One of the biggest reason is the fact that we can get any game we want now since we're independent adults. There's also subscription services that throw 100s of games at you for a price of a cheap meal. Playing a good game ≠ better experience. Playing any game to it's full potential = amazing experience. We have so much choice that at any minor inconvenience, we either jump to another game or constantly keep thinking about other good games we could play instead. But that good game doesn't exist. So we end up enjoying nothing.
Very well said. We are so aware that some other game out there will fix a "sticking point" that we have with whatever game we're currently playing, and it creates this cycle that we keep moving from game to game with the intention to, as I heard in another video essay, "avoid having a bad time instead of playing to have a good time."
Literally describes me lol, I play a game for a hour and get hyped then I instantly think of another game to play that I think I will enjoy more, and it becomes a cycle.
@@lesp6055Yeah that pretty much covers the situation we're in. We are no longer satisfied with what we have. Back then we used to settle down with the most mediocre game enjoying it to the very core because that's all we had. God, do i miss that time 😔
You’re right. I’m 36 and I feel like in the last few yrs it’s been harder to “stay with it”. Having adult purchasing power amazing lol. Also getting a chance to start a few different games at a time with diff subscription plans does it too.
What breaks immersion for me is when a game has a game loop so pronounced and structured that the sense of wonder is completely lost because you know what to expect at any point in your first playthrough.
Looking at you Ubisoft. 😂 The only time they surprise me now, is when a stadard trope is missing. I expected Far Cry 6 to have a parrot with a cigar or drone made of junk to scout and tag enemies.
Yes, this happened with Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. It seemed really good at first and I was telling my mate how great it is and how it’s open world but not boring….then when that formula repeated itself for a third time my enjoyment quickly flopped. I dragged myself to golden saucer and honestly can’t be bothered with it anymore. I will go back eventually, but I don’t think I’ll enjoy it as much as I thought and hoped.
I can't get into any new games because it feels like just getting through the tutorials or the beginning learning curve takes all of my time that I have. Sitting down to play a game and spending 3 hours without ever getting into the game takes the immersion away Some games also have so much dialogue at the start of the game like they have to tell you everything about the world before you begin. I just want to drop into a world and have fun, but it seems like fun is not the main criteria for games anymore.
its simple, because youre worried, about age, job, money, partners, time, parents, family etc. it could be anything really, anything that makes you feel like you can't relax just yet. but once everything is settled, you can immerse yourself again
This. I had over a decade break from games. After divorce I decided to live for me again and got back into them. The amount of amazing games I missed… been playing back to back since last October.
another factor would be the saturated market. back then every game is a unique experience to try out. nowadays, we've seen a lot of it a thousand times or more and rarely a game felt unique.
@@Njin8492 I cannot second this more. In the 2000s decade game design evolved at an incredibily fast pace. Every sequel was much better than the previous game, not only graphics but game design above everything). Every big new game was a new expirence. This ended in the early 2010s. Every game had a skill tree, fetch quests and some of them a cliche story. Also the way you could interact with the world started to shrink, and gameplay loops started to be more limited to kill this, go there, get rewarded, get another task and repeat. No more buy a house, engage in petty talk with companions or people, those momoents of calmness when you can just relax and enjoy. When every game starts having the same design and you just paint an harry potter or star wars color of paint over it, thats when you struggle to ger immersion
Absolutely. I know it sounds weird, but I've read some fanfictions about some of the minor npc in BOTW, the story delve quite deeply into character dramas and have dark undertones of extinction and famine and uses the world of botw as a foundation to describe it's scenes. Going back into BOTW felt so surreal, I got visions of past scenes of the fanfic playing out in my head, dramatic events or character deaths. Which is why I felt BOTW is a game with amazing open world worldbuilding but with holds way too much information of it's lore and story. The npc lack depth that creates immersion to care about the world.
For me it was the opposite. When I started reading books video games began to lose appeal. The deep storytelling, philosophy, symbolism I was experiencing with books i could very rarely find in games. Paradoxically, this made me appreciate arcade games more than story driven one. The former let me just play, learn the core mechanics and fell in love with the core gameplay without being disappointed with the bad writing, pacing and characters
I'm a gamer in my 50s and my childhood games are games like Pitfall on the 2600 and Contra on the NES. I go through the same thing but it's mainly because life is way more complicated as an adult than it was as a child and young adult. As long as there's an IRL "wall of worry" in your life, you'll struggle to ever fully get immersed in a game. What's funny is that I can get way more immersed in older games from my young adult years where I had less worries. I think it's a way for my brain to trick itself and make me believe I've gone back in time to particular period. But from a game-design point of view, it's the writing in games for me and the padding of game length with repetitive tasks. When you're older, you've likely read and consumed more sophisticated literature and media so your standard for good story-telling and narrative is much higher and your stamina for overly lengthily games is challenged. These days, I look for leaner 15-20 hour experiences.
I feel you. I completed witcher 3 after installing uninstalling it for 6 yrs after being diagnosed as terminally Ill last December. You know. Just to cope with the situation. I was very impressed with its world. Same with rdr2. Apart from these two the only other games that came close to immerse me were Hogwarts legacy and ghost of tsushima. Arkham knight and hitman world of assasination remain all time fav for me still.
Been playing Witcher 3 on and off for 9 years. Never finished it. I feel the need to completely restart a game when I go a long time without playing. I'll probably dye before I ever finish it
I was 14 when skyrim came out, that sense of wonder and imagination of that age is what made the immersion possible. I was so ensared in that world... What a time man
@nopillzplease2830literally me. I've bought so many games in the last year that I still have to play. If I'd spend as much time playing them as I did watching gaming essays, they'd all he done by now lmao
I think when we're younger we soak up new experiences and knowledge like a sponge, and our imagination is always in overdrive. Playfulness is our default state as a child. We haven't fully developed our personal tastes yet, so everything is fascinating to us. We're also more impressionable, so whatever "cool" thing our friends or older siblings are doing is irresistibleto us. As we age, we know more about what we enjoy, and are looking for different experiences than just "something new," even if we don't consciously realize it. Our time may be more limited, we have more worries, responsibilities, distractions, etc. So we're choosier about how we spend our time, because we understand its value more. We just have to find what works for us, and what is special to us. It's different for everybody. Just because everybody else seems to love a particular thing, doesn't mean that we should feel pressure to love it as well. Finding the things that we truly enjoy can help us rediscover the joy of being playful and allowing our imagination to bring us deeply into another world, whether it be in a game, book, movie, etc. We just have to remember how to let go and be a kid again, even if it's only for a few minutes at a time. I think our imagination is like a muscle that we need to exercise and stretch. Being able to immerse ourselves fully in something like we did as a child can get easier as we learn to put stress away for a little while and allow ourselves a vacation from reality. I think it's a skill that we build. Don't try to force it, but maybe give it a little nudge if we see something that we think has potential to draw us in. Then just kick back, have fun, and let it happen (or not happen) naturally. Don't stress about it. If you don't love a thing after giving it a fair shot, just keep looking until you find something that grabs you. It gets easier with practice, especially when you have identified what your personal tastes are. And be open to new experiences; like this video in the case of RDR2; you never know what might take you by surprise and spark your imagination. I have found that for me personally, it helps me to keep a gaming journal where I can write about my character and experiences. It helps me organize my thoughts and get back into it when I take breaks, especially if it's to play something else for a while. I also get more attached to my character this way, which I think is essential to immersion. I like to spend at least a few minutes thinking about where my character came from, why he/she is there, what his/her motivations and goals are, etc. (I love writing stories as a hobby, so that may be a factor too.) Happy gaming, and thanks for the great video!
Thank you for an insightful, helpful comment! I dig your approach, and will try journaling next time I boot up Mortal Shell (my current title.) I've drawn some items/scenes in games before and found that while it takes a little while, I really enjoy studying how the artist put something together and always appreciate the object more having given it some love.
You would be amazed at how much more enjoyable games are when you plan them out after doing chores you have been putting off. For me getting older, enjoying games has become almost impossible. Now in my 30's I've learned that you need to clear your mind, do as much work around your house or anything you've put off and plan to use gaming as a reward to relax, and obviously putting your phone away when you play will really help. I've been able to get that young, teenage gaming feeling again on days off after I put 100% effort in doing the most I can do work wise, and then stay up late to play games while the wife and baby are sleeping.
Agreed. Games got standardized in terms of gameplay and even graphics. They found the formula for making the game that sells the most at the least amount of effort possible. Just different skins and nothing new if you played any of these. I mostly play old games and emulators now. Get a ps2 emulator, get James Bond Nightfire or Cod 3 for instance. You get really fun gameplay instantly and you pick a level to start from and have an enjoyable ending to it. Games were alot more different back in the day. Devs tried their own things and used their own in-house engines resulting in games feeling alot more different from Another, both visually and from a gameplay perspective. For some reason I get alot more immersed playing these older games than new ones despite worse graphics and clunky controls.
@@flamingmanure other examples of amazing games getting worse over time & failing (or failed): Saints Row series, HALO, Far Cry, Socom, Mass Effect, Destiny, Titanfall, Need for speed, Burnout, Madden, Splinter Cell, Gears of War, Assassins Creed, Payday, Fallout series (though, its semi staying alive, especially through F04 with mods), Diablo, Ghost Recon, Just Cause, Medal of Honor, Rainbow 6 (singleplayer), Kingdom Hearts, Metal Gear, NBA, Wolfenstein and many more. (Don't forget Battlefront, Gran Turismo, Forza, Battlefield and Call of Duty which I mentioned already before). Call of duty is kinda debatle though. It seems many games are going downhill now. Games series that people really loved eventually getting changed for the worse and people stop playing the new titles. Corporations buying games series and turning them into crap. The fact that all these MAJOR BELOVED series are going downhill indicates the game industry IS getting worse and there is no denying it. People did not just get "bored" of their favorite franchises & quit, they quit because the games get worse, which is *_WHY_* older titles have higher player counts and why people are starting to play similar-competitor games by small developer teams/small game companies which serve as an alternative for peoples whose favorite franchised was ruined and want a something new that can bring back that magic. If people were truly getting "bored" of the franchise, then the old games would not have higher plaercounts than the new games. The new games are just getting worse.
This is where I’m at. All the cash grabs are making ppl forget about the players. Nothing yet has captured that Skyrim vibe. I find myself playing quick games I can hop in and out of like apex or COD
No its you who has changed, subjectively there have been a huge amount of games released over the past few years that have taken their place among the best of all time.
The older I get the pickier I get. I have lost all interest in PvP multiplayer. I want good stories, mostly single player and open world. I need my fiction to emotionally devastate me or I don’t feel like I’m alive, lol.
Have you played Xenoblade? Persona used to be my favorite game series, but when I played Xenoblade, it completely blew Persona out of the water. Best story and soundtrack I've ever experienced in a video game hands out. As a heads up, it can be a bit of a hard series to get into. Some people are turned off by its complexity, while others (like me) were drawn in by its challenge and loved learning how the game worked. Personally, I feel like Xenoblade is a breath of fresh air in a world where too many games are similar.
I'm almost 32, and I don't play games too much anymore. However, when I do, I still mostly play Morrowind, New Vegas, Dark Souls 1, or gen 2 pokemon emulators and ROM hacks on my phone. These games both suited and molded my preferences so much that I no longer enjoy most games that do not share significant similarities with them. My younger brother says I should try Outward and KC: Deliverance, but I haven't had time. What's funny is that I actually recommended those games to him after seeing the trailers and half -heartedly keeping up with their development.😂 The Witcher 3 would probably do it for me too. I really enjoyed The Witcher 2, but I thought it was a little small-scale. What I really like is interactivity with the environment and characters. I love how you can pick up most items in the elder scrolls and fallout and move them around. I think it would be incredible if every item could be physically held and used. I just want to hit a guy with a chair or scoop water up with a jar like I can in the 3d Zelda games or throw a loaf of bread at a guy and pretend it wasn't me. I know games like cataclysm let you do those things, but it just hits differently in a fully rendered 3d world from a first person viewpoint.
So true! I'm not big on FPS but the soundtrack got me into Doom and I'm loving it. Dying Light 1 is another one that had an incredible atmosphere and the music music was a big part of it
Man, my friend, if you're aging that must mean I am basically a fossil at this point! 42 and still gaming! Love your videos, love your thoughts and reflections on our hobby, I appreciate what you do!
Stopping gaming depending on age? There will always be one or another masterpiece (most of the time at least one release every year, like Witcher 3, Dishonored 3, RDR2, Resident Evil 2 Remake, Final Fantasy VII Part II and it will continue) so why not enjoying these masterpieces? There is no "Oh no I am 25, or 30, or 35, or 40 or 50 or 60 and because of that I am officially too old now and therefore no longer allowed to touch any entertainment electronics, computer, TV or consoles but just sit on a chair and stare at the white empty wall of my living room all day because of a certain age..." ;)
@@juliashenandoah3965 lol, what a brilliant (and correct) response, I'm pretty sure I'll be found dead, whenever that happens, with a controller in my hand.
I struggle with immersion, because I feel like I've seen it all before. It's all variations on a theme, and once you've experienced it a couple of times, even though it can still be good, it doesn't really have that same magic to it.
This. Nowadays, it's either triple A open worlds with mundane checklist work, or indies with their 2D pixelsalad roguelikes or metroidvanias. But at least this made me appreciate the few strategy games and proper rpgs that aren't just hack&slash with floating numbers way more. Colony Ship and Battlesector are some nice niche gems
Thank you for articulating a feeling I’ve had for a long time. Wondering why I can’t capture that nostalgic feeling of immersion like I had growing up. I rarely game anymore, and so eagerly want to get back into it, but the gaming world doesn’t excite me as much anymore.
