what constrains your gaming?

[lord of the mark]

Seems to me that for any given gamer theres one of four reasons you dont play more games

1. The games on the market

This is the thing that most often generates interesting threads on forums like this - on the lines of "i only play TBS games, and theres only X many TBS games published a year, and ive already bought and played my fill of the best 3 games, and the rest suck - cant wait till rise of orion dominions 4 (or whatever) comes out so i can play again

2. The computer

"the only game i really want to play is Shoot Em Up 4D With Instant Multisensory Rendering, but i my old rig wont run it, im waiting till i get a PC with the a P6, 5 GHZ CPU with Ultra Hyperthreading, 3 gig of RAM, and the HAL 9000 video chip. Cheap at only $4000.

3. Money

"cripes, im paying my own tuition, and i cant hardly afford to pay for games (and i dont pirate, etc) and ive already played out the bargain bin games i have any interest in - when will MOO3 be sold for five bucks?"

4. Time

This is what actually constrains me. (well primarily) Really between work, family, and non gaming leisure pursuits I really have only a limited time for gaming. Given that i mainly buy older games, which therefore have been pretty thoroughly reviewed, i rarely buy a game which doesnt give me a pretty considerable amount of gameplay. I really cant see needing to buy more than a half dozen to a dozen games a year, and that leaves plenty of old games available that i have at least some interest in. Im only beginning to be limited in certain subgenres.


So what constrains you - time, games in the market, your PC, or money? Or something else i havent thought of.

[General Ludd]

Nothing does.

[Standup]

Mainly time. Being out the house 12 hours a day working/commuting. Finance isn't so bad mainly because my other half is quite understanding but also if i'm conquering the universe upstairs i'm not down the pub drinking my money away or (even worse) talking to strange women.

and perhaps for number 5 - apathy or laziness. I've got a stack of games that i put to one side for when i have time to read the rules, play the tutorial etc but its sometimes easier to play the games you already know ie another round of Civ or face the huge manual for Uncommon Vaour ?

[DrSpike]

You're married right? You missed out the most important one - our girlfriends and wives (for those who don't spend so much time playing that they don't have one. )

Mine are 4) and my girlfriend, though I am a master at getting enough hours in each week anyway.

[vovan]

I got two constraints.

Originally posted by lord of the mark
4. Time

College.

Originally posted by Comrade Tassadar
3. My health

Gotta give those eyes a rest every now and then.

[Spiffor]

5. Replayability: I play games over and over and over (of course, I choose games that are highly replayable). Therefore, there is no need for me to get many games.

[ColdWizard]

Time.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Apolyton .

[Urban Ranger]

Time: some of us have jobs, SO's, are married, or has something else to do IRL.

Computer: I can't be arsed to upgrade my Wintel box just to play a new game. Maybe this is a bit of apathy in there as well.

Games: Well, this is not really a problem even though most new games suck. See above.

Money: Cost is not a problem. Whether I think the game is worth the $ is.

[Dis]

4. mainly.

Between work, and just physical limitations of not being able to sit on one place for 20 hours on end playing a computer game (although I have been known to do about 20 hours back in my civ2 days ). But I just can't sit down that long anymore.

And my work days are 10 hours long. So I really don't play any games during my work week. I usually end up posting here

As for 1. Not so much. Although I don't play a lot of genres Although I got some shooters and FPS with my sound card. Splinter Cell and such. I may try them. But I usually suck at them, and never play games I can't finish- it makes me feel like a failure But there are still many rpg's I never play. I heard good things about Arx Fatalis, but haven't checked it out yet, but I will soon. I don't have any time for mmorpg's, so I never touch them.

2. computer. I just got a new one. It's not top of the line, but can run pretty much any game out right now. This goes along with money. I have plenty of money, if I wanted to I could have got the 64 bit athalon processor and Radeon 9800 XT video card. But I don't need that because I don't play shooters. So I got a 9600 XT card..
3. money. I have plenty of it.

[bipolarbear]

1: LACK OF $$$$$!!!
2: Lack of games with good multiplayer
3: Time

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Apolyton .

Maybe I should have added this one also. Still, you can't play games whilst at work right?

[Skanky Burns]

I would have to say "interest". I generally could not be bothered loading up and playing a game.

[Urban Ranger]

That of course reflects poorly on the quality of them games.

[duke o' york]

She who must be obeyed, basically.


You also forgot to mention "a hard drive full of filth" as a reason why certain people hereabouts may not play games as often as they might.

[Jamski]

I deleted it all

Time mainly, and then lack of interest in ANOTHER game of x. We need more decent RPGs and TBS games.

-Jam

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Comrade Tassadar
3. My health

That is a fifth reason - you could have good games to play, and time to play them, but you choose other uses for your time because the impact of game playing on eyes, back, etc.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by DrSpike
You're married right? You missed out the most important one - our girlfriends and wives

I consider that a subset of time - some of the uses of time are established by my wife.

