Do you approach new games as though the glass is half full or half empty?

I agree with that. It’s why I posted the thread, tbh. I’m actually surprised at the poll results so far given how negative folks can get about games around here sometimes. It could be that the negative folks don’t want to admit to it on record, too. I kid. :)

Maybe it’s just a case of the negative stuff being easier to talk about? Maybe everyone here is a “fixer” and thinks they could do better?

I think it is more of the ‘yeah, it was all right’ is less likely to inspire lengthy discussions than the more negative stuff.

I could invoke several examples of this here easily, particularly for movies. People who liked something well enough are unlikely to participate in ongoing conversations than a few people who really hated something.

True… even the “Yeah, it was alright” has a follow on question of “What did you enjoy and what didn’t do it for you?” which I think makes for good conversation if you choose to participate. Sometimes a game is just there, and you don’t mind it much but don’t love it either and there’s not much to say, but I almost always come away from the stuff I play with some good and bad. Could be because I was a reviewer for quite awhile. I’m not always critical, but I am always evaluating I think.

That’s a really good distinction, and it’s entirely possible that I interpret someone like Tom’s “evaluating” as “critical,” and maybe that’s a mistake on my part. That said, it’s an invaluable skill for anyone who is going to write about said media. I VERY OFTEN don’t agree with Tom’s final opinion on games and movies, but his ability to analyze, evaluate, and communicate the negatives and positives well and fairly has always made his reviews helpful to me, as I can judge for myself if his deal-breakers would be deal-breakers for me as well.

I’m probably 50/50, and it’s largely dependent on any baggage a game might have or the people/group making it.

There are not many days I wish I had more access to see how sausage was made. I preferred when I knew a little about it and then a lot of info right before release not like years of hype and stuff.

I’m always disappointed by anything in the traditional RPG vein. Every single time. Obviously, I should stay away from them, but I just keep on buying and being disappointed.

But I come at turn based strategy games optimistically.

I think one of my biggest problems regarding gaming is not listening to myself and being too regimented (a personality flaw I have). Sometimes I get in the mode of thinking that ‘now it’s time to play this game, or this genre’. I started playing Tropico 6 the other day because I wanted to get some in before I cancel EA Access premier. After a short while I wasn’t feeling it, but I kept playing because ‘now was my chance’. I eventually did just say no more and uninstalled it so I wouldn’t be tempted, but it took longer than it should have. So, that leads to some negative thoughts for sure.

I do that with games I own though too, such as I feel compelled to finish X number of missions before I quit, or I’m close to finishing so I need to stick it out. Well, I don’t really need to stick it out. Usually there isn’t some type of payoff to make it worth while, and then I’m mad at myself for not recognizing it sooner. I just set myself up to be negative about the game.

Same here. That’s how I’ve maintained optimism about the games I buy, over the years I’ve really narrowed what I’ll pick up to the point I’m rarely disappointed.

And RGPs are a perfect example, a decade ago I loved Fall Out 3/ New Vegas, today I never even considered Witcher 3 and I’ll be passing on Cyberpunk 2077. To most people here that’s heresy, haha.

It’s not that games disappoint - it’s that they bore me. Over 40 years in this hobby, the only thing that holds my interest for more than maybe a dozen hours is something that can surprise me with a fresh approach.

DIsco Elysium did that. Before that, it was the first Firaxis XCOM.

Was this posted by a real person?

Yeah, man. That’s me. I still love this hobby. I pick up games from those earlier eras I never got to play and I can quickly see the genius in something that’s 30 years old based on what I know I played at the time.

I still am gushing about Apex Legends because there’s so much awesome in there and if anything came close to truly wowing me in 2019, it was that game, although graphically I was super impressed with the opening to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and the finale of that game was tremendous.

I try to avoid a lot of preview coverage though. That probably helps keep me excited about new games. I’m stoked for new consoles this fall and what that may bring.

I want to enjoy games, I want to relish in taking me completely away and absorbing myself into a new game world, but I would say that if my “sucks” folder on steam is any indication, I give up on far more games than I play through to the end these days.

It’s been bothering me to the point where I really wonder if I should just say fuck it and quit playing games. Honestly, it’s gotten that bad. I’m playing games I have played before far more because they are familiar and they are fun and I know how to play them. Oh, there are good games out there that are newer, and I’ve tried many new games, but at 55 years old, my patience is very short for learning the game sufficiently to understand it and fun.

My real problem with new games these days are:

  1. They expect me to learn how to play the game by asking others how to play the game. Tutorials / campaigns to teach me the ropes, are rare. It really is frustrating when there isn’t a “primer” or a beginner guide somewhere on how to play a game. I get so overwhelmed I just punt and toss it into the “sucks” folder.