Many of us can relate to this. Being now in my 30’s, I’ve now gotten a PC and have been most enjoying crafting/survival/builder games that are made by small developers who I think are more passionate about their games, and I think it shows. This is coming from someone who grew up loving FPS games like Halo and COD. Now I find more immersion in games that are perhaps more mentally stimulating through greater thought provocation like Subnautica and Satisfactory. Most recent FPS single-player game I recall that really drew me in was Prey. I however love games like Bioshock so it’s similar.
Yea, me too, it's like scrolling Netflix for an hour to never even watch anything. I open up the full game library on my xbox and it's over 1000 games available to play.
Only 3 games in my life have made me feel that sense of wonder. First was Halo CE, it was my first video game back in 2001 when I was 5. Next was Oblivion. Nothing else felt like either of those at the time. I never thought I would feel that again until I played Elden Ring. That game made me feel like a young kid again. Go in blind and play it with some friends, it's truly one of the greatest games of all time.
I hate two of those games and I've never played the third (ER). Oblivion was one of the least immersive game worlds I've ever experienced and one of the tiny handful of games I never even bothered to finish. It was one of the first games I bought for the PS3 and it seriously made me question my decision to but not just the game but the console itself. Halo 1 is also one of the few games I never bothered to finish.
@purringbluzzmuffin8030 I'm not sure what kind of games you enjoy if neither of those appeal to your taste. I am curious what games you describe as immersive. Oblivion is definitely one of the greatest fantasy RPGs ever made. It was revolutionary when it came out. I am not sure I believe you when you say you found it nonimmersive because back then, almost nothing else had a world like that. For Halo CE. You probably don't appreciate shooters that aren't modern twitch shooters. Halo CE was graphically impressive at the time but that is not the main reason it was so amazing. Halo's story was great and along with that it created the modern control scheme all shooters still use today. Controller shooters did not play well before Halo CE and it is definitely one of the most influential games ever made
@@daltonburroughs3811 Favourite games in no particular order are MGS1, Shenmue, Bioshock, RDR2, GTA: Vice City, Arkham City, Dragon Age Origins, and then smaller games like Braid, Limbo, Cuphead, Ori 1&2. I've sunk around 1500 hours, maybe more, into RDR2 (console and PC versions combined) and unlocked every single player achievement twice. Oblivion was a dead world. Even the towns were empty, with the handful of NPCs you could interact with having nothing interesting to say. I'd played several Bioware games by that point and knew what dialogue in RPGs *could* be. Also, I was never impressed with the graphics. To be fair, I've never really been that impressed by the graphics of the first few titles of any console I've owned. But, regardless, I just wasn't impressed. The only Bethesda-developed game I've ever actually liked (and finished) is Fallout 3.
@purringbluzzmuffin8030 to each their own I guess. I got RDR2's online and just thought it was way more tedious and boring than Red Dead Redemption's online. It wasn't because their were no quests to really do, it was just the gameplay wasn't fun. I tried to love Limbo as I thought that art style was cool but side scrolling puzzle adventure games just don't do it for me. I have never played a Bioware game but Mass Effect in particular always looked absolutely terrible to me. I never thought the graphics looked good and the gameplay looked beyond clunky, even when they first came out. Even if they had a cool story those issues would prevent me from enjoying the games. Plus all the weird dating stuff is just unnecessary and gross in a game (same with any nudity in games). I did really like Bioshock but even back then it felt pretty clunky. Wasn't clunky enough to ruin the experience but Halo, COD, and BF had given me expectations. Still a great game tho. I also enjoyed Cuphead even though I never finished it. Last one I'll comment on is Batman. Man I really want to enjoy that series and recently got the Arkham Trilogy and just struggle to get into the first one. Maybe I just need to grind it out because the other 2 games look a lot more Interesting and open. I loved the Shadow of Mordor/War games and I feel like the Arkham games could be similar since the combat is similar. Really hoping one day I can find the time to beat them all. All the others are games I just have never been interested in really.
I'm 53 years old and what I have learned is time is extremely valuable so my brain resists the urge to play and get into a game but if I make myself sit down and play long enough to actually invest in the character development I find myself going back in time and becoming a child again For all of the old men who sit around and look and go oh I want to play that game and then when you think of actually playing it the thoughts into your mind then I'm gonna do this and I'm just gonna have to do this and it'll take forever to get past that stage ...... you're afraid of commitment Just pick a game you know you will like even if you don't think you're in the mood for it and play it long enough to actually have invested and struggled to make progress and through that struggle of making progress you will become immersed and engaged like you were when you were a child and it is fucking glorious !
Sometimes taking a 'tolerance break' of sorts from games helps me a lot with this. If you do something really often it'll become mundane eventually, even if it's something you like a lot.
I'm glad someone finally said what I've been feeling about side scroller games for so many years. I've never really been able to get into them for all the reasons you mentioned. I have to feel like I'm stepping into another world and into the shoes of another person and if all I'm doing is making a cartoon jump and go left to eight it doesn't really stick out to me as anything worth losing myself in.
64 years old here, and it is really a struggle. After playing for 40+ years (video games did not exist when I was young), I think I have seen it all and immersion is impossible anymore. For me. I mainly read now.
I too have been playing games for 40+ years (Wizardry 1 in 1981 at age 18 was my first digital game) and I play for several hours every day. Fortunately, gaming is not a struggle for me although I am not able to play for several consecutive hours without taking a break. In my view games are much better now than they were even 10 years ago, as Arkham Knight, Jedi Fallen Order, the two Horizon games, BG3, and others are very immersive, and age does not get in the way of immersion for me. I agree with the part of the video which comments on focusing on enjoyment. If a game is not providing enjoyment, other than maybe in the first bit when learning (I enjoy the learning curve for games though it's not for everyone), then I don't see any reason to continue playing it.
woah! so you have played mass effect, borderlands, dragon age, oblivion, BioShock, dead space ,euro truck 2 and elite dangerous and elder scrolls online? ...you must be older than 64 lol, stay young read Terry Pratchett.
Well - I am a little bit older (69 now) and started playing games more seriously when games like Castle Quest, Repton, Citadel and of course Elite where released on the Acorn BBC-B computer. Since then I played numerous games. It helps, of course, that me and my girlfriend very early in our relation decided that children where not for us, and I am (and still have) a relatively free life as a graphical artist and someone that is hired for projects in software maintenance and electronics. Anyway - I was a bit in a slump game-wise, until I discovered the JRPG genre, an very especially the Legend Of Heroes - Trails series (Starting with Trails In The Sky First Chapter). That series got me fully into gaming again, and I played all the games in those series, because all these games tell an overarching story. That story is still not finished and let me play game after game. For more entertaining and fluffy stuff I play the Atelier series and Blue Reflection series and loads of other games (too much to mention here). That JRPG genre (and especially the Trails series), has got me fully into gaming again. I guess you never grow too old to drop gaming. I have a great time now (I am retired and have a LOT of free time), and I guess I keep gaming until I cannot longer hold a controller or mouse...🙂
Thats because everygame feels the same. Try something different. I felt that apathy and games like subnautica and Payday 2 got me immersed like when i was a kid
Well put. I have the same issue, I can't "connect" with anything since the least 2 God of War games. I've played a ton of stuff since then and just haven't had any of them make me want to continue after the first night of playing them.
Shadow of the Colossus did this to me. The ‘disconnect from reality‘ aspect was really strong in this game. It was really exciting wandering around this ominous world and always trying to figure out what secrets it is hiding from you as you were always like ‘there must be more to it‘. After completing it this game is still a mystery to me.
31 here and just started playing Skyrim yesterday for the first time ever! Hopefully itll keep me busy with exploration until ashes of creation comes out
Man you hit the nail on the head for me, brotha. It was uncanny how much of this I have thought myself over the past couple of years. The reason it makes me so sad... I spent my entire childhood looking forward to gaming when I was older. Having the money to buy the console and games that I wanted, staying up as late as I wanted with friends, seeing where my favorite franchises would go in the future, etc... Now I'm older, and I hardly even have the interest or motivation to spend time on video games. The only game I still play from time to time is Skyrim (of course). I'm coaching basketball, I'm selling insurance, I've got a nice car, I've got an amazing dog, I've got a nice apartment, and I've got a loyal girlfriend. I've got everything in life that OLDER me wanted. Yet part of me is sad. I feel like that younger version of me died off as I grew up... And I would do anything to get it back.
Nope, 35 here and don t have this problem. Maybe the fact that i m living a no stress childfree life helps. Altough i admit, part of the problem are the modern games. I played Morrowind, Pharaoh and NFS Porsche yesterday and boy i got immersed ❤
@@the1abstrakt id rather feel lonely sometimes, than feel lonely with a wife and kids i never wanted all the time. that time will come when i want them, and not because ppl delude themselves that its the natural thing to do, we have enough bad parents and offspring in the world.
So true. I was completely crazy for video games until 14-ish. After that, they've always felt 'just alright' to me. It sure helps with adult responsibilities. But do I miss the days where I could feel so hyper passionate for something.
Perfectly normal, i used to watch movies or tv shows or random things on the internet. Now i only play video games because thats what really fullfills me, with age we value time more so we are more picky with how we spend it.
In my case it's the exact opposite. I use to game a lot but now I mostly just watch TV or RUclips. Every now and then the mood will strike to wanna play a game but rarely. When it does,I usually don't play for long. Idk if it's cause I'm older now or what but it sucks lol. I want to want to play like I use to.
@@brandonhoneycutt9047 I probably know how it is, I was playing league of legends and wow a lot when I was younger then I got I sick of them so much. Now I play mostly single player games that are more about art expression and visual design rather than a competitive thing.
I can relate to this a little bit. I think a lot of it has to do with external factors in my life. The past few years I have been busier than ever with my career, to the point of being overworked and burning out. It's made it harder and harder to get into committing to a lot of these games that thrive off of immersion and atmosphere. From about 2017 to 2020 I had a good run of playing a lot of games that still pulled me in that way. A couple of games prior as well, namely The Witcher 3, metal gear solid 5, bloodborne and Dark Souls 3, but in 2017 Assassin's Creed Origins really pulled me in to the point where it felt like I was living in that world and not just playing a game. And I'm 100% with you on Red Dead Redemption 2. That is my favorite game ever made and it's not even close. But that game just transports you to that world, some things can be a little clunky still but I appreciate that attention to my new detail that goes into making that game feel real. No matter how many times I replay it still has that same effect on me. Later that year, or maybe it was earlier that year I can't remember but I got quite sucked into Spider-Man PS4, and then subsequently the Resident Evil 2 remake, and even Resident Evil 3 despite it not being the same quality. But when 2020 hit, life changed for a lot of us, but for me especially I had a lot of stress going on outside of just the pandemic. But the pandemic also nearly put me out of business and I had to switch my line of work for a while where I was working every single day. I would inevitably only get busier and busier over the next 4 years. To the point where I didn't feel like I could play these long immersive open world RPGs and the like. It took a very special game for me to actually sit down and play it from start to finish. Otherwise I was mostly just playing things you could hop in and out of like online shooters or WWE 2K. I would still have all of these games that I wanted to play, and I would be adding to my backlog by buying them on sale. But then just feeling too overwhelmed to ever really start them. Despite owning it from launch day, only in the past month have I started to really put a real effort into playing Assassin's Creed Odyssey. I feel like I'm getting back to being able to enjoying a lot of these games the way that they are intended and being able to let myself be transported to that world. But even then, you're still a sense of being kind of overwhelmed by a lot of newer games, or by trying to start them. Much like scrolling through streaming services instead of watching something new, I will end up rewatching some show I've already seen dozens of times. And as such I often still end up revisiting games I have already played I think another big part of it though is I'm just not the same person I was when I was younger and I used to let myself get wrapped up in these games. I was in a much worse headspace in games served as a coping mechanism for it, and escape. Possibly even straight up addiction. These days it's just back to being a hobby for me. Which is good, but I feel like I've lost that sense of being able to dedicate the same amount of time to actually playing them that some of these games seem designed for. I don't have that same attention span to sit down and play some open world game from morning to night anymore lol. And as such sometimes if you only have an hour or two in some of these games You feel like you're put in to that world, barely accomplish anything, and then yank yourself out of it. And that's me sometimes can make it hard to be immersed and also make it that much harder to actually dedicate the time it takes to fully beat it Also, I couldn't really get into breath of the wild either. There were a lot of things there that I appreciated about it and I could see why people enjoyed experimenting with it. But it just never clicked with me that way. I got about 20 hours out of it so I don't feel like I wasted my money but the things that annoyed me about the game at that point were far outweighing the things that interested me. That being said, I absolutely love tears of the Kingdom. Go figure
I find myself spending more time reading about games, watching videos about games, or watching people play videos, then I do playing them. Partly because of work, and my living situation, but when I do find the time to sit down to play, I always scroll through my log looking for something to play rather then playing anything, and when I do finally make a decision, I'm not as immersed as I'd like to be.
