I enjoy reading conversations about games more than I do playing them.

[Semi-colon e]

I think it's the fact that reading and discussing games is a lot easier than motivating yourself to play them or buy them, and cheaper too. On a forum, you can just post or read and get involved, whereas to play the game you actually have to play the game, and if you're not feeling like it, then you're more likely to read forums with gaming discussions instead. Essentially, there's less investment. That's how it's been for me lately anyway.

[SuperLink]

I honestly think I buy too many games at this point considering how little I play them. I really want to cut down, but it's just so EASY for me to get a game either used of through sales nowadays. Not to mention a lot of my friends buy games even more often than I do. 

 

Just discussing the ones I like requires far less dedication than cutting out hours to get through a game tbh.

Yeah this completely, I buy so many games because over my years as a gamer I've become fans of so many different franchises and now I just pick up any new game from within those series' and there are so much that it's hard to play them all ~-~

 

I used to love RPGs so much but now getting into them is a time commitment I don't feel like I have. I haven't opened the copy of Bravely Default I bought on launch ._.

Cutting down is hard, but I think I'm gonna seriously do so.

[Milo]

I think I'm also like this all of the time.

 

Though I'm trying to reverse the situation, I don't really play games as much anymore (constant moving around houses, graduating high school, and starting college classes last year is partially to blame for that), but I still like to sometimes poke my head in and read (and sometimes put in my opinion) about games I have more than a bit on interest in. Hell I even sometimes go back and read older discussions made on games that weren't released yet at the time.

[Mr Loopone]

There was a time when I had a 6 year break from games apart from the odd handheld game or two, as well as doing something else I was partly into research of games such as sprite ripping and helping little bits so it meant that I was reading and suppling info. The pre-break and post-break as well, I read various gaming websites and some of the things were interesting. While many of the places that I used to go are either dormant or no more updates, there are still a couple of places where I read such as The Cutting Room Floor that is about unused stuff in a game or David Haywood's (Haze) blog who is a contributor to MAME/MESS where he talks about emulation and preserveration, sometimes explaining how he or someone managed to get a game up and running with occassionally the difficulties involved. It is easier to read about gaming information than it is to play the games or going into the data whether it is a ROM or an ISO/BIN+CUE especially the latter if it is compressed. Similar thing to listening to VGM or watching a gameplay video. Then again by playing the game, at least it would give me a chance to experience the game and have a honest opinion about it instead of looking at videos/marketing stuff. Depending on some games, they can be quick and pick up and play (arcade games/older games) where reading/posting takes longer or really long (action/adventure, open world, RPGs) where you need time to play them.

 

For the past few months, I have been following the GAF since what I read much of the gaming info either comes from there or gets posted there. Many of the discussions have been interesting and even got towards the point where some of their recommendations I ended up getting (e.g. Star Wars Republic Commando, The Saboteur, Red Dead Redemption). Some have come in handy like the PAL charts showing what games are the best selling that week, a thread where people point out the cheapest deals and the OT threads about selected consoles (the N64 and the Xbox ones are the ones that I look at). The main problem regarding games is that sometimes people talk about games that I personally have no interest or even made me upset. Currently some of the most talked about games are Smash Bros. (a lot), Persona and the SMT series, Pokemon, Tales series and can't really talk about them even though they are good games. On the other hand some games that I have played can't really talk about since either that they are niche or in the case of a couple it gets a bad reputation online. For the latter got myself 007 Legends, I know that it isn't the best Bond game or indeed the best FPS but online it got bad reviews that didn't really go through the game properly (reviews say either get COD or something else, they don't mention the mechanics barring the bosses that seems to be one of the weak points or any mentions of bugs/glitches) and people just point towards the reviews and say that it is a bad game even though chances are that they might have not played the game. It also came out when it got tough competition from games making it worse (2012 to me was a good year for gaming). Why I got the game was because it seemed mechanically sound, an extra Wii U game to play, it was a complete version and that it was cheap, plus it might be the last Bond game. Sometimes thought on websites is that people talk from an American point of view and it is hard to relate since either the games that they are talking about I didn't grew up with them (e.g. Final Fantasy/RPGs, NES since it was the Spectrum/C64/Amiga/Atari ST where I'm from), weren't released (e.g. Phantom Crash that the GAF is recommending) or talk about offers that just don't exist elsewhere (e.g. the Best Buy eShop card offer since Nintendo games are the same prices as the others in the US while in the UK they are more expensive than the PS3/360 however currently cheaper than current gen). The advantage though is that I get to know what type of games that another country likes, even though online and real life are two different things that sometimes have different tastes.

 

Even then sometimes reading conversations about games causing mental conflict, like on a previous forum many of the members hated Nintendo due to the things that they did using facts/evidence and some places (including here to a small degree) love Nintendo so much that the love can get towards bashes the other companies or use spin to make their favourite company look better than they are. Sony and Microsoft fans sometimes do the same as well. It is okay to have a favourite gaming company that you really like and be passionate about it but it is another thing to being a jerk about it. Sometimes these conversations are like reading politics... My mind juggles whether to like Nintendo or not. They do fantastic games that I've really like (plenty of Mario and Donkey Kong games, Punch-Out, F-Zero X to name a few) but on the other hand some of the business policies past and present have been unfavourable (including a recent one where you lose the rights of downloadable games to Nintendo even though the EU just passed a Digital Rights act having a right to a refund so if it doesn't work, nothing can be done about it). It is hard when someone treats the various companies neutrally (positively and negatively), even EA who gets bashed to hell and back for the various things that they done past and present. I do actually wonder if anyone likes EA for their games at least online...

 

Lately I have been buying games whether it is on an older system (e.g. Xbox, Gamecube), that they were on sale, both or a game that I really wanted to play. Due to this my backlog is getting bigger and bigger however only had time to play one game at the moment (Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction), then again I am thinking about the future and knowing that I won't be able to hop on the 8th generation [that might be short like the 5th and 6th gen] due to gaming burnout so I'm thinking of right now getting my last few games then enjoy the games that I have while reading about other people experiencing the new consoles.

 

Sometimes though, a person might need to have a break on what they enjoy so when you come back to it, you can enjoy it and find out why you enjoy something in the first place.