Has your gaming taste changed as you've got older?

[Xereo]

Being very competitive in the early CS days , over the last 20 years i think i have moved towards less stressful games. I tend to take gaming seriously so now i try to avoid competitive games

[tapmybuttons]

Sadly as I've gotten older I like the idea of playing games and tend to watch gameplay, reviews or news to catch up on the latest. Never thought I'd be one of those people and most games bore me now as they've failed to evolve from crappy storylines, stereotypes, literally waiting for developers like Naughty Dog and Rockstar to release something innovative. The Last of Us Part 2 has the best video game I've played to date and GTA 6 will be the only game to entice me to buy a PS5 (although hoping it releases on PC at launch too). These days the only game that I play is Apex Legends as its created by the OG's of the Call of Duty games. Can't stand the cartoony art direction of Fortnite and the minute Warzone introduced a loading screen when I died and took forever to get me back in the game with that stupid Gulag mini game they lost me. That loading screen ruined the experience for me and Apex Legends is much more fast paced and more importantly keeps me in the game and the loop when I die so I can communicate with my team.

[efbo]

I've found myself not playing may online games over the last few years. They're mostly just time sinks. I mainly play games with good stories now where I feel that I'm actually getting something done.

[Sleeperz]

Certainly, younger me enjoyed FPS games and more E-Sports orientated titles. Now it's more slower paced offline games that don't force you to "get good"

[Dougie93]

Not that much - I've always preferred single-player, story-rich games as opposed to shooters or MOBAs.

[cherisa]

Younger me: 500 hour RPG games, with fantastic worlds I could lose myself in. Also, Diablo runs for 6 hours a day.

Present me: Shorter indie games, 5 minute Rocket League matches, baby wakes up, casual MMO where I can stop whenever, baby wakes up again...

It's not that my tastes have changed, it's simply that I don't have time to play games like I used to.

[0MEGA]

I think it changes for everyone. I use to play competitive games all the time in my teens, now i dont have the time to sit and learn the games to be competitive. I also couldnt afford to buy many games so i only really mained 1 or 2 games and now i can afford any game but dont have the time. Its like a catch 22.

[DJNW]

I used to be utterly about turn-based RPGs, but I've definitely trended hard towards Souls-type and Monster Hunter in the last few years. There's a certain something about their combat - if you do something, you'd better really mean it, and when you get a good feel for something you can absolutely stomp all over something - there's videos of one of the speedrunners on MH:World just bullying one of the bosses with how they go about attacking it, poor thing was almost permanantly knocked down.

[rich_27]

I used to get so bored if I played something chill and relaxing like Stardew Valley or Firewatch, but these days I find I have a lot more patience and give myself a lot more leeway to just enjoy a game rather than feeling like I need to make concrete progress or I'm wasting my time. I didn't really play a huge amount of videogames before the past couple of years because I could never get into them properly, but now I spend a large portion of my free time (thanks lockdown) deep diving into various games. Recently its been Stationeers (I don't think I'd have enjoyed that before I went through higher education - it makes use of my Eng degree) and Rimworld, and I'd never have had the sticking power to enjoy them even 5 years ago.

[Mr. G]

Mine's stayed pretty much the same. Mostly online competitive titles with the occasional single player game on the side. Online mainly because of the social aspect and the itch to compete.

My gaming sessions are also much shorter these days, so competitive is perfect for those quick 15-30min bursts. While I do still enjoy single player, there's usually more time investment required to appreciate them. These days I'll just pick some linear game that I can blast through over a weekend. Any longer than that and I'll never end up completing it, which is why I typically stay away from most open-world games or anything with heavy RPG elements now.

[leopolt]

Yes, now I barely play any games, and when I play its mostly CS:GO and FIFA

[Sam Bigley]

Sure have changed, I started to look more in the direction of strategy rather than action

[OliversArmy]

Absolutely.

When I first started I loved straight up Shooters like CS 1.6 and Halo 2, then I progressed into CoD MW series and R6 Vegas. Now years later I much prefer MMORPGs which take things steady and no screaming at everyone! Although I have a soft spot for Fifa and Forza, no more getting competitive and shouting at anyone.

[Kovoet]

When I first got into gaming it was because of F1. Then I got into multiplayer of which I played Black Hawk Down then progressed into Typhoon Rising. I could hold my own and really really enjoyed it as well playing league games. Then came Call Of duty but wow the cheating then started and absolutely hated it.
Started off with Typhoon rising again but in CO-OP mode.
Friends then asked me back into Call of duty played a few league games but never in my life have a seen such blatant cheating but on top of this age was seriously catching up. Now 60 I love playing Ghost Recon because you can play it at your very own pace.
Kids today are so damn good my reaction times have slowed down as well as now having to wear glasses in game.
So definitely as you get older you are almost forced to change the way you play.
I play games online as I'm too old to play Rugby or Hockey anymore plus breaking my leg in 3 places when playing rugby so online gaming keeps the competitive spirit up.

[Austin90]

I think my tastes haven't really changed per se, it's just new genres have been added to it. For instance, I've always been a huge fan of open-world games, but only in recent years have I gotten into Metroidvanias. It's a great feeling to try a totally different type of game and love it to the point where you wanna play all other games of that genre.