I still love strategy games, but I feel like the genre has fallen on hard times. There just are not that many new strategy games out there as there used to be. MOBA seems to have killed RTS, Disciples and HoMM series fell from grace some years ago... there are still some gems like Battle World Kronos from time to time (possibly Age of Wonder III, I have not played it yet), but it just seems that strategy games just don't matter now the way they used to when Starcraft and HoMM III ruled the world.

Personaly, I noticed a different shift in my taste in games. I now gravitate towards point & click adventure games much more than I used to. I always liked them, but did not really play them often, there were a number of years when I played none at all. Now I play more of them than anything else I think. I just enjoy the slower pace with no need to hurry, no need to repeat anything endlessly because a boss killed me, just progress at my own pace, enjoy the writnig, the story and characters, take in the world... just pure enjoyment.

At least Strategy games does not take as much time like RPG. I donno, maybe that's the way I play it, I need to check every chest and door.

Supcom, Red Alert don't take too much time as Baldur Gate, NWN, Vampire bloodlines, but hybrid strategy / RPG eat up my life. I haven't finish the first King Bounty and now so many sequel comes out.

Doesn't take as much time, but requires more brain power, and after a long day of work or errands I'm often not in the mood to take on a mental challenge like that. It's easier to just sit back and beat up on some goblins.

[url=THE MYSTERY PRIZE IS STILL UNCLAIMED. Check back on the breadcrumbs I left and figure it out!][/url]

True, I also find myself gravitating towards easy to play strategy games and games I already play a long time and familiar with because that does not tax too much of my brain

Card games like Etherlords, Yugioh power of choas, Turn base strategy like HoMM4. I wonder for people like us, will we enjoy Master of Orion 3?

You could always grab a turn-based strategy game in the vein of a 4x, but choose one that has a decent "governor" system to handle your infrastructure. As an added bonus most of those types I've played are forgiving enough that I can put a game down for literally years and come back, load up the last save, and in a turn or two be back in the swing of it.

[url=Of course that's only if you'd actually want to play a strategy game again. We're a contrarian lot, us people. You don't want to play strategy so you get pages of people telling you how to want to play strategy again. Bleh.][/url]

I think I'm fine with X-Com and Civ still. Still requires thinking but I can take my time with it. My old brain isn't as fast on its feet as it once was! And yes... about your second point ( :p ), maybe that's why I created this thread in the first place, get some more motivation to get back to these games.

[url=I wonder how long it will take for someone to stumble along and finally claim the buried prize in this thread!][/url]

Here's a quick tool to guess if you'll like MoO3:

Did you like MoO1 & 2? Do you enjoy games that give you a lot of freedom to solve problems in different ways, and win with a variety of grand strategic approaches? Do you like games with a quirky, funny sort of charm?

If you answered "yes" to these things, then you will hate MoO3 because it is a terrible game.

Strategy games used to be one of my favorite genres, but these days I'm also having a much harder time getting into them. RTS games feel like it's just too much of going through the same motions each mission, so after a few missions I just get tired of things. Campaign-based TBS games I'm starting to find too punishing in terms of time whenever I fail a scenario; having to re-start a mission can mean having to repeat hours of gameplay, at which point I find myself just putting the game aside and finding something else to play. I still enjoy TBS games that focus on single, lengthy scenarios (like Civ, MoM, or a good XL HoMM3 map), so I suppose it's more accurate to say it's just certain subsets of the strategy genre that I've been losing interest in. I still also enjoy turn-based tactics games (like X-Com), as the missions tend to be shorter so any fuck-ups on my part don't set me back all that much in terms of time.

Well the OP said usually after work he don't have the capacity for such mentally challenging games anymore. So maybe a game that will layout what you should do for you to decide before clicking the end turn button will be refreshing.

I feel the same way as the OP. I used to love playing RPS games, but I am much less interested in them nowadays.

Does that mean... the game basically plays itself???

Anyway after a few games of Rise of Nations I seem to have lost interest again. Don't get me wrong, it's a great game, but like Phoenix said as I was playing the Conquer the World campaign I was basically just winning battle after battle but then have to start all over again for each map. It didn't help that I was playing it in slow speed for half of it so I can relax and not have it be too taxing.

Once I thought I fucked up but didn't want to restart the mission as I haven't saved in a while (and with strategy games saves don't help you as much as other genres - you might just be unknowingly saving a losing game), and managed to prevail in the end. But yeah as Phoenix was saying strategy games can be very punishing - sometimes you'd invest so much time only to realize there's no way to win and have to start all over again.

Maybe I should try some real time tactics game instead.

[url=*************************Treasure is still unclaimed. Read all of my secret messages!************][/url]

Just to put it out there, you guys missed a giveaway hidden in this thread.

[url=hidden indeed!][/url]

Could have been that a lot of us already have it. It's a great game you offered, but I know it's been on sale - sometimes cheaper than dirt - quite a few times.

[url=Though you're the first person I've seen make substantial use of hidden text in URL tags. I've been doing it in posts for years but it hasn't really caught on - that I know of. I guess I wouldn't know much since I hardly reply to a substantial portion of forum posts, though I do often hit reply and then cancel, just to check if anything's hidden ;) ][/url]