Alright everyone it’s been a bit over a week and some things have changed. This video did so much better than I ever could’ve imagined and I’d like to thank each and everyone of you for commenting on here, regardless of whether or not you agreed with me. That being said there’s no way I could possible take all the info from the comments and compile them so instead I’ll be making a list of notable things you guys have brought up in the comments. - I completely forgot to mention how indie games still remain soulful and inspired, Chxse and I did bring it up in our conversation but I couldn’t work it into a segment. Notable indie games recommended by you guys include: Hades, Celeste, cuphead, hollow knight - I also did honestly forget to mention the wii, snes, and switch, not any malicious intent, just two consoles I didn’t have a ton of experience with. -Some of you requested a few cites for the statistics I pulled so heres a nice list -newzoo.com/global-gamer-study -www.statista.com/statistics/189582/age-of-us-video-game-players/ -www.bankmycell.com/blog/video-game-industry-revenue Remember people if you disagree with me, this is my opinion and I just wanted to provide an interesting thought experiment. If you still enjoy games the same way I’m happy for you above anything else Thank you all for the support, next video should be out in a few weeks

I’m 31. Gaming changed when the developers figured out how to squeeze each and EVERY last dollar out of us

I was born in 1988. I grew up with the NES and N64. The types of games available have obviously definitely changed in the AAA sphere. Now, AAA studios rarely make 2D platformers, for example. Then there's the rise of the indie scene. But the feel of gaming did not change for me until the mid 2010's. Probably around 2014. When loot boxes and microtransactions overtook AAA. The quality of games flatlined, and making extreme profits became the only goal. Soul and the drive to entertain customers was lost. And so many games show that these days.

Gaming changed when most devs switched to the games as a service model. Now they try to keep you artificially grinding by getting you addicted so they can squeeze more money out of you. Instead of back when devs had to produce meaningful content to earn money. Games have become worse, because the thought process behind game development changed from "what can we do that's so fun that it's worth playing over and over" to "how expensive can the skins be that we produce and still find people who buy them"

Let. Games. End. That's a big part of it. Let games end, not become multiple year long commitments.

After i quit playing online and only play story games and rpgs i found enjoyment again.

Laziness and greed is killing soo many industries

Being in my mid 30s, I can pinpoint almost exactly when games started to get lame to the late PS3 to PS4 era. This was when the corporate influence got extremely heavy. Instead of taking chances and trying new stuff, it was copying what worked or chasing trends. I think the appeal to a wider audience killed it too. Instead of making a game for your core audience, devs had to make games that appealed to everyone. I've recently been revisiting old classics and other stuff I missed when it first came around. It's much more appealing than the current slop pushed out now.

I was born in 1981… and I feel as soon as trophies and achievements were added to consoles/gaming everything changed… you no longer wanted to play a story driven rpg or a single player adventure game for fun or escapism… you played it for the trophies… the achievement score… to be better than your friends and online strangers… or at the very least… “as good as them”

The PS4/XB1 gen is when gaming REALLY dropped off. Gaming is always changing but the last generation is when gaming truly lost it's way

I find myself enjoying my collection of older games more and more over nearly all the newer ones coming out.

Prime gaming was when you went to a store to buy a game. Now you go to a game and look at a store. Cosmetics should all have to be earned and grinded for not bought.

I'm 45, been playing games most of my life. For me it actually feels like games purposely keep you in their game with grind, or super large words that waste time.

I'm 49 and still love gaming. I have a normal life with a job, wife and now adult children. I started with Atari and have always gamed. I guess I started because I hated my childhood and it was an escape for me. It still is but as I get older, I find it as a way to keep my mind moving and have fun too. Gaming has declined mostly because of greed to me. It's about microtransactions more than just having a soul and knowing someone or some group put their heart and soul into a game for others.

I’m 28. Games died for me when I realized I was chasing a dopamine hit. The evolution of the internet / Social media opened up my perspective on life and myself quite dramatically. I love gaming still but almost entirely for nostalgia. I had a lot of trauma in my childhood so I 100% used video games to escape reality. I’ve healed most of that trauma now and I am finding more enjoyment in simple things like walking around in nature, listening to music, and doing yard work / gardening. The key for me was to figure out what I was running from within myself. Addressing that has radically altered my perception of everything and enabled me to return to the present moment / have fun. Love yourself first. All else is seeking to steal your joy.

You really caught me off guard with that first video call man, that was perfect please dont change

Im 44 and still game now when I can, you hit the nail on the head with this vid. Life gets in the way and you long for those easy childhood gaming sessions with your mates

I was born in 1872. Marbles was an incredible game, and none of the video games of today can even come close.

