Created by: Edgy and Omar
Date: **/**/****

I get home, open Steam, stare at my library for five minutes scrolling through, trying to find something to play, and then just close the app without playing anything. I have caught myself doing that a lot lately.

And it is not even that there are no games to play, the opposite actually, so many games I installed, planned to play them later, but that “later” never actually comes.

A few years ago, this would have sounded insane to me. Back then, there were games I was completely obsessed with. I would think about them at school, watch gameplay videos while eating, and as soon as I get home, I would get back on the game and play.
I could spend the entire weekend playing the same game I was playing throughout the week and never feel bored or get tired of it.

Nowadays, I would see a game and think to myself, “That looks fun.” I install it, then never even play it.
I would even see some trailers for a game and be so hyped for its release, and get it as soon as it comes out, and when I finally get it, I play it for two hours, then never open it again.

And it is not just me. Lately, more and more people online are saying the same thing. Gaming is dead. Modern games have no soul. Now everything feels manufactured. Every company wants live-service games, and every release turns into drama before
the game is even out.

And honestly, I get why people are getting frustrated. One minute, everyone is excited for a new release, and a few days later, it is about performance issues, monetization, review scores, layoffs, player counts, or whatever disaster is happening that week. 

All that makes it exhausting to keep up with gaming, never mind actually enjoying it. Despite having more games to play than ever, I have never caught myself getting bored this often before.

One of the big reasons people think modern gaming suck, or that gaming is dead now, is because of how corporate games feel nowadays. It is like games are made in a meeting room, and not a cool idea that was brought to life. 

I know it may sound stupid to say. I obviously know games have always been a product and companies have always cared about money; that part is not new. But it just feels so in your face now.

I open a game for the first time and am immediately bombarded with all these engagement tools. Battle passes, daily rewards, limited-time events or items, login bonuses, and all that jazz before you even play the game.

After experiencing that many times, it feels less like you bought a game and more like you signed up for something.

Then there is this obsession with live-service games that companies have. Every company wants players staying online for months or even years, constantly grinding challenges, leveling passes, then coming back again the next season to do it all over again.

And guess what, all these systems are not random. Modern games use player data, retention stats,
and behavioral research to figure out how to
keep players around for as long as possible.

This is why so many games now revolve around daily objectives, streaks, timed rewards, progression systems, and constant unlocks. The goal is not
just getting people to play, but to get them to
come back or feel like they missed out.

And because one successful trend leads to everyone copying it, games start blending together after a while. For a few years, it felt like every game was trying to become a battle royale.

Then every company wanted gigantic open worlds, then live-service games became the next big thing, and now extraction shooters are starting to show 
up more. None of these things is bad on its own.

Some live service games are genuinely fun and there are so many amazing open-world games. But at a certain point, people get tired when it feels like
every company is chasing the same thing.

Thinking about it, I started wondering if gaming 
is the only thing that changed. When people say 
that gaming is dead, they usually focus on the industry doing things wrong. The live-service games, heavy monetization, and the endless discourse.

 While those gripes are fair, we sometimes forget to realize that maybe it is also because we are treating our relationship with gaming as if we have stayed the same throughout the years, when in reality,
it really has not. 

We still love games, but we can not say that we still play them the same way we used to. We do not get excited about every release anymore. Sometimes people will say gaming feels dead now, and then talk about their favorite games from ten years ago. 

Not necessarily because those games were actually better, but maybe because it was a different time in their life. 

I do not think gaming should be the only thing that’s being judged. I think most of us might be comparing how gaming feels now to how it felt when we were younger, and that’s a very hard comparison for anything to win.

One thing most people fail to consider is how many of their favourite gaming memories were influenced by how new everything was. The first time I played The Witcher 3, the world felt massive. I spent hours just wandering around. The first time I tried playing Counter-Strike, playing against real people was new to me, and it felt completely different from anything I had experienced before.

Then there was League of Legends, which got me so frustrated yet somehow managed to completely take over my life to the point where I was thinking about builds, strategies, and champions even when I was off the Rift.