I turned 50 this year and have been a gamer since I got an Atari 2600. Around 4 years ago I just sort of stopped playing games, I felt like i'd finally just lost interest due to my age. A few months ago I felt like I was missing it, so I bought a Series S with game pass and have played through Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Resident Evil 1 & 2 remaster, Planet of Lana and loved them all and now I'm back into gaming for a few hours almost every night again. My advice to any other gamers out there who feel they are losing interest in gaming is take a few years out and maybe you'll find your love of gaming all over again. It worked for me
I was loving that game but the horde in the cave I cant beat, only managed the 1st horde 'cus there was a window ledge I could pick them off from. I want to go further but every time I try just cant, tried around 40 times n its taking the piss : (
@@sparkshotthere is a certain strategy for hordes especially early in the game. I recommend hitting up as many Nero checkpoints as you can to increase your stamina or health. Load up on pipe bombs and molotavs and throw as many as you can, and you need to find an assault rifle, the SAF works best. Lastly keep your bike at a distance so you can hop on and get some distance from them, hint** they will start going back to the nest after some distance and you can start picking them off while they head back, trust me, the game keeps getting better as you progress.
@@geeTzeroX - Ive forgot what a Nero thing is. Problem is the cave horde is tight n no bike. Ive loads of weapons n ammo, assault, machine, bombs etc but im useless here. I even turn TV brightness on max to see clear.
@@sparkshotsorry I forgot about this mission. Is it the one with the evolved zombie called the Reacher? That mission is a bitch, all I remember is a lot of running and getting them to separate to small packs and funnel there numbers down. They are like 50-75
@@geeTzeroX - You have to fighter a Breaker (I think they're called, could be the Reacher) in the cave 1st then the horde starts. It's not an optional horde though. It's also 2nd part of game when you typically keep returning to that Ark military camp or whatever you call it.
I think it's age and life pressures. As a kid games like zelda ocarina of time just blew me away and immersed me. But life in general was amazing.. I had the world at my feet and so much to look forward to. Now I am approaching middle age, have had some failures, regrets, mental health issues.. It's just harder to get that immersed with your brain having focus elsewhere. I am also intimidated by complex games like rdr2 as I forget the controls etc so I stick to quick attempts at immersing myself as best I can with MP gaming.
I struggled to get fully immersed playing since I did a degree in Games Design, my Lecturers warned me this would happen. Now I see games from a completely different analytical and art direction pov instead of just enjoying games like I used to. Then I got married, had kids, now have such little time to play games that I hardly ever get time to just sit and play all night like I used to. I thought I had lost the ability to get immersed until I recently bought Cyberpunk and had a free weekend away from the Wife and Kids and holy heck it was like being a teenager again. Hours playing it felt like minutes, I was completely engrossed. It helps that game now is absolutely phenomenal from a player agency, technical and visual pov. Also since then VR has certainly brought that level of immersion back for me, most notably HL Alyx.
u should try elden ring, it single handidly got me and my entire old friend group into video games, soe of which are surgeons and some have mutliple kids. its easily one of the best games in gaming history in my book!!
@@flamingmanure I dont think I can afford the broken controllers I would surely have trying to play that game haha. Although back in the day I did complete Ninja Gaiden for Xbox and that game was absolutely nails.
I've noticed that more intrinsically motivated players tend to have this issue less and more extrinsically motivated players have it more amongst my gaming friends. Small sample size and anecdotal, but I do feel like there's potentially some truth to that. One of my buddies specifically seeks out games that turn game mechanics and gameplay on their head to get out of this lack of being immersed headspace. He said games like Control, Stanley's Parable, Outer Wilds worked really well to reboot his gamer brain because he said they made him pay attention again and get out of autopilot mode when playing games.
The 2 big things that stop me from enjoying games and losing myself in them are: 1. I'm stressed and haven't gotten enough things off my mind, journaling and planning my next day out usually fixes this, setting up rituals to add stability to my life so I feel I can let go and relax. 2. Having too many game options to play, usually I just pick one and force myself to play it for 15-60 minutes, if I'm not at all interested, I move to the next game.
Starfield has done it again for me. Some planets are so incredibly beautiful, and knowing that I may be the only one who landed at this particular spot and watched the sunset is an incredible experience. Ignore the hate, give the game a second try like I did.
I am 47 years old. In a way even the clunky 8bit gfx was immersive - in a very abstract way, but still. As I aged I always found special games. Maniac Mansion, Zak McKraken, Monkey Island - these were all great games. I didn't game for several years since I preferred having a social life. But I returned to the Bethesda titles like Oblivion, Skyrim, FO3 and FO4. I remember Morrowind mentioned back in 2003 and I remember thinking about not having the time due to my friends and university. But in the 2010s I had time after work - that is when I discovered the Bethesda games. They were fantastic, although there was a kind of the decline in immersion, despite the technology enabling much more. So to me Oblivion was more immersive than Skyrim which was more so then FO3 and FO4 was pretty bad in this department. But luckily I discovered RDR2 during Covid. This was by far the best experience ever. The world was so full of life - you know, who knows knows. I was glad to have played rdr2 during Covid. There really wasn't a better thing to do at the time so I had all the time in the world. Elden Ring, on the contrary, was a disappointment to me. To difficult to me and no sense of direction. I wanted to like it and I saw the appeal of the type of combat, but it was to difficult for me.
I have everything I wanted as a kid, but I can't keep my interest for very long, I guess the best things to do is to give a long break. I need the accept the fact it won't be like my childhood again ever, but that doesn't mean I have to give it up completely, a long break and then play games in short bursts, I believe this is the way to go.
First game I’ve played since 2016 that really pulled me in was Palworld, I didn’t look up any of the pals ahead of time so I just explored the areas and discovered all these new pals, while building my base and shooting things. Great game.
For me, the reason I'm into gaming is to escape reality and its very hard to escape reality if your bills and responsibilities are part of your reality.
It’s simple: you’re an adult now with adult problems. You’ll never have that same type of immersion because your time is split with parenting, work, marriage, friends, etc. compared to a kid that lives with mom and dad with no real responsibilities yet. You can still enjoy video games, you just can’t “immerse” yourself in it….unless you make the time to do so like take off work, take advantage of an empty house, etc.
It's about time, right? I used to be able to play for hours at a time and stay up all night. Now I squeeze in an hour here or there. Hard to get immersed.
@@travim4314 I think it’s a mix of time but also adulthood mindset. Depending on where you are in life, even if someone was to have a lot of days to play video games, the thought of bills, money for food, work, kids, wife/husband, housecare, car issues, living conditions, etc. is in the back of your mind. These are things most kids don’t have to worry about normally or even understand. As a child, you wake up, go to school, come home and play the game with everything else taken care of responsibility wise. You don’t have so much stuff weighing down on your mind that prevents you from immersing yourself in a game to the fullest.
That happens as an adult. I'm 44. When you're worried about all the other things in life you can't relax enough to play games. When you go through rough spots in your marriage though, you kind of don't give a frig and go into gaming binge sessions.
These videos are always so fascinating to me because they fill me in on perspectives I wouldn't have ever considered. I experienced the complete opposite of this entire video: never played Rockstar games, never got into RDR1 or 2, and I was raised on oldschool gameboy advance games and rpgs. I played Morrowind before Skyrim, which made the latter feel wholly streamlined and horrible because in my mind classes with finite restrictions determined by stats determine immersion for me. Skyrim, by contrast, felt like everything I despised in open-world sandbox games. It had no complexity, streamlined mechanics, an absolute lack of consequences, etc. The thing I hated most was the shift to a more open-world styled game meant catering to gamers who wanted to complete everything in a single playthrough instead of catering to the philosophy of experiencing the game through multiple playthroughs. Contrast this with how you could kill essential characters in Morrowind and there would always be a "failsafe" embedded into the game that allowed you to reach the final boss. To me that cemented this idea that open-world games were shallow and compromise the immersion found in diegetic gameplay that adheres more closely to the hero's journey via choice and consequence. Ubisoft open-world games didn't help my perception of the genre. I would sort of role my eyes at Assassin's Creed games because they felt more like the developers were trying to make elaborate movies rather than games to me. Everything seemed more fixated on graphics and cinematics; it pulled me out of my immersion because I never felt like I had the freedom to build my protagonist the way I wanted. And it goes without saying, I never got into Arkham Batman games out of sheer bias, despite my best efforts. And that influenced my perception of open-world games as a whole. They just weren't for me. That is until I grew older, my tastes changed a little, and I got really into both Elden Ring and Cyberpunk 2077, which married things I loved from roleplaying games into open-world games in a way I never thought possible.
Definitely resonated with your video. I’ve been gaming most of my life and been feeling recently that I can only immerse myself in a game which resonates with me eg. rdr 2 which I have restarted playing again after 2 years not touching it. Guess age and your life stage means you see things differently and interested in different things
There’s two things that has tainted my ability to get immersed in games and that is achievement hunting and online. My brain automatically puts off a game if there’s no goals to meet or skill to refine to compete. Like I am not able to play for the purpose of fun as I used to, I always play for the purpose to progress. Slowly trying to get out of this stupid mindset but why does my brain yell “this is a waste of time” despite if I am having fun, like I need results of accomplishments for satisfaction when the fun should be the only reason of play.
Makes me so grateful to be a sim racer. Racing is something I can always go back to and have fun. I used to play a bunch of different genres, but nowadays ill only play one maybe two single player games a year. I have the same issue with not being able to get into games like I used to.
The problem isn't age, it's having too many games while not breaking down and knowing the specifics of your own taste well enough (or at least not knowing how to choose games for your taste). I only play a few new games but because I know my taste precisely it's always a banger with 100% immersion, 100% completion every time despite me being older now. When you play too many average games you burn yourself out of experiencing full immersion when you do find a game that has that potential to you (also due to sensory overload). I know before playing a game if it has that potential to me and that's why I skip all games that look good but don't have the specifics I'm looking for. So what do I do when it's been a long time since I found a game for me? I replay those bangers. You see, my criteria for a potential game always starts with replayability. We could say replayability is an indirect way to measure depth. Some people have trouble with this approach because they crave novelty. But what they don't realize is that newer games have superficial novelty while being mostly reskins of other games. And those truly innovative indies? Well, the vast majority are limited tech demos so while their core mechanics might be interesting, they lack the depth necessary for immersion. For example, I liked the older Harvest Moon titles so naturally Stardew Valley would be a good game for me right? Nope, I know just by observing it that the perfect game for me is Rune Factory 4 instead and at the time I bought a 3DS specifically for this game. How did I figure this out? I broke down what aspects of the farming sim time management I liked and realized a farming sim for me needs to have some sort of analog controls or skillful movement/actions otherwise I can't achieve immersion in this genre. Harvest Moon Back to Nature had very tight turns and time went fast. Rune Factory 4 has dashe-cancels, mounts, technical movement. I would drop Stardew Valley the moment I had to repeat the same movement/action without any way to improve it. You're not the only one who didn't like Zelda BotW and Hollow Knight. Just by looking at them I already knew I'd rather replay Xenoblade Chronicles X and Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin instead (with mods and randomizers for ACTUAL novelty). Zelda BotW is XCX for kids. Yes, it has the great map design that only MonolithSoft can create but it doesn't have the depth or stakes for exploring said maps. Combat, equipment and progression systems are too shallow so why would I trade the depth of XCX for the superficial novelty of a new map with less interesting everything else? It seems to me that younger gamers feel like buying a new game is a ritual. To me, finding new depth in a solid game is the ritual. People just need to learn how to spot and find these games that work for them. This is also why I no longer play online only or live service games. There is no way I will invest time, money and my brain into a game that may cease to exist in the future. I want my perfect library of games available to me at any time.
"It rhymes like poetry" - George Lucas And yeah, Adam tends to hover around the same concepts from different angles time and time again which brings some repetition. But also deeper introspection. If you gaze long enough to the abyss long enough, it tends to gaze back. Wouldn't call it depression. More of a coming of age crisis in the ashes of a crumbling society. Building your own meaning in a pathosless era is one hell of a journey. Being vulnerable enough to share that struggle publicly is some real brave stuff IMO.
I did a video about immersion a couple of years ago but it was small and not that detailed about my thoughts. like others have said, I talk about similar topics and deepen my thoughts on them, so at times it might mean I’m saying “I love Skyrim” in every video but that is who I am, so I’m going to continue saying “I love Skyrim” when it’s relevant to the main topic at hand.
As you age you value time and energy. while playing death stranding i had this epiphany. The first part pulled me in but as soon as i started back tracking and going through the redundancy and inventory management i put it down. I was doing something in a game i already do in the real world. I play games now that don’t waist my time and i do research before i buy. I prefer games that progress like reading a good book. If the game locks you into grinding to progress and doesn’t give you the option just to play through the story on easy then i don’t waist my time and money on it. What pulls most people out of games is this exact thing. The less real life responsibilities you have the easier it is to waist time on learning a non valuable skill. Thats why when we were younger we loved games much more.
Man this really spoke to me, its not like i am unable to get immersed in games or anime anymore, tbh i still have those rare, rare experiences, but it feels like it only happens once per year, for example i loved Scarlet nexus and qas super immersed in it in 2023, and in 2024 i loved tf outta FFXv, its odd these are very flawed games but they captured me like no other, i have also played or watched many many amazing shows and animes but for some reason i havent been able to be fully consumed by them as of writing this comment, its bizarre, because the shows, anime and games im consuming are miles better than games i played in the past, yet they cant immerse me like they usted too, like u said getting fully captured and thinking abt the game all ur waking minutes, i wish i could have that but i cant. I think maybe its due to depression and me being jaded, maybe as i get older i cant relate to the teen protags of the media i consume, maybe this maybe that, but either way it really saddens me i cant feel the same emotions i felt when playing games as i usted to.