For me the reason is: since im an adult and have bills and responsibilities, i cant help but feel guilty when I game. My brain just yells at me that i have better things to be doing. Cleaning the house, taking my car to the shop, doing side work etc. i miss the old days 😪

I appreciate how much work went into a this video. Thank you.

Shifting between hobbies and scheduling time for each one is kinda what I have been doing that helps me. Also been going back to my ps2 that I just found in my storage. surprised the thing turns on but those games have been fun. The achievement/trophy systems not being there to worry about and just playing the game itself without distraction has been the most relaxing

The fact that i am picking up an unlit Gameboy and play a 20 years old game that keeps me glued to the screen for hours speaks volume.

devs and publishing companies have become egregiously lazy, incompetent and greedy and it will continue to become worse with new monetization methods and Ai replacing actual content, innovation and fun

Great video. This video topic speaks to me, as I have this same feeling often as of late. I too believe it's all the above. And being as I'm 43, I lean to a lot of the nostalgic gaming. I feel one of the best times to be a gamer was the 90's, I was a teenager then. You had one of the best rivalries in the 16 bit era, being the Super Nintendo versus the Sega Genesis. Then you had all the greats that followed. And I've been a part of every generation since. But my last hardcore console I gamed on was my Xbox 360. The two generations after just haven't pulled me in, and that includes me still buying consoles afterwards in the two generations that followed my 360.

I love your honesty, and insights, good work!

I used to play games that gave me tools to open a world of imagination, now I just get movies with buttons

My dad is 71 and I’m 22, we just started playing dk country last night. I’ve played it before with my brothers, but it’s been awhile. We only played for an hour, but I got more joy and fun out of that game than most modern games, and it’s 30 years old

🚨 *The main reason gaming feels boring now is the overwhelming abundance and easy access to games.* 🚨 In the early 2000s, acquiring games required effort, like traveling across the city to buy a CD or DVD. With the rise of affordable internet, we can now download any game instantly. If a game doesn't impress us quickly, we move on to another one. Additionally, modern gaming PCs have huge storage capacities, unlike the limited 40GB hard drives of the past, allowing us to store countless games. This limitless selection creates confusion and reduces the time we spend enjoying any single game.

I thought it was nostalgia, then I started playing old games I didn’t play before and fell in love with gaming again. Then I ran out of old games and I am here again.

Gaming changed when micro transactions entered the market

1987 “boomer” here, to me AAA gaming became weird when it became all about online play and competitive landscape. There’s nothing wrong with people wanting to make it big into competitive and aiming for winning prizes, but to me gaming was never about becoming some sort of superstar, it isn’t about becoming Cristiano Ronaldo or Tom Brady, it was about enjoying a story, more similar to watching a movie or reading a book… some of the best stories I’ve experienced have been in videogames (e.g. Final Fantasy Tactics)… and nowadays its even weirder not only dor me… I really I don’t feel like the current “game as a service” model is any good to anyone, nor competitive players not solo players like me

I feel like it's because of KZfaq. The Internet has been an double edge sword, meaning back in my day, if a game was hard you had no choice but to get better try something different. You had to put in work. The original GT license test. You had no help no tutorial rather than a gamepro magazine. You just had to try harder. Now we have KZfaq reddit, where you can see an whole game walkthrough. Like there's no surprise in a game. To heart and soul out into making a Great game rather a cash grab from an community that will buy anything. With KZfaq and social media, had made gaming seem to easy,

A lot of us don’t want to let go of good old memories, including myself. That’s why we keep trying and trying for the new game hoping to find that feeling back, but every time is a no. Also with games nowadays less content more money.

I don’t want to pay subscriptions, battle passes, loot boxes, pay to win. I prefer fun which games don’t have anymore.

Since the exclusion of booklets from the game cases, the gaming industry has experienced a decline.

Awesome vid. Been awhile got that old school touch. LOVE IT!

"lucky for me I was poor AF" 😂 you got an instant subscription for that line

"They don't make em like they used to" is an old saying for a reason. Sometimes the newer products really are just worst.

Every time I get back into gaming I get this sense that I’m wasting my time. That none of the accomplishments really matter and the time I’m putting into it could be spent doing better things. I look back at the thousands of hours I put into gaming from 18-22 and I get the sense that I wasted my potential on something which doesn’t even matter

Great point on the responsibility part. I think it's partly that AAA games specifically have gone down in quality, but also a lot of us just have more responsibility and frankly less time to sink hours into games. I know if I tried to play for even a few hours without stopping I'd feel super guilty because inevitably something always comes up

This is genuine quality content my guy for real. You got a sub from me thats for sure. I Like the effort you put into your facts, opinions, and knowledge on the subjects you are discussing.

