Decline What do you do about all gaming when.....?

[Dr1f7]

Yes, sometimes there is a long wait between sugoi final fantasy games, and other JRPGs! So, in the mean time, you can read some manga or watch some anime!

If none of these things interest you, you are probably posessed by some evil yokai spirits, and must do a cleansing ritual to rid yourself of the depression.

 

[Azdul]

Hey! She came back. Skinny as hell and haggard but she came back. Fuck this heat for outdoor feral cats; it sucks. Bebe' Katz is happy to but Mama slapped her in the face and wanted to be left alone to cool and eat and drink.

Glad to hear your cat is OK, man.

Try something new for a change, e.g. try some classic ZX Spectrum games if you grew up with the C64, etc. I find reading about the history of some home computer I never had as a kid and learn about the history of its classic gaming catalogue quite fascinating.

And you'll be immediately thrown at the deep end.

Game may require you to do a sequence of pixel-perfect and frame-perfect jumps if you ever want to see 5th screen. There is no auto-map - you'd better prepare pencil and paper. You can spend 30 mins trying to convince text parser that your idea is sound. Reading the manual for anything but simplest of games is a must.

Instead of waiting 5 mins through unskippable intro sequence of modern game, you'll be waiting 5 mins listening to soothing sounds of tape loading.

If you'll persevere - you'll find out that your satisfaction is not only about what the game has to offer - but how much you're willing to put in.

 

[Machocruz]

Might be a call for you to produce and create instead of being a consumoid scarfing down the shit of the world. Spend time alone being bored so that your brain can function properly again and think its own thoughts and come up with its own ideas.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Oh yeah. I recall Sword of Fargoal on vic-20 and Temple/Upper Reaches of Apshai on c64 along with Blue Max. Ah! Good times.

Just yesterday I was recalling my near completion of Spell of Destruction/Wizardry and Fairlight. I did not know there was a Fairlight 2. The era of the 3D isometric solo adventure/rpg back then was quite different. Was it Solstice on NES that was also like that? And much later there was that fucking hard as hell Immortal with pretty cool graphics.

Spectrum has quite a catalog. When you open the bag of old from the closet attic you find it is extensive.

Anyway, old games still on my list are
Rivers of light with 4-man party.

Finishing & mapping Sword of Kadash on atari st & appleii (i started and long ago finished & mapped c64)

Full playthrough of Dungeons of death, Dungeons of Magdarr & Search for Magdarr. Seems the c64 dungeons of death was found a bit ago. The vic-20 version is hard to navigate or i had a buggy copy.

Let us not forget adventure gaming like Zork & Scott adams. Man, those were the days and Only decades later did i realize you "point-map" them like logic bubbles/squares. Derp.

The years fly by and the shear wave of games released is immense. Never forget those free java games and sites. Akin i guess to phone app games maybe.

 

[Azdul]

Spectrum has quite a catalog. When you open the bag of old from the closet attic you find it is extensive.

What's fascinating about early micros - is that there was no template how to make a game - and no official platform requirements to adhere to. Aleister Crowley occult works, Celtic mythology, daily life of a trashman or Falklands War were as good of a theme as any other.

Gameplay was invented, designed and implemented by one guy - so you either shared his taste - or you did not. A game had a personal touch.

 

[Zombra]

You're in a slump; everyone gets them. (Some never get out of them. Don't be one of these.)

Taking a break and finding a new hobby is definitely a good move. Even if it turns out trash, your old gaming cravings will probably come back.

As for porn games, don't just pick the most popular ones on Steam; you're guaranteed to get bland VN trash. Weirdly there is not much porn game culture on Codex but seek out communities that explore them with the same critical eye we have here for RPGs. There's a YouTube channel called Sex Positive Gaming I like a lot. If nothing else just cruise itch.io and you'll find projects that are a lot more "out there", which is what you want.

In fact, in general looking at games that are more "out there" has a much higher chance of revitalizing your spark than only looking at the algorithmic conveyer belt "Steam queue". At least that's my experience.

 

[Max Damage]

Just play games that you like, nothing more to it.

 

[NecroLord]

Just play games that you like, nothing more to it.

This.
Why subject yourself to all the new stuff that comes out?
You have to be more discriminating in your choice of video games...

 

[HumanTotemPole]

Would echo others and say have the occasional break. Balance it out with other hobbies. Preferably tangible, IRL ones. Same with any almost in-depth interest, you get jaded sometimes. Have recently loved getting back into my CD collection of early Blues, Jazz and Country music after about 10 years away.

Let time winnow down your potential selections as well. Market's so saturated these days and PR crap is so rampant it's rare to see an unambiguously worthwhile D1P.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Just play games that you like, nothing more to it.

