DivisionByZero.620: #1: Competitive/PvP/E-Sports
[...]
I can't begin to describe how many potentially good games I've been denied because they were PvP focused. Roughly 80% I browse through new game releases and immediately click the "Next" button when I see "PvP oriented" or similar.
While I have to agree that (to me) games are there for entertainment and not for "more stress after a day of work" and that multiplayer games feel like a reunion of 12 years old kids without any manners, I have to say that I learned that PvP doesn't mean "don't effing play this as singleplayer". Some multiplayer shooters have bots to play against and all strategy games have AI enemies with adjustable difficulties. Co-op games are worse than PvP games, but even some of them are enjoyable as singleplayer games (I played Dead Island and Borderlands 1+2 as singleplayer).
It's not easy to differentiate between multiplayer-only and "if you really want to, you can have fun as a singleplayer too, although it's not meant to be played this way"-games, but sometimes it's worth it.
DivisionByZero.620: #2: Dark/gritty/gory/horror/zombies
[...]
I'm tired of dark/gritty.
I'm tired of zombies/vampires/werewolves/horror.
I'm tired of unnecessary distasteful virtual gore.
I'm tired of the same old crap year-in, year-out.
When does it stop?
Am I the only person who has a sense of decency remaining?
Nope, you're not the only person who thinks it's enough. The only two zombie games I've played were Dead Island (blood and flying limbs everywhere) and Telltale's The Walking Dead (not your typical zombie game). Dead Island is a beautiful game, really! Especially the first part, where the zombies are a huge contrast to beaches, palm trees and the holiday resort feeling. Zombies on the beach - that's the main reason why I got this game ;) One of the few overly violent games that I enjoyed.
But generally speaking, the dark and gritty stuff drove me away from most AAA games too. I really loved TES: Oblivion and got Skyrim shortly after its release. Back then, I didn't knew why, but I didn't like this game at all. I could see that it was a clear improvement to Oblivion and I'm still aware that it is the "better" game when I stay objective. But I couldn't play it for a long time (and I tried it for more than 50 hours, so it definitely had more than one chance)... Today I know what was "wrong" with Skyrim. It was the dark atmosphere and the completely over the top, anti-role-playing, random finishing moves. I didn't want to play a character who's chopping off people's heads. I didn't want to play a character who loves to bath in his enemies' blood. But you couldn't really avoid this. You were a badass who loves to slaughter things. But it seems that you need to do this if you want to make a "mature" game nowadays -.-
I didn't stop playing violent games altogether. I still enjoyed Borderlands 2 and currently I'm playing GTA 5. But they manage to make clear that they don't take themselves too serious. Borderlands is absolutely silly and GTA feels like a Quentin Tarantino film.
Whatsoever...After realizing why I didn't like most AAA games anymore, I switched back to adventures (Sam & Max, Blackwell, Dreamfall), JRPGs (The Legend pf Heroes, Pier Solar) and games that live from their gameplay mechanics mainly -> platformers! I never liked platformers and I'm not really good at them either. But I started with some light ones like Dust: An Elysian Tail, Mark of the Ninja and UnEpic (all of them being easy platformers mixed with other gameplay elements) and went to harder ones later (Shovel Knight, Valdis Story). I played some other games too, but these three genres helped me to enjoy gaming again. I'm done with most games advertized as "being mature".
DivisionByZero.620: Rant over.
Wee all need to rant sometimes ;)