2016 was 10 years ago. What games were you playing at the time?
 

2016 was the year I finally got a Nintendo 3DS. I got the New 3DS XL model. So I was playing a lot on my 3DS that year. Both 3DS and DS games Let's see if I can remember everything I played in 2016 alone...

Ace Attorney Phoenix Wright Trilogy
Animal Crossing New Leaf
Super Mario 3D Land
Mario Kart 7
Pokémon ORAS
Super Smash Bros. 3DS
New Super Mario Bros.
Contra 4
Mario Kart DS
WarioWare Touched!
Ultra Street Fighter IV
Some virtual console games like Pokémon Yellow, Silver, Link's Awakening DX...

I think that was it. I don't remember every single detail anymore. I know some games I bought for the 3DS that year I only got to play in 2017 or 2018 or even later.

Ultra Street Fighter IV was the only game I was playing that was not on the 3DS. I was playing it on PC online. Besides that, I don't remember playing any other game on Steam that time.

2016 also marks my return to Pokémon. It was my first time playing the gen 3 games and I absolutely loved the ORAS remakes. I didn't play XY until 2017 iirc. Because I started ORAS in the summer of 2016 and was playing it well into 2017 still.

What about you?

This was firmly in the era where I'd barely play a game, or if I did I dug-in on very, very few. If I had to guess I was playing the PS4 "Attack on Titan" games (which were really great actually). I think they made two of them so 2016 was likely the first one.

It's actually entirely possible that was the only game I legit "sat through' that year as opposed to "dabbling in".

What, as in Attack on Titan the anime/manga series? And they made good licensed games of it? That's surprising. The 2 My Hero Academia One Justice games were just... alright at the very best. Perhaps Bandai Namco shouldn't have told the developer to make 3D fighting games...

Apparently Final Fantasy XV and the Doom reboot. That's about it.

I have not played a video game since 2014.

How was the Doom reboot?

Is it a protest against hypercommercialization of the video game industry?

Oh man I have to say - the two PS4 Attack On Titan games are terrific in so many ways. Graphically pleasing as hell and they found a way to capture the combat perfectly between the steam-gear-mechanics and the sword slices.

And when you level up a character like Levi for example? You turn into a Titan massacring machine.

They are both really good games for the I.P.

No, I just wasn‘t interested in new releases at the time and not playing games for a while made me realize how gaming had had a negative effect on my daily life. So I never looked back.

What kind of negative impact, out of curiosity? Lack of exercise?

I remember the Pokemon Go craze back in 2016.

I had a phone too crappy to properly play the game back in 2016 (I tried and it lagged terribly).

However, one of my friends recently egged me on the install the game again, which I did a few weeks ago, and actually enjoyed alot!

Its actually pretty addictive to walk around and catch Pokemon.

Oh 2016 was the year Pokémon Go came out? I didn't remember...

...I tried it for a bit around 2017-2018 iirc. And it got old fast. I know that, after a while, they finally allowed Pokémon Go mons to get transferred to the actual games due to the creation of the app Home on the Switch. But still... I'd rather just play the actual games instead. I feel like Go is good for people who haven't owned a Nintendo system since they were kids or something. But when you have a 3DS and a Switch like I do and Pokémon games of all generations, then Go just seems like a poorman's version of it.

And while it is fun walking around the city looking for mons, it consumes phone data, which costs money. Precious phone data and money that could be used for more important things.

I was super unproductive. I usually got my work done properly but I didn't do much cooking, exercise, reading... Retrospectively, I'd say it was an addiction. Back when Red Dead Redemption came out, I'd get up two hours before I had to get to work and play till I had to leave. I'm much better off without gaming.

Ah so it was an addiction. That explains it. Those can be complicated.

Anyway, I'm not sure I'd call myself an addict when it comes to video games. I've been playing them on a nearly daily basis since I was 5 or so?

Addictions to alcohol, tobacco, drugs, caffeine, etc. are easy to "diagnose", but to video games? Not really since it's not like your body feels "funny" when you don't game for a couple of weeks.

