Gaming Owning a flash card = Not appreciating any games

[vbkun]

I go same way. I can agree partially.

I remember when i had my ps2 back in I dunno, 1996. It wasn't free but pirate copies were cheap as hell, I would get at least 2 games per week. At some point I just stoped liking video games, sold the ps2, and went for a >decade hiatus.

Then I got a DS in I dunno... 2007/2008. When I realized I was actually doing the same, after 2/3 months, downloading loads of roms, playing 15 min of each and bye. So then I made a compromise to myself "I will not do this again". Then stuff changed.

Nowdays I have a 3ds and the gateway, I mainlly have like 40 roms in pc, from which i tried like 4/5, from those I either finished the games or I'm still playing. Same happened to my pirate-pc gaming.

Ironicly the only game I "compromised" to in these last years that failed is the one I actually paid for (Street Fighter X Tekken on steam).

So I guess it's much more about compromising to stuff, usually money takes care of getting you to, but as we could see here in previous posts, not allways.

 

[Gvaz]

I should have known that history would repeat itself. I cut my teeth as far as modding/hacking when I got my first Flash2Advance cart for the original, non-backlit GBA. By the time that handheld was officially dead in the water, I had hundreds of games on my hard drive, but had only ever played a handful of them.

Same thing when I got my first PSP. By the time that system hit the end of its life cycle, I had hundreds of games, but played less than 40% of them.

Then, again when I got my first DS, but that was even worse. With smaller games than the PSP, and MUCH MUCH MUCH more shovelware, I wound up maybe playing a quarter of the games I acquired.

Now that I have a Gateway 3DS, here we go again.

I've probably spent twice the amount of time fiddling with my ROMs, copying new ones to my card, then replacing it with a different game ten minutes later when I get bored with it, than I have actually PLAYING any games on my 3DS with my new flash card.

The newest Zelda and Phoenix Wright games are the only ones that really managed to capture and keep my attention. Even though I now have pretty much the entire library of games that I could buy at GameStop, I usually can't be arsed to even bother playing most of them.

I wonder how common this phenomenon is. Is anyone else here essentially a ROM hoarder, but not really that much of a hardcore gamer?

If you've got a lot of steam games, this is very very similar to that.

Some of the sales cost money, but there's a point where in the mind of the consumer is that "they're free".

For some this means "i got it for free, i'm more tolerant of bullshit". However, for most people using steam or getting games for free it's "the minute this thing sucks I'm stopping and never touching again. I got 500 other games I could play right now than put up with this."

 

[osm70]

It is something like this:
I paid 60 dollars for it, so I will play it even if it is absolute crap, because otherwise that money gets wasted.

 

[Jayro]

I'm a ROM hoarder, but I actually play 1 or two games at a time until I beat them, then move to the next.

 

[Arras]

It will likely be a solid two years before I play GTA V again. I played it NON-STOP for a week when it came out, and I got it on launch day. By the time GTA Online was actually working, I was already over it.

I have put at least 400-500 hours into Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution, between NDS and PS3. I could play that game any day, any time. I've probably got over 1,000 hours clocked on the Vita and PS3 versions of Mortal Kombat. Likewise, I will never tire of that game.

So, I wonder how much of it is just gamer ennui, how much of it is oversaturation of C-titles, and how much of it is just my tastes in gaming not matching up with what the scene has been forcing on us lately.

I do NOT like indie games, FPS games or most sports games, but according to Microsoft, that's all I should care about. Also according to the games offered on PS+.

I really hate how the mobile phone gaming market has motivated the Big Three to force the scene of indie games, in particular. They only do that because it's so much more profitable for them to give an indie dev peanuts, rather than paying top dollar for Capcom or Squeenix to crank out another AAA title.

At this rate, we might be headed for another crash like in 1984. I know we'll never get to that point ever again, but, I can't say that a thousand indie games a year, as opposed to a dozen AAA titles, is really giving us gamers the best possible experience.