Nah it’s not just you. It’s called getting older. I’m going through the same thing. It’s hard for me to find games that are worth investing my time in nowadays.
After getting my first kid I definitely lost my ability to get immersed. I never was able to log onto Discord and chat with friends while playing and ultimately quit trying. 3+ years later and it's sometimes possible. Elden Ring I play and thoroughly enjoy but mostly it's only roguelites that can keep me engaged as I can squeeze in a run every now and then without forgetting the controls or a vast story. I hope it'll come back at some point.
As I’ve gotten older I feel acutely aware of how much time I’m spending playing. An underlying feeling of guilt is present when I game, questioning if there is something more productive I could or should be doing. Procrastinating any task exacerbates this feeling and contributes heavily to not being able to get immersed and enjoy the experience. Another component is the learning curve you mentioned. I’ve been meaning to get into The Witcher 3 for a couple years and keep putting it off due to knowing it will take 3-4 hours for me to learn all the mechanics/crafting etc… More often than not I have a hour. or so to play and don’t want to spend it learning a bunch of new things over multiple sessions when I can pick up a PvP game (in my case Chivalry 2) and just go.
I've been struggling a lot with this lately at the age of 32. I'm hoping it's another burn out but they've been happening a lot more frequently this year.
I would recommend playing linear games and the like. As I have gotten older, these huge open world games and big games in general just doesn't do it for me anymore.. I need to have an enjoyable time the moment I start the game or I lose interest quickly, because I value my time much more now. I can't spend hours and hours getting sucked in to a big open world rpg like I used. This means I mostly play older games now because those were designed much more for what I seek now. They are alot more pick up and play and have fun instantly. One thing I really miss is single player games having levles instead of being a continous a experience. If I play an old game like James Bond Nightfire I can pick what level I want and know it will have a start and an ending with fun gameplay instantly. You don't get that with modern games, you just start from where you ended your last section, and if that was a long time ago you kinda lose interest playing there. I enjoy playing Cod 3 on my ps2 emulator now for instance. Pick a level and have fun instantly, and it is actually a really immersive game.
@Skumtomten1 I most definitely agree. I also prefer to play older games like Wolverine's Revenge which I highly recommend. I'm very much looking forward to the Plucky Squire which has a very classic look and design. I also highly recommend Frogun which gets a sequel this month.
I use to have an uncle John. The cool uncle. He had all the game systems and physical media and had a huge arnwine full of movies, shows and games. He would come over and bring his duffle bag full of games and it was such a event when it happened. Fast forward and now I'm the uncle John. But as I get older I find myself feeling guilt for leaving the real world and feel like i should be cultivating real world skills. It definitely does feel like times are changing. Just try to have fun everynow and then and if you have kids be that uncle John for them
@@Skumtomten1 big facts. I've been trying to play through Ff7 rebirth and the world is just too big and overwhelming. I can't spend 5 hours doing a side when I just traverse through a world.
42 here been gaming pretty much my entire life. I struggle with immersion with new games. But once I started playing older gems that wasn’t really a problem. My oled Switch became my go to console While my ps5 just sits. ✌🏾
I’m with you brotha on Elden ring. I don’t doubt it’s an amazing game, but when I play it, I feel like I’ve seen it all before and that the way it feels is just to familiar and almost autopilot
I’ve struggled since finishing Far Cry 5. I kind of rushed it because I started to get bored, but the ending just to finish with a conversation blew my mind. I’ve gone back to Skyrim and Fallout now and then, but I’ve just spent too many years exploring the games inside and out to get anything out of them.
I remember playing skyrim at age 17, around the time I first started smoking weed. It was like I was teleported into a new world. I'd literally walk to my destinations because I was so immersed. The dialogue was 10x better than what I think it is now. I'd spend so much time imagining the backstory of my character. Nowadays I don't have that feeling with much games anymore except a few. Cyberpunk, RDR2, Soma, and Alien Isolation are the only games I can think of where I can force myself to be immersed. But even then it's not the same as it once was. Which sucks because I really wish the games I mentioned came out when I was 17 and not 25-30.
Honestly, self-inserting usually helps with immersion for me (usually), but a game also being too “wide” and free-roaming can really kill my desire to play. I enjoyed ER the first time around, but quickly lost interest in a second playthrough, despite trying and stopping a few times to explore the world again (I guess once was enough on my nerves lol). I wish so badly for a game to capture me as things once did as a youngin’, or that I can go back and experience that joy on repeat (instead of being done after one playthrough), but life just has the better of me I guess! ❤ I’m just glad to not be alone in these feelings.
The older you get the more precious your time becomes. The more precious your time is the harder it is to waste it in virtual worlds, unless you make them for other people to experience for a living. This is why so many go into the entertainment industry because of their love for these games and movies they grew up on.
I think about this a lot. The games I've found most immersive have included Halo, Fable, various Mario games (but perhaps especially Super Mario 64), and these days, Pokemon Legends Arceus. There, I definitely do slip into addictive patterns. So I've been working on healthier ways of engaing with it, because I do think it's genuinely valuable to have this world I can drop into where I forget about my life difficulties - so long as it doesn't soak up so much of my time and energy that it detracts from my ability to work on improving my life.
I feel the exact same way you do about BOTW, for Elden Ring, i want to enjoy the game and i see why others do, but regardless of all that, theres nothing to hook me or make me want to play it other than being able to have a conversation. On the other hand, BOTW was amazing, and I loved every moment I spent with it. Chilling and cooking were a vibe, and the exploration was PEAK. Reminded me of my Vanilla Skyrim days with no compass or anything just wandering around and exploring, cooking soups, and slaying dragons is my favorite pastime.
The other issue for me now is the countless issues around software implementations and incompatibilities...things like freesync, gsync, vrr, vertical sync, 60-120Hz, colour banding, resolution, HDMI 2.0,2.1.2.2 with/without HDCP, LED/QLED/QD-OLED/Mini LED/WOLED, ALL, input lag, burn in, image retention etc. You now have to worry that everything works smoothly together and it never does...for example even HDR you have to worry about the HDR settings in the game, HDR in windows, HDR on your panel then your GPU if you have a PC. Then all the crap about updates for your game/console/TV. In old days I would have a TV I switch on, put a cartridge in the slot and turn on. That's. All this sh** now breaks the immersion because I am always on the edge for some glitch/incompatibility.
I'm 37 and been feeling like this for about a year or so and thought it was just me. Idk if it's because I'm getting older or what. Back 12 or 13yrs ago my cousins and our friends would play COD religiously and was so fun. Nowadays we've all gone our separate ways and never play together anymore. I've tried playing on my own but it's just not the same. Alot of the time it's like I want to want to play something. I'll try to force myself to sit down and play a game but lose interest after 20 to 30mins. The last games I got really immersed in and didn't wanna stop playing were re4 remake and rdr2. As far as COD goes,I can play zombies for a good while before I lose interest but I never play multiplayer anymore even though I wish I wanted to.
42 years old here. Played games heavily until 21 ish, then went a 10 year period where I may have picked up a controller once or twice ( on the life grind career build/kids) also agree on the immersion but got back into gaming once established and was able to get immersed. I think it's part gaming burnout, part industry producing crap. Seems to be an ebb and flow of the industry
I have the same situation. I remember before, I was fully immersed and invested in the characters. However, it has become increasingly rare. I think it's due to my age. I distinctly remember how truly immersive Resident Evil 4 remake was for me. I miss being easily more immeresed in games, as it was a huge interest for me for a really long time☹️
I felt like this for almost two years, but this year something changed, have I changed ? have the games ? Nope. I was having a shit ton of backlog and was always anxious about the next game, constantly checking howlongtobeat and calculating my time and gaming like a second job. Also I was kinda stuck in a rpg, action adventure, shooter genre lately. But the magic happened when I said fuck it to the backlogs, and just focused one game/franchise at a time, played indies, mixed up the genres, tried new ones I never played, currently am playing through the yakuza series having never played it, just completed yakuza zero and judgement, now playing Kiwami, and I can earnestly say that "old childhood immersive feeling" is back. The only drawback now is that unlike the old days, got nobody to talk to regarding the stories and theories with work colleagues or family, and most discord people are now playing what's on trend rn ie. elden ring or multiplayer, so RUclips is the only friend I got 😂❤
Agree. I’m 37- still love playing. But I agree with the immersion. I have 2 kids a full time job, etc. a few games that have immersed me again to where I felt like a kid (and wanted to play at 6am before work) was The Witcher 3, and the new God of Wars
I know the feeling. I'm hitting my mid 30s and i also find it hard to find the desire to play video games lately. I have a backlog of MANY games and i never find the time to get around to them.
im in my 30s and i feel the same. i grew up with ps1 era final fantasy, metal gear, gta and the likes. i never could get into another gta after san andreas, i couldnt get into any final fantasy after 10, i couldnt get into mgs 5. ive tried witcher 3, rdr 1 and 2, skyrim, oblivion and i couldnt get in them. i loved fallout tho, i love mass effect 1-3, ive got into dark souls, ive at least almost finished elden ring.. i think its a mix out of being more and more disillusioned with age, having other things in life, personal taste, the same reacurring patterns in games.
When it comes to games I've played, I find what captivates me is the potential for creative expression. Elden Ring, Skyrim, Dungeons and Dragons, these are all highly imaginative worlds that do not require you to match them, but asks the player "what can you make out of the things I give you?". The more content there is in a game, the more content I can create out of it with these settings.
Funny enough. As broken as it can be, i regularly get that sense of aww and "positive" disconnect in Star Citizen. There is something about landing on a moon to complete a package delivery, turning around to head back to the ship and seeing the Giant Jupiter like planet of Orison (or any other planet). And you know that you CAN take off right now and make landfall at those locations, usually anywhere you please. Yeah the rest of the game is kinda hit or miss and empty. But idk, it still organically just slows me down, and makes me enjoy the ride for what it is. (KCD is also another good one for this)
Fable 2 was the first game that fully immersed me back in the day for a lot of the same reasons you probably loved Skyrim lol. Lighthearted and violent themes mixed together really is peak fiction.
One of the biggest reason is the fact that we can get any game we want now since we're independent adults. There's also subscription services that throw 100s of games at you for a price of a cheap meal.
Playing a good game ≠ better experience. Playing any game to it's full potential = amazing experience. We have so much choice that at any minor inconvenience, we either jump to another game or constantly keep thinking about other good games we could play instead. But that good game doesn't exist. So we end up enjoying nothing.
Very well said. We are so aware that some other game out there will fix a "sticking point" that we have with whatever game we're currently playing, and it creates this cycle that we keep moving from game to game with the intention to, as I heard in another video essay, "avoid having a bad time instead of playing to have a good time."
Literally describes me lol, I play a game for a hour and get hyped then I instantly think of another game to play that I think I will enjoy more, and it becomes a cycle.
The grass is greener?
@@lesp6055Yeah that pretty much covers the situation we're in. We are no longer satisfied with what we have. Back then we used to settle down with the most mediocre game enjoying it to the very core because that's all we had. God, do i miss that time 😔
You’re right. I’m 36 and I feel like in the last few yrs it’s been harder to “stay with it”. Having adult purchasing power amazing lol. Also getting a chance to start a few different games at a time with diff subscription plans does it too.
What breaks immersion for me is when a game has a game loop so pronounced and structured that the sense of wonder is completely lost because you know what to expect at any point in your first playthrough.
Looking at you Ubisoft. 😂
The only time they surprise me now, is when a stadard trope is missing.
I expected Far Cry 6 to have a parrot with a cigar or drone made of junk to scout and tag enemies.
My gamer senses went off halfway through hogwarts legacy and was like…oh thats what this is going to be…okay im good. 😂
Yes, this happened with Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. It seemed really good at first and I was telling my mate how great it is and how it’s open world but not boring….then when that formula repeated itself for a third time my enjoyment quickly flopped. I dragged myself to golden saucer and honestly can’t be bothered with it anymore. I will go back eventually, but I don’t think I’ll enjoy it as much as I thought and hoped.
Ubisoft for sure. Starfield and dragons dogma recently
I can't get into any new games because it feels like just getting through the tutorials or the beginning learning curve takes all of my time that I have. Sitting down to play a game and spending 3 hours without ever getting into the game takes the immersion away Some games also have so much dialogue at the start of the game like they have to tell you everything about the world before you begin. I just want to drop into a world and have fun, but it seems like fun is not the main criteria for games anymore.
its simple, because youre worried, about age, job, money, partners, time, parents, family etc. it could be anything really, anything that makes you feel like you can't relax just yet. but once everything is settled, you can immerse yourself again
💯 I’m 36 and still get full immersed into games. But there was a stage where I felt like that you’ve just gotta do some life inventory
This. I had over a decade break from games. After divorce I decided to live for me again and got back into them. The amount of amazing games I missed… been playing back to back since last October.
Fuuuuuuccc*****
another factor would be the saturated market. back then every game is a unique experience to try out. nowadays, we've seen a lot of it a thousand times or more and rarely a game felt unique.
