Honestly? Escape from Tarkov.

I understand what it’s going for on paper. The tension, the risk, the realism. But every time I watch someone play it looks like 45 minutes of cautious walking followed by dying to someone they never saw in a direction they couldn’t predict.

Maybe I’m just not built for it.

Factorio

pretty much anything ea makes. Sports games especially.

Roblox

That mobile game where you slowly build up a city, train lots of troops, launch attacks on other players’ cities, form alliances and so on, before getting soundly thumped by the Koreans.

Cardbuilders - just why?

It’s just simulated gambling.

Work simulators and games which gameplay loops turn out to be work simulators in disguise.

For me it’s either almost all of them or pretty much none, depending on point of view.

I consider myself being quite a gamer, maybe a little old school one, but gamer nonetheless. I grew up with DOS classics like Wolfenstein 3D, DOOM, Civilization, UFO: Enemy Unknown, Quest for Glory, Heroes of Might & Magic, Ishar, Betrayal at Krondor, TES: Arena, etc. Supply was very limited so I played those plenty times. I did read game magazines at that time, drooling over pictures of games I could never get, kept informed about new releases… And I do keep quite specific taste and quirks to this day.

I do like RPG, even though they are very time consuming and there’s not that much free time. I keep hoarding them and telling myself I’ll play them later. Same goes for my other preferred genre: turn based strategies. I like me some slow paced turn based combat and exploration, but man, that time investment is brutal. My third preferred genre is FPS, either this new/old “boomer shooter” phenomenon or some good story driven game (like e.g. Half Life). Last, but not least, is something I’d call “casual games” which might include everything from Slay the Spire, Inscryption to Golf with your friends or Megabonk. Those are games I like and play (or just dream about playing) and the rest is… just what you ask.

• FIFA and other sports? I don’t like it. I might get why there are people playing it, but buying actual rooster each year for full price? No way.
• Souls like? Not for me. I want to relax, not feel like I have to work hard non-stop to not die. There’s enough of that in real life. I still get why some people might like the challenge, but not me.
• RTS? I know it’s pretty much dead genre, but I never liked it. I don’t have that fast reflexes and fast tactical decision making, so I prefer TBS where I can plan my actions in peace. Enough stress IRL, no need to add it in game…
• Competitive online games? Same as above. Too fast, too stressful, to gain what?
• Plenty of others, don’t want to put wall of text.

I do understand people are different and have different taste and that’s alright. This is just my personal take. That’s why I said it’s either all or none. If I’d be strict and focus just on my personal prefs, most games would fall into “why do people play them?” But when I look from the broader side, people play games they like, so its alright.

But man… there’s one exception, that’s despicable no matter the point of view. Grinding&gambling addict games -those should be banned worldwide for humanity’s sake.

Star Citizen. They’ve had a decade and almost a billion with a B budget yet they still hide behind early access for their buggy mess. They do this while selling ships for a grand USD.

Anyone playing that game gets ignored in any consumer rights or business ethics discussions. Lol

Survival games. I want to like em. I’ve tried tons of them. Green hell, 7 days to die, Dayz, hell, even Fallout 76, and lots more. Most of them don’t give you a tutorial, let alone any clues. I get that they’re supposed to be difficult, but most are arbitrarily difficult. But at least tell me how to fucking take something out of inventory and into my hand! It’s not like if thrown into a survival situation I would somehow forget how hands work. And if you’re not going to give a tutorial, at least let me start in a safe area so I can figure it out.

7 days to die really pissed me off because as soon as I’d find a gun, a stupid dog would come out of nowhere straight for me, and they take insane amounts of shots to put em down but the ammo is really REALLY scarce. Seriously though, what kind of dog can take 10 rds at point blank, and be totally unfazed? Someone later told me to combine a rock and a stick and that’ll get them in one hit. Come on, 10 rds won’t do it but a club will?

Or games with like 56 health indicators and you have to keep track of all of them? I’m sorry you’re bored, dude in the zombie apocalypse, but get the fuck over it. How can he be bored?!? Is survival not stimulating enough?

Sports games based on real teams. It makes me feel like I’m playing an ad. Oh yeah and if there are actual ads too. 😪

Give me fake teams, fake players, even fake cities? and you have activated my interest.

I love turn based RPGs, but I couldn’t get behind expedition 33 at all. I’m sure I just suck at the game, but dodging/blocking never worked. Made it impossible to care about the story cause I was so frustrated. Again I’m sure its just cause I suck, but I never got mad at yakuza like a dragon for its blocking/dodging mechanics.

Any gacha.

“Oh I got so lucky! It only took 20 pulls to get Boobina!”

Yeah man, bet that felt a lot better than just unlocking her by doing her story quests like any normal game. Maybe you need to be a gambling addict or something.

Hell Divers 2. Cool soundtrack, cool visuals. But replay ability doesn’t seem that great. Some of my friends play it a ton. For me though, there was a lot of just slowly walking between objectives, hit a button, fight some, walk between objectives. Repeat each map with slightly different monsters and maps. But might just be that i didn’t get far past the first worlds.

Simulators? Boring games for boring people, I suppose.