You do realize "indie games" is not even really a genre? They include literally all sorts of games. Depending on the definition of indie, Valve is indie. No publishers, no stakeholders, they fund and release their games themselves. Not liking the artsy/hipstery indie games, or the gazillion minecraft clones or 8-bit looking games, sure. But knocking every single indie game because they're indie just seems silly to me.

 

[boomario]

You do realize "indie games" is not even really a genre? They include literally all sorts of games. Depending on the definition of indie, Valve is indie. No publishers, no stakeholders, they fund and release their games themselves. Not liking the artsy/hipstery indie games, or the gazillion minecraft clones or 8-bit looking games, sure. But knocking every single indie game because they're indie just seems silly to me.

Yeah, there are many good indie games like mari0 and retro city rampage (out for 3ds days ago)

 

[FireSeel]

I have done this with gba games, after I got a flash cart, but after I recently got a psp go, I downloaded a lot of games and put them onto it, but I have actually played them properly.

 

[Veho]

However, for most people using steam or getting games for free it's "the minute this thing sucks I'm stopping and never touching again. I got 500 other games I could play right now than put up with this."

That's how I feel as well. When I pay (a lot) for a game I feel compelled to give it a second chance. When it's free, I tend to give up on them very easily and don't spend time on games that don't immediately grab me.

 

[Hiccup]

I don't pirate games, unless playing homebrew and playing rom hacks of games I own counts.

I only play games that I think are really worth it.

 

[Redhorse]

I'm appologizing ahead of time for the wall-o-text...

I personally find this an interesting topic as it hits home on a strategy of mine for keeping games fresh for me. Many buy games and start one, say A.C. N.L. and will play for 20-40 hours the first day (or try and beat the newest Xbox game in a day) I say what s the point? I'd rather have 100+ hours of my favorite game that I never finish (Advance Wars (GBA+ DS)/Fire Emblem again GBA/DS) than even one game that I'll finish too quickly.

If a game takes me a while to finish, I pace myself and restrict the amount of hours playing it daily, so it stays fresh for my tomorrow play-through. I will force myself top stop that new game after a certain period, before I tire of it, so it will ispire me again tomorrow. In the rare even I get tired of a game I already have and before buying yet another game to add to my collection, I have a strategy of going to the game selling sites and re-reading the sales description. This has the effect of re-exciting me to why I got the game in the first place and adds value for me as to why I bought the game in the first place.

It also serves to make me want to pay games (I own) that I haven't played in some time. This may not work for everyone though.

Regarding pirated or 'free games', not being as interesting, that has not been my experience. I have gone out and purchased 80+ games over the last year, that I 'tried for free' from the DS catalog, many which I will start on a rainy day. But even though my first loves have been and will always be Fire Emblem (see above) and Advance wars (see above) this is a game I periodically need a break from to not get bleary eyed.

These 'free trials' as I like to call them (Harrrrrr) have caused me to buy many-a-games I would never have looked at twice had I had to buy them full price before trying. IOW it iproved thier sales..NOTE: Most of these just mentioned I bought new to support the developers with cash where possible.

I do have a gripe (particularly with the online aspect of newer games (read=latter half of DS library + newer 3ds games) that are so quickly hyped , sold/pushed and the industry(review sites, developers) moves onto the next one, that basically, the day a game drops, it's life-clock starts ticking.

If you don't play that online aspect within the first few weeks you may lose the opportunity to do so, since the companies are supportng the online aspect shorter and shorter times these days. Since the push-desire for online is so great, I personally feel this is draining the life out of many games. We as consumers are pushed onto the new ones before we've had the opportunity to really get into those we just bought yesterday before the newer one drops tomorrow. This last gripe may be why so many people are becoming complacent with the library they presently have awaiting thier rainey day play sessions.

Enough of this drivel, thanks for listening.. just my opinion and experience.

 

[Rockym]

I don't think just owning a flashcard makes you not appreciate games, its how you use it. Every ROM on my DSTwo was dumped from my own collection and I use the flashcard as a convenient way of carrying around my entire DS collection without having to carry around a bunch of carts. It's really nice to be able to turn on my 3DS and load up the DSTwo and scroll through my collection and play what I feel like playing.

