. Or what if you accidentally entered the wrong command and erased one?

Then, miraculously, you would be greeted by an introduction screen and glorious music!

After having committed to all of the above, quitting was out of the question. You would devote days of your life to somehow make that game worth playing even if it killed you. If you were lucky you might end up with a good game 2/3 times. If you didn't, there was no returning an unsealed product. You were married to it.

The stakes were high, and initial boredom was never an option.
 
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Ismaul

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If you really want to like RPGs again there is a sure way. My man Skinner can help with lessons on how to condition yourself to like anything. It's like magic!

Get yourself a second screen. Launch the game and put some porn on the other screen. Then, for each time you get some XP, allow yourself a good rub relative to the % of XP gained vs what's needed to attain the next level (some math involved). XP gained is intermittent and intermittent rewards are known to build strong conditioning. Cumming is only allowed on level up.

Keep at it for a while. Eventually you won't even need the second screen. You'll get hard just playing RPGs. Might even spontaneously cum on level up. A bit messy, and you can no longer play in public, but a good trade off. It'll be your guilty pleasure.

Hope it helps!
 
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Flying Dutchman

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Even if not an RPG, Horizon Zero Dawn

Pillars 1 (that opening is terrible)

Agreed on Planescape - the opening is really bad

Fallout 1 is an exception - rats should have been boring, but for some reason, weren't bad
 

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