Why people don't play games anymore
I have wondered about this question for a long time and have came to see the answers can be as diverse as the people you ask. Why don't people play games anymore?
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This question arose to me again the other day when replying to EastwoodDCs' question about why we do play games over at Giant Battling Robots.
If your like me, you have tried multiple times to get someone you know to pick up a controller or sit down at the PC with you and the answers always remain the same: "Not right now" "I don't like video games" "I don't know how to play" The majority of these same people will watch you play intently, give you advice on what you should do or ask a million questions about the game itself. Alot of them will tell you how they used to play the Atari, Nes or similiar till their fingers bled but won't play anymore.
Everyone is entitled to their reasons, but sometimes it has to make a person wonder what was it exactly that dissuaded them from continuing their playing. Reasons I have heard include:
- The controllers have too many buttons.
- The games are too complicated.
- They can't afford it.
- Games are too violent or contains too much gore.
Another reason people choose to not play games is quite the opposite. I myself have been into MMORPGS for a long time, from Guild Wars to WoW, I have tried alot of them. A common thing you see especially in these genres is an actual addiction to a game. Most of the time a small addiction is what keeps people coming back, but when it gets out of control it can cause alot of problems. I have personally met people who let it get so out of control it affected their jobs, their family, etc. For these reasons, many people would rather "remove the temptation".
Like i said, everyone has their own reasons. I myself will keep trying to get them to pick up a controller though. So far I have gotten my mother into games like Animal Crossing and, still even amazes me, I got my 58 year old grandfather to play Boom Blox. I personally think many of these people just need the right nudge to step up and get that smile and laugh that only a game can bring.
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“To win, you've got to stay in the game.”
January 4, 2009 at 12:59 PM
It sounds like you have a really cool Grandfather. :-)
I think a lot of video games take people away from friends and family, rather than bringing them closer together, which is a real loss. Online friends are nice but just are not the same as face-to-face contact. I hope we will start to see some video games that have some of these qualities that bring people together.
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