That's the reason I don't have a Gateway, since you can only have one ROM at a time on it, the card is useless for my purposes. Not to mention, there's no easy way to dump your own 3DS Roms yet.

 

[Gvaz]

It is something like this:
I paid 60 dollars for it, so I will play it even if it is absolute crap, because otherwise that money gets wasted.

Technically it's wasted either way

 

[juins]

i believe that although what everyone saying is true, it's mostly psychological.

The MAIN reason i spend half the time messing around with roms and NOT actually playing them, is because i cant get my mindset straight on what to actually play.

After getting past that barrier, its all about training your mind to actually finish a game.

imo, If u actually have a flashcart, you're gonna only want to DL games you're actually interested in. I didnt read all the posts in this thread but what Foxi4 said in the first page is relatively what happens commonly when you're in the Flashcart/CFW situation.

 

[CraddaPoosta]

This is one of the most interesting discussions I've had on GBATemp. I thought I was rather unique in that I hoard ROMs that I will never play, I buy games with actual money that sit there and collect dust, and have commitment issues... with video games.

Glad to know I am not the only one.

 

[vbkun]

A thing bout hoarding roms, some other post around ( this pokemon-skinner box one ), hoarding items and storing, be them movies, roms, physical games, pokemons, anything... isn't just like some sortta basic instinct we have?

Or better saying, aren't we trying to make it up for the primitive hoarding of food, animals and stuff we don't need to anymore trough other type items? (I myself don't have a problem with games but I have a music video collection that spams trought 10tb and about 15k video clips I never watch :|).

 

[WhiteMaze]

This is a well-known phenomenon - once you get something for absolutely free, you begin judging it by its actual merits instead of finding excuses for mediocrity to validate your purchase while the price you paid for the product looms in your subconscious.

In addition, you also care less because you're not trying to milk the product for whatever entertainment value it's worth because you literally didn't pay for it, so the expectations bar is much lower. You're not nearly as extatic when the game meets expectations and not nearly as disappointed when it doesn't because you can just move on to something better with no additional expense - the only thing that suffers is fan pride when a product from a franchise you particularly like is terrible.

Precisely.

In other words, when you DON'T pay for the games, only the best of the best stick around in your memory card.

Because as Foxi4 said, you're not "fooling yourself", trying to find all the excuses to justify what you paid. If it is boring, it is boring, period. You move on.

It's quite a good crap filter, actually.

 

[Parasite X]

I admit I love roms free is always going to beat paid for I have atleast 50 roms for both my DS & my GBA I play I pretty much mess with all of them but they don't stop me from buying games from retail gotta love the new game smell.

Many people get the same thing even with games that are actually good though. I had this with Okami even though I loved that game and finished it twice now. I pretty much had to force myself to go play it. It was always like "meh I don't feel like it, I'll go play something else".

I agree many people say GTA IV was pretty good I buy it & I got bored with it & ended up playing SMB Wii

 

[Wekker]

Disagree with the statement. The reason you think you enjoy more when you have paid for a game is mainly you have probably bought the game you really want to play! When someone mis bought a game and it was expensive, he/she will probably force heself to enjoy the game and not the otherway around. Most of the time people tend to finish a game before move on to the next game they like if they have to pay for the game(but if they have enough money to spent, they will move to a better game right away). With the flascart you will move on to the next game once you have downloaded.
The only important thing that let you enjoy the game more is the game itself not the price.

 

[drakorex]

The problem isn't that we have so many games that it dilutes the fun factor, it's that we just get bored too easily these days. We need to think about when we were excited about the announcement of a game, seeking out all the info we could, talking about it with friends... Pick a game, remember how psyched you were, and go for it.

 

[FAST6191]

The problem isn't that we have so many games that it dilutes the fun factor, it's that we just get bored too easily these days. We need to think about when we were excited about the announcement of a game, seeking out all the info we could, talking about it with friends... Pick a game, remember how psyched you were, and go for it.

Surely that would involve me being seven again... the only response to such a suggestion being "not even to save my life". However, as previously discussed, I appear to be immune to pirate syndrome.