Endless killing becomes tiresome?

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Does anyone else find that the endless killing in most games becomes tiresome?

Lately I can't get over it.. Even if it's killing stuff like rats or giant bees or radioactive mutants or whatever, I just don't get it.

It's sort of annoying, because I used to spend a lot of time virtually killing things over and over.. so now I have to find a new hobby.

But looking at it now, wow, why did that seem like so much fun?

It depends on how "deep" your interactions are. In strategy games like Company of Heroes or Starcraft II, every entity has more complex properties, which can make things interesting.

Also, consider online FPS.

I did until I played Fallout 3 and New Vegas, wherein it was a bit more interesting to see what would happen based on whether certain characters survive or their relationship with you. Gonna eventually try to go on murderous rampages in both. Will be harder going by the rule of killing every character I can the first time I come across them.

showing my age, i remember enjoying seeing all the gore splatter in "doom." it was a vicarious way to enjoy committing atrocities.

Depends on the game.

"Mindless" sorts of games, yeah, I get bored real quick. I remember when I was little, I used to love games like Final Fantasy IV (when it was called II) and FF Mystic Quest, but now I just can't tolerate the "keep pressing A until you win".

Still love DOOM though, there's a lot more strategy to it than just pressing the button. There's a lot of dodging involved, like a shoot-em-up game.

Modern FPS are all "shoot a bunch of dudes, and don't worry if you get hit, your life bar will recharge automatically". No strategy there, no fun, no challenge.

It's not that the games I'm playing are too easy.. The basic idea of killing things to 'win' simply seems completely unappealing to me now.. and in a lot of games, it's all you do the entire time.

I will try other genres.. there are also puzzle games and things like Audio.. uhh, the one on Steam, you pick up colored bricks on a track that is tailored to the song..

"Endless killing becomes tiresome?"

At one time you could go see some real flesh and blood killing in the Coliseum. That got boring too...

It seems that everyone is on the same page with their advice here, and I agree with them. Try something a little different. There have always been platformers and action/adventure type games that are centered more around puzzle elements, which require one to find some solution to a problem before they can move on. The Zelda series is the most popular example, but there are plenty other games that require some kind of thought process in order to advance. Sure, there are killing in those games, but it's more figuring out what to do next that impedes progress. Well, and bosses, but they usually require some kind of strategy to defeat too, which ties into the puzzle part of the game.

Maybe you could try something different entirely. Something that doesn't involve any killing at all. Double Fine's Stacking is all puzzle, with no violence. It involves figuring out things like how to end a party, or how to close down an exhibit, so that certain people will end up doing something else important, and each puzzle has multiple solutions, each more difficult than the last.

I recommend Flower to anyone who has a ps3. It's one of those games that's more like an abstract piece of interactive art. It doesn't speak to everyone, but it provides those it does speak to with an experience that's like no other. Though I usually hate the use of motion control, Flower could only work with the use of sixaxis, which is my favourite motion control peripheral, if I had to choose one, simply because it doesn't involve too much excessive movement. The sixaxis controls in Flower suit it so perfectly, and somehow manage to break down the fourth wall and make the player feel more immersed in the game, that it just wouldn't feel right any other way.

Right now I'm devouring a visual novel called Katawa Shoujo which is free to play for everyone who has a working pc or mac. There's very little "game" there, so it isn't for everyone, but I still recommend giving it a try, especially since it doesn't cost anything, and is quick and easy to set up(this coming from someone who isn't remotely tech savvy). Here's its site: http://katawa-shoujo.com/

Well, I hope you can find something that satisfies you. I know it's getting harder and harder this gen to find quality games. They exist. You just have to dig deeper, since the surface is crowded with fps and ultra violent hack and slash games. The downloadable service on your system of choice is a good place to start, because that's where a lot of unique games live. With physical games, you might want to do a little research beforehand, so you know what you're getting into. You did take the right step by asking people on a message board. If you can't trust your online community to give some good recommendations, who can you trust?

It also helps if you can find a reviewer who you generally agree with, which can be difficult with the majority being biased towards fps, or being paid off to give a game an inflated review score, and not at all impartial. Hopefully you can eventually get to the point where you have some idea as to whether or not a game is your cup of tea without having to do any research, or depend on reviews at all, but it took me a while to get to that point, and I'm sure it'll take you a while too. Well, good luck. I hope we have been helpful.

Personally It depends on what you're killing. I feel like the only gamer in the world who feels this but killing civillians like in Saints Row or Grand Thieft Auto or middle easten soldiers like in Call of Duty: World at War actually offends me, as it's basically saying "Kill loads of people!" It's fun!" which isn't actually any less immoral than a "Rape people! It's fun!" game would be, but yet how people think that killing people is okay and raping people isn't is beyond me... oh I do hate humanity sometimes. Also I have a major problem with the complete lack of creativity these games have on offer and how they're effectively destroying the potential of the games industry, I mean if you went into a games shop 10 years ago you'd see a wide variety of different games each with their own origional set of characters and setting, and storyline, and garnished with their own level of originality, whereas nowaday if you walk into a games shop all you can see is a man with a machine gun with the "I'm holding a gun" pose on every single bleeding cover, and it's disturbing.

Aside from that, I'm more than happy to shoot demonic creatures from hell, Doom was, indeed, a classic and very origional concept, and aside from that Bioshock is something I could never get bored of, not so much because of the shooting but because of the theme and plot, and Fallout 3 had that VATs system that adds a greater element of stratagy to the gameplay. So yeah, shooting games can still be pretty fun.

I dont much care for a game if its selling point is wander around stealing cars and killing things. It just doesn't suit my taste.

Yes, and no. It depends on how difficult it is, how much strategy is required, what in the story led to me vs this guy, how it effects what comes later.

Didn't mind killing the Korean soldiers and aliens in Crysis, because the game sets them up as either evil cos alien, or "stupid" clownish mere obstacles, and in Half-Life 2 it's zombies, and other nasties, or mutated alien thingies and security forces, such that it's "easy"/non-upsetting to kill dozens of them ... And I would probably still feel ok about Half-Life 2.

... BUT after/while playing Deus-Ex: Human Revolution, in which get the options of genuinely achievable non-violent stealthing and also of just knocking people out/unconscious in many of the missions ( both side and main ), I realised how bored and slightly sick of constant killing I really was.

It was when came to play Far Cry 2 afterwards, in which kept trying to stealth, kept trying to reduce kills, etc, but discovered that it was almost impossible to complete missions without engaging in massacres, ( and had no option of simply knocking people out ), and in which the enemy are relatively "intelligent"/not clownish, and one's own moral position is deeply dodgy, that realised that couldn't bear it any more, it actually made me feel ill.

I hope more other games follow the Deus-Ex model. I liked Portal for that non-violence too, as well as the fun puzzle/spatial logic aspect.
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You're right. Even cutesy games like Mario, Rayman and Sonic kill the antagonists minions...

Meh...I don't see it as killing, but preventing yourself dying.

Yeah, a lot of violent games go the 'self defense' route, but that usually only kind of makes sense.. and let's say the game world really is that horrible that you need to kill endless hordes just to survive.. why do I want to place myself in a world like that, pretend or not? I don't.. I guess I wanted to before..?

Thank you for all your suggestions.