I suppose if your wife objected to you playing too much, even if she had no other use for your time, that would be an independent constraint.

[duke o' york]

They always have a preferred use for that time. And playing and listening to them at the same time are not allowed!

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Spiffor
5. Replayability: I play games over and over and over (of course, I choose games that are highly replayable). Therefore, there is no need for me to get many games.

well im with you, but i consider that really part of time.
Recently i went back and played a Civ2 scenario (Menelik) My latest acquisition, Panzer General 2, has lots of campaigns and scenarios. I've only played through the first day of Gettysburg on SMG. Ive never played through SMAC on transcend level, or played all the factions. If i get finished with my current wargames kick, ive got lots of RPG gaming to do - Ive got planescape torment which ive hardly touched, and ive only played through BG1 once . And yeah, i even feel a slight craving to go back and play with simtower

But IF i had infinite time, i could do all of the above, and still have time left for new games. Of course time isnt infinite, neither is money, the games available on the market, health, etc.

So i see most of us as constrained by either time or money or the market. Those of us who either A. Have less time or B. Like replaying games tend to be constrained by time (or health)

Those who have lots of time and dont like to replay so much are more likely constrained by money or the games on the market. Either there are games they want, but they cant afford them (people with limited money and a relatively wide taste in games) or they can afford new games but cant find anything they want to buy (they have LOTS of Euros, or they have a relatively narrow taste in games)

Replayability and time of course indirectly affect the cost of games, etc. I spent a considerable period of time when the only game i played was civ2 - different maps, strategies, scenarios, etc. And we know how long it takes to play through Civ2. By the time i moved on there was huge backlog of games i was interested in but had never played. By the time i got around to them they were in the bargain bin. Im still working through them now.

[Brundlefly]

Originally posted by lord of the mark

So what constrains you - time, games in the market, your PC, or money? Or something else i havent thought of.

Nothing does - that's the whole problem.

[Spaced Cowboy]

Wife & time. I've got about 5-7 games that I've bought, but haven't the time to play yet.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by duke o' york
They always have a preferred use for that time. And playing and listening to them at the same time are not allowed!

Ive tried that, but it tends to annoy queen of the mark.
It also presents another advantage to RTS.

I can PAUSE RTS. TBS is great IF its my turn when QOTM has something to say. If its the AI's turn, I miss what the AI did. QOTM has kinda figured out that i cant pause during the AI's turn in TB game, but that doesnt stop her. Oh well, i can consider that a realistic part of the for of war - a temporary failure of intell.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by duke o' york
She who must be obeyed, basically.


You also forgot to mention "a hard drive full of filth" as a reason why certain people hereabouts may not play games as often as they might.

Well thats just a PC constraint. You can alway get a bigger hard drive, right?

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by bfg9000


Nothing does - that's the whole problem.

to you and osweld - obviously something does.

there are 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.
Thats 8760 hours a year.

Do you spend, say 20000 hours a year gaming??

You cant spend more than 8760 hours a year gaming. So you are constrained by time.

I guess I need to restate this, or reexamine it somehow.
My assumption is that if you had enough money, time, etc youd play more games. If you have enough money and time, and you dont want to play more, its a sign that good games arent availble.

i suppose someone who buys and plays dozens of games a year isnt inclined to say that the lack of games is a constraint, even though they arent motivated to spend more time or money on gaming. I guess they would say that they have reached the point of zero return in utility on additional games, EVEN IF more brilliant games were released. And even they had more money, or more time. There just no way utility for game playing can be positive, beyond a certain number of hours per year.

[duke o' york]

All right! Stop getting all technical!

You're starting to make me feel guilty for enjoying games.
The duchess o' york would be grateful to you if you managed that though. SG, -Jrabbit, Old n Slow et al, less so.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by bipolarbear
1: LACK OF $$$$$!!!
2: Lack of games with good multiplayer
3: Time

People who prefer MP face additional issues, that tend to make the constrainst more binding.

First, as BPB says, there is the issue of some games being really focused on SP - especially if youre NOT an RTS fan.

Second - since MP players generally need to play recent games, bargain bin diving isnt really available as a way to save money.

Third - time constraints are more complex, since you dont just face the issue of how many hours a week you play, but you need to be able to commit a certain block at a certain time of day (assuming youre not playing PBEM - even that could be an issue - i often go for days without playing at all, and so im reluctant to commit to a PBEM game)

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by duke o' york
All right! Stop getting all technical!

But i love this sort of thing - maybe thats why TBS (and related "serious" pausable RT) is still my favorite genre?

[Brundlefly]

Originally posted by lord of the mark


to you and osweld - obviously something does.

No, nothing does. If I always play for as long as I want whenever I get the urge, then there are no constraints.

[alva]

Less and less interested by games, if I install one and have a good time with it, I'll play it full time for about two days and start to get bored/annoyed with it.