  2. I suck at many new games. I have completely given up on platforming to the point if a game says it’s better with a gamepad I won’t even buy it. There was a recent game that I was enjoying for the first hour, called Limbo and I really was enjoying it until it had me jumping up this really tall tree and after 30 minutes of trying and failing, I fucking uninstalled it.

  3. Games are too difficult. Honestly, it’s like more games are trying to compete to be the “dark souls of XXX”. I have no fucking idea why they want to do that. Where is the fun in that? I try to convince myself I’m somewhat competent but when you keep tossing things my way that eat me for lunch, with no real path forward, I’m not going to keep banging my head against the wall. the Forest, I’m looking at you. When easy mode isn’t enough, and I still find myself dying and respawning again and again.

  4. When I can’t be competitive any longer. Apex Legends and PUBG I’m looking at you. I’m 55 and I came up with a recent rule with these: if I can’t get a single kill in 5 games, I hang it up for a while.

  5. Games that want me to grind. I think this is a relic of the FTP genre, but I gave up with the recent Wow Classic and I have zero patience for any type of gameplay where you expect me to grind/repeat levels to “level up”. I got sick of this with BF4 and it’s left such a bad taste in my mouth that I reflexively uninstall even at a whiff of this.

So, I’m definitely a glass half-empty because so few games are really playable by me any longer. I do relish the games I do find that are fun and I’ve written quite a few steam “beginner” guides for these games - not just for others, but for me when I come back to the game in the future so I can dig right in. I wish the developers would invest in better tutorials / guides, but it’s a relic of the past.

So I’m being drawn more & more to single player games and while they are OK, I do miss gaming with my friends but I suck so bad that quite frankly it’s embarrassing and I just can’t have fun dying all the time.

I’m not very cynical towards games / movies / books / entertainment.

I wonder if that is why story in games have become more important to me in action games. I’ve seen so many mechanics since 1980 or so that it’s difficult to get wowed from that aspect of a game. Put good mechanics/action with a gripping story that draws me in emotionally (Telltale The Walking Dead) or with humor (Saints Row 3/4) then I’m good. This may also explain why I find it more difficult to really get into strategy games as much, even though historically that is my main genre. I may be content playing something comfortable, but its been rare a strategy game really has hooked me lately. Slay the Spire did for a while, but that was fairly different.

I’m very positive until the moment I read even the slightest negative thing about a game, then I go in expecting the worst but hoping for the best. I’m sadly easily swayed by opinion.

I have seen my future, and it is Tman

It is also my present, and past, tbh. I’ve always sucked ass at videogames :D

These days I’m definitely glass half full kind of player. My gaming time has shrunk considerably in the last year so when I do get a chance to play some games properly I try to be a little less…invested than usual and approach them more casually, which generally means I notice the positives more.

That said, there are still titles that I’ve tried that made me want to lift the lead designer by the neck tie and slap him silly, or question the collective sanity of the entire dev team for allowing certain things to make their way into the game.

If there’s one thing I simply cannot stand it’s hubris and refusing to learn from what the rest of the industry is doing, as if taking inspiration from competition is some cardinal crime.

I am also way more likely to drop the game completely if certain aspects of it bother me, even if the ratio of positives to negatives is 10 to 1. But such cases are relatively rare.

I’m not sure exactly what the question is asking. Pre-release, I’m absolutely a glass half empty person. I don’t really get hyped for specific games at all. I’m hopeful about certain games, but I don’t get invested in them in the same way a lot of people seem to and I wouldn’t dream of pre-ordering a game just because (maybe, maybe, for a big discount). I’m happy to wait and see if the game turns out any good.

On the other hand, once I’ve decided to play a game, I absolutely go into them with a sense of wonder and excitement. I love learning new mechanics and seeing new game worlds and all that stuff.

I’m an optimist. If I think something might be good, I buy it. Occasionally I have to use Steam’s refund policy when the glass turned out to be completely empty, but sometimes I get a pleasant surprise. I hesitate to get the big budget games these days, but there are some great indies out there.

I generally expect a game to be good, otherwise, why spend any money on it?
However, the unfortunate truth is that I more and more often do not find them satisfying. Maybe its because I have been a gamer for so long that I have seen it all before. Or maybe now that games are such an industry and people are cranking out as many as they can, the amount of creativity going into new games isn’t nearly what it once was.

I do think its the lack of creativity, especially in game mechanics that bores me the most. Take these call of duty like games. What is actually new in them other than the fidelity of the experience? Not much, if anything at all.

Still though, once in a while, a game will grab me and Ill put 100s of not 1000s of hours into them. So maybe its not me, but them.