Damn I guess I’m group zero, a 40+ year old that grew up in the Atari era. I personally believe that gaming really started to change pretty recently at the start of live service phenomenon.

Nothing was as good as James Bond on N64 with 10 of your friends in the living room. We had a 27 inch tv split 4 ways. 2 vs 2 teams.

Im personally tired of the best weapon in the game only being available in the store.

True. I’m born in the early 80s and started gaming with the OG Gameboy and Super Mario. These days I often miss originality in games. If a game starts to feel like a second job (season pass, limited time offering what ever) it’s time to switch and take a break.

I'm 42 and no, the gaming doesn't feel the same as like 25 years ago even though I play a lot even now 😀 One of the biggest difference is that for years I have grown really impatient when it comes to trial and error in games. Back in the days it didn't matter if I got stuck in the games - like in RPG's and spent like hours and sometimes days wondering around until I found out solution or where to go. It didn't matter if I couldn't beat some boss and it took me like 100 tries. But for quite some time I feel that I don't have time for that nonsense because I have job, a family, friends etc. And in games I wanna enjoy the story and feel moderate challenge but not get caught by some situation where the diffculty spike is super hard and I would have to grind gazillion times to pass. So now once I have been stuck for some time I just look up a solution or guide online. So that is basically a thing that was also said in video that the gaming changes when you start to have a lot of responsibilities. Its because theres so much stuff to do and so little time - as we get older we tend to value the time more and more. One thing that comes with age and lot of gaming experience is that you get way more critical towards the games. This means if the game is weak you just don't waste your time on it. But if you only wan't to play the masterpieces then that obviously leads to "there no good games to play". Also for a kid whos first assassins creed game is Assassins creed 13 it may be fun but for someone like myself who has played the series from beginning its more like "jesus christ, they keep churning out the same shit every year". Secondly, yes the games HAVE changed. For example nowdays I don't believe people use their imagination nearly asmuch as we used to. I mean there are exceptions like minecraft but I mean generally. If your character is made of 10 pixels and the world looks bad and pixelated then you start to imagining in your head what something or someone would look like. Nowdays to don't have to - detailed and pretty picture is in your face. Also in games like Skyrim - in our heads we all created story and morality for our characters - some played noble - I don't steal, I protect the weak etc. others were like total dicks. We chose in wich city we wanted to live in and hoard loot etc. and all that was for some reason we created in our head. Also I have to agree that the games have shifted way more towards competitive side and competitive side means that everybody have to be equal. Remember back in the days - in real time strategy games the different sides were rarely equal, in fighting games the characters were rarely equal. But that was okey because we played for fun. Nowdays theres those über pro level players and sometimes it feels that the game is made for them in the first place meaning that that game is lacking for casual players - if youre not pro and investing a lot of time and effort then you can't enjoy the best parts in game. Lets take Diablo 4 for example - even before the game was out we had a websites with calculated builds where computer takes into account all the items and special abilities and then crunches the numbers and suggests the best builds. So right of the bat people playing started to work towards certain goal and not discovering the aspects of game themselves. So yeah, major problem is that the games should be fun and stress relievers but often when you boot up the game and trying to be good at it it creates even more stress.

For me Games don't feel the same anymore because back then you bought a Game and got a Game. Now when I buy a Game I get an advertisment to buy the rest of the Game I bought.

Amazing video man. I was born in the year 2000. The first time I started to feel like gaming was going to shit was when people were first able to purchase them supply drops in Advanced Warfare. Also when Shark Cards came out for GTA online. The older I became tho I realized that what I really missed was playing and goofing around with my friends online.

The TLDR answer is: We peaked as humans, and nothing impresses us anymore. The last thing that will impress us are if Jesus came back, flying cars and telepathic psychic abilities.

I think there are lots of reasons to explore here but as someone who grew up in the 80s and whose first console was the NES, I think there are so many fewer risks taken today, because it's far too expensive to take risks. Sequels and safe ideas take priority in this day and age.

I'm 52 and started my gaming life at 4 when my dad brought home a Pong machine , I think it was a Sears TeleStar. At 7 years old I bought an Atari 2600 with my own money from doing chores and saving holiday gift money. As to my favorite era, I'd have to say the Dreamcast for how new and experimental the games were. Soul Calibur was still new, Crazy Taxi and Jet Grind Radio with their cell shading and awesome soundtracks as well as the encouragement to act like a complete derelict graffitying buildings and driving in a generally Cra -----aaaaaaazy manner with 😮 horrified / aroused passengers, depending on how well you stuck the landing. Shenmue, Skies of Arcadia, Space Channel 5, Seaman. Even Resident Evil Code Veronica with it's then new polygon based moving camera presentation. Online games were new like Phantasy Star Online or Chu Chu Rocket. Point being it wasn't just Assassin's Creed 11 or the 20th Call of Duty or 50th Madden game or Halo 10. There were so many new / improved / divergent experiences to be had.

