None of them can just quit and realize it is better that way. My last normie game thing is going to be gone in two weeks (MS Game Pass). I downsized games and systems a TON. The only thing I maybe miss? Maybe the PS3. But RPCS3 does a good job on that gap and would probably be perfect if I'd upgrade CPU.
Still, I kinda believe at least some of this. I've still got a bunch of old friends on Xbox from years ago. All of which were people I either new in person or friends-of-friends. Most I haven't talked to in 5 years at least. They generally are all playing top 10 mainstream stuff, excluding the one guy like me that always played weird things.
I think that must be part of it. People get Fear Of Missing Out when all their friends are consuming the latest product. When you disconnect from that circle of peers you no longer feel beholden to share activities with them.
There is definitely something to blitzing through a new title alongside all of your buddies. It's a shared cultural event effectively, and one of the few avenues left in society where you can have that as we trudge ever further into atomized isolation.
I can't really begrudge people wanting to feel some sort of connection with others through a shared activity that's part of the wider fabric of society. The alternative is to be alone and that simply isn't healthy.
Most of what's on the market isn't good quality, but it's harder to get everyone to gather around some game that's twenty years old and turn it into a cultural phenomenon retroactively.
Makes sense. I've always been a very bad follower and had no problem sitting in a party with friends hanging out and playing something else. Others couldn't seem to do that.
Even so there's things I'll still play with friends I wouldn't have otherwise, but not buying mainstream things usually.
None of them can just quit and realize it is better that way. My last normie game thing is going to be gone in two weeks (MS Game Pass). I downsized games and systems a TON. The only thing I maybe miss? Maybe the PS3. But RPCS3 does a good job on that gap and would probably be perfect if I'd upgrade CPU.
Still, I kinda believe at least some of this. I've still got a bunch of old friends on Xbox from years ago. All of which were people I either new in person or friends-of-friends. Most I haven't talked to in 5 years at least. They generally are all playing top 10 mainstream stuff, excluding the one guy like me that always played weird things.
I think that must be part of it. People get Fear Of Missing Out when all their friends are consuming the latest product. When you disconnect from that circle of peers you no longer feel beholden to share activities with them.
There is definitely something to blitzing through a new title alongside all of your buddies. It's a shared cultural event effectively, and one of the few avenues left in society where you can have that as we trudge ever further into atomized isolation.
I can't really begrudge people wanting to feel some sort of connection with others through a shared activity that's part of the wider fabric of society. The alternative is to be alone and that simply isn't healthy.
Most of what's on the market isn't good quality, but it's harder to get everyone to gather around some game that's twenty years old and turn it into a cultural phenomenon retroactively.
Makes sense. I've always been a very bad follower and had no problem sitting in a party with friends hanging out and playing something else. Others couldn't seem to do that.
Even so there's things I'll still play with friends I wouldn't have otherwise, but not buying mainstream things usually.