Apparently Cliffy B really disagrees with me

by kapowaz, Monday, March 04, 2013, 01:49 (4068 days ago) @ Cody Miller

This doesn't work. I've been doing this for a long time now. It doesn't matter. Not enough people care for this to make an impact, and it just gets harder and harder to find great games.

Perhaps this is true for somebody with unlimited time to invest in playing games who simultaneously also happens to have a very highly-refined taste for the kind of games they like to play. But I think to say the least, this kind of person is an outlier. Maybe that's how you'd describe yourself, but either way I don't think you should be kidding yourself that you are representative of the average gamer.

About 8-9 years ago I bought every major ‘must play’ game on every console. I found I just about had enough time to play them all, and whilst I didn't get the most out of every one of them, and I sometimes found I was left wanting more from some of them, I was on the whole left more than satisfied. I certainly didn't feel like the well was drying up. Nowadays my other responsibilities prevent me from playing games to this degree, and I know for a fact I've missed out on a large number of excellent games.

I bought Skyrim, Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Modern Warfare 3, Halo CE: Anniversary and some others in 2011 — I didn't even play HCEA until about 3 months ago. I've still not finished Skyward Sword or MW3. Skyrim I appreciate is a game I'll never ‘finish’ but I probably only put a few hours into it. Since then there've been a whole number of titles I really wanted to play but know I'll not get time to. Metal Gear Rising sounds fantastic. I bought Forza Horizon and played it for a few hours, enjoying all of it but knowing I'll never get maximum value from the title.

So I say to you: if you struggle to find ‘great games’ you are either far, far too picky about what constitutes a ‘great game’, or you have a disproportionately large amount of time in which to play games (as compared to most gamers). Or maybe both. In either case, I wouldn't draw market-relevant conclusions from your personal situation.