I'm 25 and I say video games changed when things went from video games being a passion art thing that made money... to a bunch of companies trying to create a formula for a good game... This led to a lot of modern games being very formulaic and similar... All modern first person shooter games play mostly the same with some light variation based on the franchise... Older games are typically more unique and varied

This was a fantastic upload. Really interesting. Im 35 and still love gaming but there are pros and cons to both modern gaming and gaming in the 90s and 2000s. Really interesting points and opinions in this upload. I think when it comes to multiplayer gaming modern gaming has improved immensely from years past but many single player games I prefer from many years ago. The constant hand holding and guide posting in modern games makes my eyes roll. Thank God for the souls series. Recently been playing the remaster of tomb raider 1,2 and 3 and they are an absolute breath of fresh air. No checkpoints, no waypoints, No map markers, No hints, Just lara, big ass tombs and puzzles and my brain. Love it.

36 years old. Gaming is kind of like Christmas, it's magical as a kid, loses its luster as an adult, and it comes back alive when you have your own kids.

I’m in my 50’s and I started with an Atari. In an OG gamer I guess, and I’m still playing. For me, the best time was 2 player co-op gaming. You sat on the couch with friends, hung out, and just had fun. I also used to challenge myself more in 1p mode. I had to play on the hardest settings and max out everything. I no longer do that to myself. I stay on easy mode and just chill. I just can’t believe sometimes that I went from pinball machines and Pac Man in the arcades to RDR2. I can’t wait to see how far VR headsets will push things.

I'm 40. The enemies used to be there so I could have a good time. Now, they're there to make me have a bad time. I'm there to make the enemies have a bad time. I think we did online wrong.

I’m 39. Played games my entire life. For me it really felt different when it became so easy to go online and play against other people. You go from feeling like you are good at games because you’ve played with friends or solo forever to feeling like you suck at everything and asking “why am I playing something I lose so much at?” It’s hyper competitive. You now have to contend with the top players in the WORLD and not just your neighborhood, and it destroys my self esteem much of the time. I’ve been playing a competitive MOBA the last couple of years but with Palworld release and almost 160 hours into that solo and I’m having the fun of my gaming life and remembering the magic fun feeling games can give. It’s made me rethink the “why” part of gaming again. I’ve gotten too competitive and stepping back from that these last few weeks has felt amazing. ❤I may make it permanent.

This is going to be a bit of a longer one, so strap in. Born in 1996, started gaming in 2000 (briefly on the Amiga, the rest on PC). I've also been in the gaming industry professionally for a couple of years. I can tell you 100% that this isn't a mere nostalgia/you miss how you felt as a kid problem. A lot of great points were raised during the video, primarily: the corporatisation of video games and the push towards online multiplayer. These are interlinked, because games nowadays are being made to sell to the lowest common denominator, meaning simple, easy to learn game mechanics and instant gratification. Throw multiplayer on top of that and you create social pressure from your peers to play the latest, most popular game, usually an FPS. It's all about drawing in the most customers by having an easily accessible game designed to make you want to play it with your friends, who in turn also become customers. This has had such an enormously bad influence on video games. You're spot on with your observation about when it happened. Around 2011-2012 is when it started really going downhill. Call of Duty and Assassin's Creed were seeing great success with their year after year release model. Game studios started releasing games in buggy states because internet speeds were going up and they could just shrug it off and patch it later. Steam was also massively on the rise in that period, which only contributed further. For AAA companies, this signalled to treat video game creation as a conveyor belt process. And Team Fortress 2 introduced ManCo crates at the end of 2010. I don't need to comment on microtransactions. Chase is also spot on, though he doesn't realize how much. Developers do look towards other games, see what works and copy that into their own game. This process is literal. I've sat in design meetings in a AAA company where there was an entire slideshow of pictures and videos from other games. The meeting would go like this: "From game A, we want this feature. From game B, we want this and this feature." So next time you see something and think how it reminds you of another game, there's a reason for it. It's not that the developers wanted a feature like it but couldn't think of a better implementation, it's that the developers never put any thought into it to begin with beyond seeing that it worked already for another game. I could go on for hours about this topic. The point is that what so many feel about the change in video games is not to be explained away with medieval peasant levels of logic like "The world has changed!" or "You have changed!" or "You are older!". No, games have fallen off drastically because around 2010, they became a business instead of an art. I'll cap this off with a personal story. In 2020, I played Deus Ex. The original one from the year 2000. It was my first experience with that game. I had never even seen gameplay of it before. To this day, having played the game as it was in 2000 a full two decades later, Deus Ex remains the pinnacle of video games for me. That year, I also played the original Doom and loved it. The next year, 2021, I played Dark Messiah of Might & Magic (2006) and it's now one of my favorite games as well. That kind of magic to video games is so much rarer now. Baldur's Gate 3 today oozes with that same soul and passion we used to enjoy back in the day. I can only hope its success will lead us back onto the right track.