@@Njin8492 I cannot second this more. In the 2000s decade game design evolved at an incredibily fast pace. Every sequel was much better than the previous game, not only graphics but game design above everything). Every big new game was a new expirence. This ended in the early 2010s. Every game had a skill tree, fetch quests and some of them a cliche story. Also the way you could interact with the world started to shrink, and gameplay loops started to be more limited to kill this, go there, get rewarded, get another task and repeat. No more buy a house, engage in petty talk with companions or people, those momoents of calmness when you can just relax and enjoy. When every game starts having the same design and you just paint an harry potter or star wars color of paint over it, thats when you struggle to ger immersion
Reading books has helped me get immersed in videogames again. Try to get into a different medium for a little while and then come back to video games
Absolutely. I know it sounds weird, but I've read some fanfictions about some of the minor npc in BOTW, the story delve quite deeply into character dramas and have dark undertones of extinction and famine and uses the world of botw as a foundation to describe it's scenes.
Going back into BOTW felt so surreal, I got visions of past scenes of the fanfic playing out in my head, dramatic events or character deaths.
Which is why I felt BOTW is a game with amazing open world worldbuilding but with holds way too much information of it's lore and story. The npc lack depth that creates immersion to care about the world.
It's easier to get immerse on linear games. Like a book, there is no distractions or freedom to do. You just flow
Movies too
For me it was the opposite. When I started reading books video games began to lose appeal. The deep storytelling, philosophy, symbolism I was experiencing with books i could very rarely find in games.
Paradoxically, this made me appreciate arcade games more than story driven one. The former let me just play, learn the core mechanics and fell in love with the core gameplay without being disappointed with the bad writing, pacing and characters
which types of books fiction or non fiction
I'm a gamer in my 50s and my childhood games are games like Pitfall on the 2600 and Contra on the NES. I go through the same thing but it's mainly because life is way more complicated as an adult than it was as a child and young adult. As long as there's an IRL "wall of worry" in your life, you'll struggle to ever fully get immersed in a game. What's funny is that I can get way more immersed in older games from my young adult years where I had less worries. I think it's a way for my brain to trick itself and make me believe I've gone back in time to particular period.
But from a game-design point of view, it's the writing in games for me and the padding of game length with repetitive tasks. When you're older, you've likely read and consumed more sophisticated literature and media so your standard for good story-telling and narrative is much higher and your stamina for overly lengthily games is challenged. These days, I look for leaner 15-20 hour experiences.
I feel you. I completed witcher 3 after installing uninstalling it for 6 yrs after being diagnosed as terminally Ill last December. You know. Just to cope with the situation. I was very impressed with its world. Same with rdr2. Apart from these two the only other games that came close to immerse me were Hogwarts legacy and ghost of tsushima. Arkham knight and hitman world of assasination remain all time fav for me still.
I’m really sorry to hear but I’m glad these games have provided you comfort and entertainment in such a circumstance
Been playing Witcher 3 on and off for 9 years. Never finished it. I feel the need to completely restart a game when I go a long time without playing. I'll probably dye before I ever finish it
@@anthonyf616 lol
Long life to you my brother@@chappanagent
@@anthonyf616why not just reinstall and start playing it now? Its literally one of the greatest RPGs of all time.
I was 14 when skyrim came out, that sense of wonder and imagination of that age is what made the immersion possible. I was so ensared in that world... What a time man
I can't enjoy gaming anymore. I have between one to two free hours a day for myself. I'm so stressed with life that I can't even relax enough to play.
I know what you feel.🥲
Same 😢
u need adjust ur life 1st, only have 1 hour isnt be alive, even slave have more
I completely get where youre coming from. Sometimes i just sit at my dashboard just looking at games i dont want to play lol
@nopillzplease2830Are we all the same person?!
@nopillzplease2830literally me. I've bought so many games in the last year that I still have to play. If I'd spend as much time playing them as I did watching gaming essays, they'd all he done by now lmao
Same.Yet I never miss the opportunity to download free monthly games from PS store
I miss the old vibe Halo had. Stepping out of the escape pod and looking up to see the ringworld for the first time was special
I think when we're younger we soak up new experiences and knowledge like a sponge, and our imagination is always in overdrive. Playfulness is our default state as a child. We haven't fully developed our personal tastes yet, so everything is fascinating to us. We're also more impressionable, so whatever "cool" thing our friends or older siblings are doing is irresistibleto us.
As we age, we know more about what we enjoy, and are looking for different experiences than just "something new," even if we don't consciously realize it. Our time may be more limited, we have more worries, responsibilities, distractions, etc. So we're choosier about how we spend our time, because we understand its value more.
We just have to find what works for us, and what is special to us. It's different for everybody. Just because everybody else seems to love a particular thing, doesn't mean that we should feel pressure to love it as well. Finding the things that we truly enjoy can help us rediscover the joy of being playful and allowing our imagination to bring us deeply into another world, whether it be in a game, book, movie, etc.
We just have to remember how to let go and be a kid again, even if it's only for a few minutes at a time. I think our imagination is like a muscle that we need to exercise and stretch. Being able to immerse ourselves fully in something like we did as a child can get easier as we learn to put stress away for a little while and allow ourselves a vacation from reality. I think it's a skill that we build.
Don't try to force it, but maybe give it a little nudge if we see something that we think has potential to draw us in. Then just kick back, have fun, and let it happen (or not happen) naturally. Don't stress about it. If you don't love a thing after giving it a fair shot, just keep looking until you find something that grabs you. It gets easier with practice, especially when you have identified what your personal tastes are. And be open to new experiences; like this video in the case of RDR2; you never know what might take you by surprise and spark your imagination.
I have found that for me personally, it helps me to keep a gaming journal where I can write about my character and experiences. It helps me organize my thoughts and get back into it when I take breaks, especially if it's to play something else for a while. I also get more attached to my character this way, which I think is essential to immersion. I like to spend at least a few minutes thinking about where my character came from, why he/she is there, what his/her motivations and goals are, etc. (I love writing stories as a hobby, so that may be a factor too.)
Happy gaming, and thanks for the great video!
Thank you for an insightful, helpful comment! I dig your approach, and will try journaling next time I boot up Mortal Shell (my current title.) I've drawn some items/scenes in games before and found that while it takes a little while, I really enjoy studying how the artist put something together and always appreciate the object more having given it some love.
Great comment! Leaving the Fear Of Missing Out behind helps a lot!
Very well said! but for me it has more to do with mental health than age
Hell yeah.
You would be amazed at how much more enjoyable games are when you plan them out after doing chores you have been putting off. For me getting older, enjoying games has become almost impossible. Now in my 30's I've learned that you need to clear your mind, do as much work around your house or anything you've put off and plan to use gaming as a reward to relax, and obviously putting your phone away when you play will really help. I've been able to get that young, teenage gaming feeling again on days off after I put 100% effort in doing the most I can do work wise, and then stay up late to play games while the wife and baby are sleeping.
i struggle to get immersed in newer releases as it's all the same, it isn't age, games are genuinely getting worse
Agreed. Games got standardized in terms of gameplay and even graphics. They found the formula for making the game that sells the most at the least amount of effort possible. Just different skins and nothing new if you played any of these.
I mostly play old games and emulators now. Get a ps2 emulator, get James Bond Nightfire or Cod 3 for instance. You get really fun gameplay instantly and you pick a level to start from and have an enjoyable ending to it. Games were alot more different back in the day. Devs tried their own things and used their own in-house engines resulting in games feeling alot more different from Another, both visually and from a gameplay perspective. For some reason I get alot more immersed playing these older games than new ones despite worse graphics and clunky controls.
doomer logic without much thought put into it.
@@flamingmanure other examples of amazing games getting worse over time & failing (or failed):
Saints Row series, HALO, Far Cry, Socom, Mass Effect, Destiny, Titanfall, Need for speed, Burnout, Madden, Splinter Cell, Gears of War, Assassins Creed, Payday, Fallout series (though, its semi staying alive, especially through F04 with mods), Diablo, Ghost Recon, Just Cause, Medal of Honor, Rainbow 6 (singleplayer), Kingdom Hearts, Metal Gear, NBA, Wolfenstein and many more.
(Don't forget Battlefront, Gran Turismo, Forza, Battlefield and Call of Duty which I mentioned already before). Call of duty is kinda debatle though.
It seems many games are going downhill now. Games series that people really loved eventually getting changed for the worse and people stop playing the new titles. Corporations buying games series and turning them into crap.
The fact that all these MAJOR BELOVED series are going downhill indicates the game industry IS getting worse and there is no denying it. People did not just get "bored" of their favorite franchises & quit, they quit because the games get worse, which is *_WHY_* older titles have higher player counts and why people are starting to play similar-competitor games by small developer teams/small game companies which serve as an alternative for peoples whose favorite franchised was ruined and want a something new that can bring back that magic.
If people were truly getting "bored" of the franchise, then the old games would not have higher plaercounts than the new games. The new games are just getting worse.
This is where I’m at. All the cash grabs are making ppl forget about the players. Nothing yet has captured that Skyrim vibe. I find myself playing quick games I can hop in and out of like apex or COD
No its you who has changed, subjectively there have been a huge amount of games released over the past few years that have taken their place among the best of all time.
The older I get the pickier I get. I have lost all interest in PvP multiplayer. I want good stories, mostly single player and open world. I need my fiction to emotionally devastate me or I don’t feel like I’m alive, lol.
Have you played Xenoblade? Persona used to be my favorite game series, but when I played Xenoblade, it completely blew Persona out of the water. Best story and soundtrack I've ever experienced in a video game hands out.
As a heads up, it can be a bit of a hard series to get into. Some people are turned off by its complexity, while others (like me) were drawn in by its challenge and loved learning how the game worked. Personally, I feel like Xenoblade is a breath of fresh air in a world where too many games are similar.
I'm almost 32, and I don't play games too much anymore. However, when I do, I still mostly play Morrowind, New Vegas, Dark Souls 1, or gen 2 pokemon emulators and ROM hacks on my phone. These games both suited and molded my preferences so much that I no longer enjoy most games that do not share significant similarities with them. My younger brother says I should try Outward and KC: Deliverance, but I haven't had time. What's funny is that I actually recommended those games to him after seeing the trailers and half -heartedly keeping up with their development.😂 The Witcher 3 would probably do it for me too. I really enjoyed The Witcher 2, but I thought it was a little small-scale. What I really like is interactivity with the environment and characters. I love how you can pick up most items in the elder scrolls and fallout and move them around. I think it would be incredible if every item could be physically held and used. I just want to hit a guy with a chair or scoop water up with a jar like I can in the 3d Zelda games or throw a loaf of bread at a guy and pretend it wasn't me. I know games like cataclysm let you do those things, but it just hits differently in a fully rendered 3d world from a first person viewpoint.
Music is what gets me immersed nowdays. Games with great soundtracks really keep me engaged
FFXVI
True
So true! I'm not big on FPS but the soundtrack got me into Doom and I'm loving it.
Dying Light 1 is another one that had an incredible atmosphere and the music music was a big part of it
That’s a great point no one thinks about. It is true
Music is crucial, not only in gaming.
It's called being older as we have gone through more we know more which makes us crave more knowledge from other places.
Man, my friend, if you're aging that must mean I am basically a fossil at this point! 42 and still gaming! Love your videos, love your thoughts and reflections on our hobby, I appreciate what you do!
58 and still gaming, but I recognise the immersion struggle :)
Stopping gaming depending on age? There will always be one or another masterpiece (most of the time at least one release every year, like Witcher 3, Dishonored 3, RDR2, Resident Evil 2 Remake, Final Fantasy VII Part II and it will continue) so why not enjoying these masterpieces?
There is no "Oh no I am 25, or 30, or 35, or 40 or 50 or 60 and because of that I am officially too old now and therefore no longer allowed to touch any entertainment electronics, computer, TV or consoles but just sit on a chair and stare at the white empty wall of my living room all day because of a certain age..." ;)
@@juliashenandoah3965 lol, what a brilliant (and correct) response, I'm pretty sure I'll be found dead, whenever that happens, with a controller in my hand.
@@Para2normalYou will leave a Hero. We are all here to stay Brother 💪🏾👑
I struggle with immersion, because I feel like I've seen it all before. It's all variations on a theme, and once you've experienced it a couple of times, even though it can still be good, it doesn't really have that same magic to it.
That’s exactly what it is
Yep. That's why I loved Death Stranding. It was the first game in ages that surprised me.
This. Nowadays, it's either triple A open worlds with mundane checklist work, or indies with their 2D pixelsalad roguelikes or metroidvanias. But at least this made me appreciate the few strategy games and proper rpgs that aren't just hack&slash with floating numbers way more. Colony Ship and Battlesector are some nice niche gems
@@Nachtmahr616well then try frostpunk
@@Nachtmahr616 frankly your comment is pretty dismissive, mindless and generalizing.
Thank you for articulating a feeling I’ve had for a long time. Wondering why I can’t capture that nostalgic feeling of immersion like I had growing up. I rarely game anymore, and so eagerly want to get back into it, but the gaming world doesn’t excite me as much anymore.
Many of us can relate to this. Being now in my 30’s, I’ve now gotten a PC and have been most enjoying crafting/survival/builder games that are made by small developers who I think are more passionate about their games, and I think it shows. This is coming from someone who grew up loving FPS games like Halo and COD. Now I find more immersion in games that are perhaps more mentally stimulating through greater thought provocation like Subnautica and Satisfactory. Most recent FPS single-player game I recall that really drew me in was Prey. I however love games like Bioshock so it’s similar.
Bro, exactly the same here
The fact of having to many games to chose from unlike when i was a kid spoils it for me
Yea, me too, it's like scrolling Netflix for an hour to never even watch anything. I open up the full game library on my xbox and it's over 1000 games available to play.
