I play those pretty often because I want a break from sad, post-apocalyptic, war-like plots, which modern games seem to be all about - bar indie games and Nintendo of course.

With the crescendo of cinematic, story-driven games and e-sports, the decline of arcades (and platformers?) I can't help but wonder how much we, the gamers, have changed in regards to our apporach and preferences for games in geneal.

What type of game experience(s) do you generally find yourself preferring to play the most? Is there a theme that really draws you in more than another? And what's the reason for that?

I grew up playing platformers and arcades back in the 80s and are the 2 genres that I still feel most fond of, as the experience is generally challenging and very gameplay-focused.

**On a side note: do you think arcade-style games still have a place in this gaming era?**

These types of games, though, I seem to be able to enjoy only in small bursts, whereas I find myself being more immersed in those titles that have a key component: exploration. I can spend countless hours on such games - tipically open world - when done well.

For some people it's the story, for me it's the interaction with the world itself, the things you can do, the locations you discover, the tools, powers/weapon you can find and all that.

Gaming subscription services are by now a reality and the already predicted Netflix streaming model is approaching the video game industry sooner than most thought. It was just a matter of time and a natural consequence.

Subscription services have a big psychological effect on most people, as it feels fairly inexpensive and allows pretty much anybody to gain access to a big library of content. This model's worked for music and movies and I'm pretty sure it'll work for a more complex medium such games as well, as tech gets finely tuned to reduce isseus related to the gaming experience (internet speed, resolution, latency, etc...).

The biggest problem I see in all of this is "quantity", in terms of how much we will have at disposal and how easy it will be to just choose among hundreds/thousands of games and fire them up in a blink of an eye.

When I say less is more, I mean what I just said above, as I'm afraid that having so much, too much, that we probably will have no time experience will create sooner or later a sense of dissatisfaction, every game will hold less value and we'll easily jump from one title to the other, to the detriment of the enjoyment of the single experience.

It'll be even worse than those backlogs that some of us are overwhelmed with and for which we fight to find time to experience, or just leave those in the backburner.

What do you guys think?

Game streaming is the future, but GamePass at the moment is the better service.

Only I found it unattractive and out of place? I can't help not fancing the artstyle and I'm hoping they'll add some textures or soften that look up to make it look less toy-ish, I mean even Lego games don't have that shiny plastic look.

What do you think?

They focus on gameplay hence their games still retain that arcade approach which is at the core of gaming.

Sony pushes for more cinematic experiences, which are more impressive and attractive to showcase, but maybe lack a bit on the gameplay department.

Microsoft has a more industrial approach and mainly strives to expand and englobe as much as possible rather than handcrafting their own art.

To each their own

Sonic Mania, Splatoon, Sunset Overdrive

It starts off relatively cheap until they get comfortable with their userbase and increase the monthly dose, just like Amazon and Netflix.

You may think it's a small amount of money spread at a monthly base, but when you add all those subscriptions up then you realize that maybe "cheap" is just a relative term and that all they're doing is injecting you with a painless needle.

Ultimately it's a good option for those who play a lot and often while being aware that they have no control over the removal and addition of software in that playground; titles can get pulled out from that library at any time even if you paid your ticket.

I agree. I prefer short games to elongated ones that are plagued with repetitive content and fillers just to make the playtime feel longer than it actually should be.

@DragonfireXZ95 : @aia89 I got AMD, the way to fix the tearing is to disable vsync, even tho occasionally it still happens and has a funny issue when you make the character run, I guess because the fps's are too high/unstable and the game was optimized and capped at 30 fps for consoles. Lazy PC port as usual I guess