Post edited 8:27 am – November 30, 2011 by Craig Chamberlin

So I was thinking the other day… dangerous, I know… about how judgmental I have become towards modern day gaming and gamers. It is probably because I am getting old, I just catch myself saying "When I was a kid…" and stopping myself right there.

There are a number of reasons we go back to those times when we were a kid. I think it is not so much that those games were better, but we had more freedom and time to play more games back then. As a result, we could sit down and really enjoy them more. 

This has come up in my mind since I purchased Skyrim. This game, if one takes their time with it, is probably one of the most rewarding games ever developed. However, if you don't have the time. It's just frustrating. In order to enjoy them, I literally have to schedule play time during the week rather than just decide one day.

I think many of us who have grown up in gaming look back on our old gaming days with fond memories because we just can't keep up with the size of the market. During the Super Nintendo years, Amazing titles were released, but not nearly so fast. Now with downloadable content, beating a game doesn't mean beating a game anymore – you have to keep up with additions to the game as well.

Games such as Gears of War and Modern Warfare 3 now have "season passes" which give you a full year of updates every quarter with promises of new additions to the campaign and multiplayer. In the meantime, developers are looking to the Massive Online market in creating games without endings, which are designed to be fun and addictive, but since it is subscription based, it really never ends. The content is always coming.

I would argue in alot of ways gaming has become much better, but it has also become much more time consuming. Those of us with busy schedules cannot possibly keep up and need to take extra time to pick and choose which titles we want to enjoy – rather than even trying to keep up.

It's really not the industry's fault, it is our own. You see, us gamers just eat this stuff up, we want more and more so they are giving it to us. Could this be the perfect example of "Be Careful What You Wish For?"

What are your thoughts on the subject?