To many options is also a problem
I'm in my 50's and I've been gaming since the Atari 2600 and i'm still amazed with the games to this day. Never leaving!
Only 3 games in my life have made me feel that sense of wonder. First was Halo CE, it was my first video game back in 2001 when I was 5.
Next was Oblivion. Nothing else felt like either of those at the time.
I never thought I would feel that again until I played Elden Ring. That game made me feel like a young kid again.
Go in blind and play it with some friends, it's truly one of the greatest games of all time.
I hate two of those games and I've never played the third (ER). Oblivion was one of the least immersive game worlds I've ever experienced and one of the tiny handful of games I never even bothered to finish. It was one of the first games I bought for the PS3 and it seriously made me question my decision to but not just the game but the console itself. Halo 1 is also one of the few games I never bothered to finish.
@purringbluzzmuffin8030 I'm not sure what kind of games you enjoy if neither of those appeal to your taste. I am curious what games you describe as immersive.
Oblivion is definitely one of the greatest fantasy RPGs ever made. It was revolutionary when it came out. I am not sure I believe you when you say you found it nonimmersive because back then, almost nothing else had a world like that.
For Halo CE. You probably don't appreciate shooters that aren't modern twitch shooters. Halo CE was graphically impressive at the time but that is not the main reason it was so amazing.
Halo's story was great and along with that it created the modern control scheme all shooters still use today. Controller shooters did not play well before Halo CE and it is definitely one of the most influential games ever made
@@daltonburroughs3811 Favourite games in no particular order are MGS1, Shenmue, Bioshock, RDR2, GTA: Vice City, Arkham City, Dragon Age Origins, and then smaller games like Braid, Limbo, Cuphead, Ori 1&2.
I've sunk around 1500 hours, maybe more, into RDR2 (console and PC versions combined) and unlocked every single player achievement twice.
Oblivion was a dead world. Even the towns were empty, with the handful of NPCs you could interact with having nothing interesting to say. I'd played several Bioware games by that point and knew what dialogue in RPGs *could* be. Also, I was never impressed with the graphics. To be fair, I've never really been that impressed by the graphics of the first few titles of any console I've owned. But, regardless, I just wasn't impressed. The only Bethesda-developed game I've ever actually liked (and finished) is Fallout 3.
@purringbluzzmuffin8030 to each their own I guess. I got RDR2's online and just thought it was way more tedious and boring than Red Dead Redemption's online.
It wasn't because their were no quests to really do, it was just the gameplay wasn't fun.
I tried to love Limbo as I thought that art style was cool but side scrolling puzzle adventure games just don't do it for me.
I have never played a Bioware game but Mass Effect in particular always looked absolutely terrible to me. I never thought the graphics looked good and the gameplay looked beyond clunky, even when they first came out. Even if they had a cool story those issues would prevent me from enjoying the games. Plus all the weird dating stuff is just unnecessary and gross in a game (same with any nudity in games).
I did really like Bioshock but even back then it felt pretty clunky. Wasn't clunky enough to ruin the experience but Halo, COD, and BF had given me expectations. Still a great game tho.
I also enjoyed Cuphead even though I never finished it.
Last one I'll comment on is Batman. Man I really want to enjoy that series and recently got the Arkham Trilogy and just struggle to get into the first one. Maybe I just need to grind it out because the other 2 games look a lot more Interesting and open. I loved the Shadow of Mordor/War games and I feel like the Arkham games could be similar since the combat is similar. Really hoping one day I can find the time to beat them all.
All the others are games I just have never been interested in really.
You two have shown me there is zero pattern between the games we like haha. Some amazing games on both your lists that are very similar.
I'm 53 years old and what I have learned is time is extremely valuable so my brain resists the urge to play and get into a game but if I make myself sit down and play long enough to actually invest in the character development
I find myself going back in time and becoming a child again
For all of the old men who sit around and look and go oh I want to play that game and then when you think of actually playing it the thoughts into your mind then I'm gonna do this and I'm just gonna have to do this and it'll take forever to get past that stage ...... you're afraid of commitment
Just pick a game you know you will like even if you don't think you're in the mood for it and play it long enough to actually have invested and struggled to make progress and through that struggle of making progress you will become immersed and engaged like you were when you were a child and it is fucking glorious !
The witcher 3, Alan Wake 2, God of War 1 and 2, Resi 4 Remake and Elden Ring still gave me a true immersion feel.
Any and all Assassins Creed games still keep me.
Sometimes taking a 'tolerance break' of sorts from games helps me a lot with this. If you do something really often it'll become mundane eventually, even if it's something you like a lot.
I'm glad someone finally said what I've been feeling about side scroller games for so many years. I've never really been able to get into them for all the reasons you mentioned. I have to feel like I'm stepping into another world and into the shoes of another person and if all I'm doing is making a cartoon jump and go left to eight it doesn't really stick out to me as anything worth losing myself in.
64 years old here, and it is really a struggle. After playing for 40+ years (video games did not exist when I was young), I think I have seen it all and immersion is impossible anymore. For me. I mainly read now.
Try VR!
I too have been playing games for 40+ years (Wizardry 1 in 1981 at age 18 was my first digital game) and I play for several hours every day. Fortunately, gaming is not a struggle for me although I am not able to play for several consecutive hours without taking a break. In my view games are much better now than they were even 10 years ago, as Arkham Knight, Jedi Fallen Order, the two Horizon games, BG3, and others are very immersive, and age does not get in the way of immersion for me.
I agree with the part of the video which comments on focusing on enjoyment. If a game is not providing enjoyment, other than maybe in the first bit when learning (I enjoy the learning curve for games though it's not for everyone), then I don't see any reason to continue playing it.
woah! so you have played mass effect, borderlands, dragon age, oblivion, BioShock, dead space ,euro truck 2 and elite dangerous and elder scrolls online? ...you must be older than 64 lol, stay young read Terry Pratchett.
Well - I am a little bit older (69 now) and started playing games more seriously when games like Castle Quest, Repton, Citadel and of course Elite where released on the Acorn BBC-B computer. Since then I played numerous games. It helps, of course, that me and my girlfriend very early in our relation decided that children where not for us, and I am (and still have) a relatively free life as a graphical artist and someone that is hired for projects in software maintenance and electronics.
Anyway - I was a bit in a slump game-wise, until I discovered the JRPG genre, an very especially the Legend Of Heroes - Trails series (Starting with Trails In The Sky First Chapter). That series got me fully into gaming again, and I played all the games in those series, because all these games tell an overarching story. That story is still not finished and let me play game after game. For more entertaining and fluffy stuff I play the Atelier series and Blue Reflection series and loads of other games (too much to mention here).
That JRPG genre (and especially the Trails series), has got me fully into gaming again. I guess you never grow too old to drop gaming. I have a great time now (I am retired and have a LOT of free time), and I guess I keep gaming until I cannot longer hold a controller or mouse...🙂
Yup exactly @@SjaakSchulteis
Completely agree, I download a game and play it a little and just get bored. I can’t connect with anything
Thats because everygame feels the same.
Try something different.
I felt that apathy and games like subnautica and Payday 2 got me immersed like when i was a kid
@@carlosgaleotegandara7812 very true mate
Well put. I have the same issue, I can't "connect" with anything since the least 2 God of War games. I've played a ton of stuff since then and just haven't had any of them make me want to continue after the first night of playing them.
It seems the problem is YOU, mate 😅
Shadow of the Colossus did this to me. The ‘disconnect from reality‘ aspect was really strong in this game. It was really exciting wandering around this ominous world and always trying to figure out what secrets it is hiding from you as you were always like ‘there must be more to it‘. After completing it this game is still a mystery to me.
31 here and just started playing Skyrim yesterday for the first time ever! Hopefully itll keep me busy with exploration until ashes of creation comes out
It's been a few more days, how are you finding it? Console or PC? Vanilla or modded?
Most immmersive game of the last years for me was Kingdom Come Deliverance! And KCD2 is coming this year!❤
I've finally found KCD mention in this immersion video, took me 10 minutes. 😢
Man you hit the nail on the head for me, brotha. It was uncanny how much of this I have thought myself over the past couple of years.
The reason it makes me so sad... I spent my entire childhood looking forward to gaming when I was older. Having the money to buy the console and games that I wanted, staying up as late as I wanted with friends, seeing where my favorite franchises would go in the future, etc...
Now I'm older, and I hardly even have the interest or motivation to spend time on video games. The only game I still play from time to time is Skyrim (of course). I'm coaching basketball, I'm selling insurance, I've got a nice car, I've got an amazing dog, I've got a nice apartment, and I've got a loyal girlfriend. I've got everything in life that OLDER me wanted.
Yet part of me is sad. I feel like that younger version of me died off as I grew up... And I would do anything to get it back.
Nope, 35 here and don t have this problem. Maybe the fact that i m living a no stress childfree life helps.
Altough i admit, part of the problem are the modern games.
I played Morrowind, Pharaoh and NFS Porsche yesterday and boy i got immersed ❤
Sounds lonely brother
@@the1abstrakt for introverts is the perfect life
Alone is not the same as lonely @@the1abstrakt
@@the1abstrakt loneliness is vastly different from people to people, some doesnt really experience it like you would think.
@@the1abstrakt id rather feel lonely sometimes, than feel lonely with a wife and kids i never wanted all the time. that time will come when i want them, and not because ppl delude themselves that its the natural thing to do, we have enough bad parents and offspring in the world.
Found your RDR video. Very quickly becoming one of my favorite channels, almost an instant click when I see your post. Great job m8
glad to hear you’ve been enjoying the content! need to do more stuff like the rdr2 video
So true. I was completely crazy for video games until 14-ish. After that, they've always felt 'just alright' to me. It sure helps with adult responsibilities. But do I miss the days where I could feel so hyper passionate for something.
God damn thank you for telling people how i feel!
Perfectly normal, i used to watch movies or tv shows or random things on the internet. Now i only play video games because thats what really fullfills me, with age we value time more so we are more picky with how we spend it.
In my case it's the exact opposite. I use to game a lot but now I mostly just watch TV or RUclips. Every now and then the mood will strike to wanna play a game but rarely. When it does,I usually don't play for long. Idk if it's cause I'm older now or what but it sucks lol. I want to want to play like I use to.
@@brandonhoneycutt9047 I probably know how it is, I was playing league of legends and wow a lot when I was younger then I got I sick of them so much. Now I play mostly single player games that are more about art expression and visual design rather than a competitive thing.
I can relate to this a little bit. I think a lot of it has to do with external factors in my life. The past few years I have been busier than ever with my career, to the point of being overworked and burning out. It's made it harder and harder to get into committing to a lot of these games that thrive off of immersion and atmosphere. From about 2017 to 2020 I had a good run of playing a lot of games that still pulled me in that way. A couple of games prior as well, namely The Witcher 3, metal gear solid 5, bloodborne and Dark Souls 3, but in 2017 Assassin's Creed Origins really pulled me in to the point where it felt like I was living in that world and not just playing a game.
And I'm 100% with you on Red Dead Redemption 2. That is my favorite game ever made and it's not even close. But that game just transports you to that world, some things can be a little clunky still but I appreciate that attention to my new detail that goes into making that game feel real. No matter how many times I replay it still has that same effect on me. Later that year, or maybe it was earlier that year I can't remember but I got quite sucked into Spider-Man PS4, and then subsequently the Resident Evil 2 remake, and even Resident Evil 3 despite it not being the same quality.
But when 2020 hit, life changed for a lot of us, but for me especially I had a lot of stress going on outside of just the pandemic. But the pandemic also nearly put me out of business and I had to switch my line of work for a while where I was working every single day. I would inevitably only get busier and busier over the next 4 years. To the point where I didn't feel like I could play these long immersive open world RPGs and the like. It took a very special game for me to actually sit down and play it from start to finish.
Otherwise I was mostly just playing things you could hop in and out of like online shooters or WWE 2K. I would still have all of these games that I wanted to play, and I would be adding to my backlog by buying them on sale. But then just feeling too overwhelmed to ever really start them. Despite owning it from launch day, only in the past month have I started to really put a real effort into playing Assassin's Creed Odyssey. I feel like I'm getting back to being able to enjoying a lot of these games the way that they are intended and being able to let myself be transported to that world. But even then, you're still a sense of being kind of overwhelmed by a lot of newer games, or by trying to start them.
Much like scrolling through streaming services instead of watching something new, I will end up rewatching some show I've already seen dozens of times. And as such I often still end up revisiting games I have already played
I think another big part of it though is I'm just not the same person I was when I was younger and I used to let myself get wrapped up in these games. I was in a much worse headspace in games served as a coping mechanism for it, and escape. Possibly even straight up addiction. These days it's just back to being a hobby for me.
Which is good, but I feel like I've lost that sense of being able to dedicate the same amount of time to actually playing them that some of these games seem designed for. I don't have that same attention span to sit down and play some open world game from morning to night anymore lol. And as such sometimes if you only have an hour or two in some of these games You feel like you're put in to that world, barely accomplish anything, and then yank yourself out of it. And that's me sometimes can make it hard to be immersed and also make it that much harder to actually dedicate the time it takes to fully beat it
Also, I couldn't really get into breath of the wild either. There were a lot of things there that I appreciated about it and I could see why people enjoyed experimenting with it. But it just never clicked with me that way. I got about 20 hours out of it so I don't feel like I wasted my money but the things that annoyed me about the game at that point were far outweighing the things that interested me. That being said, I absolutely love tears of the Kingdom. Go figure
I find myself spending more time reading about games, watching videos about games, or watching people play videos, then I do playing them.
