Have you "RPG'd yourself out of other genres"?

[Britton]

I'm pretty much a lifelong gamer. My first system was an Odyssey3 in the late 70's, which was replaced within a year by an Atari 2600. I've always loved gaming, and was pretty good at only a select few of the old home games and arcade games. When I got back into gaming in the very late 80's after being out of the loop from '84 -'89, I found myself gravitating towards RPG's not only because I liked them, but because I was far better at using my brain for playing games than I was at using skill and reflexes. From '89 until two years ago or so I played almost NOTHING but RPG's and graphic adventures. And what it seems to have done is make me even WORSE at action games. Aside from Left 4 Dead which I'm pretty good at for some reason, I suck at pretty much every FPS there is. I recently picked up Black Ops to play with a few buddies and even after around 30 hours of online play and 220 matches, I do the worst on our team 90% of the time. I go into those battles with an RPG mind trying to analyze and strategize slowly instead of going full-on and trying to kick ass. So yeah, has anyone else played RPG's so consistantly like that that it's actually been a detriment to the other genres of games you try and play?

[Mickeymac92]

Kind of. Thanks to RPGs, The Legend of Zelda no longer appeals to me, and I no longer enjoy platformers like I used to.

[Dice]

Ehh.  It did a bit maybe before, but with the recent drought of any good epics, you kinda have to look elsewhere.  That and the lack of *good* RPG multiplayers has been a turn off every so often, so I've been good at driving and fighting games.

I've had trouble evolving with "classic" RPGs as well, I find the wait-your-turn system a drag sometimes unless it's done somewhat intuitively (Arc Rise and Luminous Arc being some of the worst recent offenders in S/RPG genres).  I've enjoyed games that add some dimension to it and I'm probably one of the biggest advocator's of Tri-Ace games for that reason.  They're games are typically fast paced, or deep (not story wise, but gameplay), and typically use players to win battles by means other than level grinding.

Interesting topic though...

[Prime Mover]

Yeah, no.

I'm kind of the opposite, and will second Dice. Ever since getting a 360 and watch RPGs either dry up or become more action oriented, I've been really getting into action games more and more. I'm now fairly decent at FPSs on a console. I still don't multiplayer, so I probably suck against humans, but I did a Halo marathon a few months back, and found myself really enjoying the series. I'm ready for a good 'ol fashioned turn based RPG (which will probably be Golden Sun), but those tend to be few and far between these days.

[Yoda]

Variety is the spice of life, and the spice must flow.

If anything RPGs make me appreciate other genres more. I'm currently playing through DQ8, DQV (here and there), with DDS on the back burner for when I finish DQ8. In between those games I usually play Reach online but since my gold expired I'm SOL.

I only wish jrpgs did exploration and puzzles half as good as zelda (frame of reference: last zeldas I played were LTTP and Ocarina) does. But then again, they wouldn't be RPGs.

I'm going to have to check out some of the shit Dice recommends...but after my hell grind of the FF marathon.

As far as losing skill in platformers...I used to rock in them in the NES, SNES days. I could beat games like wizards and warriors, mario 1, etc with no problem. I tried playing Wizards and Warriors (albeit emulator fashion) a year ago and couldn't get passed one level.

[Tooker]

Since I started writing for this site, RPGs are pretty much all I have time to play. :)

[CDFN]

I always played a lot of genres simultaneously, I never stick to one kind of game. This year I bought action games, shooters, fighting games, driving games, rpgs, hell, even a music game. Same for every other year. Overall I consider myself to be pretty good at most of them.

[Esper_Crusader]

I also play pretty much anything that's good.  The only genre I find myself ignoring these days is sports.  Kinda weird since the NHL franchise  used to be my bread and butter.

[Kevadu]

I played a lot of non-RPGs in 2009 but interestingly I've played basically nothing but RPGs this year.  Well, if you count Yakuza 3 as an RPG, anyway (which I basically do).  The only other non-RPG I spent a lot of time with was Brutal Legend, which didn't even come out this year.

RPGs are my bread and butter.  It's not that I ignore other genres, but I'm much more willing to play a mediocre RPG than a mediocre shooter.  A non-RPG has to be exceptional to attract my interest (like Uncharted 2 did last year).  This year did have GoW3 and Lords of Shadow that I do kind of want to get eventually...but given the torrent of games coming out in early 2011 I don't know when I will.

[Gen Eric Gui]

I thought this happened to me, but then I realized that I was never actually all that good at action games to begin with, outside of platformers.  Now that my tastes have changed and I actively play action games, fighters, etc, I'm getting better and better all the time.

[Chronix112]

I used to be that way until I started playing mmos and then the situation reversed. It then took  A long time for me to get into RPGs again.

[Kup]

I tend to play only 1 RPG at a time these days.

In the past I would have 2 or 3 on the go at once and I found that I would never finish them half the time, so I decided to focus only on 1 so that I could enjoy it more.  Sure, it takes me longer to play a game, but at least I'm more likely to finish it.

I sometimes break this rule, since I do a lot of travelling for work, so for example, now I'm playing Dragon Age: Origins at home on console and Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light on handheld.

Alongside RPGs I will limit myself to 1 other game for each of the formats - again, so I get round to actually finishing them.

Since following this rule, my gaming has been a lot better - I'm finishing more games and enjoying more games.

[Mickeymac92]

I tend to play only 1 RPG at a time these days.

In the past I would have 2 or 3 on the go at once and I found that I would never finish them half the time, so I decided to focus only on 1 so that I could enjoy it more.  Sure, it takes me longer to play a game, but at least I'm more likely to finish it.

I sometimes break this rule, since I do a lot of travelling for work, so for example, now I'm playing Dragon Age: Origins at home on console and Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light on handheld.

Alongside RPGs I will limit myself to 1 other game for each of the formats - again, so I get round to actually finishing them.

Since following this rule, my gaming has been a lot better - I'm finishing more games and enjoying more games.

I've tried doing that 3 times before, but I could never stick with it. I'm glad it worked for you, though. I'm just too impulsive - I play whatever I'm in the mood to play.

[Kup]

I've tried doing that 3 times before, but I could never stick with it. I'm glad it worked for you, though. I'm just too impulsive - I play whatever I'm in the mood to play.

It was hard at first, but it eventually works out.  I have a backlog of great games to play right now, but I'm currently playing great games so I'm happy knowing that I'll finish my current great games and move on to my backlog of great games instead of starting them all at once and fucking it all up.

I'm a very organised person - sometimes people mock me for it.  For example, I have a spreadsheet of the games I own which is arranged into genre, format and whether they have been completed or not.  I even arrange my games on shelves and have the ones I haven't finished sticking out slightly so at a glance I can see what going on.  All alphabetical, naturally.

Oh boy...

[Yoda]

I'm going to try and follow Kup's lead.


Well...maybe not all the spreadsheet action :)