games in our lives

Shauntron

As a gamer, I feel like i've begun to fall off the horse for various reasons (not the least of which is joining the full time work force). The last game I purchased and played to completion was Portal. I haven't even made the jump into S&M: Season Two, minus a playtest (don't shoot). There's only one game I play with absolute regularity, and i'll get to that after my question for you:

What is the perfect game for your lifestyle? And have you, like me, ever had a change to your lifestyle that suddenly refocused your video game preferences?

As for me, I realize I made a nearly overnight shift from hardcore to casual when i started working full time last year. I have begun to view games I previously drooled over like Final Fantasy and Mass Effect as commitments rather than entertainment. I equivocate WoW with carcinogens. Even DS games like Pheonix Wright & Hotel Dusk make my head spin if I forget to play for two weeks; I just can't keep track of the story arcs. I find I prefer games I can beat in a day like Sam & Max episodes & Portal, but it's rare I get that opportunity as well. So what do I do with myself?

Scrabbulous for Facebook. That's right, the internet scrabble knock-off is all I play. I get to flex my brain and interact with my friends, and I can take turns without my opponent being online so it's logistically as difficult as a mere login. Plus I can sneak turns on my breaks at work. I can play a video game in tiny chunks all day between work, chores, errands, exercise, relationships, serious hobbies, and it's still manageable and rewarding.

So what game fits your lifestyle like a glove?

Tester Scott

All games fit my lifestyle. As a game tester and wannabe game writer I play all games to help me glean a little understanding of what works and what doesn't, why something is funny and why something else makes you cry. If I didn't have a constant influx of new game input I would shut down. Luckily for me my job helps with that a lot. Specially working for a company that puts out essentially a new game very month. I know if I ever move into a more dev centric job my tastes might change but as of now I feel working 60 hour weeks(they don't actually work me that I hard I choose to) and then coming home to play something new by myself, with my friends/girlfriend works just fine for now.

Mel

I'm finishing up my dissertation and have been job interviewing (I'm done with that for now until I see if I get any job offers) so my mind has not been able to concentrate on any PC adventure game, even Sam & Max. Those games were working for me, but I haven't been able to concentrate on them so I've only played Ice Station Santa.

My PhD has been a very stressful and overall miserable experience so I'm looking forward to seeing how I feel doing a job that will be extremely busy but won't revolve around academia. I'm hoping I'll be able to turn the job off when I leave and enjoy the things I used to.

But anyway, the past few months I've played Trials and Tribulations, Ice Station Santa and Professor Layton and lots of Sudoku. Most of those are DS games. I don't know why I can concentrate on those and not PC games.

Haggis

I too find myself sitting behind the PC not gaming. However, the bite-sized chunks in which the Sam & Max episodes come, make them the perfect games for me. I also very much enjoy playing Virtual Console games on the Wii - currently Paper Mario and Mario's Super Picross (puzzle games are just amazing to pick up and play). I've really become a casual gamer lately, and I'm actually looking forward to a quirky game like Wii Fit - more so than to Mario Kart Wii, and perhaps even more than to Brawl, although I'll play the heck out of that too.

Linque

Back in the early games I played everything from RPGs to FPSs. Then in the late teens all that came to a full stop, and now I'm much more of a casual gamer. A dabble into a serious game a few times a year, but most of the time I don't play any game more than 10 hours total unless it's a multiplayer game to be played with friends in the same living room.

So yeah, change in lifestyle came with change in gaming.

r00tb33r

Too busy in college... I play only single player game content as it comes out... Usually the big ones.
Obviously I'll be playing every Doom and Quake(single player) game, Serious Sam, HL, Sam&Max, Penumbra(have to play the next episode since I played the first one). I skipped out on the latest UT because I simply have no time and I have played the previous ones enough to last me a lifetime. I am likely to be playing Fallout 3 when it comes out, but only when a walkthrough and a trainer are released, because I simply don't have that kind of time anymore.
So if everything else was like Sam&Max I would have like 3-4 hours of enjoyable gameplay a week. I can manage that because I don't watch tv or blog or postwhore.

Heatherlee

Yeah, since I have had a baby my gaming life has been turned upside down. Its not just the time, its also how much mental energy I have for gaming. As such I have been drawn lately to fairly mindless games like (I'm about to embarrass myself) Lost Odyssey and Big Kahuna Reef 2.

