It’s interesting how over time my game preferences have changed. By genre, mood, time to beat, indie/AAA, etc.

At first, in childhood, there were games I could reach. I tried everything I could get.

After that, when games were actually available to me, there was an age of competitive shooters (CS, Quake), massive RPGs like Morrowind/Gothic and any type of action games.

With time, I started to value choice variety, difficulty, longer games. At this time, first Souls game came out, which completely changed my perspective on games. I liked to overcome, to git gud.

And throughout all of this I always liked 2D platformers which started with NES games, revived when Shovel Knight came out and continued with plenty of modern metroidvanias. Yes, kudos to 3D platformers too, especially PS1 age – Spyro, Gex, etc.

Nowadays if I play RPG, I want easier ones, that forgive mistakes, bad choices and builds. I played plenty of soulslikes to get bored of it. I even set easier difficulty most of the time in all other games. I love indie games, thanks to Steam Deck. And unlike before, when I played mostly famous indies like Super Meat Boy, Celeste or Fez, now I play any type — including obscure ones, wind-down and cozy. And if game is short – it’s better for me.

I still read metroidvania subreddit top every month, but also started to read r/cozygamers. Too many farm and life sims (I have enough Stardew Valley/Animal Crossing for this), but sometimes hidden gems like Librarian appeared.

Retro games age is also over. Before, I installed emulator on every new platform I could. By now, I’ve played or tried every game that interested me from the top, and playing something just because it’s retro isn’t enough for me anymore.

None of this means I can’t get enjoyment from big games or other types of games. I played Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 with great joy, I liked Esoteric Ebb with serious roleplay from the first minutes, I want to play new 007 First Light. It’s just that I’m more cautious about these games now; I wonder whether they’ll offer me a new experience or if they’ll just be a repeat of what I’ve already played. And yes, I do feel the urge to play grind games sometimes, and big games, ubisoft style, are usually the best fit for that.

On the other hand, recently I tried to close my deal with unfinished Sekiro – and dropped it on the first location after prologue. I don’t want to suffer in games anymore, this is not a game for me. It could have changed with time, who knows.

So that’s it, a little chaotic dive into the history of my game preferences. From anything to big and difficult to small and easy. Is this connected with lack of time for games being an adult? Of course. But it also simply changed. I’ve changed. It happens.