This.
Why subject yourself to all the new stuff that comes out?
You have to be more discriminating in your choice of video games...

Welcome to RPG Codex!

 

[Nostaljaded]

As requested by OP KeighnMcDeath, may the below 2021 doujin JRPG eroge ENG-releases spur you to rediscover your 'thrills'.

Only listing doujin eroges with combat system to limit scope, sorted by their 2021 ENG release date:

a. Ambrosia (Steam/GOG): A naive apprentice priestess is exiled to a remote island to spread faith.
b. False Myth (Steam/GOG): Double-triangle playing-cards battle system where the stronger the enemy is, the less of their playing hand will be visible; pixel ero.
c. Fall in Labyrinth (Steam): Adventure with your harem party, dressup your slaves' combat affinities and have polygynous marriage.
d. Sylphy and the Sleepless Island (Steam/GOG): Amateur thievery act goes wrong and becomes a slave; has 5 days to free herself. Non-boss enemies are auto-resolved upon contact and has a few mini-games; boobs tad too big, but NPC dialogue reactivity are more than decent to overlook that.

Skimmed through ero doujin Steam publishers.

2022 Curated List

Disclaimer: Adult patch (if applicable) must be applied (even for some titles to have cut all-ages content restored) and I don't play eroges in ENG, so YMMV in translation quality.

 

[Baron Tahn]

Sometimes I think Im burning out but then I play something like Outer Wilds and realize no, its most games that got shit. Its not always easy to find stuff but these days I just play the stuff I like, certainly dont mind older games either: tactics, strategy, RPGs, Imsims. Id rather go back and play Darklands again than suffer through BG3.

With current trends its mostly chilling with strategy games listening to youtube because RPGs are in a shit place where they would prefer to be action games.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

My game of wait for the rats to explode sucks. The same for wait for attrition of my parent's health. These are long long long drawn out campaigns that may take years. After seeing Pa can't walk now and Ma has to take care of all the rats, cats, and dogs at the house... I see them weakening.

But can I gear up the war machine and mech-master with cages and new drowning traps? Can I still hunt or has my health depleted? These are unknowns in the game "Rat Horror House on the Hill of the Forsaken Farm." One hobo can make a difference..... he's all there is left.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

You go weeb?

 

[Morgoth]

The saying "Less is more" couldn't be more true for gaming.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

The saying "Less is more" couldn't be more true for gaming.

It is true also for many things in life.

 

[Zero CHAR]

Yeah, even buying a game has not even an ounce of thrill. I just left some gog & steam carts full and dumped em. Said fuck it. I won't play them anyway. Same with pdfs of RPG shit, movies, comics, everything.

No rats to murder..... else I get booted. Hell, would killing hundreds or thousands of rats give me any thrills?

I tried to hang on but man... no thrills at all.

They be gone.



Must be just me.

Instead of consuming a game and moving on to the next one like a fucking journo I take my sweet time appreciating everything the game has to offer. But that also means I curate everything I play carefully. I finish 3 or 4 games a year at most.

 

[Vic]

Instead of consuming a game and moving on to the next one like a fucking journo I take my sweet time appreciating everything the game has to offer. But that also means I curate everything I play carefully. I finish 3 or 4 games a year at most.

Somehow this post tickles my BS sensor but I can't put my finger on it.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Instead of consuming a game and moving on to the next one like a fucking journo I take my sweet time appreciating everything the game has to offer. But that also means I curate everything I play carefully. I finish 3 or 4 games a year at most.

Somehow this post tickles my BS sensor but I can't put my finger on it.

Either he's a buildcrafting enjoyer or perhaps he's not playing CRPGs...

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Yes, sometimes there is a long wait between sugoi final fantasy games, and other JRPGs! So, in the mean time, you can read some manga or watch some anime!

If none of these things interest you, you are probably posessed by some evil yokai spirits, and must do a cleansing ritual to rid yourself of the depression.

I am a yokai spirit.

 

[HappyDaddyWow!]

There used to be a time where big name gaming releases only came a few times a year, and what was released was usually good.

Now, a new AAA quadruple trillion dollar budget game comes out every month and most of them are crap. To make matters worse, previously reputable developers have also turned into crap, so it's hard to figure out which games are actually good because brand recognition is no longer a reliable source of quality in this space.

At the end of the day games are a commodity and when the market is oversaturated with garbage, everything becomes less valuable and exciting to the consumer.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

If you play games because of general boredom you'll eventually get bored with the games too. But if you find something else interesting to do, I think the interest in gaming will return.

Agree! Getting a wife and kids got me starting playing again. But before that I couldn't be bothered, the thrill wasn't there.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Hmmm..... why?!!!??