I'm too old to play RPGs

by David "TRC" Looney 

I have a confession to make: I've never played BOF4. Normally there wouldn't be any problem, but I have it sitting on my desk right now (unopened at that). It's been sitting there since the person who I got it for returned it to me. It's been sitting there for over 2 months, and yet I haven't opened it. Is that a growing trend in RPGamers? I mean Google talks about it all the time. My unfinished stack of games is 6 deep, some of them have been there for over a year. Why? I mean if we love RPGs so much, why do we buy a game and not finish it? Some could say it is due to the fact that the game is bad. Well that would be fine and dandy, but I have FM3 (which by most accounts is a good game) and have yet to finish it. I think the are a number of causes.

First would be the sheer number of games. When I was younger there just weren't as many RPGs to play, so I played all of them I could, but now as I've grown and more games have been released I can be more picky about what I play. Even then I still end up with 4 games I want to play, so it comes down to me not being able to make a decision and just not playing any of them.

Time, or lack there of, is a major problem. I work a full time job, so during the work week I have very little in the way of free time. It's very hard to sit down and play an RPG for 10 minutes, let alone 20 or 30. I mean you can, but it's hard to get anywhere in them. It's much easier to level or to go on a sidequest ( Chocobo Hot and Cold anyone?) then to play the actual game.

That leads me into the next reason: I have developed a short attention span, so I need some form of instant gratification to make me want to play a game. That's why on most of the games I've played I am a high level, even if I haven't finished them, because it's easier to play it and level then it is to play through the story.

Another reason would be distractions. Back in Ye Olde Days, all I had was the game console. It was all I did, so of course I would finish games and play them all the way through, but now I have the computer and games for it. It's much easier to play a game of Tribes 2 then it is to play a game of BOF4.

Could some of this be just because I am older and am actually growing up? Nope. Why? Because I look around my room and see all the other stuff I still do that I did when I was younger. I think what it is, is that I changed and the games didn't. I want dynamic playing, I want to be able to go on a quest to get KotR at the beginning of the game. That's not the only way I've changed. Also, a lot of modern RPGs use the same clichés from previous ones (wait, I am going somewhere with this). Yes, they were clichés when they were first used, but back then they were so far and few between that we didn't notice.

<I have to take a moment here to make a comment. My roommate last year grew up in Denmark, so he didn't start playing RPGs until Beyond the Beyond on the PSX, and I would sit there and watch him as he played Grandia, and other games. Then I realized maybe just maybe how long I've been playing does effect how I play.>

Another problem would be how mainstream RPGs are; we are now bigger then the Fighting game genre. Companies see this and want to take advantage of it, so they release a subpar RPG. Back in the SNES days, either the game had to be good, or the company had to be rich to get an RPG stateside. I mean this year there are more Good games, but they get lost among the Beyond The Beyonds. There are good games, but it is harder for me to find a game I like, since all the rental places around here have bad selections.

So as you can see there are many causes for why I can't finish RPGs, I think some of these apply to other people. Maybe, just maybe, I'll get to BOF4 soon.