Lost Odyssey is a big game, but I can sit on my couch with my husband and play while we eat dinner together. The baby will hang out on his lap or on mine and try to grab the controller, but because of the nature of the game she can play with the control stick and it doesn't mess me up at all. Big Kahuna Reef I can play a couple boards before bed and it helps me unwind.

Shauntron, I COMPLETELY hear ya on the games as commitments rather than entertainment! I have a stack of games -- some I've bought, some I've borrowed -- sitting around that have just seemed like too much effort to try and play lately. I want to play them, I really do. But it just seems so hard!

Oh, and PMOG. PMOG fits my lifestyle perfectly:
http://pmog.com

Damon

I am primarily an MMO player. At the moment, I can't bear to log into any of my existing accounts: CoX, WoW, DAOC, LOTRO, etc. I just find myself bored within 10 mins.

I am keeping my eye on Age of Conan, WAR, and Champions Online, to name a few. I am hoping I can find a new MMO home soon. :cool:

patters

how is lost oddysey, I like the look of it.

and i also mainly play online shooters quick and easy to get into. i also have blue dragon to play, finish bioshock, and i bought COD 4 today

vyperspit

I'm more of an action/adventure player, but I'm terrible with racing and first-person shooters. Of course, I'm more into games that have great stories like Legend of Zelda, and Silent Hill. I remember the time when I was a huge Pokemon fanatic, but switched to the YuGiOh craze. Good times. I still like Pokemon though; I have both Diamond&Pearl versions.

ShaggE

I'm an aspiring writer, (fancy talk for "failing writer" ), so I mostly enjoy games with a good story. The Silent Hill games come to mind, since not only do they have good stories, but they are deeply based in psychology, which is another interest of mine.

I do love a good mindless FPS too, though.

TrogLlama

You know, I haven't had many good new games to play in a while (excluding the obvious, of course). I finally started really working through Metroid Prime after buying it used a year or so back.

MaxFan

I was a MMORPG player before the term existed, gets boring at high levels though. Wow, we can kill the same MOB and get four more items today...

I enjoy a good racing game, and anything with some humor to it (see Sam & Max). Played FPS back in the days of the original Half-Life and Counter-Strike, but really not much since then. I bought a little box with a Genesis controller that plays Sonic the Hedgehog, that game rules. Plus it has Golden Axe and some other games, too. I also play Dance Dance Revolution, man that's some good exercise.

fajerkaos

I'm mostly playing through (arguably) "old" games.
At the moment I'm in a Playstation 1 period. So right now it's Crash Banditcoot and Oddworld that is stealing my time.

... A game of Starcraft always works as well.

As someone who literary can't stand playing a regular FPS or MMO, there isn't really that much exiting things going on right now. (It's nice having time to play through all the great old games I missed though, so no complaining )

dloeke

Shauntron wrote: »

So what game fits your lifestyle like a glove?

Minesweeper? Well, apart from that and other procrastination games, Sam & Max is really the only game I play. I usually save the episodes for when I have absolutely nothing to do, and they always cheer me up when I do play them.

Apart from that, Picross and New Super Mario on Nintendo DS are awesome games on the go. :cool:

Silly Bob

I'm the kinda guy who gets deep into a game for as long as it takes, provided there is a good story to be had, it doesn't matter the genre, though I don't get into FPS often even with a story, I play Counter-Strike: Source alot though and have dabbled in Battlefield 2142, but no matter how many games I play the ones I will forever be truly in love with are point and click adventures, to me that is the perfect game genre.

jmm

Need for Speed <add number here> (a few races per day), Sam and Max (one or two times per month) and if I have
-around 1 or 2 hours of free time a RTS
-a LOT of time Civ 4

Shauntron

Interesting and informative replies!

jmm wrote: »

Need for Speed <add number here> (

That wouldn't happen to include Porsche Unleashed would it?

Heatherlee wrote: »

Shauntron, I COMPLETELY hear ya on the games as commitments rather than entertainment! I have a stack of games -- some I've bought, some I've borrowed -- sitting around that have just seemed like too much effort to try and play lately. I want to play them, I really do. But it just seems so hard!

Yes indeed! I wish I had a clone who could play games for me all day. And another one to work on cars. And one to work on motion graphics non-stop, one to play drums in a band, one to assist astronomy classes, one to...