Partly because of work, and my living situation, but when I do find the time to sit down to play, I always scroll through my log looking for something to play rather then playing anything, and when I do finally make a decision, I'm not as immersed as I'd like to be.
I turned 50 this year and have been a gamer since I got an Atari 2600. Around 4 years ago I just sort of stopped playing games, I felt like i'd finally just lost interest due to my age. A few months ago I felt like I was missing it, so I bought a Series S with game pass and have played through Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Resident Evil 1 & 2 remaster, Planet of Lana and loved them all and now I'm back into gaming for a few hours almost every night again. My advice to any other gamers out there who feel they are losing interest in gaming is take a few years out and maybe you'll find your love of gaming all over again. It worked for me
Days Gone is a game which i have recently enjoyed and i found it to have a great story and immersive.
I was loving that game but the horde in the cave I cant beat, only managed the 1st horde 'cus there was a window ledge I could pick them off from. I want to go further but every time I try just cant, tried around 40 times n its taking the piss : (
@@sparkshotthere is a certain strategy for hordes especially early in the game. I recommend hitting up as many Nero checkpoints as you can to increase your stamina or health. Load up on pipe bombs and molotavs and throw as many as you can, and you need to find an assault rifle, the SAF works best. Lastly keep your bike at a distance so you can hop on and get some distance from them, hint** they will start going back to the nest after some distance and you can start picking them off while they head back, trust me, the game keeps getting better as you progress.
@@geeTzeroX - Ive forgot what a Nero thing is. Problem is the cave horde is tight n no bike. Ive loads of weapons n ammo, assault, machine, bombs etc but im useless here. I even turn TV brightness on max to see clear.
@@sparkshotsorry I forgot about this mission. Is it the one with the evolved zombie called the Reacher? That mission is a bitch, all I remember is a lot of running and getting them to separate to small packs and funnel there numbers down. They are like 50-75
@@geeTzeroX - You have to fighter a Breaker (I think they're called, could be the Reacher) in the cave 1st then the horde starts. It's not an optional horde though. It's also 2nd part of game when you typically keep returning to that Ark military camp or whatever you call it.
BG3 was a game I felt very immersed in over the last few years. RDR2 was also a really astonishing game that I felt very strongly about
I think it's age and life pressures.
As a kid games like zelda ocarina of time just blew me away and immersed me. But life in general was amazing.. I had the world at my feet and so much to look forward to.
Now I am approaching middle age, have had some failures, regrets, mental health issues.. It's just harder to get that immersed with your brain having focus elsewhere. I am also intimidated by complex games like rdr2 as I forget the controls etc so I stick to quick attempts at immersing myself as best I can with MP gaming.
I struggled to get fully immersed playing since I did a degree in Games Design, my Lecturers warned me this would happen. Now I see games from a completely different analytical and art direction pov instead of just enjoying games like I used to. Then I got married, had kids, now have such little time to play games that I hardly ever get time to just sit and play all night like I used to. I thought I had lost the ability to get immersed until I recently bought Cyberpunk and had a free weekend away from the Wife and Kids and holy heck it was like being a teenager again. Hours playing it felt like minutes, I was completely engrossed. It helps that game now is absolutely phenomenal from a player agency, technical and visual pov. Also since then VR has certainly brought that level of immersion back for me, most notably HL Alyx.
u should try elden ring, it single handidly got me and my entire old friend group into video games, soe of which are surgeons and some have mutliple kids. its easily one of the best games in gaming history in my book!!
@@flamingmanure I dont think I can afford the broken controllers I would surely have trying to play that game haha. Although back in the day I did complete Ninja Gaiden for Xbox and that game was absolutely nails.
I feel this. But it's depression that robbed the immersion for me :(
I've noticed that more intrinsically motivated players tend to have this issue less and more extrinsically motivated players have it more amongst my gaming friends. Small sample size and anecdotal, but I do feel like there's potentially some truth to that.
One of my buddies specifically seeks out games that turn game mechanics and gameplay on their head to get out of this lack of being immersed headspace. He said games like Control, Stanley's Parable, Outer Wilds worked really well to reboot his gamer brain because he said they made him pay attention again and get out of autopilot mode when playing games.
The 2 big things that stop me from enjoying games and losing myself in them are:
1. I'm stressed and haven't gotten enough things off my mind, journaling and planning my next day out usually fixes this, setting up rituals to add stability to my life so I feel I can let go and relax.
2. Having too many game options to play, usually I just pick one and force myself to play it for 15-60 minutes, if I'm not at all interested, I move to the next game.
I totally agree about the learning curve. I don't have time to spend hours to beat a single boss. It's not worth it to me.
So, TRUE 😂 Especially when you have responsibilities and other necessary tasks to Complete
I havent been immersed in a game since the Three Stooges on the NES.
😂
I feel like I should report this comment just to see if there is a "commit OP to local psychiatric ward" option. 😅😂
I'm in my 40s and I agree on your point that there may only be a few games and movies and albums and books that we can get immersed in in our lifetime
At least I’m not alone in struggling to get invested in a game as I get older.
I thought it was just me also. Yeah glad to see its not just me.
I felt the same way until I thought about it. Maybe we need to focus more on vision and goals vs the game itself even if it's a small one.
Starfield has done it again for me. Some planets are so incredibly beautiful, and knowing that I may be the only one who landed at this particular spot and watched the sunset is an incredible experience.
Ignore the hate, give the game a second try like I did.
I am 47 years old.
In a way even the clunky 8bit gfx was immersive - in a very abstract way, but still.
As I aged I always found special games. Maniac Mansion, Zak McKraken, Monkey Island - these were all great games.
I didn't game for several years since I preferred having a social life. But I returned to the Bethesda titles like Oblivion, Skyrim, FO3 and FO4. I remember Morrowind mentioned back in 2003 and I remember thinking about not having the time due to my friends and university.
But in the 2010s I had time after work - that is when I discovered the Bethesda games. They were fantastic, although there was a kind of the decline in immersion, despite the technology enabling much more.
So to me Oblivion was more immersive than Skyrim which was more so then FO3 and FO4 was pretty bad in this department.
But luckily I discovered RDR2 during Covid. This was by far the best experience ever. The world was so full of life - you know, who knows knows.
I was glad to have played rdr2 during Covid. There really wasn't a better thing to do at the time so I had all the time in the world.
Elden Ring, on the contrary, was a disappointment to me. To difficult to me and no sense of direction. I wanted to like it and I saw the appeal of the type of combat, but it was to difficult for me.
Interesting topic. I always immediately get immersed in a universe if I take a liking to it.
I have everything I wanted as a kid, but I can't keep my interest for very long, I guess the best things to do is to give a long break. I need the accept the fact it won't be like my childhood again ever, but that doesn't mean I have to give it up completely, a long break and then play games in short bursts, I believe this is the way to go.
First game I’ve played since 2016 that really pulled me in was Palworld, I didn’t look up any of the pals ahead of time so I just explored the areas and discovered all these new pals, while building my base and shooting things. Great game.
Danny, Fuckign palword sucks get a grip
For me, the reason I'm into gaming is to escape reality and its very hard to escape reality if your bills and responsibilities are part of your reality.
It’s simple: you’re an adult now with adult problems. You’ll never have that same type of immersion because your time is split with parenting, work, marriage, friends, etc. compared to a kid that lives with mom and dad with no real responsibilities yet. You can still enjoy video games, you just can’t “immerse” yourself in it….unless you make the time to do so like take off work, take advantage of an empty house, etc.
Facts
It's about time, right? I used to be able to play for hours at a time and stay up all night. Now I squeeze in an hour here or there. Hard to get immersed.
@@travim4314 I think it’s a mix of time but also adulthood mindset. Depending on where you are in life, even if someone was to have a lot of days to play video games, the thought of bills, money for food, work, kids, wife/husband, housecare, car issues, living conditions, etc. is in the back of your mind. These are things most kids don’t have to worry about normally or even understand. As a child, you wake up, go to school, come home and play the game with everything else taken care of responsibility wise. You don’t have so much stuff weighing down on your mind that prevents you from immersing yourself in a game to the fullest.
That happens as an adult. I'm 44. When you're worried about all the other things in life you can't relax enough to play games. When you go through rough spots in your marriage though, you kind of don't give a frig and go into gaming binge sessions.
These videos are always so fascinating to me because they fill me in on perspectives I wouldn't have ever considered. I experienced the complete opposite of this entire video: never played Rockstar games, never got into RDR1 or 2, and I was raised on oldschool gameboy advance games and rpgs. I played Morrowind before Skyrim, which made the latter feel wholly streamlined and horrible because in my mind classes with finite restrictions determined by stats determine immersion for me. Skyrim, by contrast, felt like everything I despised in open-world sandbox games. It had no complexity, streamlined mechanics, an absolute lack of consequences, etc. The thing I hated most was the shift to a more open-world styled game meant catering to gamers who wanted to complete everything in a single playthrough instead of catering to the philosophy of experiencing the game through multiple playthroughs. Contrast this with how you could kill essential characters in Morrowind and there would always be a "failsafe" embedded into the game that allowed you to reach the final boss. To me that cemented this idea that open-world games were shallow and compromise the immersion found in diegetic gameplay that adheres more closely to the hero's journey via choice and consequence.
Ubisoft open-world games didn't help my perception of the genre. I would sort of role my eyes at Assassin's Creed games because they felt more like the developers were trying to make elaborate movies rather than games to me. Everything seemed more fixated on graphics and cinematics; it pulled me out of my immersion because I never felt like I had the freedom to build my protagonist the way I wanted. And it goes without saying, I never got into Arkham Batman games out of sheer bias, despite my best efforts.
And that influenced my perception of open-world games as a whole. They just weren't for me. That is until I grew older, my tastes changed a little, and I got really into both Elden Ring and Cyberpunk 2077, which married things I loved from roleplaying games into open-world games in a way I never thought possible.
Definitely resonated with your video. I’ve been gaming most of my life and been feeling recently that I can only immerse myself in a game which resonates with me eg. rdr 2 which I have restarted playing again after 2 years not touching it. Guess age and your life stage means you see things differently and interested in different things
There’s two things that has tainted my ability to get immersed in games and that is achievement hunting and online. My brain automatically puts off a game if there’s no goals to meet or skill to refine to compete. Like I am not able to play for the purpose of fun as I used to, I always play for the purpose to progress. Slowly trying to get out of this stupid mindset but why does my brain yell “this is a waste of time” despite if I am having fun, like I need results of accomplishments for satisfaction when the fun should be the only reason of play.
It’s because of how modern gaming is structured especially if you played a shi ton of competitive games
The best games I got involved in was a few from my childhood ps2, Skyrim, RDR2 and BG3
0:19 for me its Meditation and Weed that helps me to imerse my self in to games
Idk why but when you said weed ts made me laugh 😭
Will always hold RuneScape in my heart. First mmo that wasted my life on
Makes me so grateful to be a sim racer. Racing is something I can always go back to and have fun. I used to play a bunch of different genres, but nowadays ill only play one maybe two single player games a year. I have the same issue with not being able to get into games like I used to.
The problem isn't age, it's having too many games while not breaking down and knowing the specifics of your own taste well enough (or at least not knowing how to choose games for your taste). I only play a few new games but because I know my taste precisely it's always a banger with 100% immersion, 100% completion every time despite me being older now.
When you play too many average games you burn yourself out of experiencing full immersion when you do find a game that has that potential to you (also due to sensory overload). I know before playing a game if it has that potential to me and that's why I skip all games that look good but don't have the specifics I'm looking for.
So what do I do when it's been a long time since I found a game for me? I replay those bangers. You see, my criteria for a potential game always starts with replayability. We could say replayability is an indirect way to measure depth.
Some people have trouble with this approach because they crave novelty. But what they don't realize is that newer games have superficial novelty while being mostly reskins of other games. And those truly innovative indies? Well, the vast majority are limited tech demos so while their core mechanics might be interesting, they lack the depth necessary for immersion.
For example, I liked the older Harvest Moon titles so naturally Stardew Valley would be a good game for me right? Nope, I know just by observing it that the perfect game for me is Rune Factory 4 instead and at the time I bought a 3DS specifically for this game.
How did I figure this out? I broke down what aspects of the farming sim time management I liked and realized a farming sim for me needs to have some sort of analog controls or skillful movement/actions otherwise I can't achieve immersion in this genre. Harvest Moon Back to Nature had very tight turns and time went fast. Rune Factory 4 has dashe-cancels, mounts, technical movement. I would drop Stardew Valley the moment I had to repeat the same movement/action without any way to improve it.
You're not the only one who didn't like Zelda BotW and Hollow Knight. Just by looking at them I already knew I'd rather replay Xenoblade Chronicles X and Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin instead (with mods and randomizers for ACTUAL novelty).
Zelda BotW is XCX for kids. Yes, it has the great map design that only MonolithSoft can create but it doesn't have the depth or stakes for exploring said maps. Combat, equipment and progression systems are too shallow so why would I trade the depth of XCX for the superficial novelty of a new map with less interesting everything else?
It seems to me that younger gamers feel like buying a new game is a ritual. To me, finding new depth in a solid game is the ritual. People just need to learn how to spot and find these games that work for them.
This is also why I no longer play online only or live service games. There is no way I will invest time, money and my brain into a game that may cease to exist in the future. I want my perfect library of games available to me at any time.