The fact you didn't even bother to cook is definitely concerning, though. I've never reached that point. I've always known when to take breaks. Of course I've spent some weekends and many summer break days as a kid where all I'd do besides waking up, eating, going to the bathroom and sleeping was playing video games. But nothing like that.

Glad you stopped gaming then. If it truly was affecting your life that much.

Well, it's not like I didn't eat or my social life suffered or anything. But, for example, I got my food delivered all the time and I love cooking so it took away from other activities I enjoyed that are more productive.

The negative impact for me was more psychological than "physical merit". I couldn't get "lost" in a game anymore - my headmath started challenging the use of my time by comparison.

Playing a "video game" or be out accomplishing literally anything else.

These are my feelings as well. It's just a really un-productive hobby.

Writing this thought as a post on the Technodrome forums feels slightly ironic though. :lol:

Yeah, I have found the internet much more consuming than video games, personally. :lol:

So many afternoons, evenings, nights and even full days of my life I've lost just because I spent all my free time browsing the internet instead of doing something productive instead. "Today I'm finally going to read this book/sign up for a gym/watch this movie/play this game/etc"... only to waste the day reading online discussions.

At least if I spend a weekend playing video games, I feel like I'm accomplishing something, since I'm actually doing something instead of just staring at a computer screen.

Yeah I justify that by usually having a "trade window" open when I'm online and also as an extension of selling stuff through my LLC. :lol:

Man, you could still have some time for gaming. Just set aside 1 hour of free time a day, even with kids you can do it.

I spend 90% of my free time gaming. Usually 3-4 hours after work, I would never read or exercise over game. I also don't cook any "real" or major meals outside of simple stuff. Red Dead Redemption and its sequel are great, and just think of all the Nintendo games you could play with your kids like all the new Mario and Zelda games.

Gaming is a way of life. I wouldn't have it any other way.

See, this is the kind of thinking that makes me believe that video games are a bad habit. My kids don‘t have any. You know how they spend their time? With reading, sports and making music. While I‘m typing this (yeah, not winning any dad awards lol), they‘re playing LEGO. I have enough intellectually neglected kids at school.

If you set a time limit it wouldn't be so bad. Like 1 hour of game time, then 3+ hours for your kids to do anything else. You can easily buy a Switch and play all the modern Mario, Donkey Kong, Zelda, Kirby, etc. games or other kid-friendly games with them. And these games are pick up and play, meaning you don't have to spend a lot of time investment and just play a level or two before stopping.

Our generation pretty much grew up with videogames, and young kids wind up playing cell phone games or mobile games which are even worse as they become teens. I'd rather see Gen Z/Gen-Alpha play real games. We grew up with Mario and they should too.

CyberCubed is the textbook stereotype of a hardcore gamer lol. Not all of us are like that.

I cook dinner every single day, for example. I don't skip dinner or order pizza instead. I love video games, but I don't eat while gaming or anything like that.

Does gaming eat up free time I could be using to exercise and read books instead? Sure, but same applies to wasting time online, to be fair. So it's not all gaming's fault.

At the end of the day, we are the ones who make use of our own time. Perhaps having gaming as your favourite hobby is not a good idea if you like to do other stuff that also requires a significant amount of time, though. I've met people who play video games but stick to rather short games or games that they can just pick up and play once a week or so. They don't play long games like The Witcher III, BOTW or JRPGs because "I don't have the kind of life that gives me time to play 100+ hour games!"

CyberCubed is single, and so am I. I guess that helps a lot. If I had a wife and kids, I probably wouldn't have time to game either.

You are right about wasting time online, it's a horrible habit. I still spend about two hours online every day which needs to be decreased.

I guess I shouldn't have called it a reboot, as Doom 2016 is really a sequel. But it's an OK game. Gets a little monotonous when you get to a certain point in it but it's still fun.

Doom: Dark Ages => Doom => Doom II => Final Doom => Doom 64 => Doom (2016) => Doom Eternal.

Doom 3 is the only one that isn't canonical. Which is too bad because I loved that one best. So creepy! It oozes atmosphere.

I've only played OG Doom. It's fun and has aged WAY better than Wolfenstein 3D, despite only coming out a year or less afterwards. It's shocking how poorly Wolfenstein 3D has aged.