Born in 93. I noticed the shift during the Ps3/360/wii days. It went from a split screen experience to having to pay subscriptions and always online to constant updates as of recently. There’s very few games where you can invite friends over or enjoy with the family and i feel that’s what made gaming feel the best is that they could be shared.

The frustration experiment is so interesting to me because now it’s a common thing to just pop in a game and select the hardest difficulty. I agree with you that gameplay itself hasn’t changed much, but the problem is the design. This is a problem that stems to music and cinema as well. When you create a product, you aim to be as efficient and profitable as possible, but when you create art, you aim to evoke a certain emotion or message. I feel like now it’s only about making a product and who cares if it’s fun or engaging, it made a lot of money. I had wanted to be a game designer growing up, and I have so much concept art, written lore, and game mechanics planned out, and somewhat recently I realized if I were to release my game, it may not sell at all because I have a much more classic approach to game design. No battle pass, or skins and emotes to grind, more a game with progression and unlocks through gameplay. At the end of the day I will have made a game I’d be happy to play with my friends and make it so others who see it and like it can do the same, and I think this is the mindset that most developers had during my childhood( born in 90s) and that’s what made games so unique and fun. For me the ps2 was the best era, I had the most fun gaming at this point. Now my favorite game is kenshi, and it’s pretty much all I play. I have a ps5 and try games from time to time, but they never keep me playing for long. I find myself playing less and less each day, and that could be due to age, responsibility etc but I do think there is a bigger problem now with our storytelling ability. Humans have shared stories since we could communicate, but now we are at an all time low for creativity, innovation, and frankly basic good writing practices. I don’t think it’s unfair to say all of our media has lessened in terms of creative quality, even just in my lifetime I’ve seen the standards plummet for what is acceptable for the masses. Ice Spice??? Cmon y’all 😂 we should expect more as consumers. I feel like I put more effort into making ramen noodles than some of the garbage games, movies, music that be coming out.

Im in group 2 and i love how video games back then came built complete with easter eggs and everything, no errors or day one patches. Multiplayer in game cube or ps2 was impossible so single player experience was very rich.

GTA San Andreas and NFS Most Wanted on the ps2 were the golden days of gaming

The phone call and lotion part is crazy😂

I’ve actually been doing what you said about playing old childhood games like single players. I’ve stopped playing competitive shooters and games feel great to play casually.

Born in 98, PC gamer, mainly shooters. I feel like things started to change arround the time battle passes and battle royals became a thing. Good video and analysis, bice job and perspectives.

Our soul died from responsibilities and the 9-5 grind.. gotta find ways to keep the inner child alive

I still play Skyrim. I basically just use it to unwind because my job as a chef is very stressful and physically demanding. So, I kinda just decompress myself by decorating my own home, doing quest and roleplaying as a Dunmeri Wizard. I also feel that getting lost in there huge open worlds is enjoyable for me because I really like hiking in real life.

the last tune that played in the ending 20 seconds of this video- what song or instrumental was that from if you dont mind answering? I appreciated this video overall and bookmarked it. I am a lapsed gamer.

For me it was NES where you had to blow in the cartridge until you got blue in the face.

We are at the beginning of a market correction. Moving from away from unsustainable AAA to AA and indie titles. We are also moving away from micro transactions.

As somebody that’s been a hard-core gamer my entire life and been playing since I’ve been four years old so now that’s 40 years, The answer is simple. The reason why a lot of people feel that older games are better is because in some ways they are!! For example games were made with passion and the developer cared about the quality in the game, Games were usually completed without day one patches, DLC,season passes, and micro transactions did not exist. (DLC, micro transactions, and season passes are big reason why games are not as good today) back in the day the developer made a good quality game and then moved onto the next one they weren’t trying to nickel and dime you by cutting out things, and when they had a good idea or how to improve the game got a sequel. Look at a game like king of fighters for example, every year you got a sequel if that series was made today which is still is you would get one a generation. Now don’t get me wrong there are some great things about modern games that make gaming really enjoyable today, Graphics, story, sound, and difficulty is all nail down really well. Modern games are still very enjoyable games as a service is not

The true happiness is that you can share

Thanks for making this vid. I think gaming changed for me when I A: got older... i'm older than group 1 lol B: I went to work for a AAA game studio and it became a job. It wasn't fun or relaxing anymore and the magic goes out the window when you're on the other side of the screen. Just became a bunch of systems, assets, and departments all tied together. I still enjoy games and they're fun to watch, but I can't participate like I used to anymore Thanks again, this is really nice!!!