Then there was Divinity 2. At the time, 
it made me feel like I was living a second life in 
a fantasy world. It was the first game that made 
me feel like I truly was in control, and my character was an extensionof myself. I remember constantly thinking, “Wait, I can actually do that?” But the thing about first experiences is that you only get them once. 

When you have played games for as long as I have, things stop being new. It feels like we have already seen everything at this point, from massive worlds
 to skill trees and crafting systems, PvP, and a lot more things that once felt fresh.

Even if a new game comes and does it better, 
it becomes harder to get that feeling because 
what made it special the first time was the fact 
that it was the first time. Nostalgia is just that powerful.

When we remember an old game, we are recalling a lot more than just the game itself. We recall where we were, who we were playing with, the free time
we had, and how exciting everything felt back then.

This might be a hot take, but I think having so many options is also a factor. Back then, if I bought a new game, that was what I played for the next few weeks or even longer. Now I open Steam and scroll through hundreds of games, and still somehow feel like there is nothing to play. Sounds ridiculous, but having too many options can make it harder to commit.

We still see kids get obsessed with games the same way we used to. A lot of people are still spending thousands of hours on Roblox, Minecraft, Fortnite, 
or whatever game has completely taken over their lives. That feeling is still there for them. 

The difference is that a lot of us might not be experiencing games the way we could when 
we were younger. 

Another thing we do that is a little unfair is how we compare average modern games to the best games we played growing up. Nobody is talking about all the forgettable games they played when they were kids. Nobody gets nostalgic about those random games they played for a while, then forgot about. 

We remember the great ones, the ones that stuck with us, the games we spent hundreds of hours on, the games that became a part of who we were in
that period of our lives. 

Now, games aren’t being judged against other games but rather against years of memories, nostalgia, and the best experiences we have ever had with gaming. And that is not a very fair competition.

After considering all these factors, I realized that calling gaming “dead” might be a bit dramatic. 
You have a bad experience, scroll through social media, see people complain about this and that, 
and suddenly it starts feeling like the entire 
industry is falling apart. 

But if you stop and think about it, people are still obsessing over games. Your friends are still 
saying “one more round” at two am. Full-on communities are still forming around games 
every year. New players are discovering the hobby. Kids are experiencing games that are going 
to be their own version of what Divinity was for me.

What throws a lot of us off might be that the gaming landscape looks different from the one we grew up with. Everything feels different. The games, 
the communities, the discovery, and even 
the way we talk about games 
is different now. 

It is easy to see those changes and mistake them 
for decline. While I agree with a lot of the criticism that people have, the notion that gaming is “dead” just doesn’t sit right with me. Frustrating? Can be. Exhausting sometimes? For sure. Dead? No, not really.

Despite all complaints, people are still finding games they genuinely enjoy. Great games haven’t stopped coming out. Every now 
and then, a game comes along and completely takes over. People are still getting excited 
for new games. Just look at GTA VI. 
People have been talking about it for years.

Every trailer, screenshot, rumor, or news about it gets the whole gaming community talking. People are getting hardware upgrades just 
to play it, and some are even planning to take time off work when it comes out. To me, that doesn’t sound like something that people have given up on.

I still catch myself complaining about modern games sometimes, but there are still games that get me excited. Right now I am already looking forward to Larian’s upcoming game, Divinity. The moment that game is released, I already know I am going to spend weeks on it. That’s also a part that doesn’t get mentioned enough. 

The people complaining about the gaming industry are still watching trailers, discussing upcoming releases, and still waiting for the next game that grabs them. For something that is supposedly dead, it still has a lot of people excited about what comes next.

I still have those days where I open Steam, stare at my library for ten minutes, then close it without playing anything. I still get bored, I still get frustrated with some of the decisions game companies make, and I still think there are plenty of things wrong with the industry. But after thinking about it, I do not think those things are proof that gaming died.

Gaming changed. The industry changed. More importantly, we changed too. The games that defined us were never going to stay magical forever. Maybe gaming does not feel the same as it used to. For us, it probably never will. Change is inevitable, but it doesn’t have to be the end.

This doesn’t have to be the end either. If you liked this article, feel free to check out this article about the influence that comics had on gaming.