The part toward the end comparing it to like a substance to take was spot on it feels like that a quick buzz 😂
I swear I've seen this video from you like 3 times now.
He’s repeating himself in every single video
@@MrSiKO12 I legit think he is just depressed.
"It rhymes like poetry" - George Lucas
And yeah, Adam tends to hover around the same concepts from different angles time and time again which brings some repetition. But also deeper introspection.
If you gaze long enough to the abyss long enough, it tends to gaze back.
Wouldn't call it depression. More of a coming of age crisis in the ashes of a crumbling society. Building your own meaning in a pathosless era is one hell of a journey. Being vulnerable enough to share that struggle publicly is some real brave stuff IMO.
@@janosd4nuke couldn't have said it better, was just about to say this.
I did a video about immersion a couple of years ago but it was small and not that detailed about my thoughts.
like others have said, I talk about similar topics and deepen my thoughts on them, so at times it might mean I’m saying “I love Skyrim” in every video but that is who I am, so I’m going to continue saying “I love Skyrim” when it’s relevant to the main topic at hand.
As you age you value time and energy. while playing death stranding i had this epiphany. The first part pulled me in but as soon as i started back tracking and going through the redundancy and inventory management i put it down. I was doing something in a game i already do in the real world. I play games now that don’t waist my time and i do research before i buy. I prefer games that progress like reading a good book. If the game locks you into grinding to progress and doesn’t give you the option just to play through the story on easy then i don’t waist my time and money on it. What pulls most people out of games is this exact thing. The less real life responsibilities you have the easier it is to waist time on learning a non valuable skill. Thats why when we were younger we loved games much more.
I remember a time when I couldn't play games unless I was high, so glad that dark period of my life is over.
Hahahaha loser 😂
Man this really spoke to me, its not like i am unable to get immersed in games or anime anymore, tbh i still have those rare, rare experiences, but it feels like it only happens once per year, for example i loved Scarlet nexus and qas super immersed in it in 2023, and in 2024 i loved tf outta FFXv, its odd these are very flawed games but they captured me like no other, i have also played or watched many many amazing shows and animes but for some reason i havent been able to be fully consumed by them as of writing this comment, its bizarre, because the shows, anime and games im consuming are miles better than games i played in the past, yet they cant immerse me like they usted too, like u said getting fully captured and thinking abt the game all ur waking minutes, i wish i could have that but i cant.
I think maybe its due to depression and me being jaded, maybe as i get older i cant relate to the teen protags of the media i consume, maybe this maybe that, but either way it really saddens me i cant feel the same emotions i felt when playing games as i usted to.
Nah it’s not just you. It’s called getting older. I’m going through the same thing. It’s hard for me to find games that are worth investing my time in nowadays.
After getting my first kid I definitely lost my ability to get immersed. I never was able to log onto Discord and chat with friends while playing and ultimately quit trying.
3+ years later and it's sometimes possible. Elden Ring I play and thoroughly enjoy but mostly it's only roguelites that can keep me engaged as I can squeeze in a run every now and then without forgetting the controls or a vast story.
I hope it'll come back at some point.
Yes. Slay the Spire was the game I played the most after becoming a father.
As I’ve gotten older I feel acutely aware of how much time I’m spending playing.
An underlying feeling of guilt is present when I game, questioning if there is something more productive I could or should be doing.
Procrastinating any task exacerbates this feeling and contributes heavily to not being able to get immersed and enjoy the experience.
Another component is the learning curve you mentioned. I’ve been meaning to get into The Witcher 3 for a couple years and keep putting it off due to knowing it will take 3-4 hours for me to learn all the mechanics/crafting etc…
More often than not I have a hour. or so to play and don’t want to spend it learning a bunch of new things over multiple sessions when I can pick up a PvP game (in my case Chivalry 2) and just go.
I've been struggling a lot with this lately at the age of 32. I'm hoping it's another burn out but they've been happening a lot more frequently this year.
I would recommend playing linear games and the like. As I have gotten older, these huge open world games and big games in general just doesn't do it for me anymore..
I need to have an enjoyable time the moment I start the game or I lose interest quickly, because I value my time much more now. I can't spend hours and hours getting sucked in to a big open world rpg like I used.
This means I mostly play older games now because those were designed much more for what I seek now. They are alot more pick up and play and have fun instantly. One thing I really miss is single player games having levles instead of being a continous a experience. If I play an old game like James Bond Nightfire I can pick what level I want and know it will have a start and an ending with fun gameplay instantly. You don't get that with modern games, you just start from where you ended your last section, and if that was a long time ago you kinda lose interest playing there.
I enjoy playing Cod 3 on my ps2 emulator now for instance. Pick a level and have fun instantly, and it is actually a really immersive game.
@Skumtomten1 I most definitely agree.
I also prefer to play older games like Wolverine's Revenge which I highly recommend.
I'm very much looking forward to the Plucky Squire which has a very classic look and design.
I also highly recommend Frogun which gets a sequel this month.
I use to have an uncle John. The cool uncle. He had all the game systems and physical media and had a huge arnwine full of movies, shows and games. He would come over and bring his duffle bag full of games and it was such a event when it happened. Fast forward and now I'm the uncle John. But as I get older I find myself feeling guilt for leaving the real world and feel like i should be cultivating real world skills. It definitely does feel like times are changing. Just try to have fun everynow and then and if you have kids be that uncle John for them
@@Skumtomten1 big facts. I've been trying to play through Ff7 rebirth and the world is just too big and overwhelming. I can't spend 5 hours doing a side when I just traverse through a world.
42 here been gaming pretty much my entire life. I struggle with immersion with new games. But once I started playing older gems that wasn’t really a problem. My oled Switch became my go to console
While my ps5 just sits. ✌🏾
Red dead redemption 2 is the only game that I revisited as an adult and I’ve never been as immersed before. It’s such a masterpiece
I’m with you brotha on Elden ring. I don’t doubt it’s an amazing game, but when I play it, I feel like I’ve seen it all before and that the way it feels is just to familiar and almost autopilot
I’ve struggled since finishing Far Cry 5. I kind of rushed it because I started to get bored, but the ending just to finish with a conversation blew my mind. I’ve gone back to Skyrim and Fallout now and then, but I’ve just spent too many years exploring the games inside and out to get anything out of them.
I remember playing skyrim at age 17, around the time I first started smoking weed. It was like I was teleported into a new world. I'd literally walk to my destinations because I was so immersed. The dialogue was 10x better than what I think it is now. I'd spend so much time imagining the backstory of my character. Nowadays I don't have that feeling with much games anymore except a few. Cyberpunk, RDR2, Soma, and Alien Isolation are the only games I can think of where I can force myself to be immersed. But even then it's not the same as it once was. Which sucks because I really wish the games I mentioned came out when I was 17 and not 25-30.
Honestly, self-inserting usually helps with immersion for me (usually), but a game also being too “wide” and free-roaming can really kill my desire to play. I enjoyed ER the first time around, but quickly lost interest in a second playthrough, despite trying and stopping a few times to explore the world again (I guess once was enough on my nerves lol). I wish so badly for a game to capture me as things once did as a youngin’, or that I can go back and experience that joy on repeat (instead of being done after one playthrough), but life just has the better of me I guess! ❤ I’m just glad to not be alone in these feelings.
The older you get the more precious your time becomes. The more precious your time is the harder it is to waste it in virtual worlds, unless you make them for other people to experience for a living. This is why so many go into the entertainment industry because of their love for these games and movies they grew up on.
I think about this a lot. The games I've found most immersive have included Halo, Fable, various Mario games (but perhaps especially Super Mario 64), and these days, Pokemon Legends Arceus. There, I definitely do slip into addictive patterns. So I've been working on healthier ways of engaing with it, because I do think it's genuinely valuable to have this world I can drop into where I forget about my life difficulties - so long as it doesn't soak up so much of my time and energy that it detracts from my ability to work on improving my life.
I feel the exact same way you do about BOTW, for Elden Ring, i want to enjoy the game and i see why others do, but regardless of all that, theres nothing to hook me or make me want to play it other than being able to have a conversation. On the other hand, BOTW was amazing, and I loved every moment I spent with it. Chilling and cooking were a vibe, and the exploration was PEAK. Reminded me of my Vanilla Skyrim days with no compass or anything just wandering around and exploring, cooking soups, and slaying dragons is my favorite pastime.
The other issue for me now is the countless issues around software implementations and incompatibilities...things like freesync, gsync, vrr, vertical sync, 60-120Hz, colour banding, resolution, HDMI 2.0,2.1.2.2 with/without HDCP, LED/QLED/QD-OLED/Mini LED/WOLED, ALL, input lag, burn in, image retention etc. You now have to worry that everything works smoothly together and it never does...for example even HDR you have to worry about the HDR settings in the game, HDR in windows, HDR on your panel then your GPU if you have a PC. Then all the crap about updates for your game/console/TV.
In old days I would have a TV I switch on, put a cartridge in the slot and turn on. That's. All this sh** now breaks the immersion because I am always on the edge for some glitch/incompatibility.
Or downloading updates, installing etc, takes ages sometimes then i lose interest b4 even started.
I'm 37 and been feeling like this for about a year or so and thought it was just me. Idk if it's because I'm getting older or what. Back 12 or 13yrs ago my cousins and our friends would play COD religiously and was so fun. Nowadays we've all gone our separate ways and never play together anymore. I've tried playing on my own but it's just not the same. Alot of the time it's like I want to want to play something. I'll try to force myself to sit down and play a game but lose interest after 20 to 30mins. The last games I got really immersed in and didn't wanna stop playing were re4 remake and rdr2. As far as COD goes,I can play zombies for a good while before I lose interest but I never play multiplayer anymore even though I wish I wanted to.
42 years old here. Played games heavily until 21 ish, then went a 10 year period where I may have picked up a controller once or twice ( on the life grind career build/kids) also agree on the immersion but got back into gaming once established and was able to get immersed. I think it's part gaming burnout, part industry producing crap. Seems to be an ebb and flow of the industry
I have the same situation. I remember before, I was fully immersed and invested in the characters. However, it has become increasingly rare. I think it's due to my age. I distinctly remember how truly immersive Resident Evil 4 remake was for me.
I miss being easily more immeresed in games, as it was a huge interest for me for a really long time☹️
One game I could never get into was cyberpunk I tried and tried and couldn't get into it.
I had the same problem crazy cuz it really seems right up my alley but it just does not ever click right to me
I enjoyed Cyberpunk but it was mainly the combat after the Phantom Liberty dlc came out.
Have you tried it after the DLC and updates??? It’s mad tbh
Most immersive game I ever played was the original PlanetSide from 2003. No other game including its sequel was able to surpass it.
Never got to try the original but PS2 is my favorite game ever and one I’ve clocked the most hours in
I felt like this for almost two years, but this year something changed, have I changed ? have the games ? Nope. I was having a shit ton of backlog and was always anxious about the next game, constantly checking howlongtobeat and calculating my time and gaming like a second job. Also I was kinda stuck in a rpg, action adventure, shooter genre lately. But the magic happened when I said fuck it to the backlogs, and just focused one game/franchise at a time, played indies, mixed up the genres, tried new ones I never played, currently am playing through the yakuza series having never played it, just completed yakuza zero and judgement, now playing Kiwami, and I can earnestly say that "old childhood immersive feeling" is back. The only drawback now is that unlike the old days, got nobody to talk to regarding the stories and theories with work colleagues or family, and most discord people are now playing what's on trend rn ie. elden ring or multiplayer, so RUclips is the only friend I got 😂❤
Agree. I’m 37- still love playing. But I agree with the immersion. I have 2 kids a full time job, etc. a few games that have immersed me again to where I felt like a kid (and wanted to play at 6am before work) was The Witcher 3, and the new God of Wars
It seems like its a addiction whenever its a Multiplayer Shooter or a MMO but not when its a single player RPG
I know the feeling. I'm hitting my mid 30s and i also find it hard to find the desire to play video games lately. I have a backlog of MANY games and i never find the time to get around to them.
im in my 30s and i feel the same. i grew up with ps1 era final fantasy, metal gear, gta and the likes.
i never could get into another gta after san andreas, i couldnt get into any final fantasy after 10, i couldnt get into mgs 5.
ive tried witcher 3, rdr 1 and 2, skyrim, oblivion and i couldnt get in them.
i loved fallout tho, i love mass effect 1-3, ive got into dark souls, ive at least almost finished elden ring..
i think its a mix out of being more and more disillusioned with age, having other things in life, personal taste, the same reacurring patterns in games.
When it comes to games I've played, I find what captivates me is the potential for creative expression. Elden Ring, Skyrim, Dungeons and Dragons, these are all highly imaginative worlds that do not require you to match them, but asks the player "what can you make out of the things I give you?". The more content there is in a game, the more content I can create out of it with these settings.
I agree completely - the older I get I've noticed I just do not get sucked in the way I used to
Funny enough. As broken as it can be, i regularly get that sense of aww and "positive" disconnect in Star Citizen. There is something about landing on a moon to complete a package delivery, turning around to head back to the ship and seeing the Giant Jupiter like planet of Orison (or any other planet). And you know that you CAN take off right now and make landfall at those locations, usually anywhere you please. Yeah the rest of the game is kinda hit or miss and empty. But idk, it still organically just slows me down, and makes me enjoy the ride for what it is. (KCD is also another good one for this)
Fable 2 was the first game that fully immersed me back in the day for a lot of the same reasons you probably loved Skyrim lol. Lighthearted and violent themes mixed together really is peak fiction.