Greed for money has single handedly killed all industries

I'm 54. I'm old. I'm tired. The world around me has changed. I've changed. I don't care about anything like I used to. I take lots of meds now for psychological problems. I used to be able to sink into games and disappear into those worlds, live in those moments. I've almost completely lost that ability. It's not the games. It's me. It's everything. The life had bled out of life.

I was having those problems with games, then I started doing a different method. First of all I disabled FPS monitors, then changed the graphics to balance between quality and FPS and tried to be immerse with the game. Then I also stopped playing only multiplayer titles because I was too stressed and sometimes raging even for small and dumb reasons like bad teams in casual gamemodes, nowadays I play a mix between PS2 emulated games from my childhood, modern triple A titles and fun indie games. Nowadays I feel an enjoyment close enough to what I had as a child, maybe not too much because of "grown person" issues like university, job and dev projects but its not a big problem because even having 1 or 2 hours of gaming at max its still great to finally have fun again, and a fun fact that happened with me is that I didn't lose too much of my skills, I'm still Global at CS2, still Legendary at codm and high ranks at other multiplayer games, and I don't say this to brag, just to see how becoming a tryhard at MP games, or monitoring performance all day and other "enthusiast" stuff can take off all good feelings we can have when playing a game. So I hope some of these tips can help someone.

It's a combination of most games asking so much from you in terms of skill, which in turn means time (even in some Singeplayer games), and the fact things are just getting more expensive. It also definitely has to do with being more "jaded" or "desensitized" (I can't quite figure out the right word) to gaming as for doing it for so long.

Born in the early 90s. Games were better with anything pre 2010. My reasoning is big gaming companies didn't milk the same franchise, no DLCs, PVP Internet etc. I think all these elements made gaming soulless.

Gaming changed when cheat codes died

I was born in 1989, so my first console was the NES. Although the experience I had with that console was kind of short-lived. Originally my cousin gave me and my younger brother her NES because I think she was either heading off for college or wasn't getting much use out of it. Regardless, she gave it to us. It was a Zapper bundle, so you got the NES system + controllers, an orange Zapper, and a copy of Super Mario Bros. + Duck Hunt. She also managed to get a copy of Super Mario Bros. 2 (the U.S. version) which was apparently super hard to get back in the day. I'll never forget reaching Bowser for the first time in 1-4 and not knowing how to defeat him. Plus shooting ducks with the Zapper was pretty fun too. We did have to give away our NES because it was "supposedly" affecting my brother's tourettes. I think it was the CRT screen. I feel like gaming really changed a lot around the beginning of the Nintendo Wii U/Switch Era of gaming. Prior to that, Nintendo would release a handheld system and a home console. From the Game Boy Color onward, I pretty much had every major handheld release. The Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Advance SP, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS (which I traded up to the XL model as it was more comfortable in my hands) Nintendo Switch & Switch Lite for gaming on the go. Before the Nintendo Switch, games for Nintendo's handheld consoles were about $40 or so in Canadian dollars. Now if you want to get a brand new copy of a Nintendo Switch game, it will run you about $79.99 Canadian. At the time where the Wii U was starting to become obsolete and the Switch was the brand new console, either version of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was still around $80. To this date, I still find $79.99 plus tax to be expensive. I feel like the Nintendo Switch is the first console produced by Nintendo to really directly compete with Sony's PlayStation. After all, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom cost $90 + tax here in Canada which is also the same price of a PS5 game here too. Gaming feels more like a hobby for the rich these days, instead of a hobby for everyone. If there's one thing I hate about Nintendo, it's that they'll never create a console without online connectivity ever again. Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection? Awesome! And then they shut it down. Nintendo Network? Also awesome! And then they shut it down. Nintendo Switch Online? Still awesome, until they shut down that as well. Which is why after the Switch, I'm not planning to buy anymore of Nintendo's flashy consoles. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again before realizing; "Hey...I've done this before, right?" I have plenty of reasons to dislike modern gaming. One of my most recent ones is the politicalization of gaming. Instead of games being a mere source of escapism, some of them have become propaganda plastered on a disc. Here's how I think we got here; we started with Gen X working in the gaming industry on titles for both Gen X and Millennials with only the purest of intentions. We currently have Millennials and Gen Z working together to make games for Gen Z and Gen Alpha, and given how they both like to push social justice, this is clearly a recipe for disaster. And once Gen Alpha enters the workforce, I think things will probably go waaaaaay downhill. We I don't know. We might be able to pacify them with a shiny new iPad for a few minutes before they go nuclear. Another reason I hate modern gaming is all these controversies you hear about games on KZfaq. It kills the hype for the game. Stellar Blade being the most recent example. And game journalism? I don't feel like there's such a thing as honest game journalism anymore. I could keep going on, but I feel like gaming has become more corrupt as time goes on, which makes it less enjoyable for sure.

Have been playing video games on a touch screen device almost exclusively for a decade and I enjoy the more dynamic interaction instead of just pressing buttons.

I have to say as someone who is about to turn 35, it’s not about having enough time to become the best at a game anymore. It’s about finding the games that spark real joy in me and truly grab my interest and giving those ones my time. And I’ve had to accept that those types of games have changed overtime. And that’s not just because the industry has changed, people change too.

I believe the five major things that for me changed the way I feel about gaming are : 1. The element of surprise. I remember walking inside a gaming rental store and been astonished by all the selection of games available and everything felt magical, like entering a candy store. 2. Longevity in a game. I remember playing weeks on end games like Super Mario and Zelda without getting bored. 3. It gave me a profound sense of joy, of amazement. I cannot remember the last time a game actually made me laugh or brought deep emotions in me. 4. Pure immersive play that keeps you on the edge from start to finish. One example is Contra from Konami. Amazing, I remember playing this game until my eyes almost popped from it's sockets. I am not joking. I eyes were hurting so much at the time that is took more than 30 minutes for my mom to make me feel better again. I really thought I was either having an epileptic attack or that I was dying or both at the same time. 5. There was no online play and social media garbage. You had a totally finished game that you usually could finish in about a week or less. This left you enough time to bring back the game at the local renting store and either rent the same game if it was not reserved or get another one. (My extra point) 6.The games where high quality products and in high abundance. The game industry back then was blooming and every game developer was trying to out best the others with amazing games.

One of the big changes is what games do for you, they can be cathartic, a challenge to overcome, or mental excercise. Cathartic is good if youre stressed and want something easy to fix that, a challenge can give you pride/confidence, and mental excercise is good if you arent using your brain enough day to day

U are amazing. Keep up the goof work.

32 years old. For me Gaming chaned exactly with the Xbox 360 and PS3, companies and game studios started to focus on making games sell as much as possible, way more than ever before and that's when gaming started changing for the worse (generally speaking). But, it also started to see the rise of the indie devs which tend to have the most fun games nowadays. Now, wanting a game sell as much as possible is actually a good goal, it's how you achieve that goal that can turn a good game into a horrible one.

- As a kid, everything was new and like magic. Now as an adult, I feel like I have already seen everything a hundred times. - As a kid, finishing levels and tasks actually felt like achievements. Like I was good at something. Games were a challenge. As an adult, it's nothing special to finish a game anymore. In the process, I learned nothing new and achieved no notable skills.

23, I feel like it started to change 2021, I guess it's a bit of everything you've exposed, but mostly nostalgia

My biggest problem is constant competitiveness and skill based match making I can absolutely slap down people in siege when i play it for a month straight but as soon as i take a break and come back the game feels so shit to play bc the game thinks im at the same level NOW this absolutely makes sense with ranked game mode but wtf is going on with CASUAL, WHY DOES CASUAL HAVE SBMM CoD’s too i loved to hop in back in bo2 and slam kids and get slammed every now and then now its just sweat every time and very close games with not much chill or gratification its controversial for those who are at the bottom end of skill, but they have the chance to play against all sorts of people too

I started playing games in the NES era. So I'm quite old, but games have only felt really different within the last 6 years. I'm convinced something with games has fundamentally changed with how games are made. There's something that's less fun or interesting about modern games.

As someone who plays exclusively single player games this video is hard to relate to. It seems like a lot of the feelings stem from multi player experience

I was born in 1996 and one of my first consoles was either the PS1 or Dreamcast. I grew up with a gaming dad and would also watch him play games on the PS2. We also owned GameCube and the OG Xbox and I also had a Game Boy Advance SP. So I basically had a fun childhood with all of those systems. Worth noting too that I was also an only child during that time too. When I started my adolescent years and had new siblings, which was around the 7th gen era, there was a major shift in my personal life. I struggled with depression and social anxiety, so I started actually playing video games less from that result and it's kinda been like that ever since. My mental health has improved over the years, but I do have moments where I do get stuck in my head. Video games really help me out with that, which is why I've always been more drawn to single player experiences. I'm the type of person who likes being transported to other worlds through gaming and seeing how these developers used their imagination to create a game. It also helps me gain inspiration with my own creativity being a graphic designer. I believe because since the 7th gen I've struggled with my mental health, I feel very nostalgic for the 5th and 6th gen eras of gaming, because that was a time when I wasn't dealing with any mental illnesses and I just enjoyed being a kid. There's a big part of me that misses that, but I also understand that there's cons to being in nostalgia all the time. I desire to be more of a part of the present, but considering how messed up the world is now with our economy and people just seem more greedy now, it's kinda scared me off to live in the moment. At this point, I'm not sure if this is all just rambling now, but I think I hold myself back a lot because I've gone through so many crappy social experiences. I'm 27 now, trying to find a good full time job. Sometimes I'm occupied with that while also still trying to enjoy gaming. I can say that I blame more of myself rather than other people and the gaming industry.

Born in 97. Grew up primarily from my memory with a PS2 but had a PS1 and 3 as well. Then got a 360 in 2009. I was also fortunate enough to have uncles who had the NES and Super Nintendo so I got to experience those gems growing up. My grandfather also had a Dreamcast which I played regularly when I visited them as well. God damn, I miss those times.

Born in ‘95. Grew up with an SNES and PS1, but I’d say I became really “coherent” for video games in the PS2 and Xbox era. I had both. For me the shift started at the end of 360 era, with day 1 dlc and mtx. But I truly felt the shift in 2013. My parent’s really broke their backs to get me and my little brothers an Xbone when I was home for Christmas freshman year of college. We booted up the new Forza game, since I had been playing it since the first game on Xbox. When we were going through the menus, I found that you coupd buy individual cars for $2.99 each. That was the moment I truly felt the shift.

I am 28 (right between the two groups) and feel that gaming really started to change when the Xbox One/PS4 era hit off. There was more live service battlepass stuff than simple multiplayer/single player experiences, classic titles and IPs were botched, many titles stopped focusing on local multiplayer/split screen, a lot of games that launched broken were just worried about their monetization, and a lot of the games lost their “social” features such as pre/post game lobbies, file shares, etc. But during this era I was in college and a lot of my friends switched console sides or stopped gaming on the current gen. I spent a lot of time solo playing like Battlefield 1 (great game of that gen) in a private chat or discord call with a friend on a totally different game. We didnt have as much time with life, school, and work but it felt like the lightning in a bottle of the previous gen was gone and it was a hassle to connect with others in gaming. I remember some games needing a reddit or discord to find players to join your heist or raid that you needed 4-6 friends for and there wasn’t a “joinable lobby.” The 360/Wii/PS3 era having both peak social online features AND the local play with like 4 player split screen or party games made it easier to enjoy with others. I still game today but 90% of my current gen or nostalgia games are playing single player games when I get time for a break from teaching. I grew up before online games starting with the gameboy color and N64 and was there for original Halo 2 xbox live and the height of the 360 days. It was hard to see gaming change that way and in many ways touched on in the video. Instead of games changing to be “innovative and creative” it was changing in ways that seemed more lazy and predatory that wasnt for the benefit of the gamer. I hope that devs and gamers both come together to make a better future for gaming that doesnt make us have to ask this question. (Sorry for writing a book lol)

Im currently 19. I have a full time job and am also a full time student. Right when i turned 18 and graduated highschool i had to move out. Balancing my time throughout my day takes most of my energy now and when i get on videogames, i always feel like i want to accomplish something. Most of the time this comes from me playing competitive multiplayer with friends. Because then its an excuse to “hang out with friends” while being in the comfort of my own home. I recently deleted all of the multiplayer games off of my ps5 extended storage and replace them with games ive been wanting to play. I spend probably around 12 hours a week working on the game and playing it for the art style. Indie games have recently been my go to.

Born in 87 started on nes you got the change right. I used to enjoy online gaming but as I've gotten older I grew to hate it. I miss the days of press start to join. It is also partially the age gap between me and most other players online.

Nice video, I'm 23 and I grew up playing mainly ps2 and to a lesser extent ps3, I really started seeing the biggest difference in gaming just after the ps4 and xb1 came out, the changes I noticed were mainly that games began to come out less and less polished despite graphical improvement (which still blows me away to this day) but I think personally for me, it took accepting that I as an individual have changed just as much as the gaming space as a whole, and once I did that and stopped stressing about what the most popular game is, and just played what I wanted, I found my love for gaming again

For me the main difference is when you got a game back then it was the final version, you didn't need to wait for updates and patches, you didn't need to pay extra for 100% the game is final and as intended. You found a game break glitch or exploit cool easy mode, you want to 100% it you would generally have a feel when you get to 100% and so on. Now it just like pay 70 dollars for an incomplete sometimes buggy mess and have no end goal objective as we will release dlc after dlc. You found a exploit ban or you can only exploit the game by giving us money.

61 still love getting lost in a single player game with great gameplay and a great story. There just doesn